Normally, I do not include video in my posts, but before I comment, it is best to see this video for yourself:
So, when one cannot sway the opposition with the power and the reason in your words, you simply set your minions upon them?
To be fair, Rand Paul did not order his supporters to set upon this woman, identified as Lauren Valle, a MoveOn.org worker, who was there to hand Paul a satirical "Employee of the Month" award from a fictitious corporation MoveOn created to mock the linking of conservative and corporate interests. She was not shouting at anyone, nor brandishing a weapon, only holding the fake award. Paul's supporters responded by knocking her to the ground, sitting on her, and stepping on her head.
That sound you hear? The Founding Father's moans of resignation, carried on the winds of time.
Starting with President Obama's election, continuing through the health care debate, on to the immigration battle, and now into the mid-term elections, the level of public discourse on the governing of the nation and who shall fill that role, resembles less-and-less reasoned, measured debate and more the rough-and-tumble of a barroom brawl. This incident is only the latest in a series of heinous acts, perpetrated by right-leaning political candidates, apparently of the opinion that any opposition to them is contemptible and pitiable, and therefore subject to their will and the ministrations of their sycophantic followers. Where there has not been violence, there has been bigotry and idiocy, as time-and-again, Tea Party candidates show that they are unworthy of seats in public office. At every step, the rhetoric and the rancor have been ratcheted up.
To put it bluntly: if you can't control your own staff, your own followers, and deal with the public and the media fairly, honestly, and with integrity, where do get off thinking you should hold government office? The governing of this nation and representation of the citizens of your home state is not a carnival sideshow or wild west roundup; it is the most serious business, seeing to the welfare of a nation and its citizens. Why should I, or anyone else, entrust our state and our nation to the likes of you?
A lot is made of "taking back America" and "restoring the Constitution." I would like to see wherein that august document, one citizen is allowed to assault another for their political views. What America are we seeking to return to? A segregated one? One where women are chained to the stove, or blacks are chained to ships? Have we decided that we can no longer govern, and should invite Great Britain to retake possession of its ill-tempered child?
The reprehensible discarding of decorum and decency in this electoral season gives one reason to believe that we are the brink of setting upon each other like sharks on a pack of seals. It is clear that we are beset by a wave of incoherence and ignorance that threatens to overwhelm us, and leave our ship of state rudderless in the face of oncoming storms. In the pitched battle we are in, for the heart and soul of our dynamic and diverse nation, not much stands between us and the raging ocean. We must repel these sacrilegious and self-important cretins, rather than handing them the wheel.
Rand Paul and his ilk may believe that only they can save us from ourselves, but as America has shown many times over its history, it does not need their kind to pull itself together and fix what is broken. Those who stand and shout, who rail against the phantoms they see all around them, and who claim merely to be doing the public a "service," need to take a seat, and let decent, hard-working, honest Americans take the reins. But this will not happen until we retake our birthright, our vote, and use it wisely. It is time for us to challenge those who represent us and those who would, to show us exactly what they intend to do, rather than sing us to sleep with sweet lullabies composed of the things we'd like to hear. Until they do, they need to step aside; America has serious work to do.
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