A Senator Drinks the Kool-Aid

I had finally calmed down from my spluttering rage over the proposed statue of Ronald Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (which is located only a few miles from the Ronald Reagan Building and adjoins the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metro Station), when along came something else to send my blood pressure through the roof. You may want to sit down for this one...

ABC News aired this report yesterday: Republican Senator Says He Backs Birther Lawsuits.

Yes, friends, when one of his constituents asked Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana what he would do about President Obama's "refusal to produce a valid birth certificate," this solomonic legislator - clearly a tower of intellectual power and sagacity - replied that he supports conservative legal organizations and others who would bring the issue to court.

Never mind that the entire "birther" movement and its fundamental issue - that President Obama is not a legal US citizen and therefore ineligible to be president - has been thoroughly and utterly discredited...some people will continue to believe what they want to believe, no matter how stupid or thoroughly disproven. The state of Hawaii has actually published the document, researchers from FactCheck.org have actually examined a copy of it, raised seals, signatures and all, and the rumor-debunking website Snopes.com has investigated and discredited the story.

If you don't like President Obama, that's fine. It's a free country and it's your right. But oppose the man on the basis of his policies and actions, and not on some bogus issue that is so easily disproven.

As it happens (and in the interest of full disclosure), I voted for Mr Obama in the 2008 election. I did so for two primary reasons:

1. He wasn't George W. Bush.

2. He wasn't a Republican.

I am not, as some would immediately assume, a Democrat. I vote for individuals and their positions on issues, not for parties. If political labels had any meaning any more, I suppose I could be considered a "liberal Republican." Unfortunately, the Republican party has lost every bit of its credibility and common sense. It's been hijacked by its most reactionary elements and is too busy working on the canonization of Ronald Reagan and the smearing of President Obama to do anything worthwhile to help the people of the United States. I am ashamed to admit that I was once a registered Republican, but would be equally ashamed to admit that I was a registered Democrat. P.J. O'Rourke may have expressed my thoughts better than I could myself when he wrote in his book Parliament of Whores,

"So what if I don't agree with the Democrats? What's to disagree with? They believe everything. And what they don't believe, the Republicans do. Neither of them stands for anything they believe in, anyway."

My problem with all of our elected reprehensives is simple: I expect better.

I expect action on critical issues that affect all of us...not time-wasting bloviation on discredited issues.

I have a right to expect better, but I've grown used to accepting worse. And when a United States Senator buys into something as stupid as the birther movement, it's time to question whether there's any hope left.

In my office, we often say that you can't fix stupid. But I surely do wish we could. The nation needs it.

Have a good day. Expect better.

More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo