If you have not guessed by now, your faithful correspondent is on something of a tear. The subject being David Broder and his Op-Ed of October 31, 2010. As stated before this is such a rich and deep vein of pure idiocy that it has to be taken apart in small chunks. It is the El Dorado Mine of mindless punditry. Everywhere one digs one finds a nugget of pure fool’s gold. Grab your pick-ax and shovel dear reader, we are going in knee-deep into the muck.
Here’s a likely candidate : “ Here is where Obama is likely to prevail. With strong Republican support in Congress for challenging Iran's ambition to become a nuclear power, he can spend much of 2011 and 2012 orchestrating a showdown with the mullahs.” Oh my, how wrong can one man be in just two sentences? Let’s zero in on the central flaw, shall we?
That flaw is the notion of any kind of Republican support for Obama, strong or otherwise. Has Broder been paying attention for the past two years? Has he been napping at the keyboard? On which planet is this man living on? It is certainly not the earth we know of.
Ever since the stimulus bill the Elephants have been on a rampage of obstructionism. What they can not kill they delay. What can not be delayed gets watered-down into irrelevance. It has been the politics of “no” from day one in both the House and the Senate. The truly galling part is that they look about to be rewarded for this bad behavior in the midterm elections.
Thus, if the Republicans get great political gains from acting like poorly socialized five year olds, exactly why would they change their M.O.? They have been tearing around the political landscape like a ADHD grade schooler after a meal consisting of large amounts of candy washed down with a half-liter of Jolt Cola. They have acted like school-yard bullies. The messaging of the TEA party types has been especially juvenile.
Once again this bad behavior looks to be rewarded. The “politics of chaos” as Taylor Marsh put it has been a winner for the Pachyderms. Led by their Madonna of the frozen north, Sister Sara Palin, they have reduced the political discussion to a collection of play-ground taunts. The statements of Rand Paul, Sharon Engle, Christine O’Donnell are the policy proposals and intellectual musings of ill behaved brat calling a classmate a “booger breath.” If these TEA party luminaries were still small children, they would be given at least a time out.
With the House in there pocket and perhaps the Senate too, exactly what is there to prevent the Elephants from continuing their obstructionist ways? Why would they suddenly become responsible negotiators with the Democrat they despise? Pray tell, why would they give the Kenyan, Anti-American, Anti-Colonialist, Socialist, Marxist, nation-destroying, did-you-notice-he-is-black, booger-eating Obama a break? They have already given away the play book in the House. It will be a non-stop dive into right-wing kookery. It will be “investigations” of the most inane and idiotic conspiratorial musings of the wing-nut faithful. The will subpoena the Secretary of State of the great state of Hawaii to produce Obama’s birth certificate, just because they can, just for kicks.
There is no way the Republicans will join up with Obama to bring the Iranian mullahs to heal. They do not play well with others, especially with Democratic presidents. Given that this particular Democratic president had the gall to be both darkly hued and kicked their butt in the 2008 election, the only concern of the Republicans will be payback. They will move heaven and earth to delegitimize Obama. They want him to fail, damn the consequences for the larger nation.
Nothing Obama can do will satisfy the Bull Elephants running amok in the legislature. He could launch nuclear missiles onto every major Iranian city and they would still find that action too parsimonious. Remember the goal here is to make Obama a one-term president. The goal is to “prove” that the policy proposals of the Democrats are “always wrong” and “anti-American.” The goal is Carl Rove’s one-party state run by the free market absolutists and ideologues of the Republican Party. The goal is the gutting of the welfare state, damn the consequence. As long as the top 1/2 of 1% are enriched, screw the other 99 1/2% of the nation.
As far as the Republicans are concerned there is no return on the investment in congeniality. They big political payday has come from confrontation. That has been the pot of political gold for the Elephants. It “worked” with Bill Clinton. It will “work” again with Obama. There is no “middle” in our polarized politics. The common ground is being torn apart by TEA party and libertarian extremists who now dominate and terrorize the GOP. The structures of compromise are being torched by the “my way or the highway” mind set of the far-right wing. Deep Red Republicans in good standing have been given their walking papers for agreeing with Democrats on one issue. 99 and 44/100 per cent pure is no longer good enough. Ideological purity matters more than the health of the Republic. It is lock-step 100% compliance, or out the door with the TEA party radicals.
So no Mr. Broder, the political analysis offered by you on October 31, 2010 could not be more off base. Once agin you got it wrong. Once again you proved yourself a clueless idiot.
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