Jon Stewart's DC Rally To Restore Sanity And Conservative Derangement Syndrome

Most of my FaceBook pals were eagerly awaiting Jon Stewart's DC Rally For Sanity. Some actually went there, others were planning on participating in sister rallies in other locales, while still others bemoaned the fact that they were unable to attend. Most of them, of course, are in the arts, but there were a few who aren't and those people were just as bummed about not being able to commune with fellow 'conservative haters' as my ultra liberal colleagues; and believe me the hate was and will continue to be palpable.

Most of them firmly believe that anyone who doesn't happen to be an Obama-loving liberal are right-wing fanatics. It matters not that some of us who dislike Obama happen to be moderate conservatives or just plain moderates, and that the majority of conservatives are not extremists- they hate us all. They see anyone deviating from the 'Obama-is-god and will magically solve the world's problems if given the chance' path as the enemy, so the fact that Republicans might take control over the house scares the heck out of them. The fact that some were endorsed by the Tea Party movement, frightens them even more. There are some who actually see the potential increase in Republican power as a doomsday scenario. Take one photographer pal who, along with an article on the Huffington Post entitled "If The Tea Party Wins, America Loses" linking to a Keith Olbermann video rant, posted the following comment on his FaceBook page:

"Fanatacism [sic]and ignorance is forever busy, and needs feeding. And soon, with banners flying and with drums beating we’ll be marching backward, backward through the glorious ages of that 16th Century when bigots burned the man who dared bring enlightenment and intelligence to the human mind." from Inherit the Wind

My no-longer friend, who is one of the few who knows my politics, is a bitter hater and that hatred has truly corrupted his mind. With G. W. Bush no longer in the political limelight, all that Bush Derangement Syndrome (BDS) has been transformed into CDS (Conservative Derangement Syndrome). Some of it is understandable, however. Although I generally respect the Tea Party movement, there are some questionable fringe elements. And some of the candidates that it endorsed, and that are now poised to either win or lose in the mid-term elections, should never have gotten this far. But Olbermann talks as if the Tea Party is synonymous with the Republican Party, which it is not.

However, just as we have a fringe element on the right, so does the left. Many of those, I'm sure, found their way to Stewart's ado on Saturday, as some of ours have ended up at Tea Party rallies over the years. But Glenn Beck's Restore Honor rally, which Stewart was lampooning, specified that there were to be no political placards at the event, and that request was honored by all, other than counter-protesters outside the venue. But at Saturday's fete there were plenty of placard, including several I found terribly offensive, see above. To view more go to Doug Ross' blog here. Of course, the typical liberal response (as evidenced in another Ross post about that libs diatribe) was that the placards were simply an exercise in sarcasm, and that conservatives are too stupid to discern the difference. What he fails to comprehend is that just as there might be some of us too "dense" (as he put it) to "get" the sarcasm in "Death To Right Wing Extremists", some left-wing crazy might also not "get it", and be inspired to haul off and harm someone he deems right wing. Isn't that what the left has criticized the Tea Party for? Some of their equally offensive placards inciting some right-wing militia-man to go out and hunt down liberals? Frankly, I have seen some very distasteful signs at Tea Party rallies, and I don't approve at all.

Whether it was sarcasm or not, it just proves that the liberals have as many stupid loons as we do, and we should be scared of them both.

Photo credit: Doug Ross