2010
02.11
02.11
So there you sit. Your pet extinguished. The source of your present happiness. It made you smile. Kept your soul fit. Just as your present happiness was the primary pain for so many others including myself. I must say that as I have discovered my smiles surfacing once again I wish this pain on no one. One day I would hope that we both will look back upon this moment and smile. This is not our worst moment. This is one of our best. But for now. The many always come before the few. You are my dear. The very few.
True love sought,
So many things to think about,
Deep rooted desires,
Heat hotter than any fire,
Near the trip wire of pain,
Will this joining of love stay the same,
Is this happiness ever after, ever lasting,
Or a time bomb toward hell nearly passing,
The words of fate decide at any rate,
Walking blind on a still water lake,
Am I a time whore to be used and abused,
Will we be forever two growing seeds a new,
Is this forever
Or will this be never,
Out of fear,
Because the love is so clear,
Should it end now,
To avoid the possible hows,
Or should I let fate debate,
Ride it out at any rate,
Should I let drop a tear,
Rip a hole in my heart right here,
Because something so good shouldn’t last to the end,
And live on just being friends.
A misinformed, right-wing corporate media consumer who often fails to understand that BOTH major parties represent a corrupt plutocracy that steals from the middle class by taxing labor and profiting from corporate tax subsidies.
A teabagger also often fails to acknowledge that George W. Bush and his neo-conservative minions perpetrated one of the boldest and most egregious executive power grabs in the history of the United States. Furthermore, teabaggers mistakenly continue to blame a newly elected President Obama for all that ails the United States of America, based on a grossly flawed perception of reality (including latent racial prejudice) and despite the fact the U.S. economy collapsed on the previous administration’s watch.
Teabaggers are also known to base their misguided, right-wing-media-inspired beliefs about President Obama on stupid conspiracy theories about totalitarian takeovers, FEMA camps, etc., despite the fact these very same theories have been circulating around on the Internet for years, and were originally ascribed to neo-conservative cabalists at a time when Barack Obama had not even entered national politics. Teabaggers also are known to be particularly paranoid, xenophobic and intolerant, especially with regard to immigrants and anyone who isn’t white.
Additionally, teabaggers generally echo stupid myths about entitlement spending (it actually only accounts for about 1% of federal budget spending), have no idea that most poor people in America are not lazy, actually do work and don’t want to be on welfare, and have no idea what socialism actually means or that socialist reform in this country is actually what allowed a middle class to flourish and ultimately make the U.S. one of the most prosperous nations in human history.
Furthermore, teabaggers incorrectly equate socialism with Stalinism, think a system that rewards greed (capitalism) is the divine preference (despite Gospel evidence to the contrary), and are shameless champions of a misguided belief in American exceptionalism. Teabaggers also fail to recognize the inherently unpatriotic nature of their failed every-man-for-himself ideology that ultimately vilifies anyone who supports public policy aimed at reaching out to fellow Americans in need. They celebrate an exploitative corporatocracy (holy creator of jobs, blah blah blah) while denigrating the little guy for being “weak.”
Interestingly, teabaggers uphold an immoral, morbidly obese, twice divorced, draft-dodging, college dropout and known drug addict as their de facto leader, and are even known to advocate burning books. Of course, teabaggers fail to recognize the blatant hypocrisy within the GOP and tend to oversimplify all political debate and social issues, much like their pseudo-intellectual, fat-ass leader.
Finally, incredibly, teabaggers fail to recognize the hysterical double entendre associated with their proudly adopted teabag moniker.
Every village has its idiots, of course, but it’s sad when citizens of any nation allow themselves to be whipped into a frenzy en masse by a state-run propaganda machine masquerading as a legitimate, fair, balanced and independent news organization. Teabaggers are right to believe the future of the U.S.A. is in jeopardy, but sadly they have not yet correctly identified the real enemy. Perhaps when teabaggers finally grow up and mature into thinking adults, they will see the right-leaning power establishment for the oppressive and cunning beast that it is.
Teabagger: We don’t care that George Bush tripled the deficit and lied us into a war. The new administration only cut taxes for 90% of the population… fascists. Let’s go throw some Lipton tea bags into a fountain!
