If the right wing has succeeded in doing anything (as certainly many of its loudly brayed sentiments have proved as revolting as they are socially untenable) it is the destruction of the office of President of the Unites States as a potent leader.
So degraded has the office become through the right wing's subversion, that it, along with most of the other aspects of a functioning federal government, cannot be mentioned without an attendant sneer. Carny trash invoke more sympathetic responses.
Every day, Congress is observed conducting business at a somnambulistic pace while below the ornate veneer, the real dealing churns and thrums with shocking efficiency; indeed if one were to tune into C-Span (which I do, as watching golf has proven to be too stressful), there is conspicuously interminable boredom, as though the dirty business actually being conducted has become as routine as the suicide-inducing rhythms of a bottling factory; the porky little congressmen and women waddle to a podium, utter faintly irate belches and then return to a place somewhere beyond the borders of the stationary camera's periphery. The poetry-in-slow-motion of the legislative process.
When Barack Obama was elected, he reminded the masses of dreams they heard about in school, and dreams they may have had themselves; that smarts and drive and verve could win the day, could be as antiseptic to the years of diseased ideals, corrosion and cronyism; his youth and grace under pressure would be a tonic to the studiously sown fear under the Bush regime, characterized daily by obvious hypocrisy and brazen disregard for the democratic standards upon which Americans base their allegiance.
So loyal to the myth of American democracy in fact, that the public dared not believe what their eyes so clearly saw, as neo-cons wiped their boots on the Constitution as though it were a wire brush mat, and the real legacy of Ronald Reagan was an unimpeded perpetual corporate shanghai; the dream of Democracy fatally broken by brazen opportunists who looked at America and saw not the greatest expression of a working democratic society but fodder for the most audacious scam ever pulled off. And as a result, "governophobia" has seeped into our national DNA in the same way trace amounts of Bisphenol and heavy metals have seeped into the breast milk of nursing mothers.
Here's the joke: all the hyperbole spewing like a pyroclastic flow from the volcanic right wing about socialism and communism and fascism is just white-guy-chicken-hawk-runaway-capitalist trash talk. Government has been reduced, thanks to their incessant assault on it, to a knuckle-dragging sporting event, with the country as brutish spectators barking ook-ooks and arrgh-arrghs, intoxicated by the contrived spectacle of the Big Government giant brought down by bureaucratic excess. And the punchline is that those cheering in the stands are the ones being buried under the rubble.
The office of POTUS is now as formidable as the winner of a beauty contest, thanks to those traitors in patriot's clothing, the right wing. With all that's happening to our country and our world, think of how effective their single-minded zeal might have been had it been put to use in a constructive way, instead of toward the death of Democracy.
Follow Steven Weber on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@TheStevenWeber
Seems to contradict your view that conservatives in recent history have created conditions in which "'governophobia' has seeped into our national DNA". I prefer to interpret that members of both parties have stopped doing the will of the people and act only in the interest of themselves.
- Steven Weber
No, here's the joke..... 50% of the huffpo readers support a hard left turn to socialism and communism . Don't believe me ? Do a poll and find out who your audience really is and what they really believe.
Member Since June 2010
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It looks like you got the attention of every HP user (or sock) in the universe with 0 fans and who opened accounts this month!
Impressive work!
Are you really going to blame the Republican Party for the sub par, inept and downright amateurish leadership that is coming out of the oval office? We, as a nation, elected a man who was not ready to lead this country. He can give a great speech but he just doesn't have the experience to back it up. You, Mr. Weber, need to hold the president responsible for his words and actions. Keep blaming the Republicans for everything and no one will take you seriously.
The Bush administration, which during 2,920 days presided over foreign policy blundering (Korea, Iran), domestic policy blundering (Katrina, Rita), a trillion in war related debt (Iraq, Afghanistan), political pronouncements followed by inaction (We're addicted to oil), crony/ incompetent political appointments (Brownie, you're doing a helluva job), a fear premised national security policy (we'll keep you safe), a global economic melt down, the near abrogation of the Bill of Rights (secret legal memos, wire taps), the return of torture (water boarding) and disregard for the Geneva Conventions (Abu Ghraib), world wide loss of American prestige and humiliation (shoe throwing incident), Karl Rove's 'permanent majority' (DOJ firing's), Dick Cheney (Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby falls on his sword, Enron collapse, no bid Halliburton contracts, JSOC team reporting directly to office of the VP), its mind blowing really. Its also true that almost every administration is remembered for one or more political blunders-- Eisenhower (U2), Kennedy (Bay of Pigs, Marilyn Monroe), Johnson (Vietnam), Nixon (Watergate), Carter (Panama Canal, Hostages), Regan (Oliver North), Bush1 (lengthy recession), Clinton (Lewinsky)-- but George W. Bush leads everyone.
As for domestic problems, as you've written so well, has destroyed the spirit of the constitution and all the grand and noble ideals contained therein.
I can only hope that the rest of the world is wrong when it laughs at the impending doom of what was once the greatest country in the world.
RIP US!!
Please learn how to patient with others, society will thank you for it.
Concise and clear enough?
Now prosecuting elected officials for using torture, spying illegally on Americans and, possibly, ordering the deaths of thousands of our citizens simply to gain a foothold in the Middle East...yeah, I could get behind that kind of prosecution. Maybe we should hold that in Utah because then we can just line up a firing squad.
A core strategy of the Left around the world is to first divide a nation. This is a Communist strategy. No sense in trying to deny it, it is a well known fact in political science. Divide the nation along any and all lines possible. Agitate. Foment turmoil. The Democrat Left has employed it with subversive zeal. Be proud Communists, stop slinking around like rats. Get out of the closet and embrace your inner Komrade. What? Communist is a “dirty” name? Perhaps because truth will outshine the far Left any day. Can you believe these Democrats? They spend decades dividing the nation and then whine about inheriting the results.
The Left is furious that the opposition is now copying their tactics. The Left feels that they, and only they, have the right to “protest” in America and anywhere else in the world. It annoys them to see anyone else doing it. Seriously, you have to be really stupid or really naive to think that eventually others won’t start picking up your own political strategy’s and employ them back against you.
Memo to the Left: Only employ political strategies against others, that you can actually take when they are used back against you. You are not nearly as clever as you think you are.
You claim that "A core strategy of the Left around the world is to first divide a nation. This is a Communist strategy. " No definition of why this is a "Communist strategy", but no matter. Later, you balk: "The Left is furious that the opposition is now copying their tactics." Ohhkkaayy, so therefore the folks on the Right are employing said "Communist strategy". So, you're saying "if you can't beat the Communists, join 'em"?
A lot of words you state, but not much thought behind them.