Things my Father taught me, Part 1

I grew up in a time when respect wasn't earned… it was deserved.

Well not exactly. It was the nineties, Clinton was in office, and my Father despised the man for most of the same reasons that anyone rails against President Obama today. Dad had a concise, logical and firm understanding of where he stood, where the party lines lay, and what that meant about a President who was pro-choice, who wanted homosexuals serving openly in the military, universal healthcare and reduced defense spending. (Sound familiar?)

We lived in Warrensburg Missouri, and I wasn't older than nine, when my father, saw me doing something that I hoped would impress him. Dragging the president’s name through the mud; trying to be like my Dad.

Here’s what my father taught me then. Looking down on me with calm certainty, knowing exactly why I’d said what I had, and acted as I did.

“Son, the President is a man and he does some things that are wrong. But the office he holds deserves respect.” He paused, thinking for a moment, and then went on. “You and I don’t have to agree with the President, we don’t have to like who he is, but we do have to respect his role in our country, and that means we don’t talk like that.”

Looking back, at that moment, I realized that my mimicry wasn’t exactly in sync with Dad’s rants. When my Father saw something on the TV and exploded, he criticized the thought, or the idea, or he was angry with the action, but there was a restraint in his wrath. Something held him back from blasphemy, from an insult that stunk of ad hominem. “Like that” referred to slander, name calling, insults, and empty claims, the very thing I’d hoped to impress him with, had backfired. It was eye-opening, it was concrete, and it explained everything.

Okay, not everything.

But it did cement one fact of life in my mind, and that is not everyone earns the respect they deserve all the time. As I grow older, I can see now that this is always the case, but especially in politics, I think it’s time we stepped back and remembered just who we are criticizing, and more importantly HOW we are criticizing.

Over a decade later, I’m appalled.

Sarah Palin, is quoted with the following

"Vladimir, don't mess around or you're going to feel my flexibility," she said, acting as Obama. "Because I've got a phone and I've got a pen, and I can dial it really fast and poke you with my pen. Pinky promise."

And the ridiculousness didn’t stop there. I won’t bore you with the details, if you’re not read up on Ukraine and Crimea this March of 2014, start now. If you’re not aware of the sanctions that the US has put in place at the President’s direction since the unofficial (as of today) invasion of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, then hit up any news outlet.

Here are the facts:

Speaking at the CPAC, Palin addressed thousands of like-minded conservatives, and essentially emasculated the President of the United States of America in a public forum.

Don’t get me started on the remarkably childish (yet, tried and true) habit of women verbally castrating men in order to antagonize and hopefully instigate some “manly” action or owning up to a perceived indignity.

Don’t get me started on the bias of someone who was at one point a contender for the vice-presidency and alongside McCain lost to a very well written ‘Hope’ speech.

Don’t even get me stared on someone who clearly hasn't had many reasons to say I told you so because every other thing she says proves how uninformed and ill suited to dabbling in foreign policy she actually is.

But do, please, let me get started on this:

A house divided will not stand, and any foreign leader can see the state of our weakened union. Just think what Putin must be saying to his advisers as he watches a woman of political esteem in the USA essentially call its president a lily footed, weak, passive diplomat.

She thought she was making a point, drumming up money and votes (one and the same, eh?) for her side of the aisle. In actuality, she was losing any respect I owed her. She lost most of it, when she left her governor’s post, more of it when she opened her mouth and catered to fame with no perceptible political purpose other than to antagonize and criticize along with everyone else. She lost the rest of it after this CPAC.

Let me be clear, I don’t like the President’s ideas anymore than my father liked President Clinton’s. I do think life is too precious to let selfish people cut it out of them simply for its inconvenience. I believe marriage is more than a sacrament; it’s the sacred foundation of the patriarchy God ordained for mankind. I think welfare programs should stay out of government entirely, and be nurtured and tended to by the Church. I think and believe a lot of things. But I surely, as surely as hell exists, do not accept this sort of childish slander. It’s not appropriate for adults who want my vote, or the people who elect them.

If you disagree, I have more than enough choice words to criticize your stance, and even if you don’t deserve it, I’ll start off respecting you.