Okay so if you're ever watching any of the 24-hour news networks and there is a brunette conservative commentator who you can't decide if she's really attractive or if she's really insane, you're probably watching Michelle Bachmann. Bachmann is the conservative Republican Congresswoman from Minnesota that makes Sarah Palin look like Bambi. Well, last week she was on Chris Matthews and said some ridiculous things. Here's the video:
Okay, so my problem is not her argument that Barack Obama has connections with shady characters. I certainly don't agree with that argument because I think it's dubious at best, but I can understand conservatives making that argument. My big problem is the idea that "leftist" and "liberal" makes one "anti-American." The fundamentalist, neoconservative movement of the last decade has defined what it means to be "American" in such narrow terms, that "liberal" has become a curseword and anyone leaning left of center is considered unpatriotic. I'm not sure what America she grew up in (although, I must admit I live in "fake Virginia," so what do I know), but I learned in Social Studies that our democracy was founded on the principles of free speech and a healthy dose of dissention. Because someone has political beliefs based on a different set of ideologies does not make them evil, it makes them different. And Bachmann may not have noticed, but our elections have been very very close in the last few cycles; a little less than half the country agrees at least in part with "leftists." Does this mean we half of Americans are all anti-American?
Look, just as liberals have a right to say what they please, so do conservatives like Bachmann. But Bachmann's assertion that we need to root out all of these "leftist anti-Americans" is something right out of an Arthur Miller play. It's a ridiculous notion. But luckily, this country isn't buying this anymore. In the days following Bachmann's tirade on Chris Matthews, the opponent for her congressional seat raised more than $1.3 million, doubling his funds. The NRCC even pulled its television advertisements in support of Bachmann in the district. Her seat that just a week ago was seen as very safe is now seriously in jeopardy.
Additionally, I hate how when some political commentator gets asked to clarify their obviously ridiculous and illogical statements, the interviewer is somehow "cornering" them, like Bachman says Matthews did to her. What? I can't just spew nonsensical, hysterical bullshit and people won't just love me for it? She's the new Ann Coulter--she just wants to say shocking shit and get on tv. But unlike Coulter, whose job it is to just be loud and dumb, Bachman has something to lose. And lose it she apparently might.
Okay, so my problem is not her argument that Barack Obama has connections with shady characters. I certainly don't agree with that argument because I think it's dubious at best, but I can understand conservatives making that argument. My big problem is the idea that "leftist" and "liberal" makes one "anti-American." The fundamentalist, neoconservative movement of the last decade has defined what it means to be "American" in such narrow terms, that "liberal" has become a curseword and anyone leaning left of center is considered unpatriotic. I'm not sure what America she grew up in (although, I must admit I live in "fake Virginia," so what do I know), but I learned in Social Studies that our democracy was founded on the principles of free speech and a healthy dose of dissention. Because someone has political beliefs based on a different set of ideologies does not make them evil, it makes them different. And Bachmann may not have noticed, but our elections have been very very close in the last few cycles; a little less than half the country agrees at least in part with "leftists." Does this mean we half of Americans are all anti-American?
Look, just as liberals have a right to say what they please, so do conservatives like Bachmann. But Bachmann's assertion that we need to root out all of these "leftist anti-Americans" is something right out of an Arthur Miller play. It's a ridiculous notion. But luckily, this country isn't buying this anymore. In the days following Bachmann's tirade on Chris Matthews, the opponent for her congressional seat raised more than $1.3 million, doubling his funds. The NRCC even pulled its television advertisements in support of Bachmann in the district. Her seat that just a week ago was seen as very safe is now seriously in jeopardy.
Additionally, I hate how when some political commentator gets asked to clarify their obviously ridiculous and illogical statements, the interviewer is somehow "cornering" them, like Bachman says Matthews did to her. What? I can't just spew nonsensical, hysterical bullshit and people won't just love me for it? She's the new Ann Coulter--she just wants to say shocking shit and get on tv. But unlike Coulter, whose job it is to just be loud and dumb, Bachman has something to lose. And lose it she apparently might.
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