;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 20, 2012
A coalition of unions targets Democratic Colorado Senators Mark Udall & Michael Bennet -- and in similar ads, other ConservaDems) to stand up for workers rather than cave on social safety net benefits:
... Which is a good thing because some of these ConservaDems are so bad they may not even back President Obama's pledge to ax tax cuts for the rich.
Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic: In their relentless quest to defeat ObamaCare despite a few little setbacks -- ObamaCare won in the Supreme Court, Obama won the election -- opponents have a new tack: challenging the right of the federal government to give tax breaks to qualifying individuals & families in states -- like Oklahoma -- that opt not to participate. "So Oklahoma officials and everybody else making this argument are essentially calling upon states to block their citizens from receiving federal tax breaks, worth as much as several thousand dollars per person." Here's Cohn on MSNBC: ...
Peter Kasperowicz of The Hill: "Nearly 100 House Republicans on Monday called on President Obama not to nominate Susan Rice as secretary of State. In a letter to Obama, the 97 Republicans said the credibility of the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has been gravely wounded by her account of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya." (CW: under the Constitution, only the Senate has to give its "advice & consent.") ...
... Michael Crowley of Time: The House letter's "tortured reasoning exposes the flimsiness of the GOP‘s crusade to make Rice a scapegoat for the Benghazi tragedy.... Lacking a clear shot at Rice's actions, House Republicans have resorted to a half-baked argument about appearances. The problem, they argue, is that Rice is 'widely viewed' as incompetent or dishonest, not only at home but 'around the world.' But when you think about it, the letter also entails a certain chutzpah. If being 'widely viewed' as incompetent or dishonest is such a problem, shouldn't most of the people who signed that letter, being members of Congress and all, themselves be out of a job?" ...
... "Chugging along from Bluster to Bluster, Farce to Farce." Dave Weigel of Slate: John McCain, who has appeared on Sunday talk shows 20 times this year, "is the president-for-life of that sovereign state inside I-495: Meet the Pressistan. What better way into the [Susan Rice] story than this, a scandal that was by and for the Sunday shows?"
Andy Kroll of Mother Jones: "... the banking industry is already taking aim at [Elizabeth Warren], scurrying to curb her future clout on Capitol Hill. Lobbyists and trade groups for Wall Street and other major banking players are pressuring lawmakers to deny Warren a seat on the powerful Senate banking committee. ...
... Daily Kos has a petition asking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to put Warren on the banking commission.
Right Wing World
Marco Swims with the Dinosaurs. Charles Pierce: "... most of the young phenoms of the [Republican] party are either batshit crazee, or they've been utterly intimidated by the well-cultivated base that the party has constructed completely out of people with tiny birds chirping around their heads. Here we have Marco Rubio talking creationist rot with the 2016 Iowa Straw Poll clearly in his eyes. Sad, really." ...
... Digby: Rubio "is a very slick politician and I think he's quite dangerous. That answer is the usual wingnut gibberish, but he is very good at dogwhistling to the rubes. He signals very clearly that he is on board with the whole idea that evolution should not be taught as ... science." ...
... Oh, and Rubio's BFF? Why, that Man of the Englightenment Sen. Jim DeMint (RTP-S.C.) Ed Kilgore: "... anyone who thinks of Rubio as a potential GOP vehicle for 'modernizing' the party should think again given his proud kinship to the antediluvian DeMint, the heaviest right-wing heavy of them all. You don't need to be a 'scientist, man' to spot a brontosaurus when you see one." ...
... Paul Krugman: "... when Rubio says that the question of the Earth's age 'has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow', he's dead wrong. For one thing, science and technology education has a lot to do with our future productivity -- and how are you going to have effective science education if schools have to give equal time to the views of fundamentalist Christians? More broadly, the attitude that discounts any amount of evidence ... if it conflicts with prejudices is not an attitude consistent with effective policy." ...
... Douthat, borrowing from Augustine of Hippo, agrees with Krugman! CW: Augustine was a 4th-century theologian. Only Brother Douthat could take his scientific cues from a 4th-century theologian. Still, Douthat's column, especially the last 2/3rds is worth reading. ...
... The GQ interview of Rubio, by Michael Hainey, is here.
