Mary Sisney's Blog - Posts Tagged "chuck-schumer"
Child-Eating, Blood-Drinking Socialists: Why The Democrats Are Demonized
I spent most of last week making a point that should be obvious to anyone living in the real world and paying a little attention to politics: Democrats are the best behaved and the most criticized and demonized political party in the USA. When Chelsea Clinton tweeted that some of Trump’s deplorable cultists were outside her parents’ home shouting, “Lock her up,” one of the more polite Clinton critics (Chelsea received mostly positive support) said that the Trump family probably suffered the same treatment. I pointed out that Chelsea’s parents hadn’t mocked a disabled journalist, trashed a tortured Vietnam War hero (I didn’t add “even when he was sick and even after he had died” because I was on Twitter and had to limit my words), or mean-tweeted everyone except family members and Putin. They weren’t bullies. A Trump supporter and/or Clinton critic who must not know about me or he wouldn’t have responded to my tweet claimed that Hillary had mocked more people than Trump because she called Trump supporters “deplorables.” I explained to him the difference between an evaluation of bad actions and mocking. I explained why Trump supporters (uh, they supported a corrupt, self-confessed sexual assaulter but wanted to lock up Hillary) were deplorable and pointed out that Hillary didn’t mock Trump’s slow, fish-lipped walk down the West Point platform or his panting for breath like a catfish out of water stand on the White House balcony after he ripped off his Covid-filled mask (again, I used fewer words on Twitter) the way he mocked (at a 2016 rally) her fainting spell during the 9/11/16 ceremony. A day after that exchange, I read the editors’ opinion in my local paper (I forgot how conservative those opinion editors are and so will now have to stop subscribing to that paper) and felt my blood boil as they chastised the media-made “leader of the Democratic Party” AOC for saying that we should remember what the Republicans did and not let them walk away from their bad acts (I pictured Susan Collins as I read those words). The DAILY BULLETIN conservatives wondered how Biden could unite the country if the Democrats mistreated the Republicans. I wrote a brief (they have a 150 word limit, although some of the published letters seem longer) letter to the editor titled “Accountability Versus Demonization.” The letter opened with the following facts: “At least AOC didn’t say that Republicans eat children and/or drink their blood. She didn’t accuse Trump, who claimed he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes, of murder the way the Republicans have the Clintons.” Of course, the conservatives didn’t do what the more liberal and very anti-Trump opinion editors of the LA TIMES did: Devote a whole page to letters with opposing viewpoints. They published two letters that were mildly critical of their opinion, but for the second time didn’t publish mine. But this old black woman can’t be silenced. She not only has Twitter and Facebook accounts, but she has a Goodreads blog and knows how to use it. I’m going to use as many words as I need to point out why Democrats are demonized while Republicans are literally killing us: We hold better behaved people to a higher standard and/or use false equivalencies. Badly behaved people demonize the better behaved to justify their behavior and/or to feel less guilty. The badly behaved might also be projecting, distracting, and/or putting the better behaved on the defensive by demonizing them.
Conservatives aren’t the only media folks who attack Democrats while giving Republicans a pass. I spent several weeks in 2019 verbally spanking one of my favorite MSNBC anchors for badgering Nancy Pelosi and the very dignified Jim Clyburn, trying to convince them to impeach Trump. I let Ms. Joy Reid know that I trusted the people who gave us the ACA more than those who promoted media whore and crooked lawyer Michael Avenatti. I also pointed out that impeachment didn’t lead to the removal of the other two Presidents who had been impeached and that Nixon left voluntarily. I wondered why people didn’t attack the Republicans for not telling Trump to resign as the seventies Republicans did with Nixon or for not impeaching Trump during his first two years in office when they were in charge of the House. I also had to go after Hallie Jackson for interrogating one of the Democrats in Congress about whether or not he was being paid while the government was closed. Trump closed the government, not the Democrats. Why do we blame Democrats for not cleaning up the messes that Republicans made? The media and some Americans treat the better behaved party the way some bad parents treat their better behaved child, expecting that child to be perfect and maybe even to police the bad child(ren) who get(s) away with everything.
