Their Own Reality

Even given the already surreal quality that politics have had for the last few years, the Republicans have managed to blow my mind further in the last few weeks.

Just to recap, it was only a few weeks ago that Sen. Ted Stevens, who chairs the committe responsible for regulating the Internet, delivered his "series of tubes" speech which revealed that the old boy ain't quite got a handle on this new-fangled Internet-doohickey, yet. Disturbing as this exhibition of cluelessness may have been, it spawned countless inspired works of art dedicated to making fun of him, so it was all good.

More recently, Karl Rove: told the Denver Post that “recent studies” show researchers “have far more promise from adult stem cells than from embryonic stem cells.” The Chicago Trib, perhaps confused by the fact that these studies must have slipped under the radar of every major news outlet, talked with some stem cell experts who all shot that idea down. So yet again, we've got a Presidential Advisor who is either intentionally lying about something, or has no idea what's going on in the actual world the rest of us live in.

And finally, in the last few days we've heard from Senator Inhofe. The Senator is the Chairman of the Committee on Environment & Public Works. Despite the seemingly weekly release of studies which state unequivocably that global warming is real, it is caused by human activity, and it is likely to fuck shit up on this little planet of ours, the good Senator believes that global warming is a "hoax." Recently, he proved Godwin's Law and made a comparison to the Third Reich. Intriguingly, he refers to climate scientists who are expressing the conclusion supported by overwhelming evidence in the absence of any substantial counter-arguments as being "on the other side of the debate." I never participated in the debate club in high school, but it sounds like that "other side" might more properly be termed the "winning side." This was a debate 15 years ago. The debate is over.

At this point it's hard for me to tell if they are intentionally attempting to lie about the facts, or if this bunch of smug know-it-alls have so completely surrounded themselves in their own bubble of Yes Men that they actually believe their own crap.

At family holidays when I was younger, I'd always get into arguments with my uncle's extremely republican father. At the end of any of these arguments, no matter what my argument was, he settled into his self-satisfied composure, secure in the knowledge that he had made his mind up about things in the 70s, and by gum, nothing was going to change that mind. We now only discuss the weather and the good old days. In the case of my uncle's father, he is mostly retired and his attitude is mostly harmless. He is not, however, responsible for running the goddamned most powerful nation in the world.

I get the sense that a lot of people are starting to come to the realization of exactly how incompetent this crew really is, and how dangerous they are to our national well-being. At any rate, I sincerely hope so, because otherwise Canada is going to get really crowded.