May 12, 2008

From the Hate Mail Bag

Name: Angry Black Guy
emailaddress: marawls@—.com
Message: This is insanity.

When the majority of progressive and feminist leaders come out and support Obama in the general election, people like you will be exposed for the extremist that you are.

You look at McCain and Obama and your response is “give McCain the presidency because Obama is so evil”?

Insanity.

I have been reading blogs like this for 2 days now and I have yet to hear a clear explanation of what Obama has done to make him the most evil candidate ever (or whatever the latest term of endearment for him is).

Hillary lost. Get over it. Sore losers weren’t cool in grammar school and they are less cool in elections.

Grow up.

Where does one begin to pick apart your tired old arguments (and I’m using the word “arguments” generously), when the pickings are so ripe?

Your first dead-wrong assumption is that I’m voting for McCain. If you’d bothered to read anything else I’ve ever written, instead of hitting me with the usual reactionary “If you’re not for Obama, you’re for McCain” knee-jerk, you’d know I’d rather poke sharp sticks into my skull than vote for McCain. (You’re welcome for the visual.)

Didn’t you learn the meaning of dicto simpliciter in your freshman debate class? (You must be a college graduate, or on your way, since, after all, only smart, highly-educated people support Obama, right?)

Next: Your hyperbole undermines any shred of credibility you might have. Where did I ever say “Obama is so evil,” or that he is “the most evil candidate ever”? Putting words in other people’s mouths is not, to use a word that seems very important to you, “cool.” If you want to be taken seriously, you need to set fire to that fallacious little straw man of yours and bury his ashes, posthaste.

If — again — you had ever bothered to read anything I’ve written about Obama himself, instead of succumbing to the usual (uncontrollable?) reactionary spasm (that knee of yours must be ready to fly right off your leg with all that jerking) — it would be plain as day, even to you, that Obama has no concern for us pesky homos, and patronizes us only as much as he is absolutely forced to, so he doesn’t look like a complete homophobe.

I know your eyes will roll back in their sockets at the sight of the names McClurkin, Meeks, and Caldwell, but until the day you come to terms with the fact that homophobia is as real, as damaging, and as valid as racism (a tragic blind spot for nearly all Obama supporters), you will just never get it. You’re an Angry Black Guy? Well, I’m an Angry Lesbian.

I’m also an Angry Woman, who’s more than had it with the rampant sexism from the Obama camp (which the Obama camp adamantly refuses to acknowledge, much less remedy).

If you think Obama is so “transfromational,” or even “progressive,” then you and I are at a complete impasse. There’s nothing new or transformational about him; he’s no progressive, by any stretch of the imagination; he’s the same old DLC offering, only in a bright, shiny package. And his style of politicking is hardcore old-school — specifically, Chicago-style politics. The only thing new and fresh about him is his oratory skill — which crumbles the second he’s not working from a prepared speech.

Finally, your last line is hilarious — you illustrate perfectly one of my many complaints about Obama supporters:

“Hillary lost. Get over it. Sore losers weren’t cool in grammar school and they are less cool in elections.”

You think I give a damn about being “cool”? Maybe being “cool” is all-important to the “American Idol” generation, but my list of core values doesn’t include a slot for “being cool.” Let me check… economy, war, healthcare, that silly little business about getting equal rights… Nope, I don’t see “cool” anywhere on the list.

And thanks for the “get over it” — you illustrated, perfectly, the biggest point on the Obamaniac Behavior Cycle wheel. See what I mean about predictability?

One last thing: I find it heartbreaking that so many of you Obama supporters see this as a game to be won or lost. If there is a winner, there must be a loser, right? I guess that’s what they teach you guys in gym (”Crush that defense! Kill! Kill! Kill!”) while they’re teaching us girls to play nicely together, and make sure everybody goes home as happy as possible at the end of the day.

Silly me. I once thought that the goal of most Democrats was to craft an outcome as close as possible to “win-win.” Obviously, I was mistaken in that notion. For you New Democrats, it’s “We win! You lose! We’re great! You suck!”

Which brings us to the erroneous belief that Obama is going to be the “President for all people.” Hogwash. He is the candidate for young, college-educated, white-collar, Christian heterosexuals — and the rest of us can go pound salt.

I know this, because people like you tell me that every day.

But that’s a moot point now, isn’t it? Because you’ve also been telling me, since day one, that unless I bow down at the Altar of Obama, you don’t need me in your party anyway.

Oh, and by the way, vapid threats about being “exposed as an extremist” might have worked on me when I was a child, but you’re talking to a grown-up who went through far worse threats of “exposure” as a gay teenager — thirty years ago.

And chew on this: I heard the same thing I’m hearing from you — and received far more threatening messages — from the hardcore Bush lovers back in the early days of the Iraq War, when I was speaking out against him and his legions of “If you’re not with us, you’re against us” loyalists. Meanwhile, the “anti-American traitor!” slurs thrown at me then have just metamorphosed into “You’re not a REAL Democrat!” now. Same song, different band.

Intimidation doesn’t work anymore. I’ve been through it, and I’ve learned that unless I’m dealing with an obviously demented and potentially dangerous person (in which case I just forward everything to the FBI and let them handle it), it’s all just more playground bullying.

See, I am the grown-up here. You’re the one who needs to chill. While passion is a wonderful thing, unbridled rage directed at people you cannot strongarm into conforming to your beliefs and doing what you want them to do is something else entirely. It’s just not “cool.” (It’s also the trademark of the classic, textbook-case — and frustrated — religious fundamentalist. But I’ll return to the frightening similarities between Obamanation and the Radical Religious Right another day.)

One last thing: If you’re getting so hot under the collar after “reading blogs like this for 2 days now,” maybe it’s time you stopped reading these blogs. You’re going to need all your energy to defend Obama once the Republicans go to work on him. Besides, we little non-Obamanauts are nothing but fly specks in the course of the Obama Cosmos — I know, because you keep telling us that, too.

Now, you go back to your echo chamber, wherever that is, and complain to your friends about the lesbian who was just too stupid, unreasonable, hysterical, and “insane” (that’s your word) to drink the Kool-Aid.

Playground bullies are not welcome here.

Posted by: Sapphocrat