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Stupid and ignorant
How to lose friends and alienate people
BY JEFF BERRY
Did you know that the majority of you are
"stupid" and "ignorant?"
Well you are, or at least the Republicans think so.
In fact, they're saying it everywhere. To hear them
tell it on talk radio, in newspaper columns and on
TV, the overwhelming majority of you folks are nothing but
stupid and ignorant robots, oblivious to the "rule of law" that
separates decent, God-fearing Americans from that
dangerous liberal psychopath in the White House.
Why are they saying this about you?
Plain and simple, it's because you don't agree with their harsh
and venomous rhetoric. Public opinion polls have conclusively
demonstrated that the vast majority of Americans
vehemently disagree with the McCarthy-like tactics of the
Republican Congressional majority, and the numbers have
remained stable now for a very long time. Indeed, most
people have elected to rally around the president -- even
though his behavior was wrong -- for no other reason than
to voice their extreme displeasure with the cranky
right-wingers who seem to be lost in a cesspool of tawdry
sex and hateful personal smears.
A case in point is the column that usually runs on this page
(authored by a certain talk-show host who shall remain
hairless) along with mine. It would appear that we are at a
point where if you don't march in lock-step with the
extremist Clinton haters, you're simply stupid or ignorant --
or both.
Not that it matters much to me. I have somehow become
comfortable with the blabber and contempt that has been the
hallmark of our extreme friends on the Republican right. But
the fact that they are so confounded by their own missteps
that they would resort to calling the majority of Americans
"stupid" merits an examination into the damage they have
done to themselves.
Years of Republican hatred for Bill Clinton have culminated in
the winner-take-all crap game currently being played out in
the U.S. Senate. But just when the GOP finally thought they
would be able to triumphantly goose-step through
Washington bearing Bill Clinton's head on a plate, they find
themselves to be less popular with the American public than
at any time since Watergate. To make matters worse, the
president's approval ratings have actually increased, at one
point making him more popular than Ronald Reagan, the
forgetful sacred cow of Republican legend.
Republican politicians have taken to blaming their negative
poll results on faulty and biased questions. Some have even
said that the polls are all being conducted in the liberal state
of Massachusetts. A favorite refrain is the old standby: "But
I've never been polled!" These are the same hypocritical GOP
politicians who demand the latest polling numbers each
morning when they are running for re-election.
Republican pundits are much less reserved. Poll respondents
are "ignorant" of the president's crimes, they say, and
"stupid" to be tolerant of them. There seems to be no
winning with these people unless you are totally and
completely committed to the notion that Bill Clinton is the
embodiment of evil. To them, you must be stupid if you can't
see that Clinton is a Satanic cancer on this nation who must
be destroyed, even if it's only for receiving oral sex from
someone other than his wife.
Maybe it's just me, but the use of such juvenile rhetoric
seems unlikely to win the GOP a prime spot on the voters'
good side. Has any American political party ever governed
successfully over a long period of time by referring to the
majority of the electorate as "stupid?"
Hell, what do I know? Like most of you, I'm just stupid and
ignorant .
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