I was going to write this morning about the latest events in our epic Beltway saga of health-care reform, but, at the rate events are moving, it seems that every columnist's column on the issue is hopelessly outdated by the time he finishes it.
No one has yet determined if Harry Reid can even count -- one day he has maybe 50-some-odd votes for some version or other of some radically modified concept of a recently redesigned and mostly optionless public option, the next day he has under 50, then, magically, he pole-vaults to 59 -- and yesterday, all within the span of a couple hours, we learned that Nancy Pelosi either a) does not have 218 robust votes, or b) actually does have the votes, but, in a negotiating maneuver that would make Machiavelli's head spin like something out of a William Peter Blatty novel, she's faking defeat.
We should, perhaps, return to those intoxicating days of smoked-filled rooms and flowing bourbon and autocratic party bosses who knew how to surgically dissect and then fairly distribute the graft. Before the last slurred word, deals got done. Imperfect deals, for sure, but just how much perfection would you say modernity is yielding? I rest my case.
And turn, instead, to that other obsessive debate of the week: Resolved, Barack Obama is being mean to Republicans.
Yes, they have labored mightily to cope with the wildly temperamental vicissitudes of this proto-hyper-partisan president, but he'll have nothing to do with their meek Dale Carnegie ways. Won't somebody please help these presidentially abused, GOP-saturated targets of defenseless insurance companies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street, The Mouth, and, especially, the nearly voiceless Fox News?
What stuns me is that we're even debating this. And, maybe we're not, really. Maybe each side is merely thrilling to its serendipitous jollies -- as the Times' Jim Rutenberg put it: "The heated back-and-forth between the White House and Fox News has brought equal delight to Fox’s conservative commentators, who revel in the fight, and liberal Democrats, who have long characterized the network as a purveyor of right-wing propaganda" -- with distraught, somber journalists mediating with profundity in cable-news screamfests.
In short, it's all a show, purely for our distracted amusement.
What's even more stunning, however, is that the GOP -- you remember it, the organizational arm of Fox -- is, rather than formulating a forward-looking playbook, still languishing in the victimized neighborhood of scapegoats. That black Dick Nixon, deviously compiling his white-men-enemies list, those uncooperative, uninclusive Reids and Pelosis -- they're all being so mean to the ineffably affable Republicans, not allowing them to play in their sandbox and all that.
But just who is responsible for these sorry numbers? In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, only 20 percent of those surveyed were willing to self-identify as Republicans. Yet in Gallup's last national measurement of political ideology, "40% of Americans interviewed ... describe[d] their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal."
That's 75 percent of the nation standing in the center or center-right, yet an even greater percentage is opposed to, or at the very least alienated from, what should be the center/center-right political party.
That's staggering. And what are Republicans doing about it? They're whining. Barack Obama is picking on them and their allies.
One might think they would, instead, maybe stage a media blitz on alternative health-care reform -- anything at all, or cheer a (still) popular commander in chief's deliberative habits, or even assemble on the Hill's steps and apologize for years of unprovoked bloodshed and unbounded profligacy.
But, no. They seem to be content, whining.
Which way all this is headed is anyone's guess, but one thing is certain: Republicans cannot sustain themselves as the party of Dixie, Sarah Palin, Dick Armey, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Either the White House will force the GOP to the middle, or the GOP will collapse under the right-wing weight of its own dithering.
Buzz this on Buzzflash.net
Self-defeating "liberals" defend FOX
I can't believe how the other networks--the very ones who FOX has vowed to destroy are tripping over themselves to defend this toxic waste dump..Does anyone remember how the Bush administration tried to literally shut down PBS --appointing a top man who compiled a hit list of programs on the network that were opposed to the Bush agenda? If I remember correctly FOX cheered on the attempt to destroy public television
Do these networks expect that FOX will respond in kind when another right-wing administration attacks them? has that ever worked? Lucy's holding the football again, Charlie Brown, are you going to keep falling for that old trick?
The Two-Party Scam Must Die!
