Eight years of tragically flawed legislation, thousands dead in Iraq and Afghanistan, a broken economy, a fearful, mistrustful and intellectually hobbled citizenry: these are the fruits of Republican leadership.
And yet they would have us endure more of the same.
Make no mistake: we feel the impact of that ideology every moment. From the social division fomented by not-so-subtly coded race-baiting to the fractious, pointless "debates" and loudly bleated false comparisons, to the almost total co-opting of the media to craft insidious messages in order to tenderize and manipulate the skittish masses. The right wing has wreaked its blatant brand of havoc over the body politic with a ferocity that bespeaks both the desperation and the danger of a cornered crooked creed.
And yet they would have us endure more of the same.
Government has never been a perfectly effective entity but it has never been this besieged by those hell-bent on its misappropriation. A majority of congressmen should wear patches bearing the names of their corporate sponsors; instead of R or D before their names, chyrons of their special interest affiliations, complete with slick logos, should travel across the TV screen underneath.
But those members of Congress (like many of their neglected constituents) who do not abide by such corruptions yet are nevertheless prevented from doing the work an American citizen needs to do to enjoy the level of liberty and security promised by the Founders (men infinitely more informed and considerate than their modern right wing counterparts) are engaged in a constant struggle to disengage the teeth of their attackers from their ankles...and necks.
And yet they would have us endure more of the same.
Forget the hapless, hopeless robots who parrot their masters' commands; they are lost and really have no effect as they, too, are pawns in the game: walking, clucking Weapons of Moronic Distraction. The solution to this is to reactivate the one resource people have at their disposal: their vote.
Say what you will about the mercenary greed of Diebold, the Supreme Court's granting corporations unlimited access to funding electoral candidates and the variety of other underhanded shenanigans which accompany our flawed election process. These can be overcome by sheer force of numbers, squashed in the end by the collective wisdom of the true patriots, the people who resist the pull of a corrupted media, corrupted religion, corrupted political system, all of which make up a true axis of evil.
And yet, the world the Republicans would offer is one filled with hypocrisy, the broken and the dead.
Hyperbole? Not for the families of lost American soldiers nor the decimated dreams of Iraqi civilians; not for the people who've lost their homes and investments to the profligate schemes of the greed obsessed; not for the victims of the libertarian myth which leaves a family to watch its home burn while privatized fire fighters stand idle (privatized the same way that Social Security wold be under Republican rule). The shame of the right is that they have no shame.
And yet this is the America they would have us endure.
Once again, the battle is met. Ignorance must be fought with wisdom, propaganda with truth. The election of Barack Obama was only a first example of a wise people tired of the farce of hollow right wing bromides and bullying, motivated by hope, the first battle against all that has slowed progress to a groaning stand-still. The time to civilly engage the charlatans is now passed. It is time for action.
Lest we cease to endure.
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@TheStevenWeber
"Let's get the grown-ups back in charge." Okay. The same grown-ups who started an unnecessary war, mismanaged 2 wars so badly we hemorrhaged our surplus, destroyed our economy with a lack of oversight and paying for everything off the books while borrowing money from other countries and then telling us to be happy and go shopping at the mall? Those grown-ups? I think we'll pass.
the repubs are asking people to be insane - promising to the same thing over and over and promising a different result
riiiiight
will you the elite, intelligent, highest minded people of our country finally admit that keynes's is dead both figuratively and literally?
oh and bush for all of your complaigning was a liberal light, who enacted policies you on the left should embrace with his increase of social programs, funding for africa, and aids, liberal spending policies on victims of natural disasters, etc..
i knew a conservative, i was friends with a conservative, mr bush you are no conservative.
- Tom
Here's a refresher on the Federal debt:
1980 $ 900 billion
1992 $4.2 trillion
2000 $4.6 trillion (with a budget surplus in place)
2009 $11.6 trillion
PS., Speaking of 1980, the much reviled Jimmy Carter achieved the second fastest rate of job creation since WWII.
bush v kerry, lets go with the guy who is not a hypocrite.
although he was more conservative than either of those, he was not a conservative, hence the prescription drug benefit no conservative in their right mind would have supported another socialist program like that?
