You gave away the store in your "negotiations" with Republicans. Why bother with the circus mockery of "negotiations"? Just give the Republicans what they want up front.
Sadly, it seems we have truly come to the end of two-party governance. We now have the Republican Party and the Republican-lite Party (aka the Democratic Party). Where do we go from here?
"Where do we go from here?"
ReplyDeleteWell, the economy is going straight into the toilet along with democracy. A friend calls this nation Dumbf***istan because the electorate puts these people in power. Sigh.
I believe Andy Borowitz mentioned the loss(or was it the crushing?) of balls among the Democrats. . . again.
ReplyDeletePaul, where is the concern about jobs and growing the economy? There is little enough to find, because the fat cats won't suffer.
ReplyDeletesusan s., it's probably "crushing". It had to be a painful exercise for some of the Dems.
The whole leadership mess seems as if we´ve seen/heard it all before...Rowan Williams and Barack Obama have lots in common...both well educated but unable to be skillful when leading REAL change that needs to be done with REAL experience/imagination...all ¨compromises¨ in the name of being ¨wise¨ instead of realizing the fecklessness and cowardliness of it all when facing bigots and thieves...the kind of not-so-sensible but overly-educated sloppiness that resides in a vacuum that harms others. Rowan needs a slap accross the face and Barack needs a kick in the ass (that is if I didn´t believe in 100% non-violence). Onward we go, but one thing is clear (to me) and that is greed and corporate exploitation of our fellow citizens (and pobrecitos abroad) can never be viewed (by me) as anything other that pillage, rape and burn...afterall, these grabbers and back stabbers don´t really care about personal integrity--glad I´m not them and I will continue to do, hands on, what I can do, to improve life of those around me with whatever resources I can muster...period!
ReplyDeleteWell, what was he supposed to do>? The PEOPLE elected a bunch of complete lunatics to Congress, who really were perfectly happy to see the country go over the edge entirely.
ReplyDeleteHindsight is 20/20. I am not happy with this deal but then I am not happy with an utterly partisan permanently campaigning congress either. Our system is broken and we are, as I pointed out elsewhere no different than the animals watching the pigs and the men dance...
And what is also frustrating is that the Tea Boilers in Congress still squealed that it wasn't enough!! Which, if you take what Leonardo is saying, would make the Tea Boilers the GAFCONistas of U.S. Politics.
ReplyDeleteAnd I always thought we "don't negotiate with terrorists." Guess I was wrong about that.
"Paul, where is the concern about jobs and growing the economy?"
ReplyDeletePrecisely, Mimi. That is what people need and want and all the polls focus on, but DC ignores it. We are all held hostage to the corporations and their tools, the teahadists. Cheap labor, more profits. Break the unions. Create a populace so desperate for work they will do anything for crumbs. Reap the rewards of serf labor.
It's disgusting. Could anything short of actual revolution turn it around? The Founding Fathers did not create a system to handle the current types of dysfunction.
IT, call me a wild and crazy radical, but I would have wanted Obama to stare the Republicans down, and veto any solution that did not include tax increases for the very wealthy. Then, at the 11th hour, he could have recommended to the Dems in Congress a one-page bill raising the debt ceiling. If that didn't pass, he should have invoked the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling. The only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them. For heaven's sake, give it a try! Show some courage.
ReplyDeleteHow long do you think it will be before the bastards make some new demands? Does the Super Committee have any chance to succeed? I think not. Yielding to bullies only results in them making more demands. Nothing is settled, and the economy is headed down the toilet creating further unemployment and distress for those who have the least.
Borowitz said:
ReplyDeleteAfter weeks of wrenching negotiations that went right up to the wire, Democrats in the House and Senate today accepted major cuts to their balls.
That's about right.
Mimi,I'm afraid I don't believe Obama and at least a majority of the Democrats in Congress wanted to stand up to the Republicans.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I understand this was part of Obama's reelection strategy. The House could've passed a debt ceiling increase last December before the Tea Party took over but they were told to wait because Obama wanted a grand bargain to appeal to independent voters.
The Republicans are already saying there will never be any tax increases again and that they will repeat this performance next time around. They refused to fund the FAA before the recess because they want to bust the unions.
At some point we have to realize that the US government has become a fascist organization, putting forward and protecting only the interests of big business and corporations and the wealthy elite who profit from them.
I pray every night for deliverance from this evil.
Brian, I agree with almost everything you say. If the Dems had wanted to pass a debt ceiling last December, they could have. What was done was all about the next election and catering to the moneyed class who fund the campaigns and not at all for the good of the country. And I rather doubt that the president and the Democrats accomplished their purpose.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I shrink from the use of the word 'fascist' in the context of this situation. I believe it furthers our argument not at all to throw the word around.
Short, sweet and to the point. Great letter, Mimi.
ReplyDelete"Where do we go from here?"
