I told myself I would remain calm for awhile and stay away from the political commentary. Save up some bile and sharp criticisms to aim at Obama when he stepped in it as he will most likely do. But the stupidity of the Republicans keeps bumping Barack out of my cross hairs by pulling the same stupid crap they have been pulling for 28 years. So...................................Political rant for the week
President Obama went to Congress today I guess. He did not go to hook up with his Democratic party cronies, but to carry an olive branch to the Republicans in Congress and try to sell his newest and latest economic package. He ignored the slap in the face of the two leading Republicans publicly coming out against his plan before he even had a chance to pitch it in person. When he sat down with them, it seems most of the conversation centered around how poorly treated the Republicans felt. That the Democrats had no interest in bipartisanship whatsoever.
First of all cry me a river you bunch of useless whiners. You guys are only good at bi-partisanship if your agenda and your muscle is on the table. You want to play my way or the highway, then hit the road you stupid jerks. If all you are good for now is to muddy the process, whine and complain because you are not getting your way, then you have essentially become useless baggage and might as well go home.
The shoe is on the other foot now. It is time to suck it up and stop being babies. Man up and do what you were sent there to do, govern the country. Not push your party's agenda. If this is how you plan to regain any stature you pissed away over the last 8 years, then I would say it won't work this time. Working to make Obama fail or the Democrats fail instead of finding solutions both sides can work with is in my opinion anti American activity. Since you folks seem to think you own the idea of being patriotic, then start acting like patriots. The country comes before party you boneheads. I would think after 28 years of trying it the other way, you might have finally caught on to this one key important prerequisite to being good stewards of our country. Apparently not.
You can wrap your resistance to this anyway you want. You can rationalize that you are indeed doing your job. But you are not doing your job when you do not even show the courtesy of listening to a President who has taken the unusual step to actually engage your side in serious talks. Cutting him off before he even gets there hardly bolsters your whining complaints that it is the Democrats who won't play nice. Keep playing to your whacky fringe core and see if you don't lose even more seats in 2010.
It's the country stupid. Not your lame ass party.
Think about this you morons - Every time you act like the Republicans most of us have come to hate, you reinforce our decision that put Barack in the White House and kicked many of you out of Congress. You want to stop the bleeding, then wise up. All this chest puffing and posturing would be funny if the consequences were not so dire. You are doing damage instead of helping to control and fix it.
And to think I used to belong to the Grand Old Party.
13 comments:
I told myself I would remain calm for awhile and stay away from the political commentary.
Ha ha ha
YAY! Well said. Perfectly said.
Amen, brother!
The Republicans and indeed those who represent corporate interests today strike me as being frighteningly like the magnates of the 1930s. They lived wildly beyond their means and simply did not grasp that the world had changed after the crash. It took a little while for them to really understand that the money was gone, the free lunch was over and things were going to have to change. I don't think we'll see breadlines like America saw back then, but I think we might come close. And they have just not realized it yet. Good post!
President Obama went to Congress today I guess. He did not go to hook up with his Democratic party cronies, but to carry an olive branch to the Republicans in Congress and try to sell his newest and latest economic package.
It is only your interpretation of it that makes President Obama's move an olive branch. Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. It is just as likely that the President is looking for Republican support on the proposed 2009 stimulus package because it minimizes his political risks (if the plan fails to jolt the economy to life, or triggers an inflation cycle, he isn't the only one holding the bag) without digging too far into the opportunity he has (claiming credit if the plan works, or appears to work). And do you know what? I have no problem with it if he was there only to seek political cover. It's the way politics is played.
He ignored the slap in the face of the two leading Republicans publicly coming out against his plan before he even had a chance to pitch it in person. When he sat down with them, it seems most of the conversation centered around how poorly treated the Republicans felt. That the Democrats had no interest in bipartisanship whatsoever.
