Letters to the Editor

• Nauseating, simplistic, shallow...

  [Read the article: Who's to blame for Samuel Alito?]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  It is absolutely nauseating to listen to so many people, over and over, profess the same, tired, worn-out and meaningless cliches about the Democrats. I've got an urgent news flash for all those who ask the question of who's to blame for Samuel Alito. The Republicans are to blame for Samuel Alito. That's who. Pure and simple. On the most basic level, Samuel Alito will go to the Supreme Court because the Republicans control the White House and the Senate.

  In truth, the Democrats and the progressives out there are almost irrelevant to this debate. Now is that the fault of the Democrats and progressive groups? No. It's the fault of a Republican Party that has all but trampled the meaning of the word responsibility.

  Everyone here seems to hold on to these fatuous and simplistic notions that if only the Democrats would stand up to these horrible bullies then everything would be alright. Well, I've got news for you. As I've said in quite a few of my letters to this page, they have been standing up. Check the records, people. It's just that whenever something doesn't go the way some people here want it to go, they immediately launch themselves into apoplectic warp drive, blaming everything on the Democratic Party.

  It's as if nothing else that is happening or has happened has had an effect on where we find ourselves today. The Cold War never happened. Nuclear paranoia never happened. The Civil Rights movement and the shift to a Republican South never happened. The rise of the religious rigght never happened. The explosion of our instant gratification and entertainment driven society never happened. FOX News and the dumbing down of America never happened. Republican demagoguery never happened. 9-11 never happened.

  Good God, people, get a grip. There are cultural and political movements that have been shifting about for over 60 years. And they have had a profound impact on our present society. These movements ebb and flow. One second we find ourselves under a Reagan, shortly after comes Bill Clinton and the next thing you know, George W. Bush.

  And the product Bush and his neo-cons are peddling is fear. Out and out, unadulterated fear. And why does this work? Oh, I don't know, perhaps some airliners crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon might have played a part.

  Now what does this have to do with Sam Alito? Everything. The Republican Party has locked onto fear as a method of governance. As well as being difficult to combat, there are some very real and deadly reasons it works. The truth is, when many of these fear-mongers get elected, they also bring to the table plenty of other baggage which includes groveling to the religious right. And when you grovel to the religious right, you get nominees like Sam Alito. It's actually pretty basic.

  On the eve of World War I, Henry James wrote of a current that was carrying humanity like a twig toward the Niagara of what would become that war. That is where we find ourselves today. Swept up in a current that is, once again, taking us toward our own Niagara.

  So who's to blame for Sam Alito? There are far too many people and events that are to blame for Sam Alito. I just know that sitting here, banging out shallow tirades against imagined culprits doesn't get us anywhere. Sometimes Democrats have stood up when we needed them, sometimes they haven't. But one thing is for sure, they don't exist in some imagined, utopian plane where outside events don't affect them.

  We're going over the falls, folks. It's happened before and it'll happen again. But perhaps, if we protect ourselves with a bit more rational thinking -- a sturdier barrel if you will -- the impact won't be so bad. That way, we live to fight again instead of drowning in our own invective.

  Permalink Friday, January 27, 2006 01:19 PM