An Exercise For the Reader
By Tom Levenson December 17th, 2010
What’s missing from this statement in today’s Boston Globe article on the death of the omnibus spending bill in the “world’s greatest deliberative body?” (Sic and sick):
The House and Senate typically spend months on the 12 annual spending bills, but Democrats didn’t bring even a single one to the Senate floor this year, an unprecedented collapse of an appropriations process.
To be fair, the article did get to the matter of Republican duplicity and lack of honor on this one bill further in the piece…but the final clause above encapsulates for me the failure of both the media and the Democratic party to get one crucial truth across. The Republicans do not belong to a governing party. They are traitors to the United States, in that they always place faction above country.
GOPago Delaenda Est.
(thanks to Ian Preston, who catches this error every time I make it. ;)
Image: J. W. M. Turner, Dido Building Carthage, 1815.
Posted in DC Press Corpse
I would add “The Republican Party is a cancer on the body politic,” but I’m afraid that phrase has certain historical connotations.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:33 am
Remember, folks, no matter who’s in charge, one political truism remains: It’s always the Democrats’ fault.
Even in 2012 when the glorious Republican Resurgence takes unprecedented majorities, the White House, and succeeds in excising all those dirty damned activist judges from the top down and replaces all of them with god-fearing types who know our rule of law was based on the 10 Commandments, it’ll be the Dems fault when anything bad happens, because the Dems are a cancer on America, and libs and hippies are the raging brain cancer that needs to be eradicated, preferably by high radiation exposure.
...bleh. Excuse the snark rant, I can’t help being a little optimistic ball of fucking sunshine these days.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Exactly right.
And that fact is one of the telltale signs that the Confederate Party has taken over the GOP and the so-called ‘Conservative’ movement.
Cheers
December 17th, 2010 at 9:38 am
I think Stewart described this well last night, when Huckabee accused Democrats of politicizing the 9/11 Responders Bill. Don’t we WISH they’d politicized it. Sweet delicious cake, and the Democrats would rather talk about eating their austerity vegetables.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:39 am
The goopers would have loved to use those appropriation bills to tie up the senate with bullshit stalling tactics, to where things like HCR, finreg, etc….. would not have been able to have been squeezed in to precious senator floor time. Then kick back and claim the dems didn’t even try and thus failed in reforming anything like what they campaigned on.
It is a legislative insurrection the wingnuts are exacting on the republic, there is no other way to describe it imo. Bring it all down, or at least enough of it, so as Candy Crowley will fur her brow at the lack of bipartisanship in completing the nations business, and of course, since dems are in power, they will get the ultimate blame.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:42 am
Sic semper Democrats. They’ve only had a few decades to get the crucial truths about tax cuts or supply side economics across and they have yet to do so. They only had seven years to prepare the ground for a repeal of portions of the Bush tax cuts and instead we have a last-minute vote on a shitty deal to extend them in toto. They, through inexplicable inaction, simply allowed the estate tax to lapse for a year.
“Better than nothing,” now there’s a slogan that will bring out the voters.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:43 am
Meh they’re fucking themselves because the Democrats are going to wake up and realize that there is a war going on and that the GOP doesn’t give two shits about governing and they’re not honest brokers of a political philosophy.
I wonder what President Bush’s first legislative priorities will be?
December 17th, 2010 at 9:43 am
But they think of themselves as the party of the ruling class. How could that be unpatriotic?
December 17th, 2010 at 9:46 am
@ChrisS:
What, they didn’t realize this back during Bush? Then what makes you think a Jeb presidency or, fuck, any other GOP presidency would become the necessarily wake up call for the fucking idiots we have in Washington to actually fucking lead and not act like fucking battered spouses time and time a-fucking-gain?
December 17th, 2010 at 9:46 am
@Kryptik: I’m guessing snark here.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:49 am
@Kryptik:
Twas sarcasm.
They know exactly what they’re doing. Fifty-some of the wealthiest, most powerful people in America aren’t that fucking dumb. Keep the rubes occupied, throw a few bones, but keep the wealthy and powerful happy above all else.
It really is embarrassing to be a liberal in this country.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:50 am
@thomas Levenson:
@ChrisS:
Ugh…apologies then. As you can tell, I’m just being a fuckin’ ray of hope these days.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:53 am
The GOP is the Imperial Stars of our political system. Blockading all progress no matter the cost so they can grandstand and feed their egos.
