At the 4th Republican debate Tuesday night, Fox Business Network moderator Maria Bartiromo noted that Hillary Clinton has an "impressive resume" and has spent "more time in government than almost all of you on stage tonight. Why should the American people trust you to lead this country even though she has been so much closer to the office?"
To his credit (and yes, this blog will give credit where it is due), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), responding first. praised Bartiromo's query in spite of the boos. "That's a great question and let me begin by answering it," Rubio said, getting a good laugh out of it in the process.
But seriously, have we fallen so far in this polarized society that we cannot brook even the slightest hint of the smallest deference to those we deem "the other side"? And have we lost the ability to extend basic respect and courtesy to others? Maybe you really, really, really don't like Hillary Clinton but booing during the middle of Maria Bartiromo's question to the candidates was just plain rude to Maria Bartiromo.
The Republican party has completely and utterly aligned itself to evangelical Christians, many GOP candidates for public office run on a platform built more on mortality than true national concerns such as the economy and defense. Yet it is among these arbiters of morality that we find the worst offenders against treating people with decency and respect.
You remember a few years back when Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) yelled out during President Obama's State of the Union speech, "You lie!" An act of complete disrespect for the President, an act we would not countenance being committed against George W Bush, Bill Clinton or any other President in the last 100+ years. (God knows what Congress shouted at the President in the days before there were cameras rolling.)
Take the recent tempest in a latte cup, the "controversy" over Starbuck's hatred of Jesus Christ as demonstrated by the lack of snow flakes on their holiday cup. One self professed Christian, offended by this outrageous affront against the sensibilities of the besieged Christian community here in America, suggested that Starbucks could take their holiday cup and "shove it up their asses".
I'm pretty sure "shove it up their asses" was never said in the Bible. Or maybe it was...
And lo, the voice of the Lord God spoke to Moses, "Verily, I have led my children out of bondage in Egypt through you, my faithful servant. But now the children of Israel have turned away from their God to worship a golden calf."
Moses replied, "Yeah, God, the Israelites are kind of tired and frustrated with this whole 'going round the desert and never getting anywhere' thing, you know?"
The rocks and sand of the desert rumbled at the voice of God. "So they decide to worship a golden calf instead of Me? Well, has far as am I concerned Israelites can just shove that golden calf up their asses!"
Moses responded, "Excuse me, who can shove what where now?"
Later, in Leviticus, God has to deal with the unexpected consequence of too many people actually enjoying golden calves shoved up their asses.
Where was I going with this? Oh yeah! Asses!
So there's this alleged Christian person who thinks, "Hmm! This holiday coffee cup from Starbucks....which I'm going to throw away when I'm done drinking the coffee...doesn't have any Christian imagery as it says in the Bible. No Santa, no reindeer, no packages or snowflakes. This offends my Christian sensibilities and I should respond accordingly. But what would Jesus do?"
After pondering on what his Lord and Savior would have him do, he decides to screw it and tweet to Starbucks that they can shove this Jesus hating, God killing, Christmas destroying cup up their asses.
The thing is that we've really moved to such an extreme degree towards the concept that I'm always right and you're always wrong. When we cast our differences in terms of rigid absolutes, there is no incentive to negotiate with the other side. And if there is no incentive to negotiate with the other side, there is no call to be respectful to the other side.
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Before wrapping this up, I did want to go back to Marco Rubio's response to Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday night when he said this: "This election is actually a generational choice, a choice about what kind of nation we will be in the 21st century."
I know, I know, I being a smart ass here but...Marco Rubio does know we're in the 21st Century right now, right?
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All right then. That's all I got for today. I'll be back tomorrow with another all new post. Until then, remember to be good to one another.
Dave-El
I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You
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