It was provoked by my Facebook status update, which read: ".... is happy. Very very happy and watching Fox News, loving the sight of those blowhards spin and squirm, still lying as the ship sinks below the waves!"
NW
I think your Facebook status smacks of schadenfreude and is another indication that the pendulum will now swing to the other extreme -- right-wing hubris replaced by left-wing lunacy. So much crowing, so much "good riddance to the Republicans." Is this the much-boasted of Era of Change? Already the Democrats are licking their lips about how their majorities in Congress have kicked the Republicans in the ass and will help them drive their own pork through. I bet the left-wing base (like you) will turn a blind eye to the depredations of their own side that are sure to follow.
I hope I'm wrong.
What a pity more people don't read Kipling these days. He wrote the Recessional during Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the very pinnacle of the British Empire. It's sobering reading, and perhaps the left-wing, now that it has secured that much dreamed of victory and is puffing out its chest, should take seriously.
Here it is, in case you haven't read it: http://www.web-books.com/Classics/Poetry/Anthology/Kipling/Recessional.htm
I hope I'm wrong.
What a pity more people don't read Kipling these days. He wrote the Recessional during Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897, the very pinnacle of the British Empire. It's sobering reading, and perhaps the left-wing, now that it has secured that much dreamed of victory and is puffing out its chest, should take seriously.
Here it is, in case you haven't read it: http://www.web-books.com/C
God of our fathers, known of old-- Lord of our far-flung battle line Beneath whose awful hand we hold Dominion over palm and pine--Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,Lest we forget - lest we forget!
Me
Today at 2:22pm
Today at 2:22pm
Sorry boss, I don't agree. If the likes of DeLay and Palin were still in power, they would not be reading Kipling to each other. (She probably thinks he's some European Communist, which would at least make him laugh in his grave) The exact reason Cheney and Bush were able to ram the public up the fundament is because liberals have always tried to find the middle path and woke up too late to the transformative nature of the American right wing at this point. Read the preface to Krugman's The Great Unraveling. If you have a Republican party that is already saying the real reason for their loss is that they were not 'conservative enough', that they didn't attack enough and that Palin was the best thing about them, then trying to be conciliatory to them is like offering mediation to a wounded rattlesnake. You cannot fix the economy, the energy crisis, the Iraq war or the healthcare crisis by trying to be conciliatory to Limbaugh and gang. Wait and watch for the speed with which they go on the attack - the modern Republican party is now little more than a cancerous growth that is only capable of being in endless opposition.
And frankly, I think it's way past time that liberals stood up and displayed some spine for our beliefs. Why the fuck are we hampered by perceptions of some pockets of left-wing extremism when right-wing extremism is pervasive, all round and so aggressive and refusing to admit even a chink of reality through the window? Did you see Limbaugh or Coulter backing off a jot during the Clinton years or the Bush years? You shoot the mad dog and throw a bone to the good ones. If the Obama administration decides to play nice they will find their entire legislative agenda in deadlock in 30 days.
They have not been elected to play nice - a black man with a suspicious name has wiped the floor with a white war veteran. If they have to implement the change that the voters are asking them to, it will not be done by playing nice. These changes have to be rammed through - if the Republicans stand in the way, and all the signs are that they will, they should be roadkill. Two years from now, if Obama is not able to show the legislative accomplishments that he has been voted in for, the excuse can't be that I was nice to the Republicans, but they wouldn't play ball.
I really think you should read that Krugman piece - he talks about how Napoleon took all of the European empires by surprise because everyone believed that all his extremism was just talk and that once they got to the real business of ruling, he would moderate himself. Then he drew the parallel to Bush and the current Republican gang, who pushed harder and faster to the right than the Democrats ever thought was possible and therefore, while the Democrats believed the rhetoric about bipartisanship after 9/11, Rove, Cheney and co simply got a better grip on the knives and pushed them in harder between their ribs. That kind of stuff has to be burned out of the system, not by talking nicey-nicey.
And frankly, I think it's way past time that liberals stood up and displayed some spine for our beliefs. Why the fuck are we hampered by perceptions of some pockets of left-wing extremism when right-wing extremism is pervasive, all round and so aggressive and refusing to admit even a chink of reality through the window? Did you see Limbaugh or Coulter backing off a jot during the Clinton years or the Bush years? You shoot the mad dog and throw a bone to the good ones. If the Obama administration decides to play nice they will find their entire legislative agenda in deadlock in 30 days.
They have not been elected to play nice - a black man with a suspicious name has wiped the floor with a white war veteran. If they have to implement the change that the voters are asking them to, it will not be done by playing nice. These changes have to be rammed through - if the Republicans stand in the way, and all the signs are that they will, they should be roadkill. Two years from now, if Obama is not able to show the legislative accomplishments that he has been voted in for, the excuse can't be that I was nice to the Republicans, but they wouldn't play ball.
I really think you should read that Krugman piece - he talks about how Napoleon took all of the European empires by surprise because everyone believed that all his extremism was just talk and that once they got to the real business of ruling, he would moderate himself. Then he drew the parallel to Bush and the current Republican gang, who pushed harder and faster to the right than the Democrats ever thought was possible and therefore, while the Democrats believed the rhetoric about bipartisanship after 9/11, Rove, Cheney and co simply got a better grip on the knives and pushed them in harder between their ribs. That kind of stuff has to be burned out of the system, not by talking nicey-nicey.
Me
Today at 2:24pm
Today at 2:24pm
P.s. Remember why Clinton was not able to do anything about healthcare reform? Because he tried to get the Republicans along and they declared a jihad on Hillary and him. To repeat that experience once again, in the name of cleaning up the political culture would be rampant stupidity. Remember what the Republicans said about bipartisanship when they came to power - another name for date rape, according to Grover Norquist. That's what they really think - forget all the 'let's all get along' crap that will be coming out now.
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