Help!! Is there a way to fix this stupid mistake??

[Sparkly]

No, not the stupid mistake of having BushCo in the White House -- a mistake I made in my Journal.

Apparently, in the last post I added, I must have forgotten to close a "bold" html tag. It's made all the rest of my journal "bold," which sucks because I had certain words "bolded" to highlight them throughout, and now the whole thing is just bold, bold, bold.

It's too late to edit the post -- admins have told me there's no way to do it.

Could I make a new post, with the "/b" tag, and somehow make it appear below that post to shut it off?

I could cut/paste the old post and make a new one from it, with the "/b" tag added, but I think then I'd have have to post it again in a forum and everyone will thing I'm repeating myself.

Any suggestions? :dunce:

[realisticphish]

1. I think

you'll have to just deal with it. As far as I know, the code is isolated within a post, so if you can't edit it, it's done. But you could post a reply and explain yourself; i'm sure no one was offended or anything :)

[Midlodemocrat]

2. I don't know if this would work, but maybe you could remove the posts

from your journal and then put them back with the correct code? :shrug:

[Sparkly]

3. Okay -- please ignore the experiment I'm going to post below....nt

[Sparkly]

4. Eddie Haskell, and how I learned everything about this GOP in kindergarten

(Original post, with a formatting error that screwed up the rest of my journal, here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x2617649)

Everything that makes people Republicans today, I learned to get over in kindergarten.

Today’s Republicans put on a show worthy of any children’s spectacle, complete with camera tricks, smoke and mirrors, and simplistic messages. (“Today’s news is brought to you by the letter F, for “Fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here.”)

Their whole show is captured in the classic voice of Eddie Haskell (for those of you who’ve never seen “Leave it to Beaver,” Eddie was the lying, smarmy, phony, ingratiating character who could convince grown-ups that he was completely sincere).

This GOP is an Eddie Haskell whispering into the ears of vulnerable people, and appealing to all their kindergarten mentalities. It's all about feeling, not facts (as Stephen Colbert said, the facts have a well-known liberal bias). And what feelings are those?

They can all be reduced to feelings found in the sandbox, on the playground, or in kindergarten classrooms. (Immigration? “I was here first!” Laws they don’t like? “You’re not the boss of me!”)

Here are eleven things Republicans CLAIM they’re about (I tried to stop at 10, but "Patriotism" sums it all up):

1. National Security.
2. Families.
3. Freedom.
4. Tax Cuts.
5. Eliminating “The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations.”
6. Moral Values.
7. Traditional Values.
8. Mainstream America.
9. Personal Responsibility.
10. Smaller Government.
11. Patriotism


Let’s take them one by one.

1. National Security:

Many people just FEEL more secure with Republicans in charge.

FACTS get in the way -- facts like Clinton/Gore’s counterterrorism initiatives, the attacks they thwarted, the Hart-Rudman report they ordered, and their warnings to the incoming Bush administration; facts like BushCo ignoring those warnings, ignoring Richard Clarke and John P. O’Neill, ignoring the Hart-Rudman report, reviving 1980s hysteria about “ICBMs from rogue nations” (read: Iraq); facts like Bush and Cheney admittedly avoiding the dangers in Vietnam, while Gore and Kerry volunteered to serve in-country.

RNC Eddie whispers, “Look at these good ol’ boys – they’re cowboys, they swagger, they’re tough! They’ll protect you! Those other guys are sissies! And see that guy over there? He’s gonna beat you up after school.”

Kindergarten mentality: “I’m scared! I’m a tough guy, not a sissy. So can I be your friend?”


2. Families:

Many people FEEL Democrats hate families.

FACTS get in the way: We’re all born of moms and dads; we have extended families; we’re parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren; we have blended families, adoptive families, and of course, families we choose when we commit to other people, marrying them if we choose and are allowed. Well, there’s the problem. Multiracial families? Gay families? Single-parent families?

RNC Eddie whispers, “Those different people are trying to copy you. They want to get a toy just like yours. If they get it, yours won’t be so special anymore.”

Kindergarten mentality: “This is MY toy! Copycat!”


3. Freedom:

It’s been particularly amazing to see Republicans forced to take the stance of Great Humanitarians in efforts to defend their ill-conceived, disastrous invasion of Iraq. Nevertheless, some actually FEEL their mission is to “spread freedom.” (You know, “freedom is God’s gift to humanity.”)

