Slightly Unfocused Political Ramblings

Ok, it is time someone said it—bi-partisanship is dead, Mr. Obama. I appreciate the attempt, but the fact is, no one wants it. Not really. You were elected to lead. Your party was elected in a sweeping rejection of Republican ideas, ideals, and practices. They are on the refuse heap, politically, for perhaps a generation (more likely just a few election cycles). Keep them there, Mr. President. They have no leaders, not one. When a party sees as its standard-bearer a bloviating radio commentator like Rush Limbaugh, it has officially, terminally, and in a way, sadly, bottomed out. And when a newt like Bobby Jindal is seen as the next Great Brown Hope, well, my dear elephants, in the words of the great Harold Hill, “ Ya Got Trouble.”

 

Of the last 28 years, Republicans have held the White House for 20 of them. Of the last 15 years, they have controlled Congress for all but three of them. And look where we have come:

 

Internationally hated (at most) or disrespected (at least) by countries who were nominally our allies. Torture as policy. Civil liberties bent over the table and rogered senseless. A lack  of transparency in governmental affairs so pervasive it makes the Nixon years seem like a hippy vegetable co-op. Domestically—need I say more?

 Yet the Republicans seem to blame the Democrats for it all. I laugh whenever I hear this, but it is a bitter laugh. Remember how every problem during the Reagan and Bush I years were blamed on Jimmy Carter’s measly four little years? How the Bushies blamed their malfeasances on Clinton? I have heard, recently, Republicans blaming part of the country’s ills on the Clinton years. Ha! Last time I looked-- while stipulating to the personal douchebaggery that has always been a blight on the Clinton terms-- the nation’s economy in those years was strong, the federal budget was balanced, and there were no foreign wars. Former (and boy do I love using THAT word) Vice President Cheney, in a recent interview, performed a most amazing reverse backward jackknife and double somersault dive in the pool of “what the fuck???” by laying most problems America is facing either on Clinton’s doorstep, or on Obama’s. He forgot a certain period of time that occurred, oh, let’s see, between 2000-2008. The man, obviously a student of the Big Lie, knows if you say it loud enough and often enough, it creates an echo, and people start to think they’ve heard it from several places, when in fact it is coming from one source. That’s the way he ran his own secret intelligence shop. One piece of raw intel, repeated endlessly until it began to sound like a whole host of buzz. And then you end up with “yellow cake from Niger.”

 

Mr. Obama, you’ve only been in office for some 40 days. I appreciate the tone you’ve tried to set. But the Repubs are incapable of gratitude. And really, they can’t be seen as grateful. That would make them seem ballless to Rush Limbaugh. So they have to continue along in their tone-deaf way, rejecting any attempt at economic stimulus as “tax and spend”, which, when you think about it, is a far more responsible way to do government business than “cut taxes and spend”, which is what the recent 8 years of Republican rule accomplished. I think every time a Republican legislator says that phrase, someone should hold them up to the light (and I promise you by doing so they will cast no shadow). Someone should say, “ You, advocating fiscal responsibility??? PLEEASE!”

 

Soon now, Al Franken will be installed as the Democratic Senator from Minnesota. And the Dems will have 59 votes. 1 vote away from the 60 needed to stifle Republican stall tactics. And I think it will be fairly easy to sway 1 Republican. Easier than if you had to sway a few, though common sense would suggest the opposite. With one guy to get, all you do is say, “ I have one bridge in the budget…, who wants a new bridge in his state? Anyone? A new hospital, named for him?” And the ones who were too slow? Well, their hometown papers will get many stories about how their guy wasn’t taking care of business. Names should be named.

 

Lately, it’s been reported that Repubs who voted against the spending bill are now touting the projects that are coming to their districts. They are claiming that they’ve been bringing home the bacon. Maybe I am missing something here. These guys put in earmarks for their people, then voted AGAINST the bill, then brag about how they got money for local projects?? Isn’t that sort of like seeing that your kid needs an inhaler, but you refuse to take him to the doctor for it, and then your neighbor hears about your kid and buys the inhaler for him, and then you take credit for making it happen. I know the shame meter is pretty low in Washington, but goddamn!

 

Mr. Obama, it’s time to take off the gloves. Be ruthless. Demonize the demons and reward the Republican quislings. Frame the debate as a referendum on Americanism. The Repubs have behaved in a most un-American way—shafting the people in favor of the greed of the few, pre-emptive wars, trampling on the Bill of Rights—what’s more un-American than that? Get messy, sir. Get your hair mussed. Your hero Lincoln, and your other one, FDR, were masters at it. Offering discredited thinking a place at the table is irresponsible. At what point do you imagine they are going to come around? Sad to say, but some dogs can’t be rehabilitated. Some dogs are too damaged, and have to be put down. You don’t have to like it. But that’s why you get the sort of big bucks.