The reviews for "The Rally to Restore Sanity" are generally favorable. We all want our political discourse to be civil and fair, right?
The pinnacle of Saturday's rally was Jon Stewart's "merging into the tunnel" speech:
And yet these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze one by one into a mile long 30 foot wide tunnel carved underneath a mighty river. Carved, by the way, by people who I’m sure had their differences. And they do it. Concession by conscession. You go. Then I’ll go. You go. Then I’ll go. You go then I’ll go. Oh my God, is that an NRA sticker on your car? Is that an Obama sticker on your car? Well, that’s okay—you go and then I’ll go.
And sure, at some point there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder and cuts in at the last minute, but that individual is rare and he is scorned and not hired as an analyst.
Andrew Breitbart has been hired as an election night analyst by ABC News.
FOX News is a safe haven for any prominent right winger to get a paycheck.
And it's more than just an occasional "selfish jerk." The GOP leadership has this very week assured voters that they will not compromise with the Democrats if they win the House and/or Senate.
Here's the deal, Jon. (We love ya, but...) Take your 'merge into the tunnel' analogy: Here we are, trying to work together to get through the tunnel and resolve the problems of America.
The Right jumps in front of our car and says we don't own that car and where's the papers showing we can drive through the tunnel? We show them, over and over and over, the car's birth certificate, but the Right screams that's not the actual paper we need to drive through the tunnel. And it's their tunnel! They want their tunnel back!
We get just enough help from a few on the Right to get one or two cars through the tunnel. The Healthcare and Financial Reform cars crawl out of the tunnel, and by the time they're through they're missing tires and several cylinders, but somehow they're through. As soon as some on the Right see them emerge, they scream that the cars were "shoved down their throats" and they vow to push and repeal the cars backwards through the tunnel so it looks like it never happened. And it's their tunnel! They want their tunnel back!
The very people who told us to sit down and shut up because they had a "mandate" in 2004 insist that a "Kenyan Usurper" has "stolen" the White House. And if a Democrat points out that Obama, a US citizen, won with a ten million vote majority and 365 electoral votes? La la la la la socialism! They want their tunnel back!
One could argue that the Birthers are a small overly vocal fringe. But it's not just the birthers. The LEADERSHIP of the party now vows that any ONE of them can block the entire tunnel, because "Senate Rules." Gridlock is better than sharing the tunnel.
Michelle Bachmann is a member of Congress! And she says forget the tunnel she's taking everyone back to the DMV for two solid years of "investigations." She promises this.
And by the way, death panels exist, Social Security and VA hospital privatization are a good plan, and unemployment insurance is "unconstitutional." Those are words not from birthers or fringe elements. Those are statements from GOP candidates. And that's the GOP leadership's PLAN for the tunnel.
One cannot be "civil" to those who refute proven facts, like 'Obama is a US Citizen' or 'there are no death panels.' One can ignore them, but if they attempt to control our discourse and elections, calling them out, loudly and with a verbal punch, is the only alternative. And if they want to block progress, we must stop them from doing so, even if it costs us our civility.
One sign at the rally said, "I may disagree with you, but I probably won't step on your head." Would that the right wing goons of Rand Paul and Andrew Breitbart felt the same way.
I am for civility, honesty, and a reasonable political discourse. But attention Comedy Central: You can't have a bi-partisan discussion about civil discourse if one side is throwing cinder blocks into traffic.
