…to bring you this story. I have been planning to write on health care, and certainly will at some point. But for now, there is nothing I could say about the piece of manure put forth by Sen Baucus yesterday that is not brought home better by this woman’s story.
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#1 | Written by DocC about 14 years ago. Reply
“a belief they are somehow owed permanent control of the government.” (And “if I can’t have it neither can you.”) I think that’s what we hear reflected every day out of the mouths of Boehner, Graham, McConnell. And why Michael Steele seems to jump up and down ineffectually and then is mocked by the old white males in his party. He just can’t pull it off, although he tries. He just can’t muster the same aggrieved overprivileged persona they can.
I believe racism is the medium, not the content at this point. This is America. What else would you expect? David Brooks bears tangentially on this in his piece “No, It’s Not About Race.” The scary thing is, as with all bigotry, violence is just around the corner. -
#2 | Written by DocC about 14 years ago. Reply
And yet money did not do that to me. Or others I know. I like money well enough. With it I can buy delicious food, or a soft nightgown, or presents for my grandchildren. I can sock some away for when I get old, or sick, or want a big screen TV. What is it? The people who represent us are human too.
Is it a sense of importance? These people not only keep the needy from what they need, they construct a rationale and then trumpet it. They demonize their opponents and somehow divorce themselves from the violence and destruction that threaten to follow.
I’m a student of human behavior, and yet I feel as confused and baffled as a child when I see the recent frothing histrionics of the right. I know a lot, yet I feel clueless. (Is that part of their intent?) Are we simply witnessing the triumph of short-term over long-term thinking?
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#3 | Written by David Norman about 14 years ago. Reply
I think we are witnessing two things. First and foremost I think we are witnessing abject fear. Most of the Republicans in power (at a party level) today are part of the Gingrich Revolution. They were promised no less than a permanent majority by Gingrich and, later, by Karl Rove. In short they were promised absolute power and they drank the kool aid.
Of course, we know that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and these people ran with it. We are already starting to see the tip of the iceberg as the Inspector Generals of various Cabinet offices, all of them having started their investigations while Bush was still in office, prepare criminal referrals. The first one was handed down yesterday – the I.G. for the Department of The Interior sent a criminal referral against Gale Norton, Bush’s Secretary of the Interior, to the Justice Department.
So now we have a combined fear of prosecution with a belief that they are somehow owed permanent control of the government. These combine to form a willingness to do absolutely anything to hold onto that power. Since the President is proposing radical changes they must stop him at all costs. If the radical changes go through and ACTUALLY WORK, then they (the republicans) are screwed out of any power for the foreseeable future. They will do anything to stop that, use any tool, and the tool that is most easily available to them, and that they have mastered through the war on terror, is fear. They have gotten so used to using fear against the American Public as a whole that they do not understand the inherent danger in using the same tactic on a much smaller, more radicalized, and yes often racist crowd. All they know is that it is working, it is making people mad, and it is making them loud.
Some I believe, like John McCain, simply don’t get that this could lead to violence. Others, like Boehner, I believe don’t care. And still others, like Joe Wilson, I believe are counting on it. They all want to destroy this Presidency, and some are perfectly open to that including the man himself.
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#6 | Written by DocC about 14 years ago. Reply
Yes, this is very moving and very typical. I am watching John Boehner right now as he uses those wingnut catchphrases, like “building an institutional infrastructure for government takeover.”
My daughter Jennifer just got an email from her old High School Principal (artist and educator) who is struggling with ovarian cancer and claims rejections from Oxford in addition to the poverty a life in public service has ultimately yielded.
What happens to these people who represent us that makes them impervious to human suffering?
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