tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8965939.post110634568886491668..comments2023-10-25T06:27:02.977-05:00Comments on Ryan the Angry Midget and Friends: Lashing OutRyan the Angry Midgethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09120313107611992640noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8965939.post-1106422973327685402005-01-22T13:42:00.000-06:002005-01-22T13:42:00.000-06:00Time to put my oar in the water.
So, round about ...Time to put my oar in the water.<br /><br />So, round about the election, Amy and I (she of the goat-porn fetish uncovered in earlier posts to the Midget's blod) were listening to a typical conservative explain, patiently, why it is that, unless we make gay marriages unconstitutional, God Almighty is likely to unleash a series of earthquakes and firestorms which will sink our sinful country into at least the 4th level of hell (for everyone out there who's counting, the 4th level is the hoarders and the spendthrifts--Canto VII from Inferno). Amy expressed her shock (as a Minnesota liberal and a Grinnell grad who isn't usually exposed to the hatespeech of the truly ignorant) that (1) there are people like this out there in our country, and (2) they seem to be gaining power. I will share with you what I told her in a rare moment of clarity.<br /><br />I promise you that there will come a time, in our lifetime, when people like the one Amy and I were listening to (on NPR, by the way) will be lumped together by history with the people who patiently explained why blacks and whites should not be allowed to marry. The arguments used in both debates are remarkably the same (sin against nature, sin against God, immoral, contrary to the traditional definition of marriage, offensive, gross, etc. etc.). And the Republicans lost that one. And they'll lose this one. Our country, and the world as a whole, has been getting progressively more liberal (or progressively more progressive) for pretty much its entire history. And the trend continues. Bush II is a historical burp (who wouldn't even be president except for the archconservatives at the Supreme Court), aided by the unfortunate-for-us, fortunate-for-him timing of the 9/11 attacks (without which he never would have be reelected). And he is nothing more.<br /><br />Anyone who says this country has gotten more conservative is either thinking really short term (i.e., more conservative now than it was in 1998), or is hallucinating. I can name, off the top of my head, dozens of simple examples (from legal marijuana use to Fortune 500 companies routinely extending benefits to same-sex partners) of liberal progress made in my short lifetime. Things that were absolutely unthinkable as recently as the 1980s.<br /><br />I compare Republicans to the little Dutch boy, sticking their fingers in the dike of progress (boy, that's like a quadruple entendre), and realizing that, for every leak they plug, 3 more spring forth. Typical conservatives are arguing for a value set fewer and fewer Americans share. And the curve isn't just trending our way--its getting more steep. If you look at the urban/rural population balance over the last 40 years, and the government's projections for the next 40 (maybe Ryan can dig it up?) it speaks loud and clear: Podunkvilles, where Republicans reign supreme, are dying. Metropoli (that IS the correct plural), where we archliberals reign supreme, is growing. And the effect is easy to understand. It's a lot easier to hate minorities when you don't see them every day. A lot easier to think they really are 3/5ths of a person (speaking of social progress) when none of them are your friends or coworkers. A lot easier to see gays as satanic immorals when you don't go to their parties (which, frankly, kick ass. No one parties like gay people.).<br /><br />My friends, take heart. We are winning this war, just as we've been winning it for the last 200 years (or 500 years, if you count progress in Europe---notice how we let Jews own land now?). Republicans like to talk about the End Times, when they will all disappear. They are absolutely right, they're just not right about how it will happen.<br /><br />Oh, and for you Bush voters out there who want to write back and say "That's not me! I'm no racist! I'm no bigot. I just voted for Bush because he makes me feel safe/John Kerry is too Bostonian/I like the fact that I'm smarter than him/I make over $50 million a year and need his tax cuts/I really like the way he won the Iraq war for us", I have this simple retort: when you jump on a bandwagon, you are responsible for everything done by the guy driving it. Remember, in Lonesome Dove, when they hung poor Robert Ulrich? I know I cried a little. But the moral was correct: when you consort with people who do unconscionable things, you are liable for their crimes, even if you didn't agree with what they were doing. So take your excuses and...well, I was going to say stick them in you tuckus, but I now how sensitive Republicans are about the thought of things being put there.<br /><br />/rant off.<br />/Ben out.Ben Patrickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06977146565248223119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8965939.post-1106346727559225812005-01-21T16:32:00.000-06:002005-01-21T16:32:00.000-06:00Well, if you're still in a bad mood this coming Tu...Well, if you're still in a bad mood this coming Tuesday, get on Xbox Live around 7:00 Central time and play some Halo 2 with my buddies and I. We've been playing every Tuesday now for a while, and as a team, we're getting a lot better. So you can always jump in and help us own some noobs....Lord Blinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13309529830363457895noreply@blogger.com