12.04.12
The Acceptance of Malice
The mainstreaming of Ted Nugent as a pundit and personality demonstrates a deep flaw in American character — the real enjoyment and approval of those who are defined by their malice toward others.
Ted Nugent is now much of the GOP electorate. He is one of the most recognizable faces of the Psychopath Vote. And it’s why the party is essentially dead except in gerrymandered WhiteManistan.
There is no question that wishing ill on others is just about all that motivates Nugent. It’s his money-maker. One only has to read a year of his columns at the Washington Times and tabulate the various curses and slurs he brings down on others weekly.
Today is no exception. At the heart of his column is the assertion that the poor, those receiving benefits as part of the in-tatters social safety net, should have their right to vote rescinded. While it may seem shocking and reflexively nasty it’s not an uncommon sentiment in 2012 USA.
On election night Nugent publicly choked on his own bile. And he quickly adopted the odious bigot’s theory of everyone else in the the Republican Party’s top rung — the only reason Barack Obama won was because he gave stuff to lots of people, like the Obamaphone. And those people are all leeches, bringing the country down.
The three sacred entitlement cows in the room that no politician wants to poke are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A blinding statement of the obvious is that we are never going to get our financial house in order until these sacred entitlement cows are not only poked, but slaughtered …
In addition to slaughtering the three sacred entitlement cows that consume a vast majority of the federal budget (and I use the term budget generously), let’s truly spread the pain around and raise taxes on everyone, including the nearly 50 percent of Americans who pay zero federal income taxes. Those Americans need to have some skin in the game, too. I recommend at least a 5 percent federal income tax bracket for them.
Let’s also stop the insanity by suspending the right to vote of any American who is on welfare. Once they get off welfare and are self-sustaining, they get their right to vote restored. No American on welfare should have the right to vote for tax increases on those Americans who are working and paying taxes to support them.
Ted Nugent is a raging public bigot, full time. It’s his career. He appears regularly on television and lousy cable tv specials made especially for him.
In a civil society Nugent would have no place. But that’s not us. His presence is a symptom of underlying sepsis in the soul, the yen to see others, always the weaker, publicly hurt or destroyed.
Mitt Romney was all right with Ted Nugent, even seeking his approval. So if there is good news in any of this, it is that Nugent is so public and so very obviously a good example of the Republican Party.