Category: Republicans

“Infantile Moment of Self-Pity”

Hunter of Daily Kos on the contemporary Republican Party:

Honestly, I would begin to regain a shred — a mere, dismal thread — of respect for the Republicans if they had an ounce of self awareness on this one, or heaven help us showed a moment of sheepishness over it, or even just f–ing recognized the duplicity and dumbassed ignorance they’re chucking out over the airwaves like beads at Mardi Gras. But no: doesn’t enter their heads. Now that they are out of power instead of in power, their clocks have been reset; they have amnesia about anything that happened in America for the last ten years or twenty. They are newborns, discovering every basic concept anew, and only when it brushes up against them.

It’s not even hypocrisy, because that implies an ounce of self awareness on their own contradictions. It’s purely an infantile moment of self-pity. Truly, the only America that exists for a conservative is the one they are living in, inside their own heads, at any particular moment of time. Everyone else, whether past, present and future, two doors down or ten states away, can go rot. What’s that you say? That the definition of “instant obedience” is not patriotism, and dissent is not treason? Well, paint me blue and call me Papa Freakin’ Smurf, but that is exactly the teaching moment we liberals have been trying to drill into your thick and addled skulls for eight long years. Congratulations on finally touching your fingers to the lifeline of the Patently Obvious: climb skyward for such further discoveries as Other People Have Different Values and Ethnic People Have Souls Too.

Yes, dissent is not treason: but if you can only realize that when you think it might happen to you, and only feel outrage over it when you feel it might happen to you, then that makes it even worse, because it indeed declares you to be just as narcissistic, just as incapable of empathy or comprehension, just as plain dumb as we all thought you were on our worst, most mean-spirited post-millennial days. That’s what prompts these growing whinefests muttering about your own patriotism, and your own right to disagree, and all the other things that you didn’t give two Limbaughian farts over just twelve damn months ago.

What a spectacle. But is anyone honestly surprised by it?

Stalking Story

Fox News and O’Reilly show producers followed, Jesse Waters stalked and ambushed Think Progress editor Amanda Terkel over the weekend. Why did Waters do this? Apparently Amanda and TP recently blogged about Bill O’Reilly’s objectionable comments blaming women for their own rapes.

I agree with Josh Orton: Fox News’ actions are simply unacceptable. It is mind-boggling that they thought the appropriate reaction to seeing commentary by a woman about why blaming rape victims is wrong was to spend hours stalking her far away from her home, then cornering her and harassing her.

Amanda is fine but if you support her against these Republican thugs, join the Facebook Group “We Stand with Amanda Terkel.”

The Continuing Culture War

Roy Edroso is right in his critique of Frank Rich’s latest column on the death of the culture war and his example of the “Going Galt movement” is perfect in showing the continued prevalence of the culture war festering in the right wing blogosphere. While the left has developed an online community that has a balance between outside critique and inside influence, the right has largely developed as an outrage machine. The question isn’t whether the main voices of the right are voices from the culture war, as it was largely during the 1990s, but are the vocal parts of the Republican base the remaining proponents of culture war politics? I think the answer clearly is yes. That it these people are somewhat less focused on stem cells is not a sufficient cause to dismiss the culture war as a major area for Republican organizing.

Windsock Steele’s Problem

Before a couple months ago, I probably had most of my exposure to Michael Steele through Bill Maher’s Real Time HBO show. Steele was a frequent guest, often playing the Republican foil to smarter, more successful Democrats (after all, lieutenant governor and failed Senate candidate isn’t much of a resume in the political world). Steele was at times an effective communicator in the panel discussion context because he could disagree without being disagreeable.

That, however, is a real problem with Steele qua RNC Chair. The modern Republican Party is premised on the idea that by being disagreeable with Democrats (notably the highly popular President), moderates and independents will like them. Of course that’s a bat shit crazy premise to work from (and I am totally fine with the GOP using it), but it’s a wrinkle that makes Steele’s tenure as RNC Chair likely to be short to start out with.

The problems he’s had recently of saying whatever it is his interviewer wants to hear stem directly from his desire to be agreeable.  Naturally the GOP response has been to publicly attack him for saying reasonable things that might actually help their party (EG, Limbaugh is an entertainer, abortion is a choice). That Steele is ready to correct himself with every misstep only solidifies the perception that he is a politically weak windsock who will blow whichever way his critics want him to blow.

Shrill

Timothy Egan, in the midst of a brilliant riposte of Rush Limbaugh, tears apart Republican economic hypocrites:

There is a war, all right. We are witnessing the worst debacle of unfettered capitalism in our lifetime brought on by — you got it, capitalism at its worst. It cannibalized itself. Government, sad to say, had nothing to do with it — except for criminal neglect of oversight.

Now that government has been forced to the rescue, just who is insisting on taxpayer bailouts? Who is in line for handouts? Who is saying that only government can save capitalism? The very leaders of unregulated markets who injected this poison into the economy, the very plutocrats that Limbaugh celebrates.

And, of course, let us never forget that the bailouts of banks and insurance companies were initiated by the Republican president Limbaugh defended for eight years.

Cue sad antics from Rush.