I'll listen to you when you earn my respect

I wrote about my friend and debate partner's comments that we should simply stop listening to the GOP. I then said the party makes that difficult because it responds like a child demanding attention. My friend replied with:

And those cries are all the more reason to ignore these mean, arrogant and malicious hypocrite Republicans.

Listening is respectful; indeed, listening is 100% about respect. Respect must be earned. Today, no Republican should be perceived as having earned public respect sufficient to justify listening to them. Under their rule since 1980, Republican crimes and their extensive, malicious destruction of our community, nation and of the rule of law destroyed whatever respect they may have once deserved.

If Republicans want to earn renewed respect, their next steps must be to state integritous standards for political conduct, acknowledge in public their errors and crimes relative to those standards, pay for their crimes, apologize for their errors and crimes, state the improved behavior they are willing to promise, and demonstrate sincerity in all that for a prolonged time. We as a great nation deserve that high level of effort from them if they wish to restore their integrity.

Present case for listening to Republicans: All requests denied, case closed. Republicans should go away, think deeply about the reasons for their exile and come back when they have something meaningful to offer.

He and I had lunch together the next day at Crosswinds Marsh Wayne County Park (just try to find it on a map), a delightful place to go along with the delightful weather. We ate lunch in the screened picnic enclosure, out in the marsh and accessible by boardwalk, with birds singing around us. In our walk around the park after lunch I brought up the above comments.

He agreed that it would be hard for NPR (or other news organization) to tell the GOP to shut up (though I wish NPR would be more responsible in choosing which GOP soundbites to repeat). However, that doesn't stop the rest of us -- using the idea the proper response to free speech that one doesn't like is more free speech -- from telling the GOP we're not listening to them.

My friend went on to tell the tale of his township politics. The GOP lost by a huge margin (his area has long been in the Democratic column) last November and since then the losers have been loud complainers of how the Dems are ruining things, even now starting a recall effort because the Dems aren't doing anything (because they spend so much time fending off GOP attacks). The GOP needs to see today's other posting about Young Republicans.

Perhaps this is the response to the GOP my friend and debate partner is looking for.

Lou Dobbs, a GOP talking head (to put it kindly) on CNN, started promoting the theories pushed by the "birther's" -- the people who claim that Obama isn't a real citizen because he wasn't born here and therefore can't be president. On Dobbs' day off, his replacement did a segment listing all the evidence that Obama is indeed a citizen (there is a birth certificate on file in Hawaii). A couple days later Dobbs again spouted off about these theories -- which gave Jon Stewart a chance to say the rebuttal had come from a person sitting in Dobbs' own chair (I've seen the Stewart video, but don't have the link).

That allowed a large number of talking heads to pile on Dobbs. It is normally dangerous for someone with a mouthpiece as large as the one Dobbs has to promote right-wing extremist theories. The exception is when the media piles on this deeply with their debunking and condemnation. The scandal is why it has taken the media so long -- this is not the first time Dobbs has given voice to the Right. Now that they've done it one hopes they do it frequently.

All that was enough for Dobbs to issue a half-hearted and fake retraction -- I don't believe these theories myself, mind you. I'm just reporting them. I'm convinced Obama really is a citizen, though it would be awfully nice if he produced a birth certificate. If Dobbs is only reporting, on a story this crazy why bother giving it any airtime?

Maybe the mainstream media will take on this story next, though one can be forgiven for lingering doubts. Michelle Malkin has a new book out (promoted on the Sean Hannity show) describing the Obama Administration as "the most corrupt in recent memory" (must be a really short memory). We even have an evil Michelle Obama manipulating things behind the scenes (like evil Hillary did in the time of Bill -- Whitewater, Travelgate, etc.). First of all, there hasn't been any scandal in this White House. Second, Obama is worse than Bush II? -- which both Malkin and Hannity cheered and defended with attacks of insufficient patriotism.

To all you talking heads out there: now that you've done it once this pile-on should be easy. Have at it. And when you're done, there are many more you can jump into. I'd be glad if you jumped on any of them.