Welcome Sen. Franken.
At this glorious moment of generalized schaudenfreudery, there are many calls for the Democratic Party not to overstep itself, not to push too hard on health care, not to become arrogant, to look for balance, common ground etc, to include all parties at the table, etc.
Hogpatties.
The President makes something this case frequently, but what Obama means by this and Joe Liberman means by this are two rather different things. It is the latter I am done with.
The Republican Party as such has earned a right to be ignored and/or crushed, for as near as I can tell, the rest of my natural life.
I would be more disposed to the concept of political balance if I could honestly name a single policy, in the last thirty years, espoused by the right generally and the Republican party leadership specifically that has, in any significant way, personally benefited me. I can't think of one.
I can however think of many of their policies that have severely injured people I know and care about, sometimes literally, sometimes calling half-legal medical services begging medical advice for a friend just hit by a car, watching people dragged off into the gaping bowels of the prison industry, sometimes noting the frightening change in the color of the sky.
If I had to guess, most of the people I know have less money in real terms than they otherwise would have, have less access to health care, have less affordable housing, less access to college educations, less benefit from college educations, less benefit from apprenticeships, worse public schools, far less predictability, satisfaction and reliability in work, work longer hours at for lower wages, have fewer legal and social freedoms, have less independence in their working lives, have in fact a nation in decline (until with any luck the last few months), and not the least of it, have a rapidly deteriorating planetary ecosystem.
Unless Obama can break us out of the deep ditch these assorted Social Darwinist policies have dug us, most American children have a deeply craptastic future to contemplate before they are spit out into the tender mercies of the world economy in a severely deteriorating world ecosystem in 20 years.
I should say now that I have hope that the President's leadership is significant, and there really is hope. More to the point, there really is no functional alternative to hope. And so I am utterly out of patience with obstructionists operating purely from a habit of personal gain, scanning their surroundings for yet another mark, looking for new wealth at the suffering of their fellow countrymen, a wealth intended to be piled on pointlessly on existing wealth arising 99 times out of 100 from pre-existing privilege.
But what is our Republican heritage now? A cultural divided country. Less expensive, lower quality manufactured goods at the cost of decent wages? Gas was historically cheap I suppose. And what a complete disaster that is. De-regulating phones and travel, well, those were cheaper, at costs to wages and perhaps irreversible costs to the environment. We did get loads of high interest credit cards, and easy loans on wildly distorted property values while our real wages declined. Food is also cheaper, at least by the calorie. Please note my fat ass.
I can go on. But the U.S. was severely weakened in this period, and the truth is the earth is starting to die.
As it is, after many, many years of hearing these arguments, and until the Bush Administration trying very hard to respect the other side, I've completely given up on the idea that compromise and respect for the right-wing policy makers is beneficial. The growth in right wing racist violence, endlessly winked at by half-assed fascists in the media, might be a bit of trigger there.
Compromise among the great diversity of genuine beliefs and cultural values in America, I am all for. But for the Republican power structure, the leadership as it is? If the opportunity presents itself, and it might, I recommend a policy of political isolation and eventual eradication. If from its ashes a Libertarian and a Christianist party (particularly localized ones), I'm all for it; I will be delighted to battle them in the realm of actual ideas. These are genuine American political cultures.
But for the crypto-fascist, ego-capitalist, aspiring tyrants, liars, idolaters and tools, by which I mean the contemporary Republican party? I have no time to argue with grifters and con-men. I support whatever works to crush this cancer, velvet glove or iPhone fist.
