It's OK to kill cops if you're a Republican

[Faith No More]

We can thank the GOP for this atmosphere. It was Newt Gingrich who perfected the technique of breaking down the concept of the "loyal opposition" and demonizing liberals. He made it clear that to win, the GOP must call liberals traitors who are anti-American. His message was hammered home at every opportunity.

The GOP took this message to heart and it now permeates their entire political approach. It got really bad post-9/11. "Shut up and salute or you're a traitor" was the rhetoric. After Obama's election, conservatives like Beck pined for the 9/12 days. The Tea Bagger response to 2008 was to treat America as if it were an occupied nation. "I want my country back". It was never stolen. You didn't lose your country. You lost an election. That's how it works.

Do you remember that Democrat Senator who filibustered his own bill just to gum up the works in Washington while a Republican was in the White House? No. Because, it never happened.

Do you remember the last time the Democrat Senate filibustered everything just to gum up the works so that "everything takes 60 votes" because there was a Republican in the White House? No. Because it never happened.

Do you remember the last time a Democrat House passed such a record low number of bills because a Republican was in the White House? No. Because it never happened.

Do you remember the last time the Democrats in Congress threatened to willfully default on our nation's bills as a political stunt, hoping to extort the Republican president into gutting his own signature legislation, potentially causing an economic meltdown? No. Because it never happened.

The fact is the GOP has lost its mind. It no longer has any concept of "the loyal opposition", a distinction that is critical to any functioning democracy. When in power, the GOP tolerates no dissent and refuses to compromise. When out of power, the GOP sabotages everything almost as if they're a resistance movement in an occupied country.

I too am tired of a broken Washington that can't get anything done.

I'm also tired of our media refusing to hold anyone to account for why it's broken. I'm tired of the diffused responsibility, that "both sides" are equally to blame. I'm tired of watching the Democrats throw their own base under the bus and offer olive branch after olive branch and finally cut the whole damn olive tree down and still the GOP refuses to work with anyone. I'm tired of "compromise" and "bipartisanship" meaning "the GOP gets everything they want and the Democrats aren't required to look happy about it." I'm tired of our media that fawns all over the latest "outrage" in the GOP only to lose interest when the outrage story turns out to be bullshit or, worse, another GOP lie. I'm tired of a corporate media that never fact checks but only "reports the controversy", which usually means interviewing Dick Cheney and some wimpy faux-liberal like Harold Ford.

The first step to fixing our broken democracy and broken media is confronting the Big Lie that makes all the little lies possible.

As long as the "both sides do it" lie remains in place, no one can ever be held responsible. Neither will we be able to identify the problem with Washington. That lie has to go.

BOTH!
SIDES!
DON'T!

No one is saying that the Dems. and Repubs. are equal in their political integrity. The Republicans are locked into an ideology where compromise is a dirty word, and that is a huge part of why we struggle as a nation. The thing is, we have to recognize what we have control over, because we have no control over the insanity that is the Republican party. What we do have control over, however, is how we react to them and the perspective with which we approach the insanity to counter it.

Due to the highly partisan atmosphere, the reaction of many liberals is to point fingers and become highly defensive, rather than offer any positive solution, and in doing so, we just feed into the partisan atmosphere that has us gridlocked. By allowing ourselves to slip into this us vs. them mentality, we are enabling the rigid, no-compromise movement.