Via Steve Benen at the Washington Monthly comes this quote of James Kirchick in the New Republic:
Lets see: Forty years back would be 1968. That year we rejected a worthy Democrat tainted by a stupider than usual war to pick a complete felon who continued the war another six years or so while establishing the broad strokes of the conservative kleptocratic agenda. Resigned to avoid responsibility for his crimes he left us in the hands of an inept, gently bumbling, incompetent who might rate an honored niche in history had he stayed in Congress. '76 brought a rare aves: a nuclear engineer who didn't pat the appropriate bums as they required. His policies, if continued, would put us ahead of the curve now so far as energy and climate change are concerned. But he was an engineer, so he was conservative -- except in a context of right wing conservative ideology. Not being a politician, he fell to a consummate sock puppet for the second run at the conservative kleptocracy. The befudlement of the populace continued apace through twelve years. Then we rejected a second term for the CIA apparatchik/aristo to elect another good ol' boy. This Democrat was a thorough going politician, and a DLC conservative. He did a few good things that hurt a hell of a lot, except not the capitalist aristocrats. He did a few bad thing's that hurt a hell of a lot, except not the capitalist aristocrats . So, after two terms we elected his Vice President and then stood by sucking our teeth while the Supreme Court, an organization with no part in elections, appointed his oponnent. This creature capered and preened as his staff constructed the grand Lazy Fair Kleptocratic Con With New 24/7 Open Vault at the fed. He opened Branch offices in exotic vacation spots like the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq. He created a meritocratic government in which the only merit was a expertise in particular fairy tales. These myrmidons rewrote laws to suit themselves. Tortured all and sundry. Drowned a city. Made even stupider than stupid wars. And generally assert the divine right of assholes, just not yours.
With the exception of the Watergate Investigations the Democrats in Congress spent the period taking care of any bidness but the people's. For the past thirty years these fine speciman's have honed their abilities as forelock tuggers.
The result of all this "centrism" is a complete conservative victory. The economy is in ruins due to greed and government is incapable due to corruption. We've elected another conservative Democrat and accept the label "liberal" applied to him by the con/kleps. The punditocracy is in full cry to hobble him.
Kirchick may call this "success". He may call it "centrist".
I think anyone with an understanding of the two terms as used by most of the world, would disagree.
--ml
For the past 40 years, the Democratic Party has been most successful when it has governed from the center -- when it has governed at all!! [consternation]!!
Lets see: Forty years back would be 1968. That year we rejected a worthy Democrat tainted by a stupider than usual war to pick a complete felon who continued the war another six years or so while establishing the broad strokes of the conservative kleptocratic agenda. Resigned to avoid responsibility for his crimes he left us in the hands of an inept, gently bumbling, incompetent who might rate an honored niche in history had he stayed in Congress. '76 brought a rare aves: a nuclear engineer who didn't pat the appropriate bums as they required. His policies, if continued, would put us ahead of the curve now so far as energy and climate change are concerned. But he was an engineer, so he was conservative -- except in a context of right wing conservative ideology. Not being a politician, he fell to a consummate sock puppet for the second run at the conservative kleptocracy. The befudlement of the populace continued apace through twelve years. Then we rejected a second term for the CIA apparatchik/aristo to elect another good ol' boy. This Democrat was a thorough going politician, and a DLC conservative. He did a few good things that hurt a hell of a lot, except not the capitalist aristocrats. He did a few bad thing's that hurt a hell of a lot, except not the capitalist aristocrats . So, after two terms we elected his Vice President and then stood by sucking our teeth while the Supreme Court, an organization with no part in elections, appointed his oponnent. This creature capered and preened as his staff constructed the grand Lazy Fair Kleptocratic Con With New 24/7 Open Vault at the fed. He opened Branch offices in exotic vacation spots like the Arabian Peninsula and Iraq. He created a meritocratic government in which the only merit was a expertise in particular fairy tales. These myrmidons rewrote laws to suit themselves. Tortured all and sundry. Drowned a city. Made even stupider than stupid wars. And generally assert the divine right of assholes, just not yours.
With the exception of the Watergate Investigations the Democrats in Congress spent the period taking care of any bidness but the people's. For the past thirty years these fine speciman's have honed their abilities as forelock tuggers.
The result of all this "centrism" is a complete conservative victory. The economy is in ruins due to greed and government is incapable due to corruption. We've elected another conservative Democrat and accept the label "liberal" applied to him by the con/kleps. The punditocracy is in full cry to hobble him.
Kirchick may call this "success". He may call it "centrist".
I think anyone with an understanding of the two terms as used by most of the world, would disagree.
--ml
Right on, Martin!
ReplyDeleteStill and all, I think Obama will at least appoint better Supreme Court judges than McCain would. And I must say that it is good to see that there hav been some changes for the beter in race relations--40 years ago the idea of an African American as president would have been unthinkable.
Cheers
Mary