Democracy be Damned, Bush is Inconvenienced

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION

I come out of work, get in my car, and after turning on the ac, tune to NPR just in time to hear a Bush "spokesperson" answer the reporter's questions about why attendance at a Bush/Cheney event requires a ticket and in some cases, a loyalty oath. Fortunately, I had the air conditioning on max because his response made my blood boil.

He said that these events were held so that Republican supporters could hear the Bush/Cheney message. Then why, I ask myself, is the American taxpayer, regardless of political persuasion, paying for many of them? He said that supporters deserved to hear what was being said in an atmosphere free of disruptions. Does that mean that Republicans think that anyone who isn't a Bush supporter is a loud mouthed oaf who doesn't know how to behave in public?

He went on to say "at a Republican event, the grownups are in charge." Let's see...deceit, greed, cronyism, belligerence... yep, grown-up attributes for sure. Personally, I think these events closely resemble a college Rush Week party, where only those with appropriate pedigrees are invited. Maybe some grownups are only comfortable in exclusionary, self congratulating cliques, but adults are usually mature enough to mingle and converse with those who hold differing points of view.

Then, he took me right over the top. He said that the President and his surrogates had a right not to be INCONVENIENCED by the presence of Kerry supporters.

Yep, it is an inconvenience to have someone mutter under their breath that the torture and abuse wasn't the result of just a few bad apples. Folks might just start listening to him instead of you. And it's surely an inconvenience if some in the crowd snicker when you say "America has turned the corner." You might actually have to come up with an unscripted response and we've seen how inconvenient that is for you. And it's most certainly an inconvenience when you're being booed for suggesting that bigotry should be written into the Constitution. You could actually loose your place on the teleprompter.

OK, I get it. Convenience is more important to Bush and his supporters than the right to freedom of speech, or the right to peaceably assemble, or to petition the government for a redress of grievances. And they wonder why there are so many more Kerry supporters now than when they began their policy of exclusion. Amazing!

A BuzzFlash Contributor

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION