R I M O

Republican In Media Only

 A Critical Observation

 By 

D.S.Brown 

On Wednesday March 22, 2010 I was forced to coin a new term, RIMO.  It’s a take on RINO, which is an acronym for Republican In Name Only.  The same thing has been applied to Democrats.  They have DINO, Democrat In Name Only.  As you can see based on the image above, candidates have taken to proving their bonafides by vociferously claiming they are very much true to their party ideals.  They actively campaign against the stigma of being IN NAME ONLY.  

The image above says Jesse Kelly is running for congress.  He’s a US Marine combat veteran.  His picture, holding his weapon, is meant to convey strength, hardness, a certain edge.  The flag waving in the background is meant to convey loyalty, patriotism, a commitment to the American ideal.  However, one must ask what the American ideal is.  What’s your perspective on this essential question?  Also, one must consider the deeper message this image conveys.  When it asks whether or not Jesse Kelly looks like a RINO, we infer that a RINO does not look like a US Marine.   It leaves one to ask what does a RINO look like?  It also infers that whatever that thing looks like, it’s not good.  Might it be … a Democrat?  Is being a Democrat bad?  Listen people, let’s all get one thing straight from the offset. 

This is completely, totally, and utterly stupid. 

Unfortunately, seeing as how the massive multitudes of the voting public lack critical thinking skills, aspiring politicians play the most recently evolved version of an old game. It’s called pandering.  Yes, that’s what it is.  If you’re a public official and deny this, so sorry, but you and I both know the truth.  If you’re a public official, and with some small amount of embarrassment recognize this as the truth, then congratulations.   You’re honest, perhaps a critical thinker, hopefully walking the path to wisdom, and aspiring to work as a solution-oriented politician dedicated to elevating our politics.  Yes, one can hope.

What is a RIMO? 

A RIMO is a Republican In Media Only.  Before we move on to explain RIMO in more detail, let’s take a moment to clarify why the word pander is so fitting in describing what’s happening in our political system.

The word pander means to furnish clients for a prostitute, or supply persons for illicit sexual intercourse; procurer, pimp.  That’s pretty darn ugly isn’t it?  However, today’s slang often mentions how companies pimp people, how people pimp God for cash, and how the government pimps people for power.  Another meaning of pander is to cater to or profit from the weaknesses or vices of others.   

Combine the pimping for power with catering to and taking advantage of, and you have a politician that is willing to say and do almost anything in order to take hold of, consolidate, and grow power.  This describes many of today’s politicians perfectly.

Now let me make one thing perfectly clear.  I have voted Republican as well as Democrat.  I allow no party to take my vote for granted.  When a vote comes due in my district I do my due diligence.  I study the candidates, or the issue that is on the ballot for consideration.  I consider the options critically.  Then, I vote.  I believe this is how all of us should vote.  

Let us make no generalizations.  Let us indulge no stereotypes. 

I can’t nor will I class all Republicans the same.  However, there are those RIMOs to consider.  Allow me to highlight a few: John Boehner, a man who stood on the House floor during the Health Care vote and gave a fiery speech that spoke to the hearts and minds of the pandered powerless GOP constituency, who ate up his rhetoric like so much manna from heaven.  Eric Cantor, who did much the same thing.  There’s Michele Bachman, purveyor of death panels, who serves as a shockingly vivid example of what happens when the vacuous and spoon-like get elected to office.  There’s Mitch McConnell who along with his fellow Republican Senators vows to repeal reform because it’s not good forAmerica, we can’t afford it, and it will lead to our national destruction. 

You see, the use of a word like destruction is pandering.  It plays on our fears, our weakness with regard to change, the fear that the change might hurt, even if after reading it it’s clear it will help.  Critical thinkers can discern, eschew fear and embrace change.  Those who lack critical thinking skills cannot.  They embrace fear, and look to someone else to tell them what’s right, what’s true, and where stands the devils … or the communist.

Not all Republicans think this way, but even the moderate, more rational members of the party are victims of their own circumstance.  They have no one to blame but themselves.  As President Obama said, by stirring up so much fear and hatred, they’ve locked themselves into their position.  To even hint at compromise would incite their constituency beyond reason.  Actually they’re already beyond reason, spitting on Congressmen, calling Barney Frank a faggot, and John Lewis a nigger.  This behavior is deplorable and beneath contempt. And who do we have to thank for stoking the heat of these people, the fiery vacuous?  We do know.  To be bipartisan in such a climate would effectively ruin a GOP candidate’s chances at re-election.  And so, they must allow themselves to be lead by the vitriolic rhetoric, and rhetoricians themselves who profit from the activity.  We know who they are.

David Frum is a Republican, and clearly a practical thinker, if not a critical thinker as well. He believes the Republican block mentality and Party of No stance is a recipe for disaster.  John Cornyn is a Republican and he seems to be thinking.  He says he has no desire to pursue a complete repeal of Health Care reform.  He thinks we should keep what he believes works, and repeal that which will not.  He does not appear to be towing a line.  He does not appear to befollowing the lead of the rhetoric provided by his party.  He seems to truly be considering viable options.  This is a good thing. 

In today’s information rich WEB 2.0 world we are intimately plugged into every facet of government, business, and entertainment.  And lest you delude yourself, these are all fundamental human activities, and the participants move from one area to the next with relative ease (former cowboy actor turns President.  Former investment banker CEO turns Treasury Secretary). 