Having said what I said about politics above, this too is what politics is all about. If a Republican Congresscritter has looked over the proposal, just what obliges him to say nothing until the President has pitched it personally? I know enough about macroeconomics to make informed statements about any fiscal policy proposal, and if I were an elected official, I would consider it my duty to make my views known. It is no slap in the President's face to state you oppose massive intervention in the economy, especially since this course was charted in the last few months of the Bush administration. As for the conversation about how poorly treated the Republicans felt, can you cite a source or a story for this? I ask this seriously and concede you may well be right about it, but I've not seen anything that suggests this. If it's true, then you're absolutely right that it is an attitude deserving of criticism.
First of all cry me a river you bunch of useless whiners. You guys are only good at bi-partisanship if your agenda and your muscle is on the table.
I really hate to point this out, but neither of the major parties in the United States is good at bi-partisanship. Each considers bi-partisanship to be possible only when one's own side sells out to the other. The Democratic Party is not bipartisan under similar circumstances (i.e., their party losing the presidency - ref. 1969, 1981, 2001). And do you know what? I don't really know that either party ought to be especially bi-partisan as a rule. If there are issues of agreement, then fine, but if not, dig in.
You want to play my way or the highway, then hit the road you stupid jerks. If all you are good for now is to muddy the process, whine and complain because you are not getting your way, then you have essentially become useless baggage and might as well go home.
This passage leaves me shaking my head, especially in light of your apparently serious question on my blog on January 21st. To use your words, is this what you guys on the Left have been reduced to? Complaining about the Republican Party now that the Democrats have control of the White House and both Houses of Congress? "Useless whiners"? "Stupid jerks", "useless baggage"? "Might as well go home"? You can do better.
The shoe is on the other foot now. It is time to suck it up and stop being babies. Man up and do what you were sent there to do, govern the country. Not push your party's agenda.
Sorry, but if "govern the country" means "just go along", then the minority party is not doing its job. The problem with the Republican Party right is that it has no coherent agenda, and no clear leaders to promote an agenda. Also, please point out a Congressman or Congresswoman who has acted like a baby. I'll accept any reasonable example you offer, but if you're just upset that there are Republicans who don't believe in Obama's economic agenda, then this is nothing more than a partisan label.
If this is how you plan to regain any stature you pissed away over the last 8 years, then I would say it won't work this time.
Maybe you're right. Maybe it won't work. But rolling over and playing dead isn't the answer either. At least we agree that the Republican Party pissed away a great deal of its stature since 2000.
Working to make Obama fail or the Democrats fail instead of finding solutions both sides can work with is in my opinion anti American activity.
This is almost impossible to take seriously. No one is blind to the economic situation the United States is in. Did it occur to you that there are people who might oppose Obama's plan because they honestly believe it would be bad for the country? If my government were proposing something I thought was bad for my country, I'd bloody say so, especially if I held elected office. It is breathtaking that this might cause people to question my patriotism, when in fact the right to oppose the government's plan and criticise its proponents is the very essence of free speech. What is so anti-American about that? If you want Obama's plan to pass, then why don't state the reasons you think it is good for the USA? Flinging an anti-American label against Republicans who oppose an economic stimulus bill is egregious. You can do better.
Since you folks seem to think you own the idea of being patriotic, then start acting like patriots. The country comes before party you boneheads.
I agree that the Republicans play up their patriotism. I strongly disagree that they are putting their party before the country. See previous paragraph.
I would think after 28 years of trying it the other way, you might have finally caught on to this one key important prerequisite to being good stewards of our country. Apparently not.
I should have taken more careful note of this part of your post. Obviously it's going to take more than my arguments to knock you off your stance that the GOP puts the interests of the party first, if you already think they've being doing this steadily for 28 years.
You can wrap your resistance to this anyway you want. You can rationalize that you are indeed doing your job. But you are not doing your job when you do not even show the courtesy of listening to a President who has taken the unusual step to actually engage your side in serious talks.
First, it's not a terribly unusual step for a President to talk to the opposition - every president in my lifetime has done it, particularly early in his presidency; second, President Obama has only a presumption of seriousness. He may be serious, as I said above, or he may be doing it for political cover, which, in the context of your belief about his motives, would be unserious. Either way, I don't think it's wrong for him to approach the Republicans, and I don't think it's wrong for the Republicans to oppose this spending bill. I may be wasting my time with this line of argument, as you seem to dismiss any rationalization.
