Keepers of the keys to the kingdom. Behold them in their righteous glory.
And try not to puke. Choke it down and tell us why these guys' party should be in charge.
|
|
|
|
|
Friday
A Tale Of Two Speeches
I liked President Obama's speech in Cleveland (my old stomping ground: I was in med school there when the Cuyahoga River caught fire). Probably it was too long for the typical political attention span, but it hit every note I've been writing about forever. He pointed out -- truthfully! -- the very significant differences between his and Rominee's economic plans. Namely, assuming anyone will pay attention, he laid out the undeniable: not only does the Ryan/Rominee budget not add up the way they claim, it will, in order to increase tax cuts for guys like Mitt, rob us of our ability to pay for what we need to survive.
He stated clearly -- also true -- the fact that Rs in Congress have been blocking legislation to help the economy. He pointed out the fact that R plans are exactly the same as those that got us in this mess in the first place.
But the most remarkable, the most telling thing is that just before Obama's speech, The Rominee was in Ohio as well, spewing his usual untruths, and unsubstantiated claims that the president has made things worse. I confess I couldn't stand to watch the whole thing; but he continues one of his central -- and most obviously false -- claims, that Obama hasn't signed a single trade agreement in his entire presidency. He specified Latin America, as he always does. This is despite the fact that Obama has done that very thing and there's simply no way Rominee doesn't know it. But he repeats it, over and over. What kind of man does that? What kind of voter looks the other way?
Let me be blunt, and personal: Seaspray, tell us what you think of your candidate telling blatant lies. Tell us what you think it says about how he views you as a voter; tell us what you think it says about him. I ask you, Seaspray, because you're the only reader willing occasionally to pipe up here from the other side, and I'd like to know your justifications because I assume they'd reflect those of many voters. I know the readers who used to try to defend their side with comments still come by; and I'd be happy to hear their responses, too. But it seems they've found it unpleasant to have to deal with factual responses to their parroting of Foxorovian dissembling.
Seriously: how can anyone justify voting for someone who won't stop lying; who supports a phony budget, one that not only doesn't add up, but that, if enacted, will -- they don't deny it: they're proud of it -- prevent us from spending on everything we need going forward. Unlike everything Romney says, this is factual. You can call yourself a conservative, and believe in conservative things. I get that; I share some of them. But how in gods' names can you (and by "you" I mean any true conservative, anyone with a conscience) vote for a guy who lies like Romney does? For president of the United States of America! For anyone, it ought to be a bridge too far.
He stated clearly -- also true -- the fact that Rs in Congress have been blocking legislation to help the economy. He pointed out the fact that R plans are exactly the same as those that got us in this mess in the first place.
But the most remarkable, the most telling thing is that just before Obama's speech, The Rominee was in Ohio as well, spewing his usual untruths, and unsubstantiated claims that the president has made things worse. I confess I couldn't stand to watch the whole thing; but he continues one of his central -- and most obviously false -- claims, that Obama hasn't signed a single trade agreement in his entire presidency. He specified Latin America, as he always does. This is despite the fact that Obama has done that very thing and there's simply no way Rominee doesn't know it. But he repeats it, over and over. What kind of man does that? What kind of voter looks the other way?
Let me be blunt, and personal: Seaspray, tell us what you think of your candidate telling blatant lies. Tell us what you think it says about how he views you as a voter; tell us what you think it says about him. I ask you, Seaspray, because you're the only reader willing occasionally to pipe up here from the other side, and I'd like to know your justifications because I assume they'd reflect those of many voters. I know the readers who used to try to defend their side with comments still come by; and I'd be happy to hear their responses, too. But it seems they've found it unpleasant to have to deal with factual responses to their parroting of Foxorovian dissembling.
Seriously: how can anyone justify voting for someone who won't stop lying; who supports a phony budget, one that not only doesn't add up, but that, if enacted, will -- they don't deny it: they're proud of it -- prevent us from spending on everything we need going forward. Unlike everything Romney says, this is factual. You can call yourself a conservative, and believe in conservative things. I get that; I share some of them. But how in gods' names can you (and by "you" I mean any true conservative, anyone with a conscience) vote for a guy who lies like Romney does? For president of the United States of America! For anyone, it ought to be a bridge too far.
