...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Thursday, October 23, 2003
      ( 12:27 PM )
 
Moral Relativism: The New GOP Chic

In a fantastic editorial in today's Miami Herald, Joy-Ann Reid tells it like it is (thanks again to Maru for the link).

The right wing operates its own code
-- a kind of moral Talibanism where the
punishment for sin is death (as in the
death penalty) or if the crime is noncriminal,
ridicule, ouster or impeachment. The
right applies the code to politicians,
ordinary citizens and celebrities with equal
dispassion. And no one gets away
unjudged -- except, of course, for the
right-wingers themselves.

Here is how it works:

Rule: If a small-time drug user
gets caught with a couple of joints or
a few rocks of crack cocaine and is
sentenced to a long prison term under
New York's Draconian, Rockefeller-era drug
laws, that's justice to the Rush Limbaughs
of the world. In fact, Rush would have such
a person thrown under the jail and then
deported, as he has said many times.

Exception: If Limbaugh himself gets caught
copping thousands of mother's-little-helpers
in a Denny's parking lot,this self-admitted
three-time loser gets 30 days in club rehab
and a free pass from the press and the
public, who are supposed to be seized
with Christian understanding. This exception
would not apply to Al Franken. Nor would
it apply to one of those black folk Rush has
admonished to ''take the bone out of their
nose'' before calling his show.

Rule: Gambling is a sin, and the
myriad debaucheries of the entertainment
industry, including wild and woolly
Las Vegas, are to be frowned upon.

Exception: If Bill Bennett bets the
college money at the Tropicana, he gets
a free pass (and probably a couple of
free nights in the boom-boom suite). He
remains the official morality czar of Fox News,
where he is free to comment on the ''death
of outrage'' --including the complex universal
logic by which Bill Clinton is to blame for
Arnold Schwarzenegger's sins.

(I love that: "the death of outrage" --hahahaha!)

She goes on from there. The double standard is pretty obvious to most of us by now who don't see things through the "filter" of the powerful neo-con machine. But maybe, just maybe, it's starting to be come a little more conspicuous to the general public / media? Well, I guess it remains to be seen...

So which is it? Is it right or wrong to
take illegal drugs? Right or wrong to
disrespect women? Right or wrong to
gamble, to cheat on your wife, to drive
drunk (the sin a certain commander in
chief got a pass on during the 2000
election), or for that matter, to lie . . . ?

That, of course, depends on your political party.

I'd like to think these sorts of tactics would end with a new administration. I'd like to think those in power would act like adults sooner or later. But then again, I'd like to think most people in this country actually think about stuff like this - and I know I'm wrong on that one... sigh.

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