Cutting him off before he even gets there hardly bolsters your whining complaints that it is the Democrats who won't play nice. Keep playing to your whacky fringe core and see if you don't lose even more seats in 2010.
It's interesting, but more than a little worrying, when holding to mainstream conservative economic values and policy is considered playing to the "whacky fringe core."
It's the country stupid. Not your lame ass party.
Covered already.
Think about this you morons - Every time you act like the Republicans most of us have come to hate, you reinforce our decision that put Barack in the White House and kicked many of you out of Congress. You want to stop the bleeding, then wise up. All this chest puffing and posturing would be funny if the consequences were not so dire. You are doing damage instead of helping to control and fix it.
"Morons", "the Republicans most of us have come to hate", "chest puffing". You can do better. And as for dire consequences, I can tell you from an informed position that what the United States government is doing right now, which started a few months ago under the Bush administration, is printing money and borrowing to an extent heretofore unheard of. There is a huge risk of inflation, starting about 18 months from now, due to a wildly overwrought expansion in the money supply. Not many are talking about it, but the risk is there. On this basis alone, if I were a federal Republican legislator, I would oppose this spending bill and every other part of President Obama's agenda that has, as a consequence, a breathtaking expansion in the money supply. I wouldn't do it because I wish any political harm to President Obama, but because I believe my opposition would be the best thing for the USA.
To sum up, Macrum, you seem categorically unwilling to look at this issue as simply an honest difference in opinion.
And to think I used to belong to the Grand Old Party.
Well, I used to support the Liberal Party of Canada, too, back in the late 1980s. They moved left, and I moved right. Is it possible you've done some changing yourself, or do you really believe it is completely the fault of the Republican Party?
Very best regards.
And to think I used to belong to the Grand Old Party.
I've never belonged to any party, one is as bad as the other, it's hard to tell who is who in that house of mirrors.
Besides, I would never join any organization that would have me as a member, ha ha ha.
BBC - You are probably right. Anyparty that would have you might be trouble.
laughingatchaos and Kathi D - Thanks for the support, but no, it was not perfectly said. I keep hoping we will see a Congress that is not bogged down in patrisan crap, yet no matter who is in charge, it seems partisanship takes precedence over what is good for the country.
Dawn on MDI - Actually, I don't think the Republicans are clueless, just hung up on party interests over the concerns of the nation.
El Cerdo Ignatius - First of all you make assumptions not in evidence. I mention neither support nor opposition to Obama's recent plan. My complaint is that instead of giving the nation a new look, the Republicans are continuing to posture and chest thump like bad school children. They want to oppose the plan, fine. I am not so keen on it from what I know of it. The plan is not the issue. It is the manner of engagement I hate to see.
As to reducing anything to anything, your example in your 1/21 post was exactly the kind of rationalization that sets the table for gridlock. Semantical arguments that only hide the true intention, to bollox up the works because they are Democratic works or Obama works. More energy is spent doing that than actually coming up with alternatives that might work for both.
Yes, both sides have done this . Both sides have had their moments living and taking the low road. We as a nation are not in the position to have our leaders right now fall into partisan bickering. And pre-empting Obama almost as he was pulling in the drive was an action of chest thumping for public consumption and to dilute the following interaction with Obama. It was not a simple opposition stand. It was a calculated political move and statement of "we are not going to play nice".
Well dammit, the time is now to play nice. Both sides need to do this.
That neither party is good at bi-partisanship is true. Since the pendulum seems to have swung to the center, both of them need to become better practitioners of it. Obama understands this. I think more of the Democrats understand this then do most of the Republicans. The Republicans seem to still act like they hold the cards and they don't. They need to get used to being in the back seat and work what magic they can through diplomacy and not in your face tactics. The public is damn tired of it.