Unlike the actual Imperial Stars who only impeded thousands of motorists and had an actual purpose – publicity – the GOP wants everything in the country to stop until they’re put in charge.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:54 am
@ChrisS:
Go Jeb! Now that the GOP has retaken the House and reduced the Dems’ already ineffectual majority in the Senate I’d say that campaigning on a return to the prosperity of the Bush years just might be a winner in ‘12. The very name of the GOP should have been toxic. The fact that it isn’t suggests that the very name of “Bush” might not be that toxic either.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:55 am
The Democrats are doing exactly what they are paid to do. This is the same party that gave Bush everything he wanted – yet people expect them do be different now. Why?
Oh yeah, and third-parties are evil and stupid…
December 17th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Hmmm. Rage or resignation?
I’m angry enough to hope they do manage to wreck the place, just so the rubes are forced to deal with the consequences of their piss-poor decision making processes.
However, I’m also resigned to the fact that a) if it goes down, we’re ALL going to go through that living hell, b) the rubes either STILL won’t get it or will manage to find a way to blame it on the usual suspects instead of the real culprits, and c) the media will deny it to the last, even as Candied Crowley and her merry band of miscreants are lined up against the wall as their services will no longer be required.
Guess I’m going to have to go with both.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:56 am
Bad news for Palin, though. Against Obama she’s out polled by Mitt, Huck and Newt. Way, way out in the weeds.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Yes. Yes. Yes.
The GOP learned from Cato: Repeat the same simple message enough, and it sinks in. It’s past time to turn it back on them.
December 17th, 2010 at 9:59 am
@Captain Haddock:
Well of course they are. Just as declaring”This is shit – not peanut butter,” makes you the enemy.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:00 am
The only opportunity for dems to have been able to separate the rich from the mc tax cuts and renew just the mc ones, was during the window when they had a 60 vote majority in the senate. But only 58 dems, one of which is Nelson of NE, and another non dem, Lieberman. They could have tried it then, but were thoroughly engrossed in trying to pass HCR, or universal coverage, the apex of Dem priorities, and getting that 60th vote was doubtful, and using reconciliation to fire it’s single yearly barrel on separating the Bush tax cuts out, would have ruined the final effort to get HCR passed using reconciliation.
Obama campaigned on vigorously, extending the MC tax cuts and now it’s a promise kept. The fact he couldn’t also keep his promise to end the wealthy cuts, was a dubious proposition all along.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:01 am
Tom L.:
Really? Which ones are levying war against the United States, or giving aid and comfort to its enemies?
There are all sorts of things that can rightly be said about Republican Senators, but accusing them of treason, a term which has a precise meaning, in the absence of any evidence of, you know, actual treason, doesn’t really advance the conversation.
Some words really do have fixed meanings that must be respected.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:02 am
@Captain Haddock:
Not evil, but definitely stupid. They can’t but act as spoilers in a country with a first-past-the-post voting system.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:04 am
No, they’re the party of the middle class. That just means something different to them than it might mean to us. It used to be to me, “middle class” was everybody from blue-collar workers making a decent wage right up to non-rich white collar workers. (Probably just short of doctors and lawyers, really)
But to them, “middle class” is only talking about the upper tiers of that designation. It’s talking about the white-collar, suburban, honestly usually WASP, lifestyle. Those people? Their jobs are secure. Their wages are secure. They think they’re immune. They’re too skilled. Too much of a hard worker. Unemployment isn’t that much of a concern to them. The profits of the corps they work for is going up. Happy days are here again!
We need tax cuts, and we need property values protected and we need to further inflate the stock market bubble… and those lazy, shiftless working class folks (and gasp, below)? They need to eat the austerity veggies so we can have lower wages and thus higher corporate profits and lower prices and..most importantly..a smug satisfaction in our own success.
This isn’t just a political issue folks. It’s a social and a cultural cancer.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:05 am
@General Stuck:
HCR was the apex of Obama’s priorities. This Democrat would have preferred more job creation as a first priority and an overhaul of the tax code as a second one.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:05 am
@Dennis SGMM:
Alternatively, “We may suck but we suck less than they do.”
December 17th, 2010 at 10:06 am
@burnspbesq:
The precise meaning you refer to is not the exclusive meaning. But you’re too unintelligent to understand that.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:06 am
@Dennis SGMM:
good for you
December 17th, 2010 at 10:07 am
@burnspbesq: I would say voting against a bill that (a) includes funding for two wars actually being fought right now by American men and women and (b) conspiring to weaken the fundamental physical and virtual infrastructure of the country counts.
Seriously: you are right, in that “treason” has a specific meaning. I didn’t say they committed treason, however. I wrote “traitors” for a reason, as it is much broader. For example, I think the phrase “traitor to his cause” is a perfectly familiar bit of rhetoric—and it is in that sense that I use the term.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:07 am
@Ross Hershberger:
I’ve never thought for a second, since she quit as Governor, that Palin would run for President. She doesn’t give a shit. She’s making money hand over fist throwing rocks from the sidelines with no accountability or responsibility other than flying first class from her Wasilla Hideaway down down to the lower 48 to collect checks from the rubes.
