"A man without a vote is a man without protection." Lyndon B. Johnson
Charlie Pierce goes ballistic, and righteously so, over the subject of voter suppression.
I admit it: I am a fanatic about voting. I vote in every damn election every damn time. I buy stuff I shouldn't be eating at the bake sale. Pay attention, I tell people. A while back, when nobody was looking, a bunch of creationist fanatics took over the school board in Dover, Pennsylvania and rammed through an "intelligent design" program in the local high school. Parents sued. The fanatics lost, and it eventually cost the local school board over a million bucks in legal fees. All because not enough people paid attention to a school-board election. Don't take an election off, because you never know what the bastards are trying to pull. I say this all the time to young people and, most of the time, they act as though I've asked them if they've heard the new Wishbone Ash album, or seen the latest Pennebaker doc. But things changed over the past 10 years, and especially in the last five. The 2008 campaign was a revelation to cynical old souls like me. It took a lot to break down a generation of apathy about how government works and our place in it. That new spirit is still very fragile. One hinked-up national election and it's gone again, maybe for good. That is what I'm worried about.
The same thing that can be said about the people in Dover could also be said of the people who stayed home in Wisconsin and woke up with Scott Walker as their governor, and Ron Johnson as their senator, and a legislature full of wingnuts whose respect for actual American values doesn't extend much past what fits in their wallets. And this is why they are making it so hard for people to vote there. Not because they're concerned about the "integrity of the process" (Scott Walker? The integrity of the process? Stop me before I bust a rib here) but because they're afraid the basic integrity of the process — one man, one vote, all together — will reassert itself against the inattention that gave them the power to screw with all John Lewis accomplished.
There's also a very telling comment from Barry Friedman.
Just because there are two sides to every story doesn't mean there are two legitimate (and sane) sides to every story.
This Republican canard about "voter fraud" should be rebutted at every opportunity, because It. Simply. Is. Not. True. Period. But by using this fear-mongering myth, elderly people, and poor people, and brown people, and students, are being denied their right to vote. (Hopefully, Eric Holder will put his money where his mouth is and crack down on this odious practice.)
Still, one must ask why this is so popular among certain Republican governors and legislatures. Well, which party do poor people, and brown people, and students, and even a fair amount of elderly people, vote for?
I'll give you one guess: it sure ain't the Gerrymandering Obstructionist Pinheads. (The only useful word Bill O'Reilly ever made up.)
This should be a national scandal. Hearings should be held, and journalists should be shouting this from the rooftops. The Repugs basically hate President Obama so much they are willing to do anything to defeat him, including rigging the game in their favor. Of course, the Republican propaganda machine, Fake Noise, is a big help in convincing people this falsehood is true.
We can't afford to get distracted with this election, folks. The Republican endgame is in sight.
Showing posts with label authoritarianism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label authoritarianism. Show all posts
December 14, 2011
October 11, 2011
About Time, Captain Obvious!
All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. ~George Orwell
The President's campaign manager is finally admitting what anyone who isn't blind in one eye and can't see out of the other has known for months (h/t Steve Benen at Political Animal):
But Senate Republicans want to block it [the American Jobs Act]. Not because they have a plan that creates jobs right now — not one Republican, in Congress or in the presidential race, does. They only have a political plan.
Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake of what they think will be a political victory. They think that the more folks see Washington taking no action to create jobs, the better their chances in the next election. So they’re doing everything in their power to make sure nothing gets done.
Well, gee. It's not like anyone couldn't have known this was coming since Mitch McConnell said the Repug's most important objective was "to make President Obama a one-term president."
I don't know why Obama and the people around him didn't realize this long before now. I guess when you're trying to work with someone to do something important for the country, something desperately needed, it's very hard to admit that the group who literally hold the fate of the American people in their hands could be this petty, nasty, selfish, and mean-spirited.
They are. And it's past time the President and his team admits this and conducts themselves accordingly.
The President's campaign manager is finally admitting what anyone who isn't blind in one eye and can't see out of the other has known for months (h/t Steve Benen at Political Animal):
But Senate Republicans want to block it [the American Jobs Act]. Not because they have a plan that creates jobs right now — not one Republican, in Congress or in the presidential race, does. They only have a political plan.
Their strategy is to suffocate the economy for the sake of what they think will be a political victory. They think that the more folks see Washington taking no action to create jobs, the better their chances in the next election. So they’re doing everything in their power to make sure nothing gets done.
Well, gee. It's not like anyone couldn't have known this was coming since Mitch McConnell said the Repug's most important objective was "to make President Obama a one-term president."
