Republicans - The 'Child' Party

So many things are happening right now - the hearings on Valerie Plame, Gone-zo-gate, you name it - that keeping up with it all is hard to do. As soon as I think of something to say about one subject, another one explodes. So, instead, I think I'll talk about the thread running through all this - the utter childishness of the Republican Party.

You will often hear the two parties called the 'Daddy' party (Repubs) and the 'Mommy' party (Dems), intimating that the Republicans are more disciplined and realistic, and the Democrats are more emotional and 'feel-goody'. I would like to set before you another view: the Dems as the 'Parent' party, and the Repubs as the 'Child' party.

While that may seem to fly in the face of conventional wisdom, think about this (if you have kids or have been around them, some of this may sound familiar) -

• Children, like Repubs, tend to think in absolutes, in black-and-white, right and wrong, good guys and bad guys. Nuance confuses them. They like their answers to be simple and direct.
• Children need an authority over them telling them what to do.
• Children are concerned with self rather than others. They want what they want when they want it, and it's difficult for a child to empathize with others' needs.
  
• Children will throw a tantrum to get what they want. Even if what they want right now will hurt them in the long run (global warming, anyone?)
  
• Children don't want to accept responsibility for anything. It's always "He did it too!" "It was his idea, not mine - he made me do it!" "It's not my fault!" "It wasn't me!" - even in the face of direct evidence! If they think they can get away with it, they will say they didn't take the chocolate chip cookie with crumbs and chocolate smeared all over their face.
  
• Children like to play war/fighting games. If other people get hurt, it doesn't register with them the way it does when they get hurt.
• Children chafe at rules, regulation, and oversight, even when it's to their advantage.
• Children like symbols, slogans, and logos, and they are very easily manipulated by the use of these. It's no accident that many kids' first symbol recognition is of McDonalds' Golden Arches®.
  

Now, let me say here that, in children, this is appropriate behavior. There are good reasons that they are born selfish. It is for survival. But, children will outgrow this if they are raised properly. As adults, we should know better.

Democrats, on the other hand, understand that it's not all about us and screw everybody else. We take our responsibilities to ourselves and each other seriously. We understand that if others are suffering, that it's not okay, even if we're doing all right ourselves. No, we're not perfect. But we do understand that the world is complex, the issues that face us are complex, and we can't substitute slogans, banners, and jingoism for considered reasoning and looking at all sides of an issue.

That's what the kids call 'flip-flopping'.

Repubs Heart Gays - As Long As They're Self-Hating, Lying Hos

I guess you could call me a fag hag. After all, my first fiancé was a gay man. Many of my good friends and co-workers are gay and lesbian. I love them the way they are. I wouldn't want them to change anything about themselves. As a Christian, I believe that God made them gay and lesbian. And even if I did not believe that, I also think that it's none of my damn business. Who died and made me George W. Bush that I should have the right to tell someone what they are and are not allowed to do with their lives, their loves, or their bodies?

One of the reasons that I am a Democrat is that my party, as a matter of policy, does not presume to judge or condemn people for their sexual orientation, or any other orientation for that matter. And as far as I know, my out and proud gay and lesbian friends are Democrats for that reason also. These are normal, well-adjusted people, many with spouses and children, who care very much about 'family values'. How can society be worse off with married, committed, loving couples who are raising happy, loved children? 'Dr'. Dobson can contest the overwhelming empirical evidence that children with gay parents are overall just as well-adjusted as children with straight parents all he wants, but he and his ilk don't care for any science that doesn't fit their theology.

Don't start in with me about drag queens, leather bars and promiscuity. If the only 'freaks' out there were gay freaks, you might have a point. But they aren't, so you don't.

My point is that if you are are out and proud, comfortable and happy with who you are, the Republican Party is not the place for you.

Matt Sanchez made a big deal about how his conservative friends were all supportive of him. Well, la-di-da. What's the message here? The message is if you are closeted, ashamed, and forced to act out in dark, twisted ways (going to or being a prostitute, looking for sex with inappropriate partners such as minors) because you can't be your real self in public, Republicans will show you the love. Hide, lie, deny, sell or buy sex - be a hypocrite - that's what we like, Matt! Semper Fi, baby!

They'll go to the 'Matt' (sorry!) for you only if you deny who you are. Sexually stalk minors? No big deal, Mark Foley! They were asking for it. Go to a prostitute and buy drugs? Poor Ted Haggard - we'll pray the gay away!

The Republican party also attracts a number of people who align themselves with - well, I won't use the passé term 'oppressors', but let's say those who feel that 'equal opportunity' means 'special privileges'. People like Larry Elder, Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes, Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin, who somehow think that because they've gotten conservative attention by rejecting those from whence they came, that they are somehow superior to those who are fighting for equal rights - as if they would be where they are without those that have gone before them and fought for what they are so happy to dismiss; as if their own intelligence and hard work was what made them better than the hand-wringing whiners on the left. These people are so hungry to prove that they're 'different' that they gladly support people and policies that are detrimental to their own interests. "See," they cry, "I'm black/female/gay/non-white, but I'm so smart/moral/tough/superior that they'll accept me even though they look down on everyone else like me! I won't let my 'group' define me! I'm different!" How sad that they can't see how self-defeating that is. What a shame that they can't see how they're being used - which, of course, they are the first to stridently deny. "I'm an iconoclast! I don't need special privileges to succeed, unlike those weak, lazy cry-babies who whine about equal opportunity!" For these folks, being a woman in a sea of other women is not self-affirming or unique enough. Go where you will stand out and be noticed! It's about eliminating the competition.

I'd like to see the welcome reception that Mighty Matt the Manly Masculine Marine would receive from his new friends if he were to show up in uniform with a same-sex partner. Would Ann Coulter be draping herself around him then? Would David Horowitz give him and his partner a friendly hug? Would his new buddies O'Reilly and Hannity be clamoring for his company on their shows? Oh, but I forgot - according to Matt, he's "not very good at being gay." Well, I could be wrong, Matty my man, but it sure looked to me as if you were very good indeed at being gay. From what I understand from men about how that stuff works, it's sort of difficult to fake. Oh, but you were only acting! You're not gay any more? I see. Go buy some more pantsuits for your wife, Corky.

And while we're on the subject, I have serious doubts about the claim that propelled you into the conservative spotlight. "Baby-killer"? Honey, that was so 40 years ago! I think your Vietnam combat fantasies may have gotten the better of you there.

As long as you and people like you are willing to lie and twist yourselves around for the approval of people who despise who you really are, these deadly lies about being able to change your sexual orientation (not 'preference') with willpower, therapy, or prayer will continue to proliferate and damage people for generations to come! The Republican party is all about denial of reality, so maybe it is the place for you after all.

Hey, Matty, I just thought of something! I know the perfect gal for you! She's single, conservative, Christian and slutty! Why don't you bring some of that hot, hetero hardness over to Ann? I hear she's available!