The morning after: Yep, I'm still better than you.

31 March 2011

Dear Scott Walker,

I'll admit that the letter I wrote last night was pretty glib. I actually went to bed pretty sure I'd wake up regretting I took that perspective, because it might make me look bad (and by bad, I mean arrogant, not wrong). I wrote it in the wee hours of the night, after working a really long day and getting pretty riled up thinking about two things: (1) the juvenile and asinine attempt at a sarcastic "press release" by the GOP yesterday attacking Judge Sumi for her "leftist lifestyle" because she insists upon upholding the law and (2) how entirely true the brilliant column, "Americans Got What They Deserved" by Ray Buursma was in the Holland Sentinel of all places on the 23rd. 

So when I woke up this morning, I reread that thing, and realized, to my delight, that I don't feel bad about saying any of that. In fact, I feel great about saying all of it, especially the part about how humble I am compared to you!  You are the kind of person who is incompetent, willfully ignorant, manipulative, self-righteous, power-hungry, greedy and vain, and I am not, and there is absolutely no reason on earth that I should not spend a little bit of my time trying to explain that to you. It's just facts! And there's nothing wrong with sharing facts, even though, as Stephen Colbert says, you might not like that "reality has a well-known liberal bias."

So I just wanted to let you know that I'm really excited to continue thinking of ways that I can help you understand how inferior you are, and not just to me - I should make that clear. This isn't really about "us."  It's about how you're actually inferior to anyone who is capable of true empathy.  I say "true" empathy because I know you consider yourself to be a religious person, and probably think you come to the table with empathy in spades.  But you're wrong on both counts.  Because your hypocrisy negates your conviction in your own moral superiority and your arrogance negates your phony desire to "help people help themselves" by giving them "tools" which actually, and very transparently, are only tools which help you, and harm the people now forced to dig their own graves with very expensive shovels.

So, here's looking forward to thinking up more ways to describe your many existing and future shortcomings, character flaws, stupidities, and sins.  I think it's a really productive exercise for both of us -  and I'm confident that this sort of self-reflection is a tool you'll find really useful.

Until you resign,

Heather DuBois Bourenane
Decent, hard-working, responsible Wisconsin citizen