DeMarCaTionVille

A week or two ago, a friend and I were having one of those meandering conversations, which landed on the subject of intolerance in America. At some point, we mused upon how slightly bigoted or prejudiced people will attempt to soften their views by adding the disclaimer “Some of my Best Friends are Black/Mexican/Muslim/and sometimes Gay.”

Consequently, I recognized the whole Robin Smith, “I’m So Down With the Brown, People Call Me Names” story as being somewhat relevant to that conversation. Otherwise, I didn’t give it much thought.

I went back to balancing the checkbook and trying to determine if I should buy name-brand groceries this week or go for Food Club generics in hopes of earning enough fuel bucks to get 1/4 of a tank. (Hey, it’s back-to-school time and I’m trying to save enough money to purchase supplies without taking out a personal loan at the bank. Outfitting little girls can get expensive.)

I don’t know Robin Smith well enough to tell you if she’s racist or not. I’d say most of the people clamoring for her removal from the Human Rights Commission did not know her. Truth is – the whole thing is just some more antics from inside the Tennessee political sandbox where all the kids throw sand in the eyes of others to prove a point, which may or may not be worth proving.

The backstory: Smith is the Chair of the TN GOP. She supported communications director, Bill Hobbs after he generated quite a bit negative publicity for the party this year with his anti-Obama communications – most notably this one.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with Hobbs pointing out the connections of a presidential candidate as this seems to be the norm. (In fact, I found the news of Farrakhan’s support for Obama shocking – utterly shocking. I mean all this time, I assumed Farrakhan was going to endorse the old Republican white guy.)

Unfortunately, instead of pointing out Obama’s pattern of befriending fruitcakes and leaving it at that, he crafted a communication that would play on every fear voters have about Obama’s furtive badness. And despite my tendency to be laid back about these microaggressions (not because I don’t mind them but tend to think keeping them in perspective is easier than walking around pissed off all the time) even I thought Hobbs crossed a line here.

Of course, local bloggers picked up the story. National bloggers picked up the local bloggers. As usual, by the time mainstream media caught on, there was nothing left to do but track down politicians who shared the same state or party to get reactions. Those politicians, including McCain, denounced the TN GOP tactics. (You honestly didn’t expect them to offer Hobbs an Arsensio dogpound-type woof, woof on CNN, did you?) Smith, however, stood her ground and told the Knoxs News Reporter Tom Humphrey: “John McCain has to be elected. Robin Smith doesn’t. We have a duty to inform the Republican base.”

Okay. Fair enough. I accept that. Respect it even – but she didn’t have to be reappointed either. So, this is one of those “You made your bed” and what goes around, comes around situations. The best course of action would have been to let it go and move on.

But nooo. We don’t do that here in Tennessee. Instead we keep the drama going by crying foul over how or why Smith’s email to a public official about public business was released to the public as a public record. (yep, there’s a conspiracy in there somewhere.) Some are taking issue with A.C. Kleinheider, who broke the story and won’t reveal his source because he promised not to reveal his source. You’ve absolutely got to question the character of man who keeps his word. I mean who does that anymore? (And for the record, I think it was a member of Governor Bredesen’s staff in the Bunker with a candlestick.)

But why does the source matter? Are we launching a federal investigation into who embarrassed Robin Smith now that we’re all finished up with the ass of Roger Clemens? We need the source to testify before congress? Or do we just need to know so we can ensure that source never sits at the GOP table with the cool Republicans anymore?

I mean what is it with our party leaders and their seemingly uncontrollable need to engage in these pointless, juvenile never-ending “I know you are but what am I” battles? Can’t someone just call “Infinity,” so we can get a grip, grow up and move on to real-life stuff?

Or is this important in some way I don’t understand?

See, Friends of the Internet, I’m down here in Hawkins County where the leaky toxic landfill is poisoning whatever water the sewage hasn’t managed to taint with hepatitis. My congressman is David Davis, who manages to blow as much smoke around here as the TVA steam plant down the road… and Ron Ramsey is invading my territory along with the gypsy moth – and no, I’m not sure which is worse. Alas, workers with the Tennessee Department of Forestry tell me there’s not much they can do about Ramsey. (See, my idea was to trap him with a gigantic piece of flypaper baited with PAC money. Apparently, however, gluing your Lt. Governor to a piece of cardboard and shipping him off to Mexico without proper documentation is illegal.)

Add to this, my budget seems to be shrinking while my paycheck stays the same. I’m facing yet another property tax increase because my local government is controlled by a bunch of Bible-Thumping elderly teetotalers who busy themselves with the debate on sinful dangers of drink – while our revenues flow to neighboring counties and the meth-heads continue to multiply locally. (Apparently, the abundance of speed cameras don’t do much to catch those folks. So, we just wait for them to accidentally blow up their homes and bring themselves to the ER.)

Furthermore, I’m grumpy because this year’s crop of tomatoes looks pitiful, the blueberries are sour, and my husband is an ass, although I don’t think that’s drought related. And to top it all off, I have to worry about not only protecting my right to bear arms but my right to possess a Canon or an iphone too?

Surely, you can understand if just this once I cannot seem to muster up whatever type of boredom or complete insanity it must take to give a damn about any of this.

Tags: Human Rights Commission, politics, Robin Smith, stunts from the political sandbox, TN GOP