Political Hypocrisy - Which mask do you wear?

I’m tired of the nonsense that seems to have become an entrenched sport in this country. I’m talking about political hypocrisy, that crazy notion that says if you are on the right of an issue and speak out at the other side you are labeled as a racist, a “tea bagger” or some other vile epitaph, while if you are on the left and do the same you are some how an insightful political visionary and your comments are above reproach.

In Missouri, a rodeo clown……. Yes, seriously, I am talking about a real rodeo clown, has been fired and banned for life for having the unmitigated gall of wearing a mask of President Obama at an event and poking fun at him. Not only that, but the president of the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association has also quit and is now worried that the fallout will affect his daily job as a school superintendent. The school system announced that it is hiring an investigator to look into whether any “inappropriate conduct” was involved.

The Daily Kos quoted one spectator who said he had never seen anything “so blatantly racist in his life,” and that the scene was like “an effigy at a Klan rally.” 

Really? I wonder how many Klan rallies said spectator attends?

I wonder whether this individual felt the same disgust when they were hanging effigies of former President Bush?

The NAACP, actually called for the Secret Service and the Justice Department to look into the matter: “The activities at the Missouri State Fair targeting and inciting violence against our President are serious and warrant a full review by both the Secret Service and the Justice Department. Incidents involving individuals acting out with extreme violent behavior….”

Seriously, did anyone miss the part about this was a RODEO CLOWN?

So it has come to this? We are now going to regulate what is acceptable comedy? Hmmm, how’s that going to play out for the likes of Bill Maher, Lewis Black and Janeane Garofalo.

I’m sorry, but this is nothing more than political hypocrisy. Whether you agree with the politics, where was the outcry from the media and those on the left when former President Bush was the subject of far worse? Including those advocating for his death.

Why is it that the current President should be immune from the comedy and satire that has followed the vaunted footsteps of every president before him? The left, with the help of the media and Hollywood, have seated him upon a throne in some sort of quasi political Valhalla and have declared that he is not to be referred to in anything less than reverential tones.

If the Missouri State Fair had opted to simply tell the man that this type of behavior was not in keeping with their standards and he was not hired again that would have been fine to me. But it is the ensuing ground swell movement to make this mole hill into a mountain that bothers me on a fundamental level.

I vividly recall seeing former President Bush: hung in effigy, depicted as Satan, depicted as Hitler, accused of war crimes, and generally decried as the poster child for all things evil. And yet, the outcry from those on the left was non existent.

Heck there were people who were willing to say that they actually supported Saddam Hussein and he was in fact not only evil but guilty of actual war crimes.

Segue to 2008 and 2012. President Obama is elected with a 52.87% popular vote percentage in 2008 and 51.07% in 2012 and yet some how we still live in a “racist” country.

Enough,…. Stop already.

Is there racism? Hell yes there is but lets be honest, 10 out of 10 people are going to DISLIKE something or someone. I don’t have to dislike you because of your skin color, but I also don’t have to like you because of it. Same goes for gender, religion, or any other characteristic and don’t even get me started on professional sports. Hell, for that matter you can be a “political party” hater. But do we honestly live in a country that is wracked with systemic racism when the president is elected by a popular majority? Heck, his numbers actually beat out his predecessor, Ronald Reagan (1980), JFK and the Democratic Party’s darling, Bill Clinton.

This BS has gone on so long people actually believe it, yet it is those so called “civil rights activists” who are the true purveyors of this nonsense and they have turned it into a very lucrative cottage business. It is ironic that their previous use of incendiary race rhetoric is now forgotten and they have been welcome into the main stream with open arms. I guess racist opinions and comments are acceptable by the media, depending on who is hurling the slurs and pejoratives.

This country is not perfect, but I don’t know of any that is. But if you want to talk about racism and direct it at those on the right maybe you need a little bit of a history lesson here. In 1870 Hiram Revels became the first African-American to be elected to the Congress. He was a Republican. This was around the same time that Democrats founded the Ku Klux Klan. As President Obama said during the last campaign: “You are entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.”

The truth is I do not agree with the President on a majority of issues. This DOES NOT inherently make me a racist. It makes me someone who is fairly well versed in US politics and who holds differing opinions. News flash, I disagreed on a number of issues with President Bush. Does this some how also make me a “RACE TRAITOR”…………

No, and I laughed at some of the skits on SNL when they poked fun at President Bush because I knew it was,…… ok lets all say this together,….. “comedy.”

I remember when I joined the NYPD in 1985. At the time I was told by one of the instructors in the police academy to “grow a thick skin” or it was going to be a really long twenty years.

I think America has to take that advice. Just because I may disagree with someone does not make me a racist.

We live in a Constitutional Republic not a Monarchy, not a Dictatorship. At the end of the day I can mock the President of the United States if I so choose. Many celebrities make a very good living out of it; at least they did under the prior administration. Depending on the comments it might make me crass, but it does not make me a racist.

The people of this country need to start to develop their “thick skin” or at the very least put on their big boy pants…………. Sorry, forgot to include big girl pants for all those who would like to accuse me of political incorrectness.

The beloved cowboy, actor and political satirist Will Rogers, who was also a Democrat, once said about FDR’s “New Deal”: “Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.”

Good thing he died in 1935. He’d have never worked again in Hollywood in 2013.

Funny thing though, the jokes he said seventy-five years ago sound exactly like the situation we are facing today. Maybe we should start paying more attention to our comedians and less to our politicians.