You say that Obama's visit may be a tactic to try and deflect future blame. Absolutely a possibility. If so, the Republicans gave him exactly what he may have wanted. They came off as obstructionist and petty.
As to a source for the whining about how badly they were being treated - last night on NBC news. I would guess that many consider just being in the minority as bad treatment.
If these were normal times without the urgency of all the looming crises, then the Republican foot dragging would be just more political entertainment. But we need action now, not weeks of gridlock in Congress exacerbated and fed by the minority party bent on partisan interests.
It seems odd that the Republicans are complaining about driving up our debt now. Same old rhetoric we have heard for years. Yet when they had the reins, the debt climbed at breakneck pace also. The time to rein it in was then, not now. I see no alternative than to begin some economic recovery schemes using Federal money. What those schemes need to be are what everyone should be focused on, not just that increasing the debt is a bad idea. Of course it is. I hate the idea. But when caught like we are now, what is the alternative? I mean this really. I have no idea of how we can just ride this out. I certainly see no hope in more wasteful tax rebates that only end up off shore quickly. Trickle down certainly will not work just as it never really worked in the first place.
We need to invest in our country not invest in investments. We need to start producing things again instead of just producing and living off of demand. Did that make sense?
As I see it we only have two options here no matter what party or label you want to put on them. Either we try and save the economy or we let the whole thing collapse. If we do the latter then we end up with a country like Zimbabwe and I don't think any of us would care to live there at the present no matter how prepared we might think we are for it.
Demeur.... I'm pretty sure that it will collapse. But I would love to be wrong.
No, it won't be easy, and it won't be pretty, will it be as bad as Zimbabwe?
I don't think so, this is a more life giving country than Zimbabwe is. I expect to keep doing okay, at least keep getting by.
But I don't expect as much as many others, a warm and dry room and some food and I can be okay with it all. It's all about expectations, those that want more and are still not happy are the ones that are going to have a hard time dealing with hard times.
I talk to Helen all the time about the great depression. It didn't bother her like it bothered many. They had a place to live and a little food, at times very little.
Too this day she can make a paper plate last a month or two. She spends more money feeding the damn neighborhood cats than we spend on food.
If Helen actually has a real plate, I have never seen it. Her bowls are used cottage cheese containers. Her glass is an empty jar.
She has got a knife and spoon, I'm not sure she has a fork, don't recall ever seeing her use one.
Yet she is so sweet and cheerful all the time, go figure.
Excellent rant, Mac. I couldn't agree more.
Obama should continue to do as he is doing. Keep offering the olive branch. Let them keep treating him like crap. People will notice, and people will complain. I think America is tired of contrariness, and if it looks like the GOP is just being contrary for the sake of being contrary, they are indeed going to have an even tougher time in 2010.
When Bush won two close elections, he treated the situation at the beginning of each term as if he had a mandate. Obama beat McCain by a fair amount more than that by which Bush beat Kerry (and whether or not Bush actually beat Gore will be a question for the ages).
Now Obama HAS a mandate. He is president a goodly margin, and his party controls Congress. He is going out of his way to include the Republicans, but they are being babies.
There is a big train getting ready to leave the station. The Republican leaders can get on the train and help rebuild the economy, or they can stand there in the station complaining.
As to a source for the whining about how badly they were being treated - last night on NBC news.
I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge this point. One of the disadvantages (advantages?) of not watching television is not seeing the theatrics that other people see. When you only hear quotes on the radio or read them in the newspapers, it's a lot easier to ignore the emotion, but one (this would be me) also misses the antics.
---"everybody into the pool" (lol) Look past all the rhetoric, and all the personalities---look at what is actually being discussed---the libs (aka the democrats) are of the belief that the best way to get the economy going is to spend money (1.3 Trillion deficit last year), and now this year they are starting with a proposed additional 850 billion spending spree, and its only january----the conservatives (aka the republicans) are of the belief that to get money to the people, its best to cut taxes, and let the people keep the money and spend it as they wish----all the jaw flapping going on is just a side show.
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