FACTS get in the way: The people all over the world who haven’t freedom, including those being murdered in Darfur (to which BushCo provided a magnanimous check, measurable in mere hours of what we spend in Iraq); the people denied freedom by this government who’ve seized, detained, and tortured them, and/or sent them off to be tortured abroad; and at home, the erosion of our own freedoms – of privacy, speech, and religion. As one DUer put it, it’s no longer “Give me liberty or give me death,” it’s “Take my liberty, I’m scared to death!” And, the focus of “freedom” has been diverted to backlash against various manufactured “wars” against things (Christmas, Christianity, etc.), creating new “victims” of anti-freedom who are furious at the suggestion they aren’t free to oppress others via public-sponsored religion, discrimination, hate-crimes, and even making other people’s medical, reproductive and sexual decisions for them.

RNC Eddie whispers, “Sure, we’re just trying to help those poor rag-heads! But see that guy over there? He said he’s going to stop you from beating up those other kids, and that’s not fair.”

Kindergarten mentality: “I can do whatever I want, to whoever I want! And you can’t stop me!”


4. Tax Cuts:

Many people FEEL they’re getting something from the Republican party: usually, it’s about two trips to Wal-Mart. “It’s my money,” they feel. “At least it’s not going for wasteful government, lazy people, or anything like that.”

FACTS get in the way. That supposed tax “cut” is an expensive loan, providing windfalls for the wealthy and multi-national corporations, sending future generations further into debt, increasing the amount of taxes we waste on its interest, and selling our country out to counties like Saudia Arabia and China.

RNC Eddie whispers, “Have I got a deal for you. Trade ya four nickels for two quarters. But watch out for that guy over there – he said he wants to steal your lunch money.”

Kindergarten mentality: “It’s my money – nobody’s gonna steal it!”


5. Eliminating “The Soft Bigotry of Low Expectations:”

Many people FEEL children in impoverished, minority, inner-city schools don’t achieve academically because their teachers, parents, and community leaders just don’t expect enough. They’re not really trying. They’re making it too easy.

FACTS get in the way: particularly, the fact that schools do not exist in vacuums or sterile environments where they can be compared with each other without any variables. Facts like the effects of family life, communities, and economic conditions on children; facts like the emotional, psychological, and social needs among inner-city children; facts like the differences in experiences these children had between birth and age five, and continue to have daily.

RNC Eddie whispers, “See that black kid over there? He’s so lazy, he never even went to pre-school – and now he’s rewarded for it with free lunch! And he can’t even read yet.”

Kindergarten mentality: “You’re a lazy retard. So’s your drug-addict mother.”


6. Moral Values:

Many people FEEL the Republican party is the part of morality. They say they’re Christian, and they never got blowjobs in the White House.

FACTS get in the way: In policy, they give not to the poor, but to the rich; in personal morality, they are sanctimonious hypocrites pointing fingers at others while giving passes to gay prostitutes in the White House, thieving contractors in Iraq “losing” billions of taxpayer dollars, approving inhumane torture of human beings, ignoring the plight of American hurricane victims, and – as initial acts in their administration – cutting funding to programs that provide food to poor women and children.

RNC Eddie whispers, “I can tell you’re a good guy. See that girl over there? I heard she’s nasty. She so bad, she doesn’t even go to regular church. So whose side are you on – good or bad?”

Kindergarten mentality: “I’m good! You’re bad!”


7. Traditional Values:

Many people FEEL the country used to be as wonderful as 1950s sitcom reruns, until it was corrupted by a liberal “hippie” youth movement in the 1960s (also the civil rights movement in the 1950s, the women’s movement of the 1970s, all rolled up into a revolution including sex, drugs, and rock and roll – all aberrations that had never been seen before in our nation’s history!). They feel if they can just put down this “new culture war,” we can be as we were before – all homogenous and happy!

FACTS get in the way: 1950s TV and cinema were fiction even in the 1950s. African-Americans have always fought enslavement, Jim Crow, discrimination, stereotypes, hatred and oppression; gays have always existed; youth have always been rebellious (if you draft them into a stupid war, you can expect higher levels of it); and youth have long identified with music, fashion, and other symbols in natural rites of separating themselves. And women have always worked, and have long fought for economic, social, political, and gender equality – there’s just one thing that brought on the “sexual revolution:” The Pill. (“Egads! If we let them control their uteruses AND earn living wages, the very fabric of society will fall apart!”)

RNC Eddie whispers, “Don’t you hate that girl over there? She knows the answer to every question, always straight-A’s, always teacher’s pet. It never used to be like that. Do you like those stale, store-bought cookies in your lunchbox? If it weren’t for her and her Mom, you could have cookies so fresh the chocolate chips were still melted. It used to be just like that, until that girl came here and her Mom made the rest of our Moms have to work.”

Kindergarten mentality: “I’m scared! I want my Mommy!”


8. Mainstream America:

Many people FEEL there is a regular, average “heartland” in America, and some abnormal fringe elements on the coasts and in the northeast who just can’t connect with the “real” Americans.

