Permission vs Absolution

[SoCalDem]

There's an old adage that says that it's easier to ask for forgiveness than persission.

I think this is a cornerstone of the current GOP-think..

They say the most outrageous things about democrats (verging on, if not crossing the line of slander), and yet they seem to pay no real price.

They know in their heart-of-hearts (do they even have them?..) that IF someone dares to complain about what they said or did, and IF the complaints make it to the level of media coverage, they can always backtrack, and "say" they're sorry..

Every person has had incidents in their own lives where they said something they really did not mean, so it's easy to get a significant number of people "on their side".. and after the fact, they still managed to get the "message" out there.. Lot sof people will agree with whatever they did/said, and lots of people who did not like it won;t even bother to register a formal complaint, or will forget all about it in a few days.

For the GOP it's a win-win..

they get to say whatever they want, break any laws, hurt anyone, do anything they like, and IF they get called on it, all they have to do is say they are sorry..

Notice, though, how many of their apologies are not really apologies. They say they are sorry if people misunderstood their intent, or if they were not clear enough.. The onus is put on the other person, even in their pretense at apology. (as if to say, "you are too stupid to even know what I meant, but here's your apology..now STFU and go away".)

Democrats don't do this as a rule.. The ones I have seen who are outspoken, still use measured words, and seem to have thought out their words in advance.

I think it's because we have such a diverse party, and we are aware that words DO matter.

For more than a decade now, when democrats do speak out, it's almost always with "permission"....permission to be on a show with 2 or more "counters", so they are very guarded in what they say, for fear of having their words twisted against them..and in congress, as a minority, they never control the agenda, so harsh words are rarely "permissable"..