Thursday
Because He Can
Depressing, deplorable, death knell.
Last month David Corn noted that Mitt Romney was claiming that "government" would control half the economy once Obamacare was up and running. He's still saying it, and today Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post gives it a score of four Pinocchios and says Romney should drop it. "No amount of tweaking will get it right," he says.
...
It also doesn't matter. Politicians have increasingly discovered over the past couple of decades that even on a national stage you can lie pretty blatantly and pay no price ...
Lots of politicians are probably still reluctant to lie too brazenly because they're still working under the old rules, where the national media might call you on it and it might actually make a difference. The smart ones have figured out that this isn't how it works anymore. Romney's one of the smart ones.
And he demonstrates it, daily, hourly, minute by minute, with each breath he exhales. (In the time it took to write this, another lie emerges... It'll never stop. Plus he keeps repeating old ones, ones already definitively disproved. Just this morning, before Obama's speech on the economy, The Rominee said, once again, that Obama has not signed a single trade agreement. The guy is pathological. How can anyone support him? Don't they even care, not even a little, about truth?)
Another One Sees The Light
Dribs and drabs: surely not enough to make a difference. But, as we watch the country devolve into willful stupidity and denialism, buying into the lies and distortion of Fox "news," the RWS™, and their "he's all we got left so let's go with him" prevaricator in chief, it's nice to know that among those remaining conservatives with functioning brains, truth can still find a way:
I’m a life-long Republican. My political affiliation has been woven intrinsically into the very fabric of my being.
...
... As an adult, I continued to be a rock-solid Republican- I helped run my law school’s chapter of the Federalist Society and its Republican club. And after the election of President Obama in 2008, I served as an officer in my state Republican Party. ...
Today, however, I am a registered Republican no longer.
I came to the decision to leave the GOP not with a heavy heart, but with a broken one.
...
As a local GOP official after President Obama’s election, I had a front-row seat as it became infected by a dangerous and virulent form of political rabies.
In the grip of this contagion, the Republican Party has come unhinged. Its fevered hallucinations involve threats from imaginary communists and socialists who, seemingly, lurk around every corner. Climate change- a reality recognized by every single significant scientific body and academy in the world- is a liberal conspiracy conjured up by Al Gore and other leftists who want to destroy America. Large numbers of Republicans- the notorious birthers- believe that the President was not born in the United States. Even worse, few figures in the GOP have the courage to confront them.
Republican economic policies are also indefensible. ... one only has to look at Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget to see that.
In the end, it offers a dystopian vision of our future- a harsher, crueler and more merciless America starkly divided between the riders, and the ridden....
... Among all the difficult truths I’ve had to face, perhaps none has been harder than the realization that I, and those dissidents like me, are unrepresentative outliers far removed from, and largely unable to influence, the main currents of opinion within the GOP.Ultimately, leaving the GOP was necessary in order to maintain my own integrity. Leaving is also a public act of personal protest. ...
Perhaps, one day, a reformed and responsible Republican Party will reemerge....
Well, one can hope. As I've written many times, the country needs a functioning conservative party, one that offers real ideas, is committed to finding solutions, and is willing to seek middle ground for the good of the country. What inhabits the corpse now, though, is entirely the opposite; and it's beyond my understanding that seemingly intelligent people try to defend it, refuse to see it, or just ignore it. Because, I assume, securing a future is less important to them than getting rid of the black guy, or because they can't stand the idea of marriage equality, even when none has shown any way it affects them personally. Or maybe it's because they long so much for the days of yore, when white folks reigned supreme, that they figure if they just wish everything else away, it'll go back to when everyone else knew their place. You tell me. I just can't figure it out.
The economic positions of the current R party are dishonest and based on falsehoods; their ballistic foreign policy -- at least that of the advisers surrounding The Rominee -- are dangerous. Their rejection of science and of all forms of expertise is a national embarrassment. And yet, when Republican readers of this blog -- who, by definition, are intelligent consumers of information -- brave the waters and leave comments, they show zero willingness to see the light, unlike the writer in question.
It's one thing -- a once noble thing -- to be a conservative; it's something altogether different to claim allegiance to today's Republican party, a party clearly gone mad, in a world where there's more than enough madness already.
