I'll admit that I'm the first one to start slandering Republicans and Conservatives on any chance I can get, and I've said some pretty outlandish things, but that article seems juvenile at best. It felt like reading over some things I'd written back in freshman year of high school. The core of the argument - that the author is tired of "the right" berating him every time he speaks a somewhat liberal opinion - is one that I can identify with. I just think that the article was hastily jotted down and not well thought out. It could have used a lot more work and some facts to back things up. More or less, it looks kind of like banter. The following is a much better way of stating what Mr. Zepezauer was trying to voice:
SHUT UP AND LET ME HAVE MY LEFT-WING OPINIONS!
Less words, no name-calling, and it really gets the point across. Of course, the right-wing folks that Mr. Zepezauer is talking to are probably tired of his opinions just as much as he's tired of theirs. But we'll ignore that.
There was one issue I wanted to clear up with you folks, though: Having been a Nirvana fan, I actually read up quite a bit back in the day on the PMRC. Some of this is memory, most of it was having to look shit up again. The PMRC was started by Tipper Gore and other wives of various senators, Republican and Democrat alike. The current head of the PMRC is a conservative woman and does not identify herself with a political group that I know of. The PMRC is heavily funded by the Coors company: also an enormous contributor to Republican candidates, and some other groups whose motives are questionable (some exaggerated info: http://www.corporations.org/coors/). The PMRC has associated closely with holders of conservative views, including Bob Dole during his candidacy. SO, regardless of whatever origin and whomever might be part of the group, the PMRC pushes a censorship campaign - which I think can be labeled as a "right-wing agenda". There were a few Dems in the PMRC, but now the Republicans/conservatives make up the majority.
Now, to say that most censorship efforts over the past twenty years have been Democrat-driven is patently false. Organizations like: The American Family Association (http://www.afa.net/), The Christian Coalition (http://www.cc.org/), The Heritage Foundation (http://www.heritage.org/), The Parents Television Council (http://www.parentstv.org/), Concerned Women for America (http://www.cwfa.org/), and The Christian Broadcasting Network (http://www.cbn.org/), among others, have actively sought to censor music, video games, dirty magazines, movies, and anything else you can imagine for as long as you can imagine. These are all hideously religious, unabashedly non-Democrat organizations. The CBN, I believe, is owned by Pat Robertson.
As for the racism thing, the Republicans did try to bar making MLK day and many older Republican candidates ran on the segregation ticket, but you can't do anything like that nowadays. I think the negative view as far as race-relations go with Republicans have to do with their views on things like Affirmative Action and the Death Penalty. But I don't think you can automatically declare someone a racist just because they think Affirmative Action is stupid.
It's freezing down here. And I have to use the bathroom. And I just realized that I never posted my reaction to the SOTU address. Oh well.
Knaa'mean?