If the GOP leadership can’t stop several of its members from voting for an omnibus bill that will effectively neuter the incoming Congress for an entire fiscal year — and so intentionally undermine the will of the American electorate — than that leadership needs to go.
And if we can’t vote our own interests any more by voting for the GOP, we should seriously begin thinking about leaving the party entirely and forming a new party. I’d be happy to label it, too. It’d be called the “Yeah? Well then fuck you, too!” party.
No donkeys or elephants. Just a pissed off eagle giving you the finger.
The problem is we have elected too many RINO senators, and now we’ll pay the price for their “pragmatism.”
The bird’s bird!
Another party would solve nothing, because they’d still have to go to D.C., where the miasma rising from the gutters torques people’s minds and turns them into swine lining up to the trough.
Time to reject the authority of Congress outright and declare our independence from them. Them and what army to stop us, right?
Sadly, even people on the dextrosphere cannot bring themselves to demand more of the current leadership. Many at a place like Ace of Spades have fully ingested the idea that the tax deal was “the best deal we could get” and that criticism of the current 111th Congress Republicans is misguided. After all, they aren’t in control of the House yet. However, if this omnibus bill on top of the tax deal puts the funding in place for the next year, I can’t see what great strides the GOP will make in 2011.
The usual trope is “Do we want to die on this hill?” Fine, perhaps that metaphor is too extreme, but seriously… after a truly historic election in November 2010, does it look like the GOP is behaving all that differently than it ever does? We had a fully GOP White House and Congress for a while, and did it reduce the scope and depth of government? Even a bit?
It’s looking more and more like the federal government is incapable of reforming itself, period. But I guess I can water my garden with the tears of John Boehner.
Of course. And McCain was “electable”. As was Mike Castle.
How’s that working out for us?
I guess I’m just one of them far-right “purists”. And when the big voices for “conservatism” on the web are calling for us to settle, who am I to say differently?
The pragmatists are just grateful that Harry and Nancy aren’t pushing an omnibus to fund the government through FY 2013.
COMMITY!
I’m starting to see some of your reasons for kissing politics goodbye for a time, Jeff. Sheesh. Life is made of many things, and the extent that politics impinges upon it can be managed based upon the benefits it delivers to your life. Perhaps in the current environment the point of diminishing returns has been reached.
Somewhere I remember reading or hearing how, in the world view of the Tao Te Ching, when society has lost the right path the wise man draws into himself, whereas when the people are on the right path the wise man rejoins society. I’m mucking that up to be sure and am no big fan of “eastern mysticism,” but I keep thinking about the trade-offs involved deciding whether joining the fight over what society is. The argument about who bosses whom with legalized force. Sometimes it seems it’s best to fly low and avoid the radar. Let the thieves fight amongst themselves.
The usual trope is “Do we want to die on this hill?” Fine, perhaps that metaphor is too extreme….
Except it’s not. Because if we don’t hurry and pick a hill worth dying on, the ground they’re going to leave us isn’t going to be worth living for. Sometimes the only way you can save your life is to be ready to lose it.
What frosts me is the unspoken assumption that the enemy, the Democrats, face no pressure and we should be grateful for whatever bone they throw.
Nota bene: No one was a better recent political bargainer than Bill Clinton. He knew how to extract the most from a political situation. When he went to the abdication presser and told everyone that this was the best deal the Democrats could get, that should have settled the argument. The only reason he would say that would be because it’s true. If he actually thought the Democrats could safely put off a deal and get more of what the Democrats wanted, he would have said something carefully Clintonian like “While this deal is imperative to protect the middle and lower class taxpayer, each individual representative must be sure to look carefully at the details to insure the people who need help are going to get it.” That too would have been an endorsement of Barry’s deal, and Clinton had to support Barry… we all know that. However it would have been a completely different signal to the Democrats. It would have been his way of saying “Hold out longer, Democrats, you can get the GOP to cave in for more.”
At any rate, Clinton didn’t even have to appear with Barry in the first place, and there are plenty of good excuses.
No, the only conclusion possible is that Clinton truly believes any other deal reached later would be less beneficial to Democrats. If only the GOP could figure this on their own.
The GOP didn’t have to deal at all. The truth is, the GOP establishment wants to hamstring the Tea Party contingency that’s coming.
They just proved it. Let’s see what else they let make it through a lame duck Congress. I can’t wait!
No, the only conclusion possible is that Clinton truly believes any other deal reached later would be less beneficial to Democrats. If only the GOP could figure this on their own.
What makes you think that the establishment GOP is interested in a deal that’s less beneficial to the Democrats?
I suspect it is a foregone conclusion that the GOP in Congress will go along with the CR, because True Pragmatic Wisdom dictates Republicans can’t afford to shut down the gubmint. Why, that would be insane! The Republicans wouldn’t want to be saddled with a label, after all. Labels are so divisive.
Jeff beat me to the point.
Well, it would hardly be pragmatic to start raising the people’s expectations, now, would it? Phoney-Baloney
jobssinecures are at stake!The Republicans wouldn’t want to be saddled with a label, after all. Labels are so divisive.
Some lables don’t seem to bother them:
seems like they positively strive to live up to those labels!
I’m concerned that the system is so inherently broken there’s little that can be done. Even if we elect 100% straight conservatives to the Senate next time around, we’re still going to have 30+ Democratic senators doing their best to f things up.
The public doesn’t know what an awful cesspool D.C. has become. They complain about it, then they start masturbating to the latest Angry Birds expansion or the latest Sex in the City movie. Then they forget, and meanwhile D.C. expands and rights are slowly eroded.
Too many people are on the dole. Too many want something for nothing. The rest are a minority that have trouble getting the “Don’t Spend More Than You Have” meme across to the other 75% of the country.
The Tea Party is a vocal, angry minority, who have to fight the Press, the Establishment, and the Left in order to get change implemented.
It’s going to take a serious crisis to really change things in D.C. Something like a Depression.
We’re well on our way.
P.J. O’Rourke documented that particular phenomenon almost 20 years ago. Nothing’s changed.
Neither does voting for the two we have. But it does reward them for their bad behavior.
propaganda whore Viv Schiller’s National Soros Radio stands squarely with Mr. Glenn Greenwald:
Bradley Manning Needs Prison Pals
I think National Soros Radio must be pretty darn sure that anyone else what would be in a military jail must hate America as much as Bradley cause it apparently hasn’t occurred to them that your average military convict would beat the shit out of this pansy and call it atonement.
The GOP is on notice. The fact that the party is too effing stupid to notice will be its demise. I’m ready to spend 10 years or so in political exile with a new third party. Actually, I’ve been in political exile for years: it’s not like the GOP leadership actually gives a crap what I think. It’s about time to let them know that I reciprocate their feelings.
i am very pro a new party Mr. Geek
when even Paul Ryan votes to shove America into the embrace of manifest failshit destiny something’s broken