At my wife’s behest, I removed
from my Facebook wall what I considered to be a witty, incisive political cartoon that one
of my newly minted “friends” considered offensive. This is a person from my past who
less than a month earlier had solicited friendship, chose to visit my wall and post
her critique of my choice of artwork. It once again calls into question my decision
to revisit the social platform.
The word used by said offendee
to describe the artwork was “disgusting,” though she did choose to temper
her assessment by afterword employing the quasi-apologetic, “Sorry”. Well okay
then.
Dear Facebook Friend,
What you refer to as
disgusting is generally referred to as political
satire, and it happens to have been published in a nationally syndicated
newspaper thanks to the protections our First Amendment presently guarantees. The First Amendment is the amendment that comes
right before the one everybody (which is to say Ted
Nugent, that bearded duck-calling family, and the rarefied group busying
themselves with the stacking of Spam and ammo in their root cellars) seems most concerned about.
I will, however, tell you
what I myself do find disgusting. That a morally vacant carnival barker, a modern
day snake oil salesman, a tax-dodging (and war-dodging, but who’s monitoring?),
race-baiting faux philanthropist, a pathologically lying peeping Tom, a tangerine-tinted clown unqualified to preside over a Chuck E. Cheese kiddy soiree managed
to con a significant minority of the American public into casting their votes for
him. So an imbecile will now inhabit the White House thanks to an archaic
scheme devised by our founding slave owners to ensure that "real Americans" out there in God's country receive favored representation.
That
is what I find disgusting. Sorry.
The man, of course, was not chosen
by the people. Even he, in a rare fit of cogency, was convinced he would lose
his biggest takeover attempt ever, and so he droned on ad infinitum over how “the system” was rigged, all the while
exploiting galaxies of free ad space with which to pitch his private brand.
Rigged. There’s the one thing
the moron and I agree on. More accurately, the election was gamed, so it seems
fitting that a robber barron whose signature contribution to American
society has been the erecting of casinos now profits from the gaming.
He employed the most shameless
of allies, “surrogates” (can we petition the OED to have the term waterboarded
to death please?) of all denominations, from voracious ladder-climbers chosen
for their tenacious debate skills, amoral proclivities, and tits, to the desperate
irrelevance-avoiders (let’s give them superhuman names: Lispor and BridgeBlock).
Then there’s Kelly Anne. Beelzebub is preparing a special room for this broad.
We now hear chants of “give the
man a chance.” Seriously? For the past near decade and beyond the Republican party to a man (having
failed to derail their presumptive standard-bearer, the starving supplicants
are presently cued up and down 5th Avenue groveling for a Fed cubicle) has proclaimed as their raison d’etre the
obstruction of a legitimate
president’s attempts to govern. The hell if I give the spray-painted simian
a chance to fling his feces. As
far as I’m concerned, a domestic terrorist will shortly be holed up in the West
Wing. I say ship him to Guantanamo and test on him the efficacy of the techniques that got him so wet on his soapbox.
Who are these characters railing
for this chance? With what bizarre amalgam of noozefeeds
and internal voices is their personal worldview Crayola'd? Troubled patriot,
if you’ve ever had the blinkered gall to spout the “Benghazi” epithet, learn
how to count bodies. Get all lathered up over leaked emails,
do you? Tell it to your porn purveyor. Spousal infidelity gets your knickers in
a twist? Allow Newt, Rudy, and Don the Con himself to explicate the sanctity of the marriage contract.
You bought into Ms. Conway's "substantive" bob-and-weave, did you? Tell you what you do: Crack open that piggy bank next to your Star Wars action figure collection. Check behind the couch, under the car seats, rummage amongst the dust bunnies for loose change... then go buy yourself a fucking life.
How does a sane citizen describe the symphony of lies spat from a Riefenstahlian propaganda machine and trumpeted
by a bogus press that includes our precious Facebook feed? Or the willful
ignorance of those who feast on the garbage like cattle at the trough?
What’s the word I’m looking for? Oh, yeah. Deplorable.
