The Silly Season is Upon Us

The time between presidential elections can be a head-shaking experience among ordinary folks.  Unfortunately, much of this interlude is filled with bizarre statements and other forms of nonsense as we endure the ridiculousness of people who simply fail to think before they speak or possess any form of filter.  This period is called the “silly season,” which challenges people’s intellect and sensibilities and where the absurd can be humorous or downright serious, if not scary. 

Comments, actions and events are so bizarre, so counter-intuitive, that your eyes roll back so far you can see the back of your brain.  Of course, not all of the silliness is related to presidential politics or politics in general, but it starts with politics and it has to begin with none other than Dr. Ben Carson.

If you hadn’t read or heard, the esteemed retired neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins University has made some controversial anti-gay comments in the past, which raised his profile and received the sympathy and support of gay-hating tea partiers—enough so that they are encouraging him to make a presidential run.  He is considering just that. 

In an appearance on FOX “News” Carson spouted this gem:  “Marriage is between a man and a woman. No group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality, it doesn't matter what they are. They don’t get to change the definition.”

At a conference at the Illinois Family Institute, he claims marriage equality advocates are “directly attacking the relationship between God and his people.”

In his 2012 book, Carson wrote of marriage equality: “[I]f we can redefine marriage as between two men or two women or any other way based on social pressures as opposed to between a man and a woman, we will continue to redefine it in any way that we wish, which is a slippery slope with a disastrous ending, as witnessed in the dramatic fall of the Roman Empire.”

At the National Organization for Marriage’s March for Marriage gala in 2014, Carson explained how Marxists are using LGBT rights to destroy American unity and impose the “New World Order.”

And now the latest gem.  Appearing on CNN on March 4, when asked by Chris Cuomo if being gay is a choice, the highly educated physician replied, “Absolutely.”  Then he added, “Because a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight -- and when they come out, they're gay. So, did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.”

Under intense fire, he “apologized” and vowed that the liberal gotcha press will not stop his momentum and trap him into expressing his views on homosexuality.  We’ll see.  I guarantee that even if he chooses not to run for president, he will be giving a prime time speech at the Republican National Convention and his views on LGBT folks will be a centerpiece.

I will say this in response to Carson’s theory about going into prison straight and leaving gay:  Ben Carson, a brilliant neurosurgeon, enters the Republican clown car filled with presidential hopefuls and emerges as a moron.

Carson keeps claiming he’s not homophobic.  It’s like the SAE frat boys at the University of Oklahoma who chanted racist chants over and over and claim they are not racists, that it was a mistake whereby their behavior was fueled by alcohol.  No dudes, you’re racists.  Alcohol merely removed your inhibitions to recite those ugly words; it didn’t put them in your minds.

Dr. Carson, you’re a homophobe in every sense of the word. Don’t pretend you’re not.

Ben Carson, a brilliant neurosurgeon, enters the Republican clown car filled with presidential hopefuls and emerges as a moron.

Adding to the silly season were the 47 Republican Senators (known on social media as #47traitors) who usurped the authority of the executive branch to conduct foreign policy.  Under “wunderkind” Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas who persuaded the other senators to sign off on an outlandish, condescending letter to the leadership of Iran aimed at scuttling the sensitive negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program, achieved something that has been a long time waiting: it finally woke up Democrats. 

Ceding the social media platforms, talk radio, TV interviews and other media to Republicans during the non-stop anti-Obama thrashing, Dems finally found a cause in which they could respond.  And they are correct.

Imagine Democratic Senators writing a letter to the Soviet Union’s leadership in an effort to warn them that the Senate may not approve any nuclear proliferation treaty President Reagan was negotiating.  How would have the GOP responded?   None too pleased, I would suspect.

It would be as if Republican Senators and Representatives had written the following:

Dear Osama Bin Laden,

We writing to advise you that the Navy Seals have discovered your location in Pakistan and will come to get you.  As you know, our previous dear leader President George W. Bush had to abandon his search for you at Tora Bora so that we could invade and liberate Iraq, the actual purveyors of 9/11, and create another democratic and U.S.-friendly state in the Middle East. 

Our current President Obama is much too stubborn to let things slide as Mr. Bush did.  Obama and his henchmen for some reason doggedly want to capture or kill you even though Saddam Hussein was responsible for the over 3,000 deaths on 9/11, not you.

We will do anything to keep our President from getting the credit for your demise because he is a foreign-born Socialist Muslim who hates America and a black man who is considerably smarter than us.  

We felt it as our patriotic duty, and in the name of freedom and the right to bear arms, to warn you of this diabolical plan.

Best of luck in your travels,

The Real Americans  

Indeed, it is the silly season, and alas, it’s just the tip of the iceberg.