Fucking great gig if you can get it.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:08 am
@burnspbesq:
They are undermining the country, giving aid and comfort to Al Qaeda and enriching China. So yeah, words have meaning that should be respected. It looks like treason, smells like treason and has the end result of treason.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:13 am
@Alwhite: rotsa ruck with that
December 17th, 2010 at 10:14 am
@Dennis SGMM:
I like that they got something done about healthcare, but I still think that was the wrong time to try and take on a very healthy insurance industry. But at the same time, I don’t know if there would be a right time. I’m glad the odious pre-existing condition was legislated out of existence, though.
My main issue with the Obama administration is that they know that wealth is being concentrated in an elite few and there is no mechanism in place to alter that. The only mechanism that does exist is the tax system that the GOP continually chips away at. The economy wasn’t going to be “fixed” with a trillion dollars of giveaways (the total amount remains dubious). The american economy is in dire straits and they barely pay lip service to the underlying causes.
The headline the other day was that Obama was going to put the economy on the right path by meeting with a bunch of CEOs. Awesome. I’m sure they really understand what’s happening.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:20 am
@ChrisS:
To my mind, taking on HCR while unemployment was so high was like negotiating the purchase of a new car while your house is burning down. You may need the car, and a new car is neat, it’s just that you won’t have a place to park it.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:24 am
“I don’t want people running around calling people traitors. Just calm down, everyone.”
– John Cole, 11/2/05
December 17th, 2010 at 10:26 am
@SGEW: That was then…
December 17th, 2010 at 10:27 am
@ChrisS: It also could be taken care of via an extended period of full employment. Personally, I like the idea of a jobs department paid for by a surtax on the rich during times of high unemployment.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:28 am
@SGEW:
All of the liberal implants were not yet installed
December 17th, 2010 at 10:28 am
It took the Globe until the sixth paragraph to mention Bobby Jindal in its article about how Jindal’s sand berm scheme was a gigantic money-waster. And if you were looking for information about how Jindal spent a week on Fox News talking about how much Obama sucked for not spending even more on Jindal’s little taxpayer heist, you won’t get it from the Globe article.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:41 am
@Captain Haddock: You are half right. BTW, pass on my thanks to Ralph Nader for the 8 years of Bush.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:43 am
What?
That’s not true, mainly because SHUT UP, but also because though some liberals say, it’s also true that many conservatives say, and that such rhetoric doesn’t move governing forward with the kind of bipartisan coming together that AMERICA SPOKE WITH A CLEAR MESSAGE about these past elections.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:51 am
@stuckinred: I do think the word treason is hyperbole here, but on the other hand, imagine[1]: What if Iran had paid off Bush and told him, “do everything you can to weaken the US and strengthen Iran.” Would there be a single thing over the course of eight years he would have done differently?
[1] For the retarded or conservative note that I said “imagine”. No I don’t think Bush was in the pay of the Iranians. Just that his actions were functionally the same.
December 17th, 2010 at 10:59 am
@Alwhite:
Of course, anyone who buys gasoline and also buys from Walmart qualifies by that criterion.
Hey, I’m a traitor, too!
December 17th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Republicans do not govern.
Anyone who attempts to govern is an enemy of God.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:19 am
@thomas Levenson: Can you please provide a list of the Democrats that voted (or didn’t vote, as the case may be) the same way the Republicans did? Are they traitors too?
December 17th, 2010 at 11:19 am
@Benjamin Cisco:
I go with both as well.
40 to 60% of the eligible voters do not bother to vote. They have no idea; proof that ignorance is bliss.
Very few of them will understand what happened or why it happened. They have been seinfelded to death.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:28 am
@Church Lady: Not to feed predictable threads, but the point is not that Democrats vote with or against GOPers on any given vote. It is rather that the GOP has used every device at their disposal for the last two years to make it impossible to govern.
Anyone can disagree on a tax bill or a resolution in favor of puppies, for that matter. It’s the course of action, not each specific choice that matters.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:34 am
They may not be ignorant and blissful. They may be resigned to the fact that the criminal class and the ruling class are one in the same. I consider both major parties to be nothing more than gangsters, (RICO, multiple felonies to further criminal enterprise and all that) and so choose not to participate in the conspiracy. When I cast my ballot, it’s for a minor party or a write-in. While I do not assert that everyone who doesn’t vote is so cynical, I would propose that many believe it’s a futile act as the criminals will find their way into power regardless of the outcome.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Article from the Washington Post. (Not the Op-Ed section.)
December 17th, 2010 at 11:40 am
@Dennis G.:
I would agree except that I’d add “and the Democrats and the news media, traitors themselves, enable them every way they can.”