“'Political writers…have established it as a maxim, that…every man ought to be supposed a knave, and to have no other end, in all his actions, but private interest. By this interest we must govern him, and by means of it make him co-operate to PUBLIC GOOD…'"
— Alexander Hamilton, Founding Father and 1st Treasury Secretary, February 5, 1775
"Government is instituted for the COMMON GOOD; for the protection, safety, prosperity, and happiness of the people..."
— John Adams, Founding Father and 2nd President, Thoughts on Government, 1776
"The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the COMMON GOOD of the society..."
— James Madison, Founding Father and 4th President, Federalist Papers #57, 1788
"The second concern for the Founders … was that all citizens should be free to practice their religion freely, without interference from government, so long as that practice does not violate the rights of others or threaten the COMMON GOOD."
— George Washington, Founding Father and 1st President, October 3, 1789
"...this being now decided by the voice of the nation, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, all will, of course, arrange themselves under the will of the law, and unite in common efforts for the COMMON GOOD."
— Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and 3rd President, March 1801
How about this one, from the Godfather of Capitalism, Edmund Burke (The Wealth of Nations):
"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion"
This arrogance will catch up to your party in November despite the continued and "blaming Bush" is not going to prevent the landslide about to occur.
Lets only hope that when the pendulum swings again you will learn from your massive mistakes.
Good ridance for now. It cant come quick enough
It looks like it will take misery across the land on an almost biblical level for citizens to wake up and/or give in behave like decent, responsible adults. The big question is will it be too late to save our cherished American liberties (or what's left of them).
"The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" F Goya
Very high minded and noble Weber but Obama is the one who's sent 30,000 more troops into the quagmire that is Afghanistan and if it weren't for many like you who continue to give him a free on it and never questioned his judgement about upping the ante for us in Afghanustan when he ran in the primaries, maybe the money thrown into that quagmire could have been used here to bring this economy back to life. The overall economy, jobs, healthcare, education, our crumbling infrastructure, all of it is impacted by the massive expenditures wasted on Afghanistan and it's not getting any better. To support this president and look away from his war policy only makes you Weber and those like you a cog in the wheel of this war. As much as Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld should have been brought up on charges of lying and deceiving this country into war, you insult those democrats and progressives who know Bush is no longer in the White House and isn't the one deepening our involvement in Afghanistan.
new tagline for all republican canadates.
"The Party Of No!!
No Ideas!
No Jobs!
No Progress!
No Clues!
No Hope!
Remember if you dont vote it will be your fault the party of NO will be in office.
POBRE MEXICO, TAN LEJOS DE DIOS, TAN CIRCA TEJAS!
Don't misinterpret simple living, for misery. It'll only make your own adjustment, as a gluttoneous yankee, more painfull.
Very well said. The stuff we own, ends up owning us.
And it's a pretty good bet that after November 2nd you haven't seen the worst. The denigration and dumbing down of American citizenry and destruction of its safety nets by conservitive ideologues isn't where it ends. Foreign corporate money that will help fund this political perversion has its eyes on obviously corrupt Republicans and some Democrats who are willing to bend to trade policies that are not in America's best interest. What those foreign entities may also help birth is a future President nourished in Rush Limbaugh's and Rupert Murdoch's politics of fear. What travesty that may unleash is anyone's guess.
On the other hand, Christine O'Donnell is down by about 10 points.
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/07/12/exposed-to-facts-the-misinformed-believe-lies-more-strongly/
But we can do something about it:
http://news.firedoglake.com/2010/07/12/exposed-to-facts-the-misinformed-believe-lies-more-strongly/#comment-42510
Note: broken link replacement for Lewis Black video clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ0mdxXw8Ac&p=54A7DAEBF9B2B5C4
Another great video for understanding liberal vs. conservative framing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5f9R9MtkpqM
- Tom
But the fact remains that this is not only a brilliaint display of rhetorical savy, lt is based on hard cold facts.
In some wierd violentsearch for "Veritas Aequitas" as one pro poster puts it, begun sometime in chris'1962, the unAmerican right have attempted to destroy this country.
We can't let them do that - Vote democratic.