Put Up Or Shut Up

I am so sick and tired of listening to the hate-mongering rhetoric of the Republican party. Notwithstanding their control of Congress, the courts, the presidency, the armed forces and corporate America, Republicans complain about the state of America as if they are the oppressed of this nation. Let's be serious. If they are the oppressed and persecuted, the rest of us are in real trouble.

On a Black Republican blog, I found the following statement, to which I could not help but respond: "How many people support things they don't believe in except Democrats."

The arrogance and the hypocrisy was too much.

Answer: Republicans.

They are pro-life, yet support the death penalty.

They are pro-life, but pro-war.

They are in favor of smaller government, but support the PATRIOT Act.

They believe in the sanctity of marriage until a man makes a decision about his comatose wife's medical care.

They are happy to destroy the first, fourth and fifth amendments (including, free speech and due process) of the Constitution in the name of security, but cry like babies at any suggestion that the second amendment (guns) be affected in any way.

They will spend $300 billion to bring "democracy" to the Semitic World, but won't spend $10 to bring healthcare to Americans.

They are against welfare for individuals, but are happy to hand out subsidies to farmers and tax breaks to every corporation and rich person that refuses to pay taxes. Check out the new energy bill for a great example of this one.

They believe in spreading "democracy" to the Middle East, although they think Middle Eastern people are bunch of savages who should be profiled as terrorists or just slaughtered out right.

They believe in spreading "freedom" to the Middle East, but kiss the big oil-flowing asses of the Saudi royal family - one of the most repugnantly extreme of Islamic regimes and the country from which many "terrorists" have come. Apparently, weekly public beheadings, women being required to cover from head-to-toe and a prohibition against women driving is "freedom".

They "support our troops" but cut their benefits and reject legal efforts to provide them bankruptcy relief for debts sustained as a result of going to war.

They "support our troops" but do not send their own children to war.

They are pro-war from the comfort of their homes, eating bon bons in front of the television, as long as other people fight the war.

Republicans beam with sinful pride that they are firm in their convictions, but they will respond to these contradictions with 101 qualifications. Pro-life and pro-death penalty are supposedly consistent because they are pro-"innocent" life. Iraqi civilians are innocent lives, but no word about them and their right to life. Where is the defense of those innocent lives?

Ask a Republican about the fourth amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and the fifth amendment right to due process and they will say that we are at war and we have to make certain sacrifices and suspend certain liberties. Ask the same Republican about the second amendment right to bear arms and it is holy. Sacred. Up there with the Bible. How is it that due process is a danger to our security but guns are not?

It really is time for the Republicans to put up or shut up. If these cowards truly believe in the war in Iraq and in the coming wars of aggression our evil administration has in store for the world, they should run to the local recruiting office and enlist for a tour of duty with the armed forces. Actions speak louder than words and, so far, Republicans have shown they are nothing more than spineless bags of hot air.


P.S. Don't bother writing back to tell me how spineless Democrats are. That goes without saying.

Don't regard yourself as a guardian of freedom unless you
respect and preserve the rights of people you disagree with.
Gerard O'Neill