Tuesday, August 2

American Exceptionalism: Building New Shit To Replace The Old Shit We Couldn't Afford The Maintenance On Because We Were Busy Building New Shit

Alec MacGillis, "Angry liberals seek silver lining in debt-limit deal". August 1

FIRST thing we do is add "vertebrate" to the requirements of office:
“It’s a surrender to Republican extortion,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who voted against the deal. “It’s one thing to say we want this, we don’t want that as part of negotiations. It’s another to say we will destroy the country and the economy if you don’t do what we want.”

"Now, honey, you know you can't chop your sister up into little pieces and run her through the garbage disposal. Mommy and Daddy will buy you a cat instead."

So why in hell did your party "do what they wanted" anyway? You don't believe in negotiating with terrorists, just in giving in to their every demand so they'll go away?

Because it sure seems to me that Democratic concerns focused almost exclusively on the potential damage to markets. Which, agreed, was considerable. But we've suffered thirty-five years of real damage thanks to Republican shenanigans, though the markets have weathered that a helluva lot better than the average Americans who used to be the Dems bread-and-butter. Saying "they were holding us hostage" is pure melodrama. If Default was too serious to contemplate as a means of demonstrating to America just what loons the Republicans really are, then you should have solved the problem earlier. You could have caved in last March, or last December, just as easily. Now we're all going to share in a decade-long disaster, probably much, much worse, and none of us has any say in the matter any more. Except to vote you all out, and replace you with assholes of the same or even larger diameter.

Your Next President If It Isn't Michele Mitt Romney said yesterday that he wouldn't have stood for even a whisper of potential revenue increases on some future world, or any talk of reducing the Defense budget. And he's the sane and sensible one in the race, by Republican standards. So it ain't like you've even stopped the hemorrhaging. In a lot of ways, bleeding to death over a decade is worse than doing so in five minutes.

Yet again the default Democrat in me wants to ask how we got here in the first place, and that little voice answers back, "Because the Dems couldn't do a goddam thing with unprecedented majorities two elections running. Because, despite a hostage crisis, a center-right President wouldn't show half the audacity of his miserable predecessor and become a functioning emperor." It's always too late to go back.

I'm sorry, but I just don't fucking get it. Why does Barack Obama want to be President? For the perks? He acts for all the world like what I've long suspected him to be: a guy who thought he was running for Vice-President, who suddenly found himself unexpectedly in the driver's seat, with too much money at stake to back down. Barack Obama is like the goddam Hollywood vanity project a hundred yes men said yes to back when he was hot.

And why do the rest of these fucks want to be Democrats? Because they're more comfortable worshipping Ronald Reagan from afar? For chrissakes, if there's a real Democrat in this country who hasn't expected Republicans to act precisely this way for the last twenty-five years it's because he's not that old. But somehow Congressional Democrats just don't seem to see it. Somehow. The only things accomplished by Democratic presidents over the past twenty years were 1) not being convicted by the Senate; and 2) staring down the Republicans over a government shutdown. Maybe the circumstances are slightly different today, but a stare is still a stare. At the very least maybe you guys coulda been prepared to face the eventuality.

10 comments:

prairie curmudgeon said...

Republicans are just exploiting the failure niche. The worse things get, the more they can make things worse, the more the country bags up the shit, the fewer taxes that are brought in, the more power these assholes can wield with the budget saber. It is a self perpetuating failure loop -- of leadership, of the economy, of government, of media, of all the mechanisms of democracy -- where they find their minority strength and power. There are historic precedents in the nastiest of places.

Dr.BDH said...

Protect the markets? The hell you say. The Invisible Hand is smarter than a fifth grader, so the Dow is tanking as we speak, anticipating the collapsing economy wrought by this misquided bill. As for Obama, when it's something he wants (e.g., war in Syria) he's unstoppable. Why a war in Syria is more important to him than the well-being of 90% of Americans, I don't know. But he works hard to get what he wants and as for what we want...not so much.

R. Porrofatto said...

I happen to like Jerry Nadler, even if voting against the debt deal just puts him on a par with Louie Gohmert (whose name, to my dismay, does not rhyme with Colbert). I wouldn't hold him responsible for the sins of the party; he's been pretty outspoken at times against the status quo, including the debt ceiling deal. My fully cultivated pre-senescent cynicism notes that he can afford to play it safe since he has little power and even less notoriety, but still.

Being it's from the Washington Post I won't even ask how come an article titled Angry liberals seek silver lining in debt deal doesn't mention a single silver lining or quote any liberal seeking one.

ckc (not kc) said...

...assholes of the same or even larger diameter...

Oh, this goes into the quiver, with a big "use often" tag!

Anonymous said...

Well, Jerry Nadler did what Krugman said he would do, were he a Congressman facing this vote. If that cuts any mustard with anyone.

The candidacy, campaign, nomination and election of Obama were so imbued with and immersed in the issue of Race, and all that that means in this country, that none of it can be evaluated like other presidential runs.

ifthethunderdontgetya™³²®© said...

Why does Barack Obama want to be President?

You could find some who say that there are no accidents. Obama is doing just what he's paid to do. (And Bill Clinton made $75 million giving speeches last year. The business of selling out the populist party is rewarding, apparently.)

Maybe he believes in the Reagan myth, and thinks he's the next one? That's my bet, actually. But it matters not what his motivations are.

What matters is the results. On behalf of the Democratic party, he's eating the failures of 30 years of Reaganism (latter phrase thanks to Doghouse Riley).

And so we have no party left that speaks for us.
~

Deggjr said...

Somewhere in 'The Family' by Jeff Sharlet there is a quote like this from a foreigner: "America is really a one party system, but Americans are so extravagant they have two of them."

Too bad I can't find the exact quote.

James Stripes said...

Under the alleged leadership of President Barack Obama, the United States committed economic suicide. Being President is still a good gig for anyone that has forgotten his or her values. The President makes a decent salary, doesn't pay any of it in rent, averts the indignities of airport screening when he travels, and enjoys other perks including a decent retirement package.

Anonymous said...

Fuck ALL of the Democraps. They have run out of excuses and justifications.

Kathy said...

With Regan & both Bushes it was pretty clear that they weren't running anything. Clinton seemed to have some control, which may be the reason he was so hated by the MOTU's. Then again, we had NAFTA, "Don't Ask Don't Tell" etc.

I'm thinking it doesn't matter much who the President is. My focus now is on getting elected just about ANY 3rd, 4th or 5th party representative or senator- anyone who can temper the power of our 2-fer-1 party system.