I’m so sick of everything going on in this country and see nothing that makes me think anything is going to change. The only politician I respect even an iota any more is the only socialist with national office.
I was having a beer in a local watering hole with John last night and we were laughing about his idea for his own political campaign (just a joke). And the guy next to me, without a bit of prodding and with no fear of what we might think, leaned over and held up his cell phone, saying well, it wouldn’t be hard to beat this couple. The picture on his cell phone was labeled “The Obamas” and was an image of two gorillas.
This, from a guy I’d never seen or met ever before. He had no qualms that, perhaps, we wouldn’t agree with him and have a big ol’ laugh about those nigras who are dirtying up our White House. White House, get it?
I was so angry that I burst into tears.
I hate Americans. Truly.
December 17th, 2010 at 11:51 am
@El Cid:
Uhhh… is this satire from the Onion, by any chance?
December 17th, 2010 at 11:59 am
Okay, I’m guessing I’m in moderation for using the word ni9ras.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
@The Republic of Stupidity: Well, “compromising the last possible imaginable notion of ‘independence’.”
December 17th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
@MikeJ:
Of course it wasn’t the Iranians…
He was under retainer to the House of Saud…
December 17th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
@El Cid:
Whoever wrote that WaPo piece has a real future in comedy…
I do believe Steve Ward got it right w/ that NOTHING WILL part… thingy…
I wonder… is Nothing related to George, by any chance?
December 17th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
@The Republic of Stupidity: However, this is from The Onion:
Again, satire, reality, etc.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
@El Cid:
Perhaps we need a new genre…
Satireality…?
December 17th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
@...now I try to be amused: Delenda
Not delanda, not delaenda, delenda. And Cato was more like the belligerent right wing of the GOP than anyone I would prefer to emulate.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
@The Republic of Stupidity: So he’s as incompetent for them as he was for us? I don’t think the chaos he unleashed did his friends any good.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
To me, this meme about Republican obstructionism is really a side show. Those pulling the levers in parties are bought and paid, have been for a while now. Free markets for all!
December 17th, 2010 at 12:33 pm
hmmm…leaving aside the “traitor” rhetoric, i have to disagree, slightly, for two reasons:
1. you are assuming that the Ds want to “govern”. it’s not clear to me that a policy of “extend and pretend” domestically and MOAR WAR abroad is governing. unless you would also say that Jr. governed.
2. as to those folks themselves, i would hazard a guess that it’s always just political, in that the only thing wrong with the country is that the wrong people are in power. put differently, they are not worrying about damaging what little is left of the body politic because they (literally) cannot imagine the US of A going downhill. thus, in their mindset, they are destroying the opposition, not the country.
3. and if #2 is at all correct, then these people cannot see themselves as traitors. at a minimum, being a traitor must include some kind of hostility to the country, not the opposing political party, and these people just don’t conceive that it is possible to run the Empire into a ditch. after all, as any good reactionary who reads post-modern theory can tell you, it’s just a made-up reality, anyway.
of course a chunk of my comment rests on the notion that these folks cannot imagine that they are damaging anything, because the US of A is not only the bestest country EVAR but it will last forever. otherwise it seems to me, at any rate, that you have to take the much larger leap and assume that these people are knowingly crashing their car into their own house. perhaps they do think that way; but IMO that requires a certain mindset that may be present in individuals but not generally. or everyone in a leadership position is a sociopath.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
@agrippa:
You may consider that shamelessly stolen.
December 17th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
@PS: Yep, delenda like delete.
And Cato eventually got his way.
December 17th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
@liberal: When you got nothin’ try to work the refs on the semantics. When the GOP calls for actual war then it will be that they did not fire (yet) and when they fire it will be about the actual casualties. Then it won’t be bad until we hit Omaha-Beach-per-day levels. Then and only then will your headstone say, “Died fighting against the CSA” and then, by definition it won’t have been treason. And don’t expect some Lincolnesque all is forgiven. Surviving traitors will be shot.
Remember when treason was simply renting the Lincoln Bedroom?
December 17th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
@Jack: I always make that misspelling (my high school Latin teacher, Mrs. Small, would be ashamed), and my friend Ian Preston (as noted in the post) always catches it and makes me fix it.
It’s just a mental tic with me, like the one that always types two c’s and one s in necessary, before switching them around. Don’t know why…
December 17th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
@sparky: I think a fair portion of them are sociopaths, but that’s for a later post.
December 17th, 2010 at 2:43 pm
@Benjamin Cisco:
To paraphrase Disraeli:
The Republican Party is an organized hypocrisy.
The Democratic Party is an organized fatuity.
December 17th, 2010 at 5:00 pm