As “the Hillary mocks too” example shows, we also equate minor offenses by the better behaved party with deplorable actions by the evil party. The latest example is the attempt to compare what Gore did in 2000 (which was finally to concede when he should have kept fighting since he had a good case) to what Trump is doing now. Without looking at the way the Republicans cheated (Bush’s cousin declared he had won Florida on Fox, and the other stations followed his lead), we can easily see the difference. Bush “won” one state, the one where his brother was the governor and the Secretary of State was a GWB campaign chair, by fewer than 600 votes, and Gore won the popular vote. Biden has won both the electoral college and the popular vote in a landslide. Sometimes when the conservatives can’t find an equivalency, even a false one, they make one up. Since I didn’t watch Trump’s inaugural speech, I didn’t realize he had thanked Obama for his help during the transition. But I knew that Obama had graciously welcomed the man who had for five years accused him of lying about his place of birth, who had joined the racist birther movement and made it go viral, to the White House. Trump’s fourth press secretary in fewer than four years, the one who said she wouldn’t lie, claimed that the Obama-Biden administration had behaved during the 2016-17 transition worse than Trump and his minions are behaving now.
Of course, the most outrageous lie told by conservatives comes from the QANON cultists who I hope don’t really believe that liberals eat children. Because so many of the crimes conservatives accuse liberals of committing or planning to commit—voter fraud, killing babies (Tamir Rice and the many black babies who die in poverty or from ingesting too much lead), creating death panels (because of Covid)—I wonder if it’s possible that some of them are eating children or drinking their blood. Are the Republicans projecting again? They accuse us of being unpatriotic, yet they are the ones who are helping Putin to destroy our democracy. They rant about how much money is spent and how much debt is created when Democrats are in charge of the federal government, yet they run up the debt giving tax cuts to the rich. They call peaceful protesters anarchists and terrorists while donating millions of dollars to seventeen-year-old Killer Kid Kyle (he’s out of jail on a two million dollar bond) and not criticizing their “dear leader” for telling a truly dangerous terrorist group to “stand back and stand by.” Is it possible that these cruel politicians, who went home for Thanksgiving without providing aid to so many Americans who don’t have enough to eat and may not be able to pay their mortgage or rent, actually eat children? Who looks more like they eat children? Donald Trump, Bill Barr, and Mike Pompeo or Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and AOC? Who looks like he’s more likely to drink blood? The spooky looking man from Kentucky who happily calls himself the Grim Reaper or smiling, occasionally crying Chuck Schumer from New York?
The lies told by the Republicans are often used as distractions from their bad behavior and/or to put the Democrats on the defensive while they’re being offensive. The best example of that despicable tactic happened when McConnell, Graham, and the rest of the Republican racists in the Senate rushed through the appointment of racist mother of adopted black children ACB to prevent Biden from appointing a black woman to the Supreme Court. The Republicans actually tried to claim that the Democrats were discriminating against ACB because she’s Catholic. Fortunately, the media didn’t play their game, pointing out that Biden and Pelosi are both Catholics, and the court is already packed with Catholics, including a Catholic woman appointed by Obama.
Perhaps the primary reason Republicans demonize Democrats is the same reason white people demonize black people and family members demonize their better behaved spouses or siblings. They feel guilty, so they try to convince themselves that they’re better than the people they are hurting. White people don’t want to believe that good and decent humans were enslaved, raped, and lynched in earlier centuries and are being murdered by cops today, so they claim blacks are lazy criminals; we’re animals. The spouse who is committing adultery claims that the betrayed spouse is a drug addict and/or abusive. The siblings who neglect their elderly parents criticize the ones who are caring for them, suggesting they’re cold and mean or maybe they’re stealing from the parents. How can Republicans, especially evangelicals and women, justify supporting a thrice-married, sexist, racist, narcissistic adulterer, who was heard bragging about sexually assaulting women and was seen hanging out with a man arrested for operating a child sex ring, who encouraged his followers to physically assault protesters, and mocked and bullied everyone except Putin? Well, if the Democrats run a child sex ring, eat children, and/or drink their blood, then Trump doesn’t seem so bad. He is the lesser of two evils. And those of us who support the Democrats are more evil than his supporters are.