I don't know why Obama and the people around him didn't realize this long before now. I guess when you're trying to work with someone to do something important for the country, something desperately needed, it's very hard to admit that the group who literally hold the fate of the American people in their hands could be this petty, nasty, selfish, and mean-spirited.
They are. And it's past time the President and his team admits this and conducts themselves accordingly.
September 4, 2011
"The evil that men do lives after them"
He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
This piece from a former Republican staffer has been making the rounds, and for good reason: it's an insider's account of how the Republican destructobots (a lovely image I gakked from Balloon Juice) plan to destroy this country.
Some excerpts, but you should immediately read the whole thing. In fact, this article should be required reading for anybody of voting age in this country.
It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe.
I've actually been beating the "authoritarian" drum for a while now: I first became aware of it upon reading John Dean's excellent book, Conservatives Without Conscience. Of course, the modern-day Teapugs take it further than Mr. Dean ever imagined.
Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. As Hannah Arendt observed, a disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself.
This isn't news to me either--Rachel Maddow pointed this out months ago.
Nor is it news to me that Repugs always, always need an enemy to battle against, a [fill-in-the-blank unAmerican] windmill to tilt at. If there isn't one to be found, those in charge will make one up. They need their base constantly whipped into a fearmongering frenzy to win elections.
You can probably guess who those people are. Above all, anyone not likely to vote Republican. As Sarah Palin would imply, the people who are not Real Americans. Racial minorities. Immigrants. Muslims. Gays. Intellectuals. Basically, anyone who doesn't look, think, or talk like the GOP base. This must account, at least to some degree, for their extraordinarily vitriolic hatred of President Obama. I have joked in the past that the main administration policy that Republicans object to is Obama's policy of being black.[2] Among the GOP base, there is constant harping about somebody else, some "other," who is deliberately, assiduously and with malice aforethought subverting the Good, the True and the Beautiful: Subversives. Commies. Socialists. Ragheads. Secular humanists. Blacks. Fags. Feminazis. The list may change with the political needs of the moment, but they always seem to need a scapegoat to hate and fear.
The author also lays out the basic tenets of today's GOP.
1. The GOP cares solely and exclusively about its rich contributors. The party has built a whole catechism on the protection and further enrichment of America's plutocracy. Their caterwauling about deficit and debt is so much eyewash to con the public.
Eric Cantor being the first example that springs to mind, with all of his foot-stomping and hissy fits during the debt ceiling debate.
2. They worship at the altar of Mars. While the me-too Democrats have set a horrible example of keeping up with the Joneses with respect to waging wars, they can never match GOP stalwarts such as John McCain or Lindsey Graham in their sheer, libidinous enthusiasm for invading other countries.
I'm sure Dick Cheney got--and still gets, for that matter--his rocks off at the very thought.
3. Give me that old time religion. Pandering to fundamentalism is a full-time vocation in the GOP. Beginning in the 1970s, religious cranks ceased simply to be a minor public nuisance in this country and grew into the major element of the Republican rank and file.
This is the most frightening part of this whole thing, at least to me: a person of faith whose minority faith would probably be condemned along with all the other LiberalCommieSocialists. These people don't want the republic the Founding Fathers gave us. They want a theocratic dictatorship. "Gilead," here we come.
Finally, for anyone of a certain age:
If you think Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues aren't after your Social Security and Medicare, I am here to disabuse you of your naiveté.[5] They will move heaven and earth to force through tax cuts that will so starve the government of revenue that they will be "forced" to make "hard choices" - and that doesn't mean repealing those very same tax cuts, it means cutting the benefits for which you worked.
Translation: They want to dismantle the New Deal, and condemn everyone who's not a millionaire to live in abject poverty and misery--at least until they die young, like this gentleman because he didn't have health insurance.
Not that the Repugs care, or anything. After all, this person was unemployed--and black--so he deserved it. Bootstraps, you know.
These people are simply evil, and they're all the more scary because they have the fiery fundamentalism of the true believer. George Orwell--and Satan--would be proud.
This piece from a former Republican staffer has been making the rounds, and for good reason: it's an insider's account of how the Republican destructobots (a lovely image I gakked from Balloon Juice) plan to destroy this country.
Some excerpts, but you should immediately read the whole thing. In fact, this article should be required reading for anybody of voting age in this country.
It should have been evident to clear-eyed observers that the Republican Party is becoming less and less like a traditional political party in a representative democracy and becoming more like an apocalyptic cult, or one of the intensely ideological authoritarian parties of 20th century Europe.
I've actually been beating the "authoritarian" drum for a while now: I first became aware of it upon reading John Dean's excellent book, Conservatives Without Conscience. Of course, the modern-day Teapugs take it further than Mr. Dean ever imagined.
