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After six and half decades on this planet I've come to some conclusions. One of them is that roughly15% to 20%of Americans are genuinely, provably and incurably, stupid.And, while beauty may only be skin deep, stupid goes all the way to the bone. After a decade of failed governance -- two unnecessary wars and a ruined economy, Republicans had all but run out of enoughmoderately-sanevoters willing to take any further chances with them. That's when they glommed onto the idea of corralling America's moron-demographic to plug the gap.
But the ignorant are hard to sway with fact-based policy discussions or green-eyeshade budget details. They need to be "energized" with drama,and plenty of it.Maury Povich and Jerry Springer knew that and built their fame and fortunes on knowing how to "energize" the dumb and dumber among us. It's all about the drama baby... tabloid quality drama is what gets their blood boiling. Allegations, the wilder the better, and the fewer contradicting facts the better.
For example, you don't use benign terms like, "End of life counseling" with the moron-demographic. (Too many of them might just stare back blankly and ask, "Ah, why would you want to counsel a dead person?") Maury would advise, "Death panels," instead. Death is, of course, the "end of life,"and we're all going there someday, and as we approach that point of departure I'm sure we and/or our loved ones might appreciate and benefit from some counseling -- including morons. But by calling them "Death panels," counseling becomes even scarier than death itself. That's how one gets the moron-blood a-boilin'.
Anyway, I've belabored my point more than I had intended. The bottom line is that the GOP, in a desperate bid to regain power, has energized that 15%-20% of genuinely and willfully stupid citizenry. And, if we've learned anything from modern history, from Germany circa 1930s, the former Yugoslavia in the 90's to the genocide in Rwanda during the Clinton years... it's that once you get the moron-demographic "energized" and they become an angry mob,it's impossible to control them.
The early signs of trouble are already there. The ball's rollin' and, unless it stalls and soon, someone(s) going to get killed. Already we are seeing a rash ofKristallnacht-like incidents at Democratic Party offices around the country:
"...... several Democratic offices around the nation had been vandalized in the days surrounding the House health care vote. Vandals have struck the Tuscon office of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters in upstate New York, Rep. Louise Slaughter's (D-NY) Niagara Falls office, the Knox County Democratic headquarters in Ohio, and the Sedgwick County Democratic Party headquarters in Wichita, KS. The local Rochester ABC affiliate now has more information on the upstate NY vandalism, including an assassination threat against the children of lawmakers who voted for health reform. No one was inside when the brick was hurled through the Democratic Patry Headquarters on University Avenue. Attached was a note quoting conservative Barry Goldwater: "Exremism [sic] in defense of liberty is no vice".
[Rep. Louise] Slaughter has been at the center of the push for reform. Last Thursday she received a chilling recorded message at her campaign office. "Assassinate is the word they used"toward the children of lawmakers who voted yes."
The FBI is investigating.
In search of a constituency the GOP sowed the wind, and now they, and the rest of us, will reap the whirlwind.
