Sunday, March 28, 2010

Political ire could turn into epicaricacy

I'm not "blogged out," so to speak. I've just been massively busy at work...12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Ugh.

One epicaricacy question came up recently. As my daughter was emailing or texting or something, she asked me what the verb form of "epicaricacy" was. First of all, I was pleased that she asked about "epicaricacy" and not "Schadenfreude." But second of all, she raised a question I have been thinking about for awhile. There certainly isn't a verb form of either word, and there isn't an adjective form either. The verb form wouldn't come up that easily, but I'd think the adjective form would. For instance, right now I am feeling epicaricatic about the Republicans.

What an appropriate lead-in to what I really want to write about. Let's face it, even though my Google Alerts tell me about uses of "epicaricacy" every day, I simply can't write about that word every day. So here goes my political rant:

Conservatives, do you remember when the Supreme Court decided who our next president would be, rather than the voters? Yes, we Democrats were bummed. We thought the constitution was clear on how presidents are supposed to be elected, but apparently that's not the case, particularly now that even our Supreme Court has become political. Our reaction? To write about how we disagreed on that ridiculous decision. That's all. There were no comments like, "Don't retreat, instead - RELOAD!" or defacing our flag (isn't there a law against that?). Ah, no, we just debated the issue. Yet, the conservatives criticized us for being childish and not simply abiding by the decision. Amazingly, they criticized us for being unpatriotic. Funny, I don't see any criticism like that now by the conservatives. Nope. They all seem to be in support of this riotous, divisive and violent behavior.

To be honest, I wish the Democrats would stand up and fight back more. You deface the flag? Charge them! You make threats? Charge them! Throw the book at these violent, unpatriotic yahoos. We always knew the right extremists were like this, but they've never given us this kind of ammunition.

So how does epicaricacy relate? Maybe more than you'd think. Read Clarence page's analysis. Surely, the far right extremists (the Rush Limbaughs of the world) are a lost cause. I wish they'd just find their own country somewhere because they obviously don't understand ours. But they won't because they have it too good here...and of course they all have their health care so what do they care about the uninsured? However, as Page says, this may backfire on the conservatives. They may lose any moderates they've had and they may be worse off in November. They think they'll gain a lot, but how can reasonable people agree with the violence they are inciting...to which Sarah Palin replies, "We're not inciting violence. Don't get sucked into the lamestream media lies." Now, that's mature. "Lamestream"? She has resorted to making up words because she doesn't have a wide enough vocabulary? Oy vey.

I worry about our country right now. I worry about the welfare of our president and our congressmen. Yet, I was assured recently when I saw the results of a poll. Unlike the conservative messages we're hearing, a good 50% of the public approve the health care bill that was passed. In the end, we have to depend on the character of the American people, and I have faith in my fellow Americans. Not all of them, but the majority of them. Step up, people, and speak out...no matter whom you voted for. This is just wrong. Let them know it. Call the radio stations. Write your newspapers.

1 comment:

Kalleh said...

Well thank you. I had no idea anyone but about 3 of my friends ever reads this. It's good to know a few others do!