Living in DC, the belly of the beast, we feel the government shutdown in real time. Folks here are out of work for real. The National Zoo, parks, museums etc. are closed. Even the Metro has seen a precipitous drop in passengers.Knee deep in this GOP manufactured crisis, I decided to see what the conservative media is saying about this mess. Hence, I clicked onto the other newspaper in DC online -- the Washington Times. This paper has a very well earned reputation of being a drum major for the RNC.
Funny thing about this rag, the Washington Times was founded and owned by Sun Myung Moon -- yea that Moonie cult guy. I guess it's self-revealing, a cult leader broadcasting via ink to cult like followers -- GOP/Tea Party.
The article titled "The Decline and Fall of the Republican Party" 100% encapsulated the one sided narrow view of far too many Republicans. The author, Judson Phillips, while praising the Tea Party, criticizes moderate Republicans by stating:
The Conservative base has been electrified by Ted Cruz and then by the fact that the House Leadership is actually fighting for a change.
If Peter King and some other RINO’s in the House stab the conservative movement in the back by selling it out and working with the Democrats to pass a “clean CR,” they will quickly find themselves in a very small party.
The Tea Party was born because the Republican Party would not stand up for real Americans. The Republican Party was born because the Whig Party would not stand up for all Americans. read more if you can stomach it.
I bold face printed his line about "real Americans." Real Americans? As opposed to fake Americans? This is the BS that undermines our civil society. Once again: one faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government thinks that they -- and they alone -- represent real Americans and real American values.
If you fail to fit in their category of real Americans, you are not authentic. It's ironic how Tea Party (and birthers) people are so "electrified" by foreign born (Canada) Ted Cruz (and his father was born in Cuba) -- that they want him to run for president in 2016. Yet on the other hand, they de-legitimize President Obama -- asking for his birth certificate and college grade scores -- because his father was Kenyan born.
No more reading of the Washington Times for me today: I had enough of the cult brainwashing.
It's GOP-caused insomuch as one's inclinations are to have Democrats unilaterally receive every single thing they ask for without so much as a second thought to what non-Democrats may want from a nation of which they share equal ownership.
ReplyDeleteTo one whose support of government and America only extends as far as their guys and gals passing their ideological lollipops out of the van door, then of course the GOP is a collection of dirty, rotten scoundrels who serve purpose only as obstructionists to ultimate progress.
It's both sides screwing the pooch here. The Democrats are just in much better position to have their supporters universally pin the entirety of the blame on the dumbass Republicans -- who, fittingly enough, walked right into it knowing full well what would happen.
It's very hard for me, at 33 years of age, to look a man in the eyes who is telling me it's someone else's fault, accepting zero blame, while that man is acting in identical manner to the people he's so willingly laying blame on. Reid and Obama come directly to mind. But Cruz and Boehner follow close behind.
It makes me lose even more faith in government; even more faith in people. It makes me lose all respect for ideological Republicans and Democrats who are intent only on blaming others so long as their hind parts remain covered. It's the underhanded nonsense which, ironically, deters a lot of non-Democrats from wanting more government control in any economic capacity, particularly one as large as the medical industry.
I am personally insulted by nonsense like "real Americans." But, damn, that's barely a sleep crease compared to the machete gouge of being labeled a terrorist, especially by the same people who outright refuse, on principle, to call those who perpetrate real terrorism terrorists.
And this "cult" stuff, which I've heard and read from quite a few sources, is on par with the Jehovah's Witnesses vs. the Mormons.
If neither side is willing to give up more of what they demand and insist all Americans want--or worse, need--the inevitable end is one-party rule. That seems to be fine for partisans whose favorite party is in power. But how un-American is that for everyone else?
I enjoy your responses but at times when you are so long winded, you lose the listener/reader. Your words come across as arrows from up high. Your rants make if seem as you are the one that can not stand anyone that has a different opinion. Since you expounded on so many points in one post, I will be equally long winded in my response.
ReplyDeleteYou are losing faith in politics and the governing representatives? Well, welcome to my world. I see politics as a necessary evil but I never had or have faith in any politician.
Next, the demand that the GOP is extorting: Defund Obamacare or else! How can you negotiate with this position. They -- GOP Tea Party -- want everything or else. Even moderate Republicans (Peter King), former Majority Leader and very conservative (Dick Army) and conservative Fox TV commentator (Bill O'Reilly) accuse this wing of the party of extremism.
Leading the chant of America for real Americans include Sarah Palin, Barbara Bachman, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Pat Buchanan, Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean Hannity and the list goes on... There other chant is let's take America back for real Americans. This nativism is extremely divisive. And trust me, we understand the code.
The GOP has disintegrated into the party for old and cranky white guys. Just look at the diversity of the Democrats and contrast that with the homogenous looking GOP. Even the pro-business minded Asian community voted heavy for the Democrats (Obama receive 70% of the Asian vote).
