It's time to get serious about who's running our country.
If you're serious about governing, you should pay attention to the words you use. Words matter. Facts matter. How you frame your argument and present your point of view will go a long way toward voters deciding if you are a serious engineer for change or just another airbag saying outrageous stuff to sell a book or promote your TV gig. Many people in the politician sphere have no intention of governing. They will never have to sell an idea for improving life to 434 other members of Congress or 99 other Senators. They will never have to defend the decisions they make or explain to an angry constituency why they voted as they did. Their rhetoric has no real world consequence. No one goes to war because of their opinions or pays a tax or loses a job. To them it's all just theater; a show where they get to entertain an audience that pays to have their own delusions reinforced. If Elmer Gantry were a real person, he'd have a prime-time spot on Fox.
Nowhere was this more evident than in Washington last month. When the conservative clown-car began disgorging its happy band of miscreants at the Marriott Harborplace, we knew we were in for a treat. Once upon a time there were precious few opportunities for these slapstick players to perform. The RNC Convention was held only once every four years. Then along came CPAC the Conservative Political Action Committee which holds its squirrel festival every year. Now we have organizations like Focus on the Family, The Eagle Forum, The Family Research Council and, this week, the Faith and Freedom Coalition. ( Coming soon the "I Love America and You Don't" Forum). All of these groups (same nuts different trees) have annual meetings which afford the clown car passengers a plethora of opportunities to shake their fist at the liberal media, the liberal administration, the liberal Congress but not presumably, the liberal use of cream cheese on the breakfast bagels. They also get to earn a healthy speaking fee while appearing to remain politically viable; like a touch footfall game at your 25th high school reunion...except you get paid.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition really loaded up the wagon for this year's gasfest. After all, nothing brings out the outrage like a Kenyan, Muslim, socialist in the White House. The only way most of these speakers could attend a serious political gathering would be to get a job with the caterer but in conservative circles they are the A-listers. No whack-a-doo, has-been/never-was should fear slipping into obscurity as long as these groups are around. The usual suspects included: Sister Sara (whose act never gets old), Herman Cain, Donald Trump, Michele Bachmann, Rand Paul, Alan West, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum and Mark Sanford (who only came to chase skirts). How they missed Joe the Plumber is anyone's guess. Honestly, with this many nuts in attendance the entire convention should be sponsored by Planters.
All the speakers were in rare form. Michele Bachmann stated emphatically that the passage of immigration reform would mean the creation of 30 million new Democrats. Really? 30 million? Oh wait, your statement doesn't have to be factual or even logical. It only has to be anti-Obama.
Michael Medved, who is part of the radio talk show cabal that runs the Republican Party, said the Obama majority among voters was limited to the single, the poor and the irreligious. Mike, baby, Obama carried Catholics, married women and, well, everyone except old white men...like the audience at the Faith and Freedom Forum.
Notably missing from the list of speakers were John McCain, Chris Christie, Governor John Portman of Ohio, John Huntsman and virtually anyone who understands how to govern or has the faintest hope of being elected to anything. (Rand Paul is the notable exception. Until conservatives discover what libertarianism really is he'll be a hero at these events)
But upon further reflection it's clear that even when the Republicans get into office, they have no interest in actually governing. The GOP-led House of Representatives has voted to repeal Obamacare no less than 37 times. Why hold meaningless votes on bills that can never become law? They have voted to de-fund ACORN, an organization dead and buried for three years. They pass abortion restrictions that are clearly DOA once they hit the Senate. On the state level, 13 states, mostly in the reactionary South, have voted to opt-out of increasing Medicare coverage for their citizens even though there is no cost to them. Wisconsin has joined Virginia on the vaginal ultrasound bandwagon.
This just in...we have a new candidate for Governor of Virginia. Wait for it...Tareq Salahi is in the race as, what else, a Republican. In case you forgot, it was Tareq and his bimbo-blond wife Michaele who wandered into a White House state dinner in 2009, sans invite. Since then, his wife left him for Journey's 58 year old journeyman guitarist and the former couple is being sued by everybody from three Virginia counties including the horses that formerly lived on their property. True to his gate-crashing code Salahi is running as a write-in. If you're convinced that the script for the Republican's new Rise to Majority is being written by the editors of the Onion, you may be on to something.
One last thought.
FLASH!! A Republican congressman from Texas has said something so outrageously dumb that it needed reprinting. I know, right? What are the odds? Congressman Mike Burgess of the Texas 26th District (north and west of Dallas) has testified that male human fetuses masturbate. Seeking to establish that a 15 week embryo can feel pleasure and therefore pain, Dr. Burgess (yes, this guy is a licensed OB-GYN) is trying to stop abortions using weird science and wildly speculative observation to advance his agenda. Congratulations, Dr. Mike. Your galactic stupidity has earned you todays' grand prize...a lifetime supply of leeches and a free bleeding at the barbershop of your choice..
No comments:
Post a Comment