FACTS get in the way: poll after poll shows that on issues, liberal Democrats are the mainstream. “Average” Americans are on our side on key issues, right down to choice, church/state, and tax cuts. The “non-heartland” states are the heartbeat of the nation’s economy (despite our votes counting less in the electoral college). The fact is, we are ALL the “heartland.”

RNC Eddie whispers, “That new guy? Came from some stupid state called Rhode Island – his essay said he spent last summer at ‘the beach.’ Never saw a cow or a cornfield before, so he must hate them and think he’s special. Snob!”

Kindergarten mentality: “You’re different -- I’m better than you are!”


9. Personal Responsibility:

Many people FEEL the reason they’re working themselves to death (or facing disaster from unemployment) is because somebody else is having it easy at their expense. It must be there are some lazy people soaking up the money, they feel – and not rich lazy people, spending their days lounging poolside watching their “money work for them” – no it must be poor lazy people who are the problem. It’s just those people who don’t take personal responsibility for being brought into the world addicted to drugs, raised dodging bullets, watching people they know being incarcerated and killed, struggling to eat without committing crimes, etc.

FACTS get in the way: welfare is a pittance compared to wealthfare; welfare – even ALL social service costs -- pale in comparison to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and of course, the national DEFENSE budget. Costs of cheaters in social services is a fraction of that fraction, but it’s an emotional hot button the GOP has run MILES with. Their own “personal responsibility?” Uh, Bush can’t think of any mistakes; never heard of any torture; might have met him in a reception line once; ongoing investigation; executive privilege; that’s classified; there’ll be a time to talk about that, but not now,” and of course, “There are some who want to play the blame game.” “Democrats want to make this a political issue.” “Democrats want to score political points with this.” Blah blah blah…

RNC Eddie whispers, “It’s not your fault that kid lives in a slum, right? So that must mean it’s HIS fault! Why aren’t you in a slum? Because you’re better – you’re responsible. Aren’t you? So the only explanation for the difference is that he isn’t as responsible as you are. That’s why you have your own pencils, and he had to borrow one from the teacher. Stick with us – we can STEAL pencils and give you a share, to make sure lazy, undeserving people like HIM don’t get anything for free.

Kindergarten mentality: “You can’t have a turn!”


10. Smaller Government:

Many people FEEL Republican offer smaller, streamlined, less expensive, less intrusive government.

FACTS get in the way: For decades, Republican administrations have increased federal spending, created more bureaucracy, established one record after another in budget deficits and national debt, and beyond the financial extravagances, have sought more intrusion into our personal lives – from sex to religion to health to speech and beyond.

RNC Eddie whispers, “If you’re really nice to the principal, he’ll stop the English teacher from enforcing all those rules you hate.”

Kindergarten mentality: “The principal is my ‘prince’ and ‘pal,’ because I hate stupid rules and he said he does, too."


11. Patriotism:

Many people FEEL the Republican party is the party of patriotism.

FACTS get in the way: This is a country with a shameful history, but with honor in recognizing the truth of that. This is a country of progress, continually correcting itself in realistic reassessment, soul-searching, and measurement of its own values – seeking unity, peace, equality, freedom, fairness, and true democracy. The Republican party of the last few decades has shown quite the opposite: division, conflict, government power, inequality, unfairness, and no verifiable democracy in ANY sense, from Congressional oversight to Judicial objectivity to verification of the sacrosanct Will of the People in elections. It’s squandered American blood, treasure, power, and credibility; it’s ripped apart our founding documents; and it’s done it ALL by deluding our fellow citizens.

RNC Eddie whispers: “Just put your hand over your heart, recite the pledge, and sing the anthem.”

Kindergarten mentality: “I love America.”


Boil down the "Kindergarten mentality," all derived from the GOP's own claims:

1. “I’m scared! I’m a tough guy, not a sissy. So can I be your friend?”
2. "This is MY toy! Copycat!”
3. “I can do whatever I want, to whoever I want! And you can’t stop me!”
4. “It’s my money – nobody’s gonna steal it!”
5. "You’re a lazy retard. So’s your drug-addict mother.”
6. “I’m good! You’re bad!”
7. “I’m scared! I want my Mommy!”
8. “You’re different -- I’m better than you are!”
9. “You can’t have a turn!”
10. “The principal is my ‘prince’ and ‘pal,’ because I hate stupid rules and he said he does, too."
11. “I love America.”

THIS, unfortunately, is what we're dealing with -- fears, insecurities, and kindergarten-level reactions played like fiddles by the GOP. Abstract facts don't affect them; simple, obvious things, two inches from their faces, do -- whether spoon feeding by the GOP, or, suddenly, gas prices -- something they can SEE... We can argue fine points, but when it comes to the "backwash," we're dealing with people who vote on kindergaten levels.