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Fantasy versus Reality
I think I may have somehow stumbled into a partial understanding of the current Teabagger phenomena, and why the Republican Party has become so intransigent. They simply hate us. But why, you might ask.
Republicans, and Teabaggers in particular, live in a fantasy world. And we threaten to destroy that fantasy world every time we try to rip their blinders off and show them what is really going on.
Here’s the Republican world. It is mostly fantasy gleaned from jingoistic old history books, Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, John Wayne ilk movies, right wing propaganda, and complete nonsense.
In the Republican world, the founding fathers like Washington (slave owner until his dying day) fought tirelessly to end slavery. They were perfect Christians, founding a perfect Christian nation (albeit with slavery) led by men like Thomas Jefferson, himself a perfect heroic Christian.
In the Republican world, intrepid explorers conquered a wild savage (meaning inhabited by First Americans) land, bringing the benefits of Christianity and (white) civilized ways to the wilderness. We fought a civil war, not over slavery, but, much like our founders, to ensure the rights of the states to protect individual’s rights (like owning property e.g. slaves). Confederate leaders like Thomas (“kill them all”) Stonewall Jackson were Christian warriors defending the nation, not traitors of the worst kind. Jefferson Davis is George Washington with slaves in Mississippi instead of Virginia, not a vindictive little man who wanted a guerilla war we might still be fighting.
In the Republican world, big business and American genius teamed up to build the railroads, ignoring the thousands of mistreated Chinese workers who were virtual slaves, finally dumped homeless and jobless when the railroad was done. Business built an industrial base second to none in the world, until Socialist/Communist Unions started to tear it down with strikes and demands for ridiculously high wages. Henry Ford’s ideas about workers being able to afford the products they build are conveniently ignored of forgotten.
In Republican world, the cavalry comes racing over the hill to save us time after time, and John Wayne leads his Green Berets in charge after charge against the evil, Godless Communists (that may be one word, I’m not sure). The military and those who are their able contracted assistants can do no wrong, so we don’t dare look too closely.
Our President is a robust White Man, with wavy hair and helpfully a slight down home accent. He isn’t and never could be black. He is always a Good Christian of excellent moral character, even when he isn’t, and attends church regularly, even when he doesn’t.
Black people can vote (except when they can’t) and have the same schools and opportunities as everyone else (except when the don’t) and conveniently slip back over the tracks to that other neighborhood we never go to, after they’ve cleaned up our houses and shoveled our sidewalks. Their children are not in our schools, although we understand theirs are just as good.
And the Mexicans are quaint people who were funny hats and are always happy, especially when we’re down there at a warm beach. Sometimes they come up north and pick our peaches and lettuce, singing away into the night while picking. Then the conveniently disappear back down south, and don’t want to use our hospitals or out schools. We’re all quite sure they are paid very well (in Mexican terms) for their labors.
The world is perfect just like God made it 6,000 years ago, and so the climate cannot be changing and those who claim so must have some Godless agenda.
In short, we evil vicious liberals try to rip the blinders off. We show them the scarred backs of the slaves instead of the White general on the White stallion. We show them Massa in the wood house with his favorite bent over the woodpile instead of Scarlet in her ball gown.
We try to unmask and make them stare at the true horrors of the wars they lust after, the dead and bloated bodies and the burned children.
We show them the shanty towns, and the impoverished, uneducated farm workers, and Bull Conner with his chaw and fire hoses, and the homeless living under the bridge.
We unveil the greed and thievery of business, the sweat shops and shoddy body armor for our soldiers and tainted food and the unquenchable greed feeding crooked politicians.
We unmask the plight of the people we help enslave around the world in our endless quest to maintain their fantasy world.
We show them the melting glaciers and the drowned polar bears and the inundated islands and villages and burning prairies.
And we force them to open their eyes and think. And this is unforgivable.
In short, we get them down on all fours and show them where they shit on the living room rug while sleepwalking, and they hate the smell. And they hate us for showing it to them.
Their entire world is based on a fantasy, and if we dare to try to expose it, we are evil, atheistic, socialistic communists who must be eliminated, and you can’t possibly cooperate or bargain with such evil people as us liberals.
If only we would just shut up and go away, the world would be perfect again, just like it was before.
Except it never was.
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