Motivation and Interpretation

Last night my husband and I watched our Moxi recording of the Republican "debate." It was relentless in it's "I'm the meanest dog," appeal, and "Reagan is a god," or my new nickname for Reagan, the big woof woof (considering the pack mentality of these guys). You know, all the attitudes that have made us one of the world's most hated nations and a country full of bullies.

What bothered me the most about the rhetoric was the amount of blame they placed on immigrants, pregnant women and Democrats for America's problems. Here are a bunch of men, who are in the majority, blaming minorities for our country's "problems" within their majority's rule; both in society and within government. When Preppy Sam Brownback was asked how he responds to the laundry list of Republican corruptions and prosecutions, he made one corrupt Democrat sound like ten, and then he blamed society--reaching all the way into the homes of unmarried pregnant women. My God, don't have a baby out of wedlock and don't have an abortion or a Republican will bribe an Indian tribe! The way these guys casually stand over the gyneclogist's table is astounding--that's exactly where the Supreme Court has positioned every anti-choicer in our nation and these guys are eager to turn over Roe. No one asked how they can morally live with abortions in New York but not Louisiana.

Over and over the message from these guys was OBEY US WOMEN! FEAR US WORLD! The former message woud go over a lot better with me if they could just lead by example and say, TO MEN, "I don't go around f***ing women I'm not married to, or who would be put in the position of considering an abortion." Perhaps that's difficult to say? They certainly aren't promising any other incentives for bringing healthy pregnancies to term like universal prenatal care and postnatal support.

My point is, these guys take responsibility for stuff they shouldn't (building walls between here and Mexico, unwanted pregnancies), and don't take responsibility for the stuff they should (corruption in politics, government reform, bringing our troops home)!

Chris Matthews asked these men a dozen times, "How do we win the war [in Iraq]?"

What planet is he living on?

And the thing that really got me blogging about this was EVOLUTION.

Brownback, Trancredi, and Huckabee admitted they all think evolution doesn't exist in a yes or no question. These people scare me. There was no follow-up question on that!! That a few people just decide to reject mountains of evidence that scientists overwhelmingly agree on, and then gain political power, is scary. I did a little opposition research and think that the crucial part of this debate has to do with Darwin saying that evolution is "purposeless," or basically, without divine intention. So what? What does Darwin's INTERPRETATION or the data matter? So we don't like what Darwin SAID so we throw out the whole theory, that has HUGE evidence, and logic? Isn't GOD bigger than Darwin's WILL? Doesn't evolution look like a pretty AWESOME, perhaps DIVINE plan to you? I'll just never get creationists--why do they think Darwin's opinion is such a big woof woof?

I couldn't shake the idea that some people were watching the debate to find the biggest bully. That bullies somehow make them feel safe. Even now.