ReplyDeleteA Labor Party
(in my dreams, and not that center-right party that Tony Blair left behind)
Terrorists of any stripe do not negotiate. Their goal is to kill as many people as possible and they don't mind killing themselves in the process. The Republican Tea Party types would've gone all in on this one, and as unhappy as we are with the deal, it beats waking up dead. And just a note to anybody who isn't going to vote next time, how else are we going to get these people out of office? If you're tempted not to check the "president" box, think who you might get on the Supreme Court.
ReplyDeleteBex, I do not advocate abstaining from the vote, but I am angry and extremely disappointed. I think it's not fair to say that our choice is limited to terrorists or the Democrats who enable Republican policies. For Democrats to implement government policies out of fear of the Tea Party demonstrates a lack of courage that is shameful.
ReplyDeleteMimi, perhaps fascism is too strong a word but I am going by this definition:
ReplyDelete"“Fascism is a form of political and social behavior that arises when the middle class, finding its hopes frustrated by economic instability coupled with political polarization and deadlock, abandons traditional ideologies and turns, with the approbation of police and military forces, to a poorly-defined but emotionally appealing soteriology of national unity, immediate and direct resolution of problems, and intolerance for dissent.” (Chuck Anesi, 2008)"
When the Congress is held hostage by a minority of extremists, when Tea Party organizations go to public picnics of elderly ladies who belong to Move On and intimidate them, when the President is repeatedly called a socialist and a Marxist, when immigrants are demonized and threatened, when the Tea Party controls the legislative process both nationally and in the states, when we move ever faster towards a police state through Homeland Security and people are sequestered and arrested for attempting to exercise their free speech rights and the middle class has little hope of economic survival then I fear that the conditions are ripe for some form of radical government.
I hope I'm wrong.
Brian, I believe we have not quite reached that definition of facism here in the US.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there's Godwin's Law:
Godwin put forth the hyperbolic observation that, given enough time, in any online discussion—regardless of topic or scope—someone inevitably criticizes some point made in the discussion by comparing it to beliefs held by Hitler and the Nazis.
However this discussion did not go on very long before the "F" word came up.
No, not that "F" word!
It is shameful that Democrats and much of the electorate don't recognize the Tea Party for what it is. TPers do not compromise and the only sane way to deal with that is through the ballot box.
ReplyDeleteBex the Democrats and the electorate won't do it at the ballot box without a movement to spur them on. What we need is a leftward movement, which will not be the Democratic Party. The situation will have to get much worse before such a movement gains traction, which may happen more quickly if the Republicans take charge again, which I see as a possibility should the Republicans choose a presidential candidate who is mostly sane and not completely ignorant.
ReplyDeleteMy view of the near future is quite pessimistic.
I wonder, in the next few years, what song will be our version of the Marsellaise?
ReplyDeleteOlbermann says the outrage is to come from his audience - it won't, until that wide group of the middle class is starving and begging, and then it will be catastrophe.
Kudos to Leonardo for his comparison of Obama and Abp Rowan.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you, Grandmere Mimi, for your observation about how to deal with bullies.
Where do we go from here? Beats the hell out of me. I voted for Hillary in the primaries precisely because she knew the system and knew how to play with the players.
But I fell for the Hope and Change bandwagon, thinking that surely after the eight long, dark years of the Bush regime, the country was ready for a progressive turn.
But I was misinformed, to coin a phrase. Obviously.
And in this country, and for any foreseeable future, there simply is no other choice than the two parties we now have: a wifebeater and his wife.
The Founders who designed our government based it on the idea that people were susceptible to reason, and at the very least to their own self-interest. Which is not what we have now, just turn on Fox News any time, day or night.
As someone very wise once said, people generally get the government they deserve. In which case, we are now sunk.
Or as some commenter on another blog said the other day, it's like a French Revolution in reverse: the workers rampaging through the streets, clamoring for more power to the aristocracy.
Andrew Sullivan remarked the other day that the GOP is now the party of the Confederacy. And all across the Southland, people are jumping up, saying "Yes! Praise Jesus!"
Lord have mercy.
Leonardo and Russ, I have often been struck by the similarities between Rowan and Obama.
ReplyDeleteAs I have already said elsewhere, I would have voted for Hilary, had she been the candidate, but I doubt that she would have acted differently from Obama. Both have their feet planted firmly in the center-right.
GOP is now the party of the Confederacy.
That's about right.
Concerning that which the Democrats lost, or had crushed, or perhaps never had, this monologue
ReplyDeleteis very much Not Safe for Work.
If you ignore the warning and go there anyway, you must take responsibility for the consequences, such as loud and uncrontrollable laughter.
Porlock, the video is naughty, and you are, too.
ReplyDeleteNot naughty, Mimi, just true!
ReplyDeletesusan s., just because it's naughty, doesn't mean it's not true. :-)
ReplyDelete