Far from being a rarity, virtually every bill, every nominee for Senate confirmation and every routine procedural motion is now subject to a Republican filibuster. Under the circumstances, it is no wonder that Washington is gridlocked: legislating has now become war minus the shooting, something one could have observed 80 years ago in the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic. As Hannah Arendt observed, a disciplined minority of totalitarians can use the instruments of democratic government to undermine democracy itself.
This isn't news to me either--Rachel Maddow pointed this out months ago.
Nor is it news to me that Repugs always, always need an enemy to battle against, a [fill-in-the-blank unAmerican] windmill to tilt at. If there isn't one to be found, those in charge will make one up. They need their base constantly whipped into a fearmongering frenzy to win elections.
You can probably guess who those people are. Above all, anyone not likely to vote Republican. As Sarah Palin would imply, the people who are not Real Americans. Racial minorities. Immigrants. Muslims. Gays. Intellectuals. Basically, anyone who doesn't look, think, or talk like the GOP base. This must account, at least to some degree, for their extraordinarily vitriolic hatred of President Obama. I have joked in the past that the main administration policy that Republicans object to is Obama's policy of being black.[2] Among the GOP base, there is constant harping about somebody else, some "other," who is deliberately, assiduously and with malice aforethought subverting the Good, the True and the Beautiful: Subversives. Commies. Socialists. Ragheads. Secular humanists. Blacks. Fags. Feminazis. The list may change with the political needs of the moment, but they always seem to need a scapegoat to hate and fear.
The author also lays out the basic tenets of today's GOP.
1. The GOP cares solely and exclusively about its rich contributors. The party has built a whole catechism on the protection and further enrichment of America's plutocracy. Their caterwauling about deficit and debt is so much eyewash to con the public.
Eric Cantor being the first example that springs to mind, with all of his foot-stomping and hissy fits during the debt ceiling debate.
2. They worship at the altar of Mars. While the me-too Democrats have set a horrible example of keeping up with the Joneses with respect to waging wars, they can never match GOP stalwarts such as John McCain or Lindsey Graham in their sheer, libidinous enthusiasm for invading other countries.
I'm sure Dick Cheney got--and still gets, for that matter--his rocks off at the very thought.
3. Give me that old time religion. Pandering to fundamentalism is a full-time vocation in the GOP. Beginning in the 1970s, religious cranks ceased simply to be a minor public nuisance in this country and grew into the major element of the Republican rank and file.
This is the most frightening part of this whole thing, at least to me: a person of faith whose minority faith would probably be condemned along with all the other LiberalCommieSocialists. These people don't want the republic the Founding Fathers gave us. They want a theocratic dictatorship. "Gilead," here we come.
Finally, for anyone of a certain age:
If you think Paul Ryan and his Ayn Rand-worshipping colleagues aren't after your Social Security and Medicare, I am here to disabuse you of your naiveté.[5] They will move heaven and earth to force through tax cuts that will so starve the government of revenue that they will be "forced" to make "hard choices" - and that doesn't mean repealing those very same tax cuts, it means cutting the benefits for which you worked.
Translation: They want to dismantle the New Deal, and condemn everyone who's not a millionaire to live in abject poverty and misery--at least until they die young, like this gentleman because he didn't have health insurance.
Not that the Repugs care, or anything. After all, this person was unemployed--and black--so he deserved it. Bootstraps, you know.
These people are simply evil, and they're all the more scary because they have the fiery fundamentalism of the true believer. George Orwell--and Satan--would be proud.
July 16, 2011
"Reality is always controlled by the people who are most insane"
"In America, the criminally insane rule and the rest of us, or the vast majority of the rest of us, either do not care, do not know, or are distracted and properly brainwashed into acquiescence." ~Kurt Nimmo
So. This week I spent more than an hour on the phone and the Internet, moving my IRA and 401(k) to a place where they will hopefully survive the coming apocalypse. Since I work for the Veterans Administration, moving the 401(k) was a snap--I called the toll-free number, discussed which of the options offered would be the safest, went to the website and performed what's called an Interfund Transfer, right from my computer. I received an e-mail the next day at work informing me the transfer was completed. All my money is now parked in what's called the "G" fund, meaning government bonds. God knows what'll happen with those on August 3, but at least I'll be spared the spectre of the stock market dropping seven hundred points in 2008 when the TARP bailout failed to pass.