Way back in 1799, George Washington bid farewell to public life and attempted to ask the public to notice certain facts that he felt were detrimental to the health of the Commonwealth. Among these were what he called "factions" known today as political parties. I won't go into his long list of grievances leveled at those who created and benefitted from this, but I will state that he knew of which he spoke. Things have pretty much come to the partisan impasse he warned against.
The polls cited above indicate that the people are beginning to awaken to the fact that belonging to a party means surrendering some or most of your values to achieve a few others. On a case by case basis, one may well have to make compromise on a bill to ensure passage, which the Founders intended. They did not plan on portions of the nation sacrificing most of their values just to attain a few of them across the board, yet that is what most of the nation now endures as big city corporatist power blocs do battle with the so-called Christian fundamentalist corporatists. Most of us get left out of this "spectrum", and thus have no party representing us. We are those independents cited as having no faith in party membership yet having views which range across the spectrum. These are the seeds for demolition of the two parties as they now exist.
No other major modern industrial nation has only two parties. Such a system can't represent the people properly, nor does it foster true and open debate of the issues. It also opens the door to the reality of one party rule as evidenced by the Bush years and the fears of it as evidenced by Obama's very vocal opposition now. They don'tl like that the bottom rail is on top now!
Despite the cries of political anguish, Obama is not wielding his power in that manner, choosing instead to pursue a false "bipartisanship" for reasons that remain unclear. This results in a gridlock, forcing major decisions to the sidelines while the two parties wrestle over trivia. There is no third force representing those of us not included in the party membership to exert our effort toward breaking up the scrum and getting back to the people's business.
It's high time we had one. I've been waiting not-so-patiently for too many years.
Center-Right Redux
We have had this discussion before, but it bears repeating--on almost every single seperate issue, polls also show that the American people agree with the liberal position. But the word "liberal" has been demonized by conservatives for decades with no appreciable pushback. Point-being--these labels are meaningless and you should stop regurgitating such tripe. The democrats have a MESSAGING problem, not a position problem (except to the extent that the Bluedogs ignore their constituents' desires on the public option and whatnot).
Speaking of--the White House is furiously trying to walk back reporting that they have bowed to Queen Snowe's decree that there be a trigger in the senate bill--which is a position to the RIGHT of Harry Reid's apparent preference of an opt-out provision. When our so-called "liberal" president is taking positions to the right of Harry Reid, the corporate portrait of Dorian Grey Obama is beginning to morph once again.
And lastly, uh, yeah, the GOP has a cult problem. I was a sociology major many moons ago and I know one when I see it. The teabagger/movement conservative base of the Republican Party lives in a "reality" completely seperate from the rest of the world and it is reinforced by itself and its myths and dominant personalities--and good lord, heaven help us if they ever get one of their own in the White House again because it's crazier now than 10 years ago.
Fortunately, many republicans see the base for what it is-- so soon it will be time to take out the popcorn and watch the fireworks. But lest we celebrate such a turn of events, it would be good to note that if the democrats continue to move down the path of corporatism over people, they will be courting the same type of disastrous intra-party civil war that we are watching across the aisle.
A word of warning to the wise.
Same Old Same Old
This line of attack was predictable and should have been anticipated. This is classic Republicanism - attack the opponent's strength. You know, portray an honest to God war hero Kerry) as a coward and traitor, while lifting up their draft dodger candidates (Bush, Cheney) as authentic war heroes. As much as it tries my patience, the one thing that Obama has really tried to be is someone you reaches across the aisle, regardless of how little good faith is returned. So in Republican World, the obvious takeaway from this is that Obama is Dick Nixon on steroids.
This is not an isolated case. What is Obama's other noblest characteristic? He is half-white and half-black. Further, he was parented by his white mother and white grandparents and has obvious, genuine affections for these white people. So the obvious takeaway here is that Obama is a racist who hates white people.
Finally, the one person who has been preaching (to my chagrin) for years now of the need to beef up Afghanistan is Obama. In fact, one of his first acts as president was to authorize an increase in troop strength.
Well, hell, you know what the takeaway from this is.