Ed Kilgore: Paul Ryan's "main quand[a]ry may well be to determine which short-term path will best serve his long-range goal of destroying or disabling much of the progressive policy legacy of the 20th century: an austerity-flavored fiscal deal that can later be described as the first step back from the Road to Serfdom, or an ideological war leading into an old-white-voter-dominated midterm election and then 2016?" ...
... Charles Pierce: "Ryan maintains a constituency within the Beltway that seems rather impervious to the demonstrable fact that, as a national politician, Paul Ryan makes a terrific doorstop." ...
... CW: Both Kilgore & Pierce nip around the edges of why it was GOP threw Willard overboard for his "gifts" remark but are A-Okay with Ryan's explanation that his team only lost because black people had the audacity to vote, but I don't think they quite hit it. Answer (I think): Ryan is still a playah; Romney is not. If you thought Republicans were really serious this time about their latest "big tent" round of Sunday show promises, their silence on Ryan's "urban vote" comment should dissuade you -- not to mention Marco's solidarity with Jim DeMint. & his disdain for science. Nothing to worry about, folks. The Grand Old Party you have grown to abhor ain't goin' noplace.
If a people cannot secede from an oppressive government they cannot truly be considered free. -- Rep. Ron Paul, in his most recent newsletter & audio report ...
... Update: in the Salon piece on Paul's secession talk, linked in the citation above, Alex Seitz-Wald links to Paul's private Website. But Paul has also placed his pro-secession essay on his official Congressional Website. I would like to know why the House tolerates treasonous remarks on a site that we taxpayers support. Obviously, this totally pisses me off.
... CW: Okay, all you wingers out there who accuse President Obama of treason about once a week. Here is one of your heroes -- a man sworn to uphold the Constitution of the United States, a sitting member of the House of Representatives & a two-time candidate for president -- openly advocating for an act of treason. The House should at least sanction him, even if he is a short-timer.
Dave Weigel of Slate wonders how people get to be rich enough to earn at or near the highest tax bracket and still have no fucking idea how the marginal tax rate works.
Reuters: "Hostess Brands Inc agreed in court on Monday to enter private mediation with its lenders and leaders of a striking union to try to avert the liquidation of the maker of Twinkies snack cakes and Wonder Bread." CW: probably no coincidence that an ad accompanying this story was a link to a page that listed the four signs of an impending heart attack. ...
... James Surowiecki of the New Yorker: "The real issue here is that people’s image of unions, and their sense that doing something like going on strike is legitimate, seems to depend quite a bit, in the U.S., on how common unions are in the workforce." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "... if we take seriously the idea of American citizenship as representing a common enterprise, we need to get back to the mindset in which many millions of Americans who will never join a union see a picket line, and understand they have a stake in the fight for better wages, benefits and working conditions -- and in social benefits that lift all boats. That's called solidarity." ...
... CW P.S.: Let's see how the Wal-Mart Black Friday strike/protest works out. I know I'll be honoring the picket line -- even if there isn't one.
Congressional Races
Buh-bye. AP: "Tea party freshman Allen West gave up his fight to remain in Congress on Tuesday after two weeks of recount battles in court. The first-term Republican said in a statement he was conceding the race to Democrat Patrick Murphy, a 29-year-old political newcomer." Palm Beach Post story here.
Voter Suppression -- It's Back
Scott Keyes of Think Progress: "Two weeks after Barack Obama and Sen.-elect Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) carried the state of Wisconsin with the support of minorities and young voters, Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced one of his major policy proposals for the upcoming session: ending the state's 40-year old law that allows citizens to register to vote on Election Day. And with Republicans now back in control of the Wisconsin state legislature, Walker may well get his way next year."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Warren B. Rudman, who warned against soaring federal deficits as a pugnacious two-term senator from New Hampshire and who became the strongest Republican critic of the Reagan administration during the Iran-contra affair of the 1980s, died Nov. 19 at George Washington University Hospital. He was 82."
Reuters: "Hostess Brands Inc, the bankrupt maker of Twinkies, said on Tuesday that it failed to reach a deal in mediation with the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco and Grain Millers Union. The company said it will have no further comment until a hearing scheduled for Wednesday before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York."
Washington Post: "In a surprise move that shocked both sides of a years-long debate, the Church of England on Tuesday (Nov. 20) rejected an expected move to allow women bishops, preserving the church's status as one of the last bastions of male privilege in the United Kingdom." CW: a queen is one thing; a bishopess -- nevah."