So. This week I spent more than an hour on the phone and the Internet, moving my IRA and 401(k) to a place where they will hopefully survive the coming apocalypse. Since I work for the Veterans Administration, moving the 401(k) was a snap--I called the toll-free number, discussed which of the options offered would be the safest, went to the website and performed what's called an Interfund Transfer, right from my computer. I received an e-mail the next day at work informing me the transfer was completed. All my money is now parked in what's called the "G" fund, meaning government bonds. God knows what'll happen with those on August 3, but at least I'll be spared the spectre of the stock market dropping seven hundred points in 2008 when the TARP bailout failed to pass.
Maybe.
The IRA took a little more time. I had to get on the phone to the Wells Fargo investment advisors and figure out which fund to move the money to, grant permission for them to do it, have them reroute my automatic monthly deductions, blah blah blah. (Also, the person I talked to seemingly could not grasp what I wanted--she kept talking about "leaving the money in the C fund for several years." I'm not going to DO that, you twit. I just want to stash it in the safest place possible until the debt ceiling is either raised or the catastrophe from not raising it shakes out. If it ever does. Then I'll move it back.) I finally ended up selecting what's called a World Bond Fund, using bonds from several different countries. Of course, bonds may go belly-up too, I suppose, but I hope the damage won't be as bad as a plunging stock market.
In any case, that's the best I can do, short of withdrawing the money altogether and stuffing it under my mattress. But I'm mad as hell, because I shouldn't have had to do all this in the first place.
In this country, it's very hard for people to comprehend the fact that one political party (and it's sure as hell not the Democrats) is actively working for everyone's destruction.
Unfortunately, that's what we've come to. The thirty-year endgame, started by Saint Ronnie. The Republican party, along with their Teabagger overlords, are nothing more than Norquistian cultists, held in thrall by the Holy Writ of Non-Taxation. (No doubt they all believe in Young-Earth Creationism, the Roswell alien landings, and the Tooth Fairy as well.) They must deny revenue to the government, even if millions of hard-working people like me don't get paid and lose their retirement money. They must slash Social Security and Medicare, even if elderly people like my mother eat catfood and die. They must worship at the feet of the corporations who pay no income taxes, protect them at all costs, and transform this country into an unrecognizable oligarchy. They must resist raising the debt ceiling, even if the United States and the world is destroyed as a result.
Folks, these are not the actions of a sane person. They are certainly not the actions of a political party who loves their country.
I've been reading John Dean's terrific books recounting the Republicans' evisceration of government--Conservatives Without Conscience and nowBroken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive and Judicial Branches. These should be required reading for anyone running for office, as an abject example of how not to act. (In fact, I wish we could pass a constitutional amendment declaring that anyone who believes government is the problem and not the solution, and tax cuts generate revenue, not be allowed to run for office, period.) The descriptions Dean gives of the modern Republican party (and the Tea Party is even worse) should scare the pee-waddling out of every one of us.
Once elected, Republicans are extremely inclined towards opposing Democratic programs, not only because their philosophy is inherently antigovernment but because they are instinctively contrarian to anything and everything liberal or progressive. When campaigning or when opposing Democrats, Republicans are unmatched in modern politics for their willingness to play dirty, to go negative and nasty, and to play hardball, a ruthlessness well matched to their uncompromising competitiveness.
The negativity towards government in contemporary conservative thinking raises the question of why these people even enter public service at the national level, other than to dismantle the federal government by lowering taxes and abolishing programs and agencies. It should come as no surprise that Republicans have twisted and distorted government processes to their breaking point, given this mind-set. Of course, Republicans proudly proclaim that they love their country; they love their flag; they love their automatic weapons; they love their Constitution; and they love their democracy, given the alternatives. But where the federal government is concerned: It is too big, too powerful, too expensive, too lax in demanding morality, and too invasive with all its health and safety requirements to be able to run a really profitable business.
And these are the kind of people we let anywhere near Congress? Ronald Reagan would hang his head in shame. Barry Goldwater, old-style Republican that he was, would disown these sons-of-bitches.
In the meantime, I've done what I can to protect myself. I highly doubt the debt ceiling will get raised in time, unless Obama whips out the 14th Amendment at the last minute, impeachment be damned. I hope he does. The Senate won't vote to impeach him anyway, and it would be extremely satisfying to see the look on Eric Cantor's face if Obama should call a press conference and announce, "Pursuant to the requirements of the Fourteenth Amendment, I have instructed Treasury Secretary Geithner not to let the United States of America go into default, and new borrowing has already commenced. We will pay our bills, as the Founding Fathers intended that we do."
Yeah, if I was President and dealing with these slimeballs, I would do that in a heartbeat.
