Fooled or Fools

I think most adversaries and supporters of George W. Bush have recollections of foot-in-mouth comments the former president made during his tenure as the leader of the free world.  Both sides would at times shake their heads when the president tripped over the English language and feel the embarrassment that exposed our feckless leader to the criticism of the global community and thus our own shame for putting him in office.  One of the unforgettable gaffes he made remains in my memory to this day and serves, I feel, as the defining example of the stupidity that permeated the Grand Ole Party during his administration and which now appears to dominate the leadership he left behind.  It was his “you can’t fool me twice” distortion of a simple age old adage, seen here in this clip.

Obviously you can fool people twice, thrice, even four times over.

Case in point!  I have received in the mail, for the fourth time since last year, the Republican National Committee’s PLATFORM SURVEY.  According to their own words, I have been selected to represent the type of voters their Party feels is opposed to “President Obama’s reckless government spending, higher taxes and liberal redistributionist policies.”  It’s true!  They said so right there in their form letter as I have displayed below.

click on image to enlarge 

How stupid can they be?  The previous three times the RNC has sent this trash to me I took the time to elucidate that I am their worst nightmare.  I am the Liberal Democrat of song and dance who they vilify and stick needles in a voodoo representative doll of liberal Democrats.  I am burned in effigy on their yachts, motor speedway parking lots, wrestling auditoriums and manicured mansion lawns.

 

Come election days I am not only a liberal Democrat but find the GOP seriously lacking in any common sense.  I actually spelled all of this out on the previous surveys they sent me, using the margins to describe in detail what asses I thought they were for suggesting things like opposing universal health care and denying the climate science on global warming.

 

I have voted for Obama twice, enthusiastically supported his stimulus spending (regretting he didn’t spend much more) and applauded his efforts at constraint from intervening in Libya and Syria.  There is much about Obama that displeases me but in comparison to what the GOP has offered voters he is head and shoulders above what the Party of NO continually puts out there.  And yet, Reince Preibus keeps sending me letters telling me how valuable my input is to his Party.  How stupid can one organization be?

 

This failure to see the writing on the wall reveals one of two things about the GOP.  They are in a state of denial, or, the most likely possibility … they don’t even bother to read the responses in the survey they send out to their imaginary supporters.  I envision their Forrest Gump-like helpers going through each envelope once it’s crossed their desk and immediately rifling the contents, looking for the check or money order they expect to receive while disposing of that “input and advice” their letter to me claimed they “urgently” needed.

 

Either possibility is not unlikely.  One only needs to observe their actions over the last few years to come to the conclusion that any 3rd grader would.

 

Public polls have revealed that Americans want health care reform,  sane gun control legislation and that rapid global warming is man-made and a serious threat.  Further evidence suggest their voters do not want to privatize Social Security and Medicare.  One poll even found back before the 2012 elections that 71% of voters want mandatory cuts in carbon pollution, including nearly half of those who claim to be regular FOX News viewers.   Another found a strong majority -91% – favor abortion rights at some level.  

 

And yet the GOP continues to act as if such people didn’t exist.  They obviously flipped out once their “free market” fantasies went belly up in 2008 and Americans elected the first black president with a Muslim heritage name.   It must have been a shock not unlike that felt by some fundamentalist christian couple who have discovered that one of their children is gay and the other joined a Hare Krishna sect.  Denial kicks in, they ostracize their children and then move to the other side of town where they are not well known.  PRESTO!  A new life they can live with, even if it is devoid of any genuine history.

 

The decisions they do make are backed by astro-turf groups that are funded by wealthy special interests that benefit billionaires like Pete Peterson and the Koch brothers, highlighting issues that advantage the wealthy over the average American, as the increasing income gap in this country is testimony to.  This wealthy 1% clan has convinced enough poor white trash that they too can live the comfortable life that only they and Mitt Romney have achieved.  But they must first make sure that their “freedoms” are not robbed by socialist who want to tax them to death and force them to drive electric vehicles.

 

Their only allies become the nasty, isolationist neighborhood kid at the end of the block, the virulent libertarian who became a card-carrying member of today’s TeaParty.  The GOP leadership always used to find such people both amusing and appalling, so sure they would never amount to anything.

 

Having said all of this however, I am certain that there is a kernel of intelligence somewhere within this delusional group of people.  And so it with sincere determination that I once again return their form, filled out in a manner that if it doesn’t change their destructive ways, they will at least conclude that the postage they spent annoying me yet one more time could be better spent elsewhere.

For your perusal and entertainment, here then are a sampling of my responses to the 2013 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM SURVEY

To get them excited too when they tear open that envelope with the survey will be this bogus contribution to the RNC.

 

I know.   It’s a sophomoric prank.   But what else is there to do with someone who keeps making the same mistake over and over again.  The question now is, “Are the people who keep sending me these surveys smarter than a 3rd grader?”