New York Times: "President Obama sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East on Tuesday to try to defuse the conflict in Gaza, the White House announced." CW: that's funny. John McCain thinks only Mister Clinton can handle this. (I still think giving the Mister a dedicated role might be a good idea.)
New York Times: "Hewlett-Packard's already troubled history with deal-making just got worse. The technology giant said on Tuesday that it had taken an $8.8 billion accounting charge, in part related to accounting problems at Autonomy, the British software company it bought for $10 billion last year. The announcement comes just one quarter after another large write-down by H.P. in relation to Electronic Data Systems, which itself follows a string of deal-making missteps by the company."
AP: "President Barack Obama closed his Asian tour in diplomatic talks with leaders of Japan and China, their economic message overshadowed by security tensions over disputed waters and territories. The crisis between Israel and Hamas militants intervened, too, as Obama rushed his top diplomat straight from Cambodia to the Mideast." ...
... Update: "Diplomatic efforts accelerated on Tuesday to end the lethal confrontation between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza on one of the most violent days yet in the conflict, as the United States sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East and Egypt's president and his senior aides expressed confidence that a cease-fire was close." ...
... AP Update: "Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinian journalists in their cars on Tuesday, a Gaza health official and the head of the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV said. Israel acknowledged targeting the men, claiming they had ties to militants. Later Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike hit a building that houses the office of the French news agency Agence France Presse.... No one was injured and the agency office was not damaged."
ABC News: "President Obama today said the United States and China have taken a 'cooperative and constructive approach' to their relationship, as he came face-to-face with the rising economic power that his administration is trying to counter-balance in the region. Meeting with outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit, Obama reiterated his commitment to working with China, despite the tenuous relationship between the two economic superpowers."
New York Times: "In a dramatic new turn in the scandals swirling around Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper outpost, prosecutors said on Tuesday that two former top executives -- Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks — will be charged with making corrupt payments to public officials along with an an array of previous accusations." Guardian story here.
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Reader Comments (22)
Re: Go west old man, go west; Dr. Ron,secede please, please, pretty please. It's time; burn the passport and the old flag that you use as an adult pamper and go. Kit and kabootle, off you go. Some island in the far south-west Pacific needs a quack; I mean a doctor. There you can be FREE. Free to believe what you believe. Good clean air, plenty of coconuts to talk to.
Dr. Paul; please go, lead your tribe out of darkness. Take your son, don't forget him, he too has gained nothing from the country of his birth. Send postcards, or not.
We here; left behind, will somehow struggle on without you.
Vaya con Dios; Now fly like a dodo, like the dodo fly.
(Is that going to work? As much as I would like to think it will; no, the good doctor is not going anywhere. We're stuck with him. Damn.)
" I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that". Which means that he believes scientists are qualified and then proceeds to ignore what he just said. RUBIO FOR PRESIDENT!
When I was pregnant with my last child because I was almost forty I had an amniocentesis at Yale which at that time was following the children for seven years who had been exposed to that procedure. The mothers were interviewed before hand along with a session or two with a psychologist to help with the decision to abort or not if Downs Syndrome was detected. One day my husband and I paid a visit to one of his relatives, a little old Italian Aunt from "the old country" who while stirring her sauce on the stove learned that we were going to have a son and we explained how we knew. She listened carefully, then threw her hands up in the air, dismissed the medical procedure and results and said, "What God wants, God will get." I was about to counteract, but my husband put his finger to his lips indicating to me that it was futile to try and persuade her. Aunt Rose's beliefs were not going to impact anybody but her immediate family. Well, you know where I'm going with all this, don't you? Rubio's statements matter because they reflect the views of the Republican Party and their push for privatization of our educational system where the teaching of science will be watered down and taught beside superstition and mythical nonsense. Marvin's point is right on along with being really funny. Wasn't the cry for more science and math loud enough? But hey, since these same people are global warming deniers it won't matter since future folks will just be worrying about survival.
Ken Burn's "Dust Bowl" series on PBS was excellent. Science here saved the plains thanks to FDR's persistence and commitment.
@Marvin Schwalb. For part of his life, Marco attended public schools in the same county I did -- Miami-Dade. I can tell you that in the late 1950s Miami-Dade (then it was just Dade County) County Schools were teaching that science-y stuff, like evolution. In addition, Marco's church has long accepted scientific explanations for the history of the universe & the earth specifically & has acknowledged that OT Biblical stories are myths (they're a little squishier on NT myths).
