Truth Hurts

[Mythsaje]

It's a weapon we should use every time we get the chance. Call them on their bullshit. But one thing we should never, never do is artificially inflate or exaggerate things to make them seem more serious than they are. That's a Republican tactic we DON'T have to use.

People talk all the time about "sinking to their level." When I write a particularly hostile piece, sometimes people accuse me of it. But, while I may stretch my rhetoric into the realm of hyperbole, the one thing I DO NOT do is deliberately attempt to misinform or misinterpret things in such a way as to further my argument.

We've got two things coming to the fore right now. The adversary of Harold Ford has a college-age daughter who was (allegedly--we don't even really know if it's her) caught on film kissing another girl at a party. So what? First of all, if she was just playing around, as college kids are wont to do, it's none of our business. Second of all, even if she IS a lesbian or bi-sexual, what's it to us? It has not a goddam thing to do with her father's campaign or the stupid attack add he aimed at Ford about his trip to the Playboy mansion.

We are NOT Republican fuckwads and I'd rather we didn't act like it. We're not the kind of people who'd casually call Chelsea Clinton (or someone like her) ugly. I personally don't even have a problem with what the Bush twins do on their own personal time. Of course, if they ever run for public office playing the "family values" card, well...that's a different story entirely.

The other issue is something about a Republican candidate for Comptroller whatever having written a bodice-ripper back in the late eighties, published in 1990. I hate to tell people this, but romance of that era wasn't remotely "porn." These days they cross the line and back again all the time. Erotic Romance or "Romantica" is immensely popular. But back then it wasn't even on the radar screen. And you'd be amazed at some of the women writing the stuff now. Your granny could be writing stuff that could turn your hair white. Take my word for it.

I know what I'm talking about here. My wife runs a major on-line review site and reviews a LOT of that stuff.

Regardless, I don't think that any of this crap is necessary. The politician's daughter kissing another girl at a party doesn't in any way suggest he's a hypocrite. And making a big thing about it is, frankly, rather pathetic on our part.

Same thing with a trashy romance novel. It's no big thing, and hardly behooves us to use it in the manner some would like.

We've got enough REAL ammunition to use against these yahoos. Let's not start fishing around in the sewers for more. We don't need it. And, frankly, I think we're better than that.

[Bluebear]

1. Well, I am sorry about that, I didn't think I was 'stooping to their level'

It was a lighthearted thread borne out of their hypocrisy and frankly I think you are overreacting. I doubt the gal is reading Democratic Underground at this moment and getting all upset over the thread.

[Mythsaje]

2. Your intent might have been lighthearted and that's okay...

I'm not saying there's anything necessarily wrong with that. But some folks did seem to be taking it seriously and wanting to ramp it up into something it just isn't, which is ammunition to use against her father in retaliation for the stupid ad he ran against Ford.

Now THAT I have a problem with.

[Bluebear]

3. Well they needn't.

For all we know, even if that is his daughter she may think he is a flaming asshole. Personally, I have the sense that even bigger revelations about (R)'s are about to surface this week.

[Mythsaje]

4. Oh, I hope so.

And that's my thinking about the girl too. She might well think her dad's an asshole. We have no way to know. And she certainly doesn't deserve to be turned into a tool with which to attack him.

I'm not objecting to what you posted. Just a few other points of view I encountered subsequent to it.

[NMMNG]

5. Thank you

My eyes automatically roll every time I see "Is so-and-so gay?" in a subject line. We're Democrats--who gives a flying rip if so-and-so is gay (unless they're running around screaming for laws against gay people and/or berating gays, which would make them hypocrites). But most of the time these posts are about celebs or other people that it makes no difference whether or not they'r egay. It's so freeperish, IMO, to be worried about someone's orientation unless you're planning on asking them out.