WASHINGTON D.C.—If we didn’t believe the nation was in desperate need of change after witnessing the past two years of racist picket signs and conservatives belittling the TSA instead of praying for our continued national security, it was only a week ago when former President Ronald Reagan’s adopted son, Michael, publicly attacked his younger half-brother, Ron, for writing in his most recent book that he believes his father developed Alzheimer’s long before it was officially diagnosed upon leaving office. Both sons have made their careers and wealth off of being the son of a legend and less for being their own men.
I knew Michael’s mother, Academy Award® winning actress Jane Wyman, and I can say that she’d be appalled that her son is engaging in a public feud for political reasons with his half brother. Michael, a staunch right wing conservative has a radio audience and book purchasers to impress by being even more conservative than his late father, while Ron has attempted to defuse the public family spat, thankfully since his classy mother former First Lady Nancy Reagan is still alive. Who’d ever thought the Reagan family, who pride themselves on family values, could learn a lesson from the Kennedy family? The latter never showcase any hint of a family squabble. Isn’t it ironic that it’s mostly the politicians who preach about family values whose families seem to be the most dysfunctional?
However, this week’s column is in response to last week’s declaration of how the political right has engaged in racist behavior since the election of President Barack Obama and has also proved that their pretense of respect for General Colin Powell, Secretary Condoleezza Rice and other African American leaders was nothing more than a front for their disdain for any real leadership role for any African-American, especially any who would lead our great nation.
As much as the political right has engaged in abhorrent behavior, the political left has been equally as vicious and appalling. Once the liberal media decides that someone is an expert in any field, they appoint that person a leader of something. In the past it was Reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who were described by the media as leaders in the African-American community, when actually the two men were never discussed as leaders by anyone in the black community and in fact have very little in common with the average black American. They have more in common with the liberal white establishment. Now comedian and talk show host Bill Maher and filmmaker Michael Moore are regular guests on CNN as authorities on democratic and liberal political matters. Both men called former President George Bush an idiot, a liar, a terrorist and even worse names. They’ve engaged in name calling on the political right, and both speak with some almost bizarre understanding and phony compassion for poor people and minorities, while both men became wealthier under the Bush years.
Sure democrats argue, “Look at Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck and Sean Hannity.” Yes, all three are partisan hacks who hate everyone who differs from them politically, but to pretend that Maher, Moore, Olberman and others on the left are not engaging in the same vicious name calling and fear mongering is being very disingenuous. Former President George W. Bush made a lot of mistakes while in office, but many on the right and left forget the old lesson that if you are not making mistakes it means you are actually not doing anything. Maybe the former president could have shown more humility at times, but that was not a capitol crime. It was a mistake. The fact that the political left enjoys seeing Sarah Palin’s popularity drop is not just mean, but silly. Palin has engaged in a very divisive and boring campaign of hatred, intolerance and attacks, that’s for sure. However, Al Gore spent George Bush’s first term complaining about his perception that the election was stolen from him until he found the global warming debate more financially lucrative. Then for the next four years, his supporters whined about the election until the Bush Administration left office. Engaging in this intolerance of the new leader is not new. It started under the Clinton Administration. Speaker Newt Gingrich decided it was great for his base to call the president immoral and his wife a bitch, and eventually it was he who left the office in disgrace.
I find myself in the real minority today, which sees that both sides are engaging in what is nothing short of wasted and negative energy. We’ve turned into old Europe. During the Middle Ages until most recently in the 20th century, European nations would find themselves at loggerheads with whoever was in power. Then the current regime’s enemies would bide their time until power switched back to them again, only to find themselves being ridiculed and attacked for not being what the other side wanted. Americans awoke two weeks ago to find a beautiful young congresswoman shot in the head, and a 9-year-old girl and six others killed by a deranged gunman in Tucson, Ariz. Congress spoke clearly and succinctly that the tone they have been engaging in was not very helpful. Let us hope that Americans will actually learn from the poisonous debates we’ve witnessed over the past two decades and return to civility.
Please pray for our troops who fight in Afghanistan and Iraq against the terrorists.
