Oh, No... here we go again!

I made the mistake of watching Sunday morning talk shows last weekend, and I was reminded of many things I'm reading about in a Charlie Pierce book I recently purchased. Here's an excerpt from it that pretty much sums up my feelings about the TeaBagger crowd, Glenn Beck (and his disciples), and bat-sh!t crazy politicians like Minnesota's own Michelle Bachmann...

This is still the best country ever devised in which to be completely out of your mind, and we are free to believe in nonsense. We are free to act on nonsense. We are free to stand aside and let our fellow citizens who believe in nonsense take up the task of self-government that we are too busy, or too lazy, or too distracted to take up ourselves. What we cannot do is walk away from the consequences of believing nonsense.

Suddenly, we were hearing again about hidden hands controlling the economy and how the Nazis were really socialists because they were called the National Socialist Party. Hell, we were hearing about socialism itself... Now, it was being shouted at members of Congress by the angry elderly at summertime town hall meetings, and chanted by the more ambulatory among them at Tea Party marches. All of it aimed at an administration that was full to the gunwales with Wall Street drones, an irony the went so far over the heads of the rabidly anti-Obama crowd that it may well be orbiting Saturn by now.

IDIOT AMERICA: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free

By Charlie Pierce - Author, Boston Globe reporter, and national treasure

Yea, I know this stuff belongs in the PAW-LITICS section of this blog, but I'm too busy, or too lazy, or too distracted to put it there. I'm just tired of hearing how everything is a secret liberal plot: from Medicare reimbursements for end-of-life planning with your doctor (also known as "Death Panels") to Photoshopped birth certificates to a White House full of [quote] "radicals". Well, I guess it's true if by radical you mean Wall Street insider and holdover from the Clinton Administration. And what's up with thrice-married, family values puking, Newt Gingrich? I mean, I always thought Newt was a major league douchebag even back when I was a die-hard Republican brainwashed to believe Republican equates to lower deficits (despite the facts proving the contrary). The Newtster was kicked out of congress in disgrace more than a decade ago, yet now he's somehow relevant again. How does that happen? Then again, if a leaderless - and rudderless - party is going to put the likes of Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck up on pedestals, I guess that sorta opens the door to everybody who is anybody with an agenda to sell. And I mean sell in the literal sense. There's loads of cash to be made as a sleazy politician, and here's the proof. And there's even more money to be made off stupid people (see the aforementioned multimillionaire Glenn Beck). So now I get labeled a "liberal" because I like to share my disgust of the GOP, even though I hardly think Obama or the democrats have much courage to do much better since all politicians are puppets to the multinational corporations that pull the strings. Whatever. But I admit it - I'm grateful for every day I wake up in a country where George Bush is no longer president. Plus - as any TeaBagger who stumbles upon this blog will tell you - I, too, enjoy labeling people... especially stupid people less interested in the real facts and more keen on being spoon-fed political talking points in the form of cherry-picked "news" nuggets matching a particular political ideology - facts be damned! As Pierce puts it, how has a country founded on intellectual curiosity deteriorated into a nation of simpletons more apt to vote for an American Idol contestant than a presidential candidate? But I'm assuming my four faithful readers can see through the current GOP smoke screen about calling the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts a tax increase. Or how extending the tax cuts somehow doesn't affect the deficit. But if you're not paying attention, I know someone who is who can explain it better than any so-called "news" source.

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I'll leave you with THE THREE GREAT PREMISES OF IDIOT AMERICA:

 1] Any theory is valid if it sells books, soaks up ratings, or otherwise moves units.
 2] Fact is that which enough people believe. Truth is determined by how fervently they believe it.
 3] Anything can be true if someone says it loudly enough.