Republican on Republican Smears

Seconding Digby a second time:

Republican voters, if you question the port deal, the administrationthinks you're a traitor.

This isn’t the first time that the Republican Attack Machine has turned on its own, and it won’t be the last.  I’m too lazy to find the link and I don’t like linking to rightwingers anyway; but just last week I was researching something for a blogpost (a clear violation of blog etiquette) and stumbled back upon the Harriet Myers stuff.  It was a bunch of wingnuts upset that the Whitehouse had subtly implied that anyone who opposed Myers did so because she was a woman.  And they were all so outraged that the Whitehouse would possibly attack them for sexism that you’d think they were regular women’s libbers or something.

And all I could think was “No fucking shit, Sherlock.  Welcome to the club.”  This is the shit that they pull on us all the damn time, and all these poor little wingnuts were thrashing about because the firehose that they cheer so wildly for was finally turned on them.  And when this happened in real-time, I had the naiveté to actually believe that they’d now be more sensitive when this happened to us.  Dumb, I know; but I keep forgetting that the only thing sensitive on these people are their thin-skins.  

But it really doesn’t occur to them that the GOP attacks they repeat against us are just as empty and invalid as what was being thrust at them.  And that this is the only way that the Whitehouse knows how to deal with challengers.  Maybe they somehow believe that the Whitehouse tries the reasonable, “We respect your opinion” approach with us libs and that it’s us rejecting them out of hand.  But I just don’t see how they haven’t yet figured out that this is what happens all the time.  And that when the Whitehouse denounces us as being unpatriotic; that this is just a standard line of attack, and not a valid criticism.  But again, this isn’t one move that just happened to be used against the GOP rebels.  This is the only thing the Whitehouse knows how to do.

But again, this shouldn’t surprise me.  Much of the Republican appeal is that of the thin-skinned bully who can dish it out and can’t take it.  The guy who thinks it’s hilarious to play mean-spirited pranks on people, but who wants to fight everyone if a prank is played on them.  The guy who complains loudly whenever he’s denied special perks; but yells when anyone undeserving receives perks equal to theirs.  And the guy who denounces people who don’t take “personal responsibility”, while attacking others for ruining his life.  

Republicanism is all about the Party of One.  You’re the center of the universe, everyone else is just a side character of no particular importance.  All power should rest in you, and you are responsible for no one.  That’s what it’s all about.  Being in the elite circle that gets all the benefits and screws everyone else over.  And these dopes don’t seem to realize that they’re not in the “in-crowd”.  They’re outsiders just being used for their loud voice and checkmark on the ballot.  

In fiction, these guys are easy to spot.  Like in The Mummy Returns or almost any Doctor Who episode, the bad guy who stops at nothing to resurrect the Evil One; but whose loyalty is eventually repaid with a violent and gruesome death once the Evil One’s need for them is gone.  But that’s not what happened in this case.  No, in this case, they are the nameless henchmen who try to act as equals to the main bad guy, and are shown exactly why they’re nameless henchmen and not main bad guys.  And so the henchmen gnash their teeth and complain to the heavens.  But tomorrow, they’ll be back leading the pack and repeating whatever they’re told.