I am 52 years old and I have seen this evolution take place. Nixon was the first presidential candidate to use the Southern Strategy and later Reagan perfected this strategy: He started his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi talking about states rights:
"...Ronald Reagan from the charge that he deliberately made use of Nixon’s Southern strategy. When he went to Philadelphia, Mississippi, in 1980, the town where the civil rights workers had been murdered, and declared that “I believe in states’ rights."
And:
"When he went on about the welfare queen driving her Cadillac, and kept repeating the story years after it had been debunked, some people thought he was engaging in race-baiting."
This was the genesis of modern day fear politics. And to be certain this was not just a figment of our liberal or progressive imagination:
" It was called "the southern strategy," started under Richard M. Nixon in 1968, and described Republican efforts to use race as a wedge issue -- on matters such as desegregation and busing -- to appeal to white southern voters.
Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman, this morning will tell the NAACP national convention in Milwaukee that it was "wrong."
"By the '70s and into the '80s and '90s, the Democratic Party solidified its gains in the African American community, and we Republicans did not effectively reach out," Mehlman says in his prepared text.
"Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."
Can not change the past but how do we move forward in these divided states?
But once again, what exact demand should the Democrats and Obama give the GOP to make them happy. According to Ted Cruz: the one demand is defund Obamacare or else.
I don't think I'm slinging arrows down as if I'm spitting out irrefutable, infallible wisdom that's going to save the world from tyrannical baby dictators or anything. But I do believe I'm in a position--with many Americans, our voices unheard--that many other Americans aren't, in that I won't be led around by the johnson by party A to arrive at the party B stoning.
ReplyDeleteI've said before, perhaps even here, that this is moronic and they--meaning the House Republicans--need to fund it. It's kindergarten nonsense to use the political process to keep an entire nation hostage for a law which, despite what the Cruz types believe, many people want -- and a law, as we all know, deemed Constitutional by SCOTUS.
How can they compromise? How about allowing average people to opt out if they so choose? The people who believe in the law will sign up, and those who don't and/or who are happy with their care can skip it. How about funding it with stoppage provisions if, for example, it starts to collapse on itself? A first (real) step to full-on debt reduction.
Coming from, say, Reid, Obama, Pelosi, or even the media, Pete forbid, these sorts of level-headed compromises offered up strategically pressure Republicans infinitely more than the current strategy which amounts to Gacy calling Bundy a murderer.
Of course, Cruz and the Boners of the world need to get their stuff together too and agree to something which doesn't amount to kicking the basketball in the creek because they got dunk-faced. In no way am I ignoring their idiocy.
....
As for long responses not holding a reader's attentions: Books still sell quite well in the world, despite the continuing rise of instant gratification blurb media. So folks can take or leave what they like or don't.
When anyone bothers to rant, even if folks hate reading it, perhaps they should take it as a compliment. The 'net is full of outlets to choose. So the owner of the content may have done something positive to draw the attention.
But, in all sincerity, you personally seem to be an open-minded good dude -- at least in my book. And so I do try to flesh my opinions out to say what's actually on my mind. If I took a dissenting viewpoint to any one of a number of other blogs, YT channels, FB, etc, I'd be insta-banned, and mostly by those who claim to champion freedom of expression. It's happened a lot.
On a quick PS to the Republicans and black voters: I don't think the D should stand for "default" just because the Republicans aren't worth a damn, by and large. The black vote is a valued vote, evidenced by the tremendous lengths Democrats go to to fund, without provisions or questions, whatsoever a bloc demands. Black folks, as well as all folks, should take their votes to alternative parties, in my opinion. Or start them.
The Tea Party was actually a great thing before it was hijacked by the political bozos. It was a wake-up call for Republicans; now it's just Republicans. My ilk aren't allowed. Such other social movements, unaffiliated with the two major parties, seriously need to gain traction. OWS was good for about 2 seconds, then the Dems stole it.
Good post and thanks for the compliment. I strive to present a forum where all ideas and political positions are welcome (when respectfully presented). I firmly believe when people/groups that seemed to be polar opposites talk, they discover they have more in common than they thought.
ReplyDeleteI strongly urge Americans interested on how poor/working class/middle class whites and blacks became so divided read the history of the Nathaniel Bacon rebellion. Here's a clip.
"The alliance between former indentured servants and Africans against bond-servitude disturbed the ruling class, who responded by hardening the racial caste of slavery."
The ruling elite immediately recognized what the threat of black/white alliance meant to their choke-hold on power; and they vowed to keep us separated -- that divide and conquer thing.
Before this rebellion slavery was similar to indentured servitude...slavery was not yet a life sentence. Next, racial classifications were created in a more rigid way. If you had more than one drop of Negro blood you were black and henceforth not entitled to the privileges of whites. In other words, psychologically, physically and mentally whites of all different European backgrounds felt united and privileged over all non-Europeans.