Letters to the Editor
-
"Centrism"
Only in the twisted, fact-free, self-loving world of the Beltway Pundit is a political approach which produces these disastrous results "smart" and "successful." But they are so convinced that what they believe is always what Real Americans in the Heartland believe -- they so endlessly equate their own views with "centrism" -- that they will never accept that their orthodoxies are unpopular, even when facts prove conclusively that they are. That is why the gap between the Beltway and America continues to grow rapidly.
Under normal circumstances, the 'conventional wisdom' is that the 'middle' is the most judicious place to be and also, not surprisingly, the most popular (and thus the must likely to lead to electoral success, if that's your aim). And this is probably true to a large extent. What exemplifies the pathology of American political discourse nowadays is that the Republican party has gone on such an extremist binge that they are having an increasingly difficult time sucking off the 'centrists' in the fact of the demonstrated and continual disasters they're bringing, and the 'center' between their position and that on the left end of the spectrum has become an uninhabitable place for most sentient people. The Republicans themselves, through their disdain of any sign of compromise, have helped, but the pull towards ever-more untenable positions has also made it hard for even people of little passion and care to follow along. There is no 'center' any more. The 'center' is firmly in the camp of the others, and against the Republican agenda. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice ... uhhh ... heh ... won't get fooled again."
Cheers,
-
One In Twenty
You want to know what percentage of the 2008 electorate are high school educated midwestern women?
5%.
You want to know how many of them are worried the Iraq War is too costly in terms of lives and money?
75%.
They worry more that the Iraq War is too costly in terms of lives and money than they worry about any other issue tested in the poll I saw.
David Brooks doesn't know shit.
-
Sometimes a mob is just a mob...
But not "The Mob." :)
Gary, you didn't use the word, I did. And the word *is* extreme. But any problems in America sufficient to motivate people to 'take back the government" would be bad enough to make people so angry that a mob mentality would develop.
Perhaps we're both too old to take to the streets(*), but those who do will be looking for the reason for their pain. It's up to us to educate them beforehand, or risk having the general anger turned against the educated, enlightened liberals, a common pattern that mustn't be repeated here.
Gary, your recent posts have been spot-on, IMHO. So have RMP's, again IMHO.
*- age doesn't *have* to stop us. Look at Studs Terkel!
-
"There is no 'center' any more."
No, Arne, it feel like everything is centrifugal force now, and we're all holding on with our fingernails, our legs flailing outward and behind us.
(Well, maybe that's a bit of hyperbole, but I do agree with you about there being no center there... it's just another GOP-created hole in a donut.)
-
The Machines
The objective of both the left and right Party Machines is to stay in power and increase influence. Pundits, MSM, et al serve the Machines. The Machines reward loyalty. Typically, Presidential nominations go to those who are "in-line," rather than those who best represent the constituency or who are truly electable.
Republican Senators and Representatives therefore ride upon Bush's conveyor belt regardless of whether or not they agree with him. Regardless of what their constituency wants. (Are Republicans truly in-favor of nation building? Are they truly in favor of torture?) Beltway Democrats are the same. (Was there really a Democratic alternative to Feinstein last election?)
Cataclysmic events, like war, can disrupt the machine. To stay in power, then, the Machines' cogs and wheels manipulate opinion and manufacture lies. Truth is a wrench.
-
What FOX News would love.
also, Gary, by the time any mobs might develop, FOX News and the rest of the MSM would have probably lost the power to influence the disaffected angry protesters.
The rest of the nation might still buy the propaganda. Oh well, I don't think there's much to be done about that. Every revolution, violet or non-violent, has a significant domestic opposition. I was surprised to learn that a majority of colonists remained loyal to the British crown at the time of our own Revolution.
I *don't* think we should worry too much about giving FOX and the MSM ammunition for their lies. They will find a way to twist anything into dishonest polemics. All that matters is that most people don't accept it, ( a process already well underway, ) and that the non-believers have a positive and truthful understanding of what's really going on.
That's *our* job, I figure, with a bit of help from Glenn and others. I'm working on my swing-voting, mushy-middle friends, FWIW.
-
re: BOO Clinton
I'm no pavRovian follower by a long stretch but Ktwdawg nailed it but perhaps from the opposite direction- left.
She will bring out the far right core in droves heretofore unseen with the noise machine at an all out high pitch. And as for me from the left, she is center right, not to be trusted symptom of the larger problem.
If the Democrats are foolish enough to nominate her then I doubt I would vote for her, except for the SCOTUS previously mentioned as the only one benefit, otherwise it will be a SNAFU again for 4 to 8 years and the same old shit, with no change but alot of lip service to such.
I also got a mailing from the DCCC begging for money and I sent a reply on their web site saying to effect 'that although they are not the senate, the democrats are a spinelEss group and part of the problem, thanks but I donated to moveon.org along with the ACLU'. Which I guess now makes me a card carrying enemy of the state.
I think a t-shirt should be made and sent to every Democratic senator and congressman to use, whoever said it, my apologies "NO SPINE, NO DIME" "SIGNED YOUR FORMER CONSTITUENTS"