Most people don’t seem to understand that the Democratic party is a coalition party, not a progressive party. For each progressive student ranting about gay marriage there’s an urban black man who’s a hardcore Christian and against homosexuality. For every green advocate pushing for carbon emission reduction there’s a steel worker union member who’s worried about his job.
Progressives seem to have developed the idea that they are the Democratic party’s base, but they’re not. To understand that all you need to do is look at Obama’s policies, he’s for civil unions but against gay marriage, he’s for hard-line diplomatic stances (eg Iran can’t have a nuke, escalation in Afghanistan), he’s not actually doing anything about carbon emissions, etc. Quite simply the Democratic party is not the Progressive party, it’s the party of many conflicting and competing points of views. As a result it will continue to be the party that says a lot of good-sounding things during election, but won’t actually take action incase it pisses off one of their core constituencies. Gay marriage cannot happen due to the urban poor and latino vote which is every bit as religious as the Religious Right.
Green reforms cannot happen due to the union vote which is every bit as pro-business as big corporations. Anti-war policies cannot happen due to the working class blue collar vote which is every bit as pro-gun and pro-war as the Southern Republican vote. Once people start to understand things thing maybe they’ll stop acting surprised when Democrats accomplish nothing on the federal level. These Democrats aren’t “limp dick” democrats, they’re simply intelligent enough to understand their constituency, their entire constituency, not just the progressives.
If most democrats want something as well as a few republicans, shouldn’t that be enough to get legislation passed?
But the thing is republican politicians are a lot more consistent in sticking with party lines. Is this due to a greater alignment on issues? Perhaps to an extent, but I would guess a lot of it is due to the “Us vs Them” mentality. As annoying and insane as it can be, their dramatic posturing and fearmongering can have some political value. The democrats are evil, healthcare legislation is socialism, and anyone who strays from the party line is a traitor/communist/heathen.
This sort of thing doesn’t seem quite as pervasive on the democratic line, so it’s definitely a part of their problem. But sitting there, taking vague lines that they don’t stick to, backing down to opposition and giving into “compromise” to people who are unwilling to compromise isn’t going to help them. I think the democratic party needs some of the force and consistency in their posturing that, admittedly, conservatives have been very successful with. Long story short, they need a clear and forceful plan to stick with – which will be far harder to accomplish now than it would have been before.
The only “Change” we will receive are the graves of individuals and families that cannot afford coverage.
Before we begin what I suspect will be a furious attempt to rebrand the reported “compromise” (read: capitulation) on health care as the most meaningful piece of progressive legislation since ever, I think Senate Democrats deserve recognition for doing something that most thought would have been impossible–crafting health care legislation that will, ultimately, please no one.
The Democratic base is going to voice strong objections, because instead of taking bold steps in the face of a health care crisis, you allowed a guy that spent 2008 campaigning for a Republican presidential nominee to have unilateral veto power over the legislation (the optics of that aspect of this story could not possibly be worse).
Good luck getting that base to the polls in 2010. Their motivation to keep or expand a Democratic majority looks like it was rendered meaningless.
Worse yet, the months of dithering on the bill accomplished the worst possible scenario: the whiplash effect of raising, and then subsequently lowering, expectations. The neverending litany of mixed messages coming from both the Senate and the White House left the left-of-center Democratic base with false hopes that emanated from the false starts of those entities, who vacillated between bold and contemptibly timid.
The GOP, for what it is worth, was always through with you, despite your numerous attempts to find ways to please them and appeal to them. This will still get scant, if any, Republican votes, no matter how much the bill was neutered in response to their criticism. And they will still, after all this, find ways to call you dangerous socialists about 23,000 times between now and November of 2010.
The “independent voter”, meanwhile, has seen the spectacle of the past several months. They have seen Senate Democrats, “led” by their Majority Leader, adopt six different bargaining positions a day, where reports of negotiation (and/or capitulation) were met with an immediate forceful denial from some spokesperson, only to be confirmed within hours.
They have concluded that Democrats cannot govern worth a damn. They may well be right.
So, congratulations, guys. It takes a tremendous amount of skill to singlehandedly imperil a Congressional majority and return bargaining power to a political party that has been spending the last five years circling the drain. Perhaps John Boehner and Mitch McConnell will send you a “thank you” card.