So, when Marco says, "Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries," he's just blowing smoke. He knows it is not "one of the great mysteries." His willingness to claim ignorance in a heaping pander to the stupid is a good example of what sets Republicans apart from leaders.
Marie
In a comment submitted late yesterday, @Haley Simon wrote about the Hostess blame-the-union bankruptcy. She noted that commenters on stories about the bankruptcy were totally buying the corporation's line: "Boy oh boy, are they a hateful bunch," Simon wrote. "Their tag line was: Let. Them. Burn. and their greatest concern was that Hostess workers not be allowed any unemployment benefits. I wouldn't be looking for a resurgence of union power anytime soon - not if those folks have anything to say about it."
It's pretty easy to find racism & sexism & a few other isms in the right's attitudes. Perhaps here we should add anti-unionism. But when you consider the type of comments Simon read, you realize that the writers are not just opposed to the union itself or to unions in general; they hate the union members, individual Americans trying to earn a fair wage.
Hating "everybody but me" is perhaps the overarching legacy of modern conservatism. The Republican party & right-wing outlets like Fox "News" stoke this raw, senseless hatred of the "other." In fact, they busy themselves "otherizing" all sorts of segments of society. Today it's scientists, tomorrow it will be "Hollywood elites." Whatever.
When I call the GOP the Party of Resentment, I don't think I go far enough. Maybe it should be the Party of Resentment Gone Mad. One of the posts I linked today -- I think it's one by Surowiecki -- cites a prominent conservative who complained about the Hostess workers getting pensions. You really have to despise people to think it's quite all right to publicly reveal that you hope American workers don't have a means to survive in their old age. But that's what at least one "conservative intellectual" (yeah, okay, an oxymoron) thinks is A-okay.
I'm no longer certain conservatism is a political philosophy; I think it might be a pathology.
Marie
Marie,
The union busting ways of the GOP, the re-positioning of Paul Ryan back up on his pedestal after being felled by facts and honest appraisals of his "male fides", his resumption of honorary Potemkin wonk in the party of ignorance, the voracious, amoral destruction of personal lives by Romney venture capital clones for no good reason other than pocket padding--not job creation, not the good of the nation, not the glory of god; purely for mammon; the faux outrage over a non-existent "scandal", the immediate resumption of anti-democratic (and anti-Democratic) vote suppression, are all of a piece with this collection of low rent, high pay, know nothings.
And the Marco Rubio interview is no dog whistle.
It is a blaring klaxon horn. Like the civil defense drills that directed people, by means of sirens, to the nearest shelters back in the 50s, Rubio's willful embrace of ignorance is a siren call for the mouthbreathers that he, unlike the false RomBot, will shelter their vilest, stupidest, most imbecilic fantasies. Fantasies held for several reasons, some religious, some opportunistic, some out of greed, but some, purely because the opposite positions are held by people (us) they despise.
Ignorance, just as much as love of money is the shibboleth of the Republican Party.
And Marco Rubio is proud to carry the banner of Republican Imbecility into the 9th century.
Backwards! At all speed! Don't worry about how much it will cost to refashion the country into a medieval fiefdom for teabagging totalitarians. Paul Ryan will show us how to ply that wonky budget magic that turns enormous tax breaks into piles of loot.
And away we go.
Oh, and one other Republican shibboleth I forgot:
Craven cowardice.
Marie, I totally agree with your call of Republican pathology. As I have said before, there is a fine line between normal and abnormal human behavior generally separated by the number of 'affecteds'. If a hundred people believe it, it's crazy, if 100 million believe it it is normal. The fact that we are now in the world where every nutcase act becomes public information we can reevaluate the 'truth'.
Yes, a large chunk of the Republicans live in a delusional world. Not just on science, but a willingness top create illogical agendas on everything. This is a fundamental weakness in the human mind. It can be dealt with in education and that is why the right wants to control education. I read the story about the Pakistani girl charged with blasphemy. We are not unique. So if we want to treat the new pathology, the focus should be on education. Instead of the absurd 'no child left behind', how about 'no child denied the truth!'.
"I'm no longer certain conservatism is a political philosophy; I think it might be a pathology." says Marie.
And decades ago Richard Hofstadter, the Columbia U. historian, certainly came to the same conclusion. He thought the Conservative movement was the manifestation of a psychological disorder. Said Goldwater's candidacy provided conservatives "a kind of vocational therapy, without which they might have to be committed."