We'll have to see how it plays out. But I would encourage people to take steps to protect themselves. Remember, we're dealing with a bunch of Looney Tunes who think it's right and proper to bring the country down, and they're going to have fun doing it.
May 15, 2011
Get Out Your Clothespins and Shut Up
This is an interesting article about how right-wing sock puppets infiltrate progressive websites.
This is why I get irritated at whiny firebaggers who do nothing but (1) complain about Obama and all the things he supposedly hasn't done; and (2) try to convince people to either stay home on Election Day or vote for some marginal party (like the Greens) who doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Of course, now I'll look at people like these with even greater suspicion, knowing in all likelihood they're paid shills for the Repooks. (Jane Hamsher may not technically collect any money, but she might as well be.)
Nevertheless, folks, like it or not, at present we have a two-party system. Period. No amount of crying, whining, complaining, or fit-throwing will change that. If you want a parliamentary system where your stupid little party might actually mean something, move to effing Canada. In this country, it's either (marginally) good or (definitely) bad; gray or darkest black; Gandalf or Sauron. With all the dangerous authoritarians on the Republican side, it seems to me there's only one choice you can possibly make, no matter how much it may rub some of you the wrong way.
In other words, pinch your damn nose and vote Democratic.
You notice what happened last year when all of you whiny firebaggers cut off your noses to spite your faces and stayed home.
Florida: Anything Resembling Progress a Loser in 2011
Wisconson Governor Scott Walker, Tea Party Are Faces of GOP Overreach
Michigan's Shockingly Undemocratic 'Financial Martial Law' Bill
Wave of Anti-Abortion Bills Advance in the States
And, of course, we now have this little disagreement in Washington, which threatens to blow up the entire freaking world.
Debt Ceiling Vote Will Be 'Leverage Moment' for GOP
Republicans are big on 'personal responsibility.' I think anyone who looks at themselves as anything less than hard right--and this includes you, you fickle, wishy-washy independents--has a responsibility to put people in office who won't do active harm to this country. Obviously those people are not going to be Republicans.
I mean, what more proof do you need? Today's Republicans are not the party of Ronald Reagan, or Barry Goldwater for that matter. Hell, Reagan couldn't even get the nomination in today's political climate. These far-right lunatics want to run the country into the ground, and they're well on their way to doing it.
Therefore, I think it behooves everybody else to vote to stop them. Barack Obama is what we have. Pull on your grown-up underwear and deal with it.
This is why I get irritated at whiny firebaggers who do nothing but (1) complain about Obama and all the things he supposedly hasn't done; and (2) try to convince people to either stay home on Election Day or vote for some marginal party (like the Greens) who doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of winning. Of course, now I'll look at people like these with even greater suspicion, knowing in all likelihood they're paid shills for the Repooks. (Jane Hamsher may not technically collect any money, but she might as well be.)
Nevertheless, folks, like it or not, at present we have a two-party system. Period. No amount of crying, whining, complaining, or fit-throwing will change that. If you want a parliamentary system where your stupid little party might actually mean something, move to effing Canada. In this country, it's either (marginally) good or (definitely) bad; gray or darkest black; Gandalf or Sauron. With all the dangerous authoritarians on the Republican side, it seems to me there's only one choice you can possibly make, no matter how much it may rub some of you the wrong way.
In other words, pinch your damn nose and vote Democratic.
You notice what happened last year when all of you whiny firebaggers cut off your noses to spite your faces and stayed home.
Florida: Anything Resembling Progress a Loser in 2011
Wisconson Governor Scott Walker, Tea Party Are Faces of GOP Overreach
Michigan's Shockingly Undemocratic 'Financial Martial Law' Bill
Wave of Anti-Abortion Bills Advance in the States
And, of course, we now have this little disagreement in Washington, which threatens to blow up the entire freaking world.
Debt Ceiling Vote Will Be 'Leverage Moment' for GOP
Republicans are big on 'personal responsibility.' I think anyone who looks at themselves as anything less than hard right--and this includes you, you fickle, wishy-washy independents--has a responsibility to put people in office who won't do active harm to this country. Obviously those people are not going to be Republicans.
I mean, what more proof do you need? Today's Republicans are not the party of Ronald Reagan, or Barry Goldwater for that matter. Hell, Reagan couldn't even get the nomination in today's political climate. These far-right lunatics want to run the country into the ground, and they're well on their way to doing it.
Therefore, I think it behooves everybody else to vote to stop them. Barack Obama is what we have. Pull on your grown-up underwear and deal with it.
April 16, 2011
Teatwerp Central
Fascinating analysis (PDF) of the Tea Party and how it adheres to the conservative authoritarian mindset.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)