Like blacks and the more decent family members, Democrats have to fight back against the attempt to demonize them by their more evil counterparts. When the Republicans call us socialists, we should say, “If FDR, who gave us Social Security, is a socialist, then I’m a socialist. If LBJ, who gave us Medicare and fought the war on poverty much more effectively than he did the Vietnam War, is a socialist, then so am I. If BHO, who battled the demonizing Republicans, who screamed about death panels and pulling the plug on Grandma, to give us the now beloved by most Americans ACA, is a socialist, then I’m proud to be a socialist too.” Less verbose and steeped in history Democrats can simply say, “I’d rather be a socialist than a white supremacist.” When they call us baby killers, we can wonder why they care about a fetus only when it’s inside its mother’s womb. Why don’t they care about Tamir Rice or the two white people killed by Killer Kid Kyle? Why do their supporters tear down signs that say “Black Lives Matter”? We can ask them if they believe that all lives matter more than buildings and businesses. The Republicans are the pro-death, pro-corporate welfare, anti-health care, anti-education, anti-democracy white supremacist party. They are the party of Grim Reaper Mitch McConnell and racist malignant narcissist Donald Trump. We are the party of empathetic Joe Biden and civil rights icon John Lewis. We may not be saints, but they’re definitely the demons.
Conservatives aren’t the only media folks who attack Democrats while giving Republicans a pass. I spent several weeks in 2019 verbally spanking one of my favorite MSNBC anchors for badgering Nancy Pelosi and the very dignified Jim Clyburn, trying to convince them to impeach Trump. I let Ms. Joy Reid know that I trusted the people who gave us the ACA more than those who promoted media whore and crooked lawyer Michael Avenatti. I also pointed out that impeachment didn’t lead to the removal of the other two Presidents who had been impeached and that Nixon left voluntarily. I wondered why people didn’t attack the Republicans for not telling Trump to resign as the seventies Republicans did with Nixon or for not impeaching Trump during his first two years in office when they were in charge of the House. I also had to go after Hallie Jackson for interrogating one of the Democrats in Congress about whether or not he was being paid while the government was closed. Trump closed the government, not the Democrats. Why do we blame Democrats for not cleaning up the messes that Republicans made? The media and some Americans treat the better behaved party the way some bad parents treat their better behaved child, expecting that child to be perfect and maybe even to police the bad child(ren) who get(s) away with everything.
As “the Hillary mocks too” example shows, we also equate minor offenses by the better behaved party with deplorable actions by the evil party. The latest example is the attempt to compare what Gore did in 2000 (which was finally to concede when he should have kept fighting since he had a good case) to what Trump is doing now. Without looking at the way the Republicans cheated (Bush’s cousin declared he had won Florida on Fox, and the other stations followed his lead), we can easily see the difference. Bush “won” one state, the one where his brother was the governor and the Secretary of State was a GWB campaign chair, by fewer than 600 votes, and Gore won the popular vote. Biden has won both the electoral college and the popular vote in a landslide. Sometimes when the conservatives can’t find an equivalency, even a false one, they make one up. Since I didn’t watch Trump’s inaugural speech, I didn’t realize he had thanked Obama for his help during the transition. But I knew that Obama had graciously welcomed the man who had for five years accused him of lying about his place of birth, who had joined the racist birther movement and made it go viral, to the White House. Trump’s fourth press secretary in fewer than four years, the one who said she wouldn’t lie, claimed that the Obama-Biden administration had behaved during the 2016-17 transition worse than Trump and his minions are behaving now.
