My wife has informed me that I’ve been doing nothing but ranting and raving around the house over the ongoing government shutdown and the yellow rat bastards who created it, only the sole recipient of my eloquent fury has been her, and she’s worn out.
Melody said, “I hate it when you do that!”
“Do what?” I innocently inquired.
“You know what you’re doing. You’re not talking to me. You’re writing that thing and practicing it on me.”
We’ve only been married 11 years. Melody should know by now that I would angrily soliloquize, “thing” or no, about these half-wit anarchists who have sold out our government for a pittance, gaining nothing. But she has suggested, for the benefit of my mental health and her own, that I should try to write something humorous, like I used to, before pridefully ignorant peckerwoods began dictating a Santa’s list of demands before agreeing to fund the government.
I’d like to, but what’s funny lately? PeePaw scaling the walls of the shuttered World War II Memorial in D.C.? Anyway, to please my wife, which is never unwise, I’ve decided to return to entertainment. So now, I would like to do one of my favorite political impressions that I’m forever being asked to do at parties: the angry Tea Party Republican. Ladies and gentlemen, with your permission, let me just strap my holster to my leg and present for your enjoyment that friend or relative we, particularly in the South, know only too well.
“Hey, bub, let me tell you one damn thing right off the jump. I don’t consider myself one of those Tea Party crazies. I’m a conservative libertarian. All the polls show that the majority of real Americans don’t want Obamacare because it was shoved down our throats by one political party. Obama is eager to destroy America and about half the country can see that. Lenin referred to American liberals as ‘useful idiots.’ Lenin used them, but he was disgusted by them. Nobody but liberals want to live under totalitarianism. The liberals want all power centralized in a world government. Then they can dismantle America at their leisure and institute any form of tyranny they want. Americans have become mindless, dependent sheep. They are so addicted to government handouts, they will believe anything to keep those out of office who will take away their freebies and make them work for a living. The less intelligent must receive unending subsidies and handouts provided by those who actually earn money. Obamacare is socialist legislation, passed along party lines as a gift for the country’s first African-American president, because not supporting it means you are a racist. The whole deal is just another giveaway to people who refuse to be responsible for their own lives. I still believe he is not a citizen of the U.S.A. and he is trying to destroy America from within and create hate for the rich by playing on the poor. He is the worst president we ever had, but Americans have become too politically correct to handle the truth.”
Laughing yet? Maybe a bit too harsh? You’re right. It was probably too coherent for a Teabagger. Let me change my vocal inflection and give you my imitation of a right-wing, conspiratorial, doomsday prepper. Ahem …
“Liberals don’t do well under the light of truth. It makes it harder for them to fabricate their B.S. That’s why they’re for a censored media. Obama is nothing more than a hand puppet for the global oligarchs he serves. After Hillary is elected, we will be a third-world nation until we’re absorbed into the coming totalitarian New World Order. Hillary Clinton in 2016 will be America’s first female, Marxist, bisexual, necromancing president. The Bible says Satan is the father of all lies. Politics is satanic. The Democrats will blame Republicans if Obamacare turns out badly. It’s just another theft of working people’s money and giving it to the freeloaders. There ain’t no free lunch. Just wait until the sale of your home will be taxed 3 percent to pay for Obamacare. Obama and the crooks he’s surrounded himself with have carried their Chicago-style, thug politics too far. We are not yet to the point for the need for open rebellion, but we’re heading that way. I hope you liberals like what’s coming down the pike, because it’s your heads that will be on a pike. See you in the gulags. Maybe then you’ll listen.”
Pretty far out, huh? I’m thinking of doing a one-man show if I can get corporate sponsorship. And if you think my rhetoric is much too radical for the mainstream, I must now tell you that I took all the above quotes directly from the “comments” section of my last several posts. And I didn’t even include the personal attacks — wonderful statements like, “You are a very bad advertisement for the University of Memphis school of journalism. Anyone with a grain of sense can see that you are a small-time, deluded muckraker and a sorry joke of a yellow journalist.”
Here’s another dart: “You’re the most prejudiced, one-sided, prevaricating commentator I’ve ever read. Stick to writing self-serving stories about yourself.” Or, on the topic of race: “You brand anybody who disagrees with Obama a racist. You stereotype worst [sic] than any racist I have known. You are crazed over the issue of skin color. You are a virulent racist and an avid fan of baby murder.”
And while we’ve broached the topic of women’s reproductive rights: “Aren’t you glad that your mother was pro-life — at least in your case? Good luck after you close your eyes for the last time, and that shouldn’t be many years hence.”
And my personal favorite: “When the Jews wipe out Iran and start looking for race traitors, you better hide under the bed.”
It makes me wonder: Why should I labor so hard over these articles or fret about deadlines? This stuff practically writes itself. You’ve been great. Please tip your waitress — I’ll be here all week.
Randy Haspel writes the “Born-Again Hippies” blog, where a version of this column first appeared.