Rubio's comments remind me of one of my favorite quotes:
"For me there remains this at least—the opportunity of expressing thus publicly my belief that a Conservative Government is an Organised Hypocrisy."
Benjamin Disreali
Ah, but there be method to their madness.
Scotty Walkers call for ending same day voter registration in Wisconsin is a twofer for the Rupugs who now, through gerrymandering, control both legislative wings, the state Attorney Generals office and the state Supreme Court. While the newspapers, bloggers, Sunday pundits, and editorial columns will be busy into the future arguing the merits of this retrograde idea, a truly repugnant mining bill, written by the lobbyists of the Florida mining company wanting to tap resources in Northern Wis. while polluting important rivers, will slither through the legislative process with very little investigation. So goes corruption in Wisconsin, home of the Koch's favorite son Scotty Walker and his trusted sidekick Scotty Fitzgerald.
If more proof were needed that, as Marie says, the Repugnants are the party of Resentment Gone Mad, this morning's e-mail brought forwarded links to three articles about Oregon's teacher pension problems, the ones from the conservative sites downright joyful in tone.
Much of the system's problem originated, of course, in the Bush meltdown, but though the articles acknowledged the part the crash played in the system's shortfall, they did not assign any blame to the unregulated mortgage market and the Wall Street robbers that caused it. No, the problem was that retired school employees were getting too much, growing too fat feeding in the public trough. It was their deserved comeuppance, and the financial sector that eliminated over 30 percent of pension assets overnight entirely escaped the authors' attention.
It's a double-standard, of course. I've often wondered at the ability of some to view the world so narrowly. The Disraeli quote above speaks to it but doesn't explain it.
We see the same hypocrisy displayed in reports of Twinkie's possible demise. Resentment is certainly part of that reporting and the public reaction it invites but I'm not sure the issue is resentment so much as it is that resentment's direction. I resent management that takes bonuses when workers are being shortchanged. I resent the kind of reporting that leaves half the story out.
So I'm resentful too. What I am not is envious or angry or fearful, which I'd suggest are three other elements necessary to motivate and inspire today's conservative.
What it all does is make me sad, which might be part of my own liberal pathology.
Re: On the seventh day god rested; He then lost his job because it was non-union and he was on a thirty-nine and a half hour work week with no benefits. Poor god. Rubio is proof positive asswipes come in all colors. Come on Republicans; come up with somebody, anybody that is in the current century and is not greedy or corrupt. Do it for me and Zee.
A president presents a plan for the nation.
This plan, he declares, has been designed for the good of the nation. He declares, further, that anyone who doesn't go along with this plan is a traitor. His party backs his plan wholeheartedly. The opposing party backs the plan as well. Not all, but the vast majority. The president's party decries any who don't go along with the master plan as traitors as well.
The president is George W. Bush. The plan is to torture, maim, displace, and kill human beings. To declare war on a country that had no connection to an attack on the United States that had killed several thousand Americans.
Any elected official not on board with a series of lies spread by the administration in order to support a made up war is branded an unAmerican traitor.
A president presents a plan for the nation.
This plan, he declares has been designed for the good of the nation. The plan allows that politicians who do not wish to go along with this plan can opt out of local control and still not be considered traitors, but must allow the federal government to configure the plan in their states.
Only one party goes along with the president's plan. The other party does everything in their power to deflect, destroy, and dismantle the plan and STILL scream that anyone who does not go along with them a traitor.
The president is Barack Obama. The plan is to save lives. To improve the lives of human beings. To declare war on the medical conditions that deprive millions of Americans of a decent quality of life.
The opposing party declares that any elected officials and citizens who go along with this plan to improve the quality of life of people who aren't wealthy or connected are unAmerican traitors.
So here we have a party dedicated to killing people who had nothing to do with Americans and allowing Americans who are not rich or connected to die.
Why?
Because. Because their ideology comes first, last, and always. It trumps life itself.
So, what does this party actually stand for?
This is not a trick question.
Change coming to the Republican party.
Oh, yeah! The Great Period of After-Election GOP Introspection!
Musta lasted at least a whole 15 minutes.
MAG,
More like 15 seconds.
Which means the only change imminent will be cosmetic.
"Oh yeah, of COURSE we love blah people and immigrants. Absolutely! In fact, they need to vote for us because Democrats only want to use them. Not us, though. We LOVE non-rich, non-white, non-fundamentalist, non-rural, non Wall Street voters.
