Wingnuts- why I Left the Right

I have been more and more appalled at the extreme conservative right. I know that there are plenty of crazies on both extreme left and extreme right, but the election of Obama really set people off. Since his election we've had an abundance of crazy email chains, absurd issues brought up by politicians, the unbelievable comparisons made, and the circus that the conservative right media has become. The huge proportion of republicans who are unsure whether Obama was born in America, all those who think he's a socialist, communist, fascist, terrorist, etc.- it is simply unbelievable to me that this has become so widespread. Why is this? Why does it seem that people have lost their minds? Consider the comment someone made to me the other day that "the only difference between Osama and Obama is the BS." Really? The head of state of the world's superpower, the head of the most successful republic, the one whose administration continues the war against terror and has finally caught Osama bin Laden, is a terrorist full of BS? I've heard that Obama is the "enemy of humanity." Really? The same Obama who encourages Fathers to be good honest hardworking family men? The same Obama who wants to protect those children born by illegal immigrants? The same Obama who wants to make sure everyone has health insurance? You may disagree that it's the responsibility of the government to do these things, and that's fine. But enemy of humanity? I think it's obvious he cares about people much more than his crazy wingnut accusers (wingnut being defined by John Avlon in his book Wingnuts).

Despite all the patriotic rhetoric and flag waving, it seems incredibly clear that for the extreme conservative, allegiance to country is dwarfed by allegiance to party. As illustration to this, I take Rush Limbaugh's quote upon the election of Obama when asked to write 400 words on his hope for Obama's presidency: "I don't need 400 words, I need four: I hope he fails." Our president's failings lead to a poor economy, poor national defense, and a failure to unite the country (unification being, of course, an abominable idea to extremists, right or left, who want party purity). So in other words, Limbaugh would prefer this to having a Democrat who succeeds. So for Limbaugh, either an ultra-conservative (even more centrist Republicans are attacked by the wing) Republican is leading the country, or the country should fail for four years until there's another chance for an ultra-conservative to win. In Minnesota, this exactly happened, where extreme rights supported the Democratic congressional candidate to succeed over his Republican opponent, because the Republican candidate wasn't extreme enough.

What most concerns me is the connection between the crazies and Christianity. So many times I've seen comments that mix pure and unadulterated hate for liberals or centrists with God and Christianity. This makes me sick. It's the most unChrist-like comments that invoke his name in them. Whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Independent, understand that Barrack Obama will always be an historical figure in American history as the first African American president. I think back to my visits to the Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, and I consider the section of the museum where Lincoln's critics are on display, making very harsh comments, calling him a dictator and such. But this will be nothing, absolute flattery, compared to the section in Obama's future museum displaying his critics. I fear future generations' opinions of us when they see this, because there are some dandies out there, thanks to wingnuts such as Limbough, Beck, Palin (there are so many others, but these get the most attention at least). I fear how often Christianity will be associated with these hate filled diatribes and criticisms, these absurd claims. I wish I could change Christ's name sometimes, just to remove him from these comments, because the Jesus I know has nothing to do with this. The party of Lincoln used to be centered in the north, and the Democrats held the south. This geography switched when Democrats started passing legislation on civil rights. And now the Bible belt became Republican because they opposed these civil rights. I'm so ashamed. This is much of what makes me feel such a personal distance from Church (with capital C) and the disconnect in my mind between Jesus and being a Christian with religion.

I used to be a Republican. Most of my life, in fact. But because of the hate that I see so prevalently, I will never call myself that again. That doesn't mean I won't ever vote for a Republican candidate if I think that they are the best option available, but due to my conscience I cannot associate myself with this paranoid hate and bigotry.




*If you somehow have missed the craziness that I've mentioned, missed the hate-chain-emails, missed the crazy comments by extreme conservative republican politicians or media heads, read "Wingnuts" by John Avlon (it's not an attack on the extreme right, it covers crazies from both sides of the spectrum, and it is not an attack so much as it is good documentation of what's been said). There's plenty of websites too that record such things as well. Some that I have read are:

http://blog.au.org/2009/09/02/pastor-of-hate-when-religious-right-rhetoric-goes-too-far/

http://www.good.is/post/fox-news-shocked-all-black-people-aren-t-burnt-sienna/?utm_source=supr

[skip to 1:35 or so] http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-24-2011/24-hour-nazi-party-people

http://politicalcorrection.org/blog/201010110001

http://mindschmootz.net/2009/06/the-base-of-hate-extreme-right-wing-rhetoric-has-consequences/

Osama

Well, we did it. Osama finally ran out of running room and got a bullet in the head. The people of America, and all over the world perhaps, is celebrating*, and rightly so in some sense, and horribly wrong in another. I just can't get myself happy about it. I'm absolutely excited in that we may have saved many many lives in the future- OK I get that. But happy that a man is dead to achieve that aim? Not so much. I'm sorry that a man had to die for that to happen. Yes, it was his own past and would-have-been-future choices that led to this necessity (and I agree that if capture wasn't possible then this was indeed necessary). But what unimaginable history, upbringing, environment, family could lead a person to such reckless hate and disregard for life? I don't know, and neither do you. I can't imagine living life with the goal to end others' lives. What a pathetic existence, and by pathetic I mean sympathy enducing, to think about missing out on friendships, love, morality (true morality, not religious), without the aims of bettering your and others' lives. As Harry Potter says to Voldemort in the 5th, ". . . you'll never know love, or friendship, and I feel sorry for you." Yes he's a vile person who needs to be stopped, but it doesn't mean that we don't feel sorry that his entire existence is so meaningless and cruel. He's dead now, so he'll never have a chance to change his heart, or understand why life is so precious. I know I'm in the minority for these thoughts, and that most people won't and can't get past that he needed to die. I still just can't imagine Christ celebrating over this though.


*http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/02/osama-bin-laden-dead-new-york_n_856137.html