The fact that we now have such unprecedented visibility into the parts and processes of our world is indicative of the extreme paradigm shift that has occurred with regard to how our world operates.  It gives the common citizen more power then ever before.  Which is why it is now more important then ever before that the common citizen develop critical thinking skills.  We are awash in information, and the majority of us lack the ability to discern truth from fiction.  One must exercise the mind just as one exercises the body. The development of critical thinking skills is crucial to our continuing prosperity.  With the flow of information coming at us so aggressively it is imperative that we be able to make sense of it, sift through it, and internalize those aspects of it crucial to defining a singular understanding, so that one can form a cohesive fact based opinion, and if necessary, act.

Understand, critical thinking skills are required in order to counter the insidious affects of what I call MDC, or Media-Driven ConsumerCelebreality (be on the lookout for the upcoming book).  What is MDC?  It is a social trend in which the factors of production, distribution, and most importantly marketing come together to facilitate economic growth at the EXPENSE of the consumer. 

So what is a RIMO?

A Republican In Media Only is a beneficiary of MDC utilized as a tool to control the masses for the purpose of creating profit.  Who are the leaders of the GOP?  Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and GlennBeck to name a few.  What is their goal?  To make money?  Is this bad?  Not in and of itself. Unfortunately, the pursuit of profit without ethical restraint can lead to disastrous results.  We have seen this far too many times for me to have to debate the efficacy of my statement. 

A RIMO worships at the altar of TV.  A RIMO is held in check by the data produced by the good folks at the Heritage Foundation, who are closely aligned with the GOP leaders, leaders who have a vested interest in promoting their image of America with no consideration at all for a differing perspective. 

And people, what is the hallmark of the critical thinker?  It is the ability to truly internalize and consider the perspective of others, most especially when that perspective is diametrically, even violently opposed to your own. 

It is from within the cauldron of positive conflict that we derive wholistic solutions that consider all sides.  It would be at the heart of any bipartisan solution.  With amity and comity people on different ideological shores would truly come together and find common ground, ground that is common enough to enact policies that move all Americans forward together. 

However, this is only a dream, a hope, the promise of an evolved American society.  It is a society where we are more than tolerant, more than accepting, but truly loving.  There are no Compassionless Conservatives.  It's a world where we don’t fear from stupidity, where we don’t worship at the altar of television. 

It is an America where we readily acknowledge that lives are on the line while we debate, so we understand the very real need for urgency, an urgency that is far more necessary than the need to drop a bomb on an insurgent half a world away. 

Americans are dying right here!

It is an evolved society that will not set policy at the behest of profit, a profit driven by ratings wars, and the inane rant of the broadcast stupidstars who play games of brinkmanship while real lives are on the line.  Such an America requires a society where it is unthinkably egregious to make fun of a health care supporter with Parkinsons, tossing money at his feet and waving a Tea Party sign in his face demanding that he go looking for a handout elsewhere.  What kind of Christian-like behavior is this?

In this America we don’t go on our wildly successful radio show and imitate a man suffering from Parkinsons so our viewers can laugh in agreement, damning the sufferer to the ninth circle of hell with his communist, socialist, liberal self.  Again, what kind of Christian-like behavior is this? 

My friends, America requires a society that can’t imagine itself defying the mandate carved at the base of the Statue of Liberty by putting immigrants on buses and shipping them back to Mexico wholesale, like so much cattle cargo.  It’s an America that knows its history intimately, and considers it critically, and rises up as one when a wayward citizen calls a Congressman a faggot, or spits on a revered elder of the Civil Rights movement, a man who paid the price for American freedom with his very own blood.  IT DOES NOT ALLOW THE OUTRAGE OF CALLING THIS HONORED CONGRESSMAN A NIGGER!           

I have to count to ten. 

The RIMOs anger me. They force me to bring to bear a mental calm that walks me through logic, understanding the irrationality of human behavior, understanding the whys and hows of a RIMO, and that at its core, the RIMO at the behest of media leaders is suffused with the ancient pursuit of power and control, no matter the cost.

This brings my rational mind back to the fore, and I can be calm, knowing the promise of a better tomorrow.  The fact that my President is Barack Hussein Obama II is the very embodiment of that evolved society of which I dream.  I know this.  I consider this, and can begin the work again.  The conversations, the debates, the discussions I have with those around me be they Independent, Republican, or Democrat, lend credence to the belief that there are many critical thinkers, and we can evolve more. 

Yet, the RIMOs are still there.  They now seek to tap into the nonsense of the Tea Party, whom they will only exploit. Understand, no Republican can ever satisfy the Tea Party mandate.  Though Democrats Tax and Spend, Republicans Cut and Spend, a far more disastrous course of action, and one that has led directly to the awful deficits that burden our country today.    The GOP will try to use theTea Party, and I think that many Tea Partyers though misguided and misaligned will come to see what the GOP is attempting to do, and put forth their own candidate, effectively splitting the Republican voting block.  As David Frum said, the GOP considered Health Reform to be the President’s Waterloo, but it now looks as though Obama is the Duke of Wellington, and the GOP is Napoleon, getting geared up for permanent exile on St. Helena. 

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