Cross our tiny leaden hearts and hope to die.
A little note about what the bullshit is all about, NJ just asked that totally worthless pile of crap that only feeds the lazy called the Federal Government to pay 90% of the cleanup for Sandy. Note of course this is a Republican administration and they are sure that the money will come from heaven. I am willing to bet that there will not be so much as one Republican victim of Sandy who will refuse the money.
I think we will see the last tremulous kicks of the pseudo reasonable Republicans in a few weeks. Their actions are desperate. The self identified savvy among them squinched up their faces and are looking oh so angry and sincere. They're spewing meaningless slogan politics, "we have to change, we need to examine ourselves through our assholes (constantly exposed and easy access), we have seen the light and we now TOTALLY respect people of color but women -not so much and by the way how about that loser Romney."
They're vile and disgusting. The upside is that they still have no clue and I for one hope they stay that way. Candidates like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz will not win over Hispanics in this country. Their very Cuban history and ancestry does not resonate with most Hispanics in America. I hope that Republican ignorance and self aggrandizement continues in full flower. There is no one that comes to mind who is an honorable adversary. Until there is I'm great with running the table. I sincerely hope that Democrats recognize their power and march relentlessly forward over the corpses of the terminally stupid. Federal election reform now - screw that incentive crap. Mercy me, free healthcare is being turned down to make a point. You can't get much more maliciously stupid. The only effective incentive is prison if you purposely suppress the vote.
And another thing, those Republican Governors have cornered ugly!!!! Rick Scott is just plain frightening the horses with that mug.
@Diane Remember back some weeks ago there was a 'study' or report circulating re the attractiveness of Republican women as compared to "...those Democractic hags."? Guess with Republican governors, they end up with a visage that only a near-sighted mother could love! Poor Mrs. Scott! Poor Mrs. LePage! (sigh!)
@JJG--
Thank you for including me in your prayer for a future, Republican presidential candidate that might be able to honestly and quickly state with confidence that, “Yes, the Earth is 4.5M or so years old, the Universe is on the order of 15B years old, and that Darwin's theory of evolution explains how we all came to be what we are today, and it's a mystery why God chose to do things that way—if She did—but there it is.”
Alas, I fear that ourrs is a prayer that will go unanswered for quite some time, if the best Marco Rubio--favored Republican candidate for 2016--can say is “I'm not a scientist” [so I can't answer that question with any authority].
The Republican party is no longer the party of “conservatism.” It has become the party of loons, and, I think, will soon be no more.
What will take its place, I have no idea. I guess that I'm hoping for an alliance between thinking, educated conservatives and such thinking, educated (small “l”) libertarians as believe that while smaller government is desirable--for a wide range of arguable reasons--it would be INSANE to imagine privatizing everything, letting capitalism run unregulated, and abandoning any sense of community or commonality that make us a nation and a people. Which is what the nut-case, true-believer, (big “L”) Libertarians believe.
In my wildest dreams, this alliance would be a real third-party, leaving behind the fundamentalists and wild-eyed Libertarians as lunatic fringes, and providing a real alternative to big-government Progressivism.
In my dreams.
Lee, sweet dreams.
The Repuglican party is indeed going nowhere and fast. But it'd be illusory to actually believe their insanity will implode the party and half of our political class would disband and find a new tribe. They will eventually realize their shananigans have gone too far and then they'll romney their way back into some sort of pseudo-sanity. They are politicians. But complete decay and disintegration ... well, we can dream can't we.
And regarding the religious zealots, I've come to the conclusion that you must just let the sheep graze. No facts nor common sense is breaking through their firewall. If they try to come push anything on others, I find a dry and direct Fuck Off! seems to do the trick. Any further discussion is wasting time...
All of you who think the battle is over, we showed them with this election, now we can relax, simply are ignoring the tenaciousness of the likes of Adellson, Rove, Norquist, and the Kochs and other .1 percenters.
Just like rust and rot, they work each day at schemes to restrict voting rights, gerrymander legislative districts, install attorney's general, and put in place district and state judges and state supreme courts that will thwart future election results such as we have just witnessed.
While we like to discuss BIG ideas and sweeping concepts on venues such as this, we must remember politics is a ground game. How we personally engage the crazed opposition will ultimately determine success or failure.