The Spillage Of Filth Continues

Not to be outdone in the firing-up-of-aggrievement approach to statesmanship, Bobby Jindal, clawing at the walls of the pit of obscurity into which he's fallen, takes it to the next level: 

Jindal spoke at the annual conference hosted by the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a group led by longtime Christian activist Ralph Reed. Organizers said more than 1,000 evangelical leaders attended the three-day gathering. Republican officials across the political spectrum concede that evangelical voters continue to play a critical role in GOP politics. 

"I can sense right now a rebellion brewing amongst these United States," Jindal said, "where people are ready for a hostile takeover of Washington, D.C., to preserve the American Dream for our children and grandchildren. 

The governor said there was a "silent war" on religious liberty being fought in the U.S. — a country that he said was built on that liberty. 

"I am tired of the left. They say they're for tolerance, they say they respect diversity. The reality is this: They respect everybody unless you happen to disagree with them," he said. "The left is trying to silence us and I'm tired of it, I won't take it anymore."

It's not simply that this is the opposite of true, spoken by a guy who'd love to silence the teaching of evolution, whose party demands that no one speak about nor spend money to understand climate change as his city remains among the most endangered by it, that chills me to the bone. It's that he can, without a moment's consideration of the consequences, spray this filth to the people most likely to act on it in the very way he seems to be condoning: armed rebellion. Can he be unaware of the incidents happening across the land, threatening and shooting BLM workers, killing cops, trying to attack courthouses, butching up at Nevada ranches? Does he think such inflammatory rhetoric has no impact beyond furthering his doomed ambitions? Or doesn't he care? (Clearly: he doesn't.)

This goes far beyond the usual right-wing obstructionist and failed-ideas cynicism, and it ought to be evident to everyone, especially what's left of conservatives who still consider themselves part of the process of being American in a democracy. This is wanton. It's perverse and immoral obsession with personal power at the expense of the nation; willingness to inflame the worst in us to gain credibility amongst the most depraved and ill-informed. Bobby Jindal, and those in whose orbit he'd like to spin, are perfectly happy to suborn violence in pursuit of their ambitions, damn the cost.

Oh, he'd say, who me? Pleasant little me, just trying to capture a few fleeting photons of the fading spotlight of fame? Just because I talk in terms of revolution, hostile takeover, and suggest our very way of life is at stake, by a duly-elected (twice) president, in the sort of free and fair election my party would like to prevent? Flinging falsehoods at the people least interested in truth and most hairy of trigger? Me? Or, as they say in Louisiana and on the hated PBS, moi?

This is first-order irresponsibility. It's obscenity. It's truly unAmerican, and is deadly to the democracy it claims to love (while seeking to bypass it.) This is the depth to which the formerly credible Republican Party has sunk. These are truly, horrifyingly, dangerous people, and even if they're too dumb or too blind or perverted by power to see the peril in their chosen method of politicking, there's no excuse for it.

More importantly, there's no excuse for the four or five actual conservatives left in that party remaining silent about it. Shame on them. In their silence is de-facto agreement; and tacit admission that they can't win on positive ideas.

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