Of course, the most outrageous lie told by conservatives comes from the QANON cultists who I hope don’t really believe that liberals eat children. Because so many of the crimes conservatives accuse liberals of committing or planning to commit—voter fraud, killing babies (Tamir Rice and the many black babies who die in poverty or from ingesting too much lead), creating death panels (because of Covid)—I wonder if it’s possible that some of them are eating children or drinking their blood. Are the Republicans projecting again? They accuse us of being unpatriotic, yet they are the ones who are helping Putin to destroy our democracy. They rant about how much money is spent and how much debt is created when Democrats are in charge of the federal government, yet they run up the debt giving tax cuts to the rich. They call peaceful protesters anarchists and terrorists while donating millions of dollars to seventeen-year-old Killer Kid Kyle (he’s out of jail on a two million dollar bond) and not criticizing their “dear leader” for telling a truly dangerous terrorist group to “stand back and stand by.” Is it possible that these cruel politicians, who went home for Thanksgiving without providing aid to so many Americans who don’t have enough to eat and may not be able to pay their mortgage or rent, actually eat children? Who looks more like they eat children? Donald Trump, Bill Barr, and Mike Pompeo or Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and AOC? Who looks like he’s more likely to drink blood? The spooky looking man from Kentucky who happily calls himself the Grim Reaper or smiling, occasionally crying Chuck Schumer from New York?
The lies told by the Republicans are often used as distractions from their bad behavior and/or to put the Democrats on the defensive while they’re being offensive. The best example of that despicable tactic happened when McConnell, Graham, and the rest of the Republican racists in the Senate rushed through the appointment of racist mother of adopted black children ACB to prevent Biden from appointing a black woman to the Supreme Court. The Republicans actually tried to claim that the Democrats were discriminating against ACB because she’s Catholic. Fortunately, the media didn’t play their game, pointing out that Biden and Pelosi are both Catholics, and the court is already packed with Catholics, including a Catholic woman appointed by Obama.
Perhaps the primary reason Republicans demonize Democrats is the same reason white people demonize black people and family members demonize their better behaved spouses or siblings. They feel guilty, so they try to convince themselves that they’re better than the people they are hurting. White people don’t want to believe that good and decent humans were enslaved, raped, and lynched in earlier centuries and are being murdered by cops today, so they claim blacks are lazy criminals; we’re animals. The spouse who is committing adultery claims that the betrayed spouse is a drug addict and/or abusive. The siblings who neglect their elderly parents criticize the ones who are caring for them, suggesting they’re cold and mean or maybe they’re stealing from the parents. How can Republicans, especially evangelicals and women, justify supporting a thrice-married, sexist, racist, narcissistic adulterer, who was heard bragging about sexually assaulting women and was seen hanging out with a man arrested for operating a child sex ring, who encouraged his followers to physically assault protesters, and mocked and bullied everyone except Putin? Well, if the Democrats run a child sex ring, eat children, and/or drink their blood, then Trump doesn’t seem so bad. He is the lesser of two evils. And those of us who support the Democrats are more evil than his supporters are.
Like blacks and the more decent family members, Democrats have to fight back against the attempt to demonize them by their more evil counterparts. When the Republicans call us socialists, we should say, “If FDR, who gave us Social Security, is a socialist, then I’m a socialist. If LBJ, who gave us Medicare and fought the war on poverty much more effectively than he did the Vietnam War, is a socialist, then so am I. If BHO, who battled the demonizing Republicans, who screamed about death panels and pulling the plug on Grandma, to give us the now beloved by most Americans ACA, is a socialist, then I’m proud to be a socialist too.” Less verbose and steeped in history Democrats can simply say, “I’d rather be a socialist than a white supremacist.” When they call us baby killers, we can wonder why they care about a fetus only when it’s inside its mother’s womb. Why don’t they care about Tamir Rice or the two white people killed by Killer Kid Kyle? Why do their supporters tear down signs that say “Black Lives Matter”? We can ask them if they believe that all lives matter more than buildings and businesses. The Republicans are the pro-death, pro-corporate welfare, anti-health care, anti-education, anti-democracy white supremacist party. They are the party of Grim Reaper Mitch McConnell and racist malignant narcissist Donald Trump. We are the party of empathetic Joe Biden and civil rights icon John Lewis. We may not be saints, but they’re definitely the demons.
