A Chicken Is Not Pillage

Messaging The Illusion

Maybe if the obvious is pointed out by someone else, there won't so much angst over it.

Steve Benen, at the Washington Monthly, writes this:

Seven months after raising the specter of Republicans trying to hurt the economy on purpose, I can’t help but notice the “sabotage” question appears to be picking up some steam.

Just this month, some high-profile, mainstream pundits have begun exploring the issue, and just this week, two of Congress’ most powerful Democrats broached the same subject.

Yesterday, Michael Tomasky went even further, arguing that Democrats should start “saying openly what has been clear for months or even years now — that as long as economic recovery would work to the political benefit of Barack Obama, the Republicans have been, are, and will be in favor of sabotaging the economy.” Tomasky added this is “obvious.”

The point isn’t to question Republicans’ bizarre priorities or values; the point is to make economic argument clear to the public. Too many bemoan a vague “lack of political will” or “absence of leadership” as the reason so little gets done. Those people are wrong.

The Tomasky article is a must read.  Benen quotes this from Tomasky:

Washington is a city of conspiracies, but far and away the most pernicious one is the fiction, in which one must participate if one wants to be regarded as a “serious” person, that both parties are more or less equally to blame for the present malfunctioning of our democracy. […]

Nonsense. There’s nothing vague about it. It’s crystal clear. We can’t do these things because of the extreme nature of the Republican Party and the right-wing noise machine that enforces such rigid ideological purity. Period and end of story.

Tomasky also gives concrete examples of how the Washington dysfunctions play out as regards concrete policy important to liberals and progressives.  In  almost every case, he shows how Republicans were for many of these policies, until they were offered by Democrats and/or the President.  And as SteveM of NMMNB pointed out in the link from my previous post, they get away with such egregious flip-flopping and obstruction because the accepted narrative is that *both* parties share the blame equally.  That is a fiction, an untruth that SteveM, Steve Benen, Michael Tomasky and myself have pointed out should be obvious.

For whatever reason, there are those who are deeply invested in that illusion.  The Republicans most certainly are; that's the very point behind their campaign of willful destruction.  For some, like Jane Hamsher, maintaining that illusion is a clear path to importance and profit.  The Greens do it because the only way they can gain any relevance at all is to take down the Democrats such that we turn to them when Republicans crush us even more than they have already.  Regardless of why any support that lie (Tomasky suggest that it's misplaced 'courtesy', and recent events convince me that he is in part correct), the illusion, the fairy tail, maintains it's strength on both sides of ideological spectrum.  This is Monster Making, 101.  Notice that this narrative doesn't have the finger pointing at hippies, liberals or progressives.  This illusory accusation of weak will/both parties are equally at fault, contradictory statements held as if both can be true,  is focused squarely at Democrats. 

The consequence of supporting that illusion are clear.  The Republicans regain power, having shown for half a century that they can't govern anything. The recent Montana legislature is clearest proof of that consequence.  Another consequence is a built in feature of the fairy tail itself.  Anyone who points out that it's a fantasy, an illusion, is only supporting the Monster.  That one must be 'in the bag' for Democrats, or angling for a DNC position, or insulting those who have embraced the lie, or crying 'with us or against us', when in fact the one's parroting George Bush are the ones supporting the illusion.  Again, Monster Making 101.

I'm not supporting or defending 'Democrats' as an entity, despite what so many feel a need to accuse me of doing.  I will support individual Democrats, just as I will disagree with them.  But I've spent too many years online exposing the lies of the right, discussing their Monster Making, to simply join in holding Democrats accountable for Republican attempts to hurt the country.  They aren't responsible for it, and that should be obvious.

Whose Side Are You On?

I originally started writing this post as a comment at 4 & 20 Blackbirds.  But the Askimet commenting software they use tends to see a comment with multiple links as spam.  So, if'n none y'all mind, I'll post it here instead.

John Cole notices what I have written about at length.   Glenn Greenwald, progressive icon, asks the question that was mandatory as a patriot oath for the wargarblers several years ago.  Whose side are you on?  I have a better question.  Do you understand what you're doing?

jhwygirl wrote a post remarkably hopeful that the GOP might be willing to move on revenue increases to solve our economic woes in the face of extreme austerity measures.  She even refers to these efforts as "refreshing honesty", though in fairness her quote of honesty refers to a GOoPer no longer in any power.  I doubted it would be believed among the GOoP faithful, and indeed it wasn't, and my response was very direct and also honest.  "Don't believe a word of it."  The Republicants currently in power don't care about the deficit or deficit reduction.  They care about garnering power, and they are willing to destroy this country to get it.  They sure as hell don't want to actually raise revenue, no matter how much ear-play they give it on the talkies.  In the comments responding to my brother, Lizard posits the same tired trope that I only see such because I am a blind partisan who can't see beyond the label divide.

the problem with how “the established left” responds to the fractured right is that the left needs a monochromatic boogeyman as badly as the right does. just look at your brother, moorcat. don’t believe a word of it, he says. he says that because his ideology appears to render him incapable of thoughtfully considering different strains of conservatism.

And with pompous pontifications such as this, the so called 'reality-based' community jumps the shark.  What Lizard appears clueless about is that this very issue is being played out in the debt ceiling negotiations.  Republicants don't care about the deficit, and they will not accept raising revenue.

The ransom note is delivered.

The president and his party may want a debt limit increase that includes tax hikes, but such a proposal cannot pass the House.

Should one think the Senate more amenable, this is Mitch McConnell:

"So there’s one of two things going on here: Either someone on the other side has forgotten that there’s strong, bipartisan opposition in Congress to raising taxes. Or someone involved is acting in bad faith," McConnell said. “We’ve known from the beginning that tax hikes would be a poison pill to any debt reduction proposal." he said.

SteveM, from NoMoreMrNiceBlog, notes what should be obvious:

I think the walkouts on budget talks by Eric Cantor and Jon Kyl, taken in isolation, make Republicans look intransigent, in a way that generally polls very, very badly. In isolation, it’s a bad political move. Voters, especially swing voters, regularly tell pollsters they want the parties to compromise and negotiate like grown-ups, not act like stubborn children. The problem is, those same voters also think that if Democrats can’t somehow persuade Republicans to negotiate like grown-ups, then they’re equally at fault. So it’s a wash. And Republicans know it’s a wash. So there’s no downside for them in acting like stubborn children. Now, if the mainstream media would even occasionally float the theory that perhaps, just perhaps, the Republican Party is sometimes a tad extreme and irrational, maybe the truth of what’s going on here would have a chance of sinking in with average voters.

I submit that when liberal and/or progressive blogs join that media narrative of how the Democrats should be able to *do* something about the Republicant intransigence, they reinforce the voter idea that 'might makes right'. It's a twist such that Republicants, instead of looking like the saboteurs of the American dream that they are, end up looking like the strong leaders, and Democrats are again punished for not joining in the right-wing pogrom against the common folk. 4 & 20 is certainly not the only website to join in that insane chorus. But insane it is. jhwygirl's post and many comments to it paint the same picture. Republicans said things we like so Democrats should be responsible for "jumping on" this opportunity that is, was and will remain an illusion. And when Republicans do exactly what they've been doing, we can blame the Democrats and the President for not altering the behavior this bunch of tantrum-driven children have exhibited since Ronald Reagan. Lizard says:

both sides of the isle (sic) work behind the smoke screen when it comes to perpetuating this insane downward spiral of austerity, squeezed productivity, stagnant wages, and obscene corporate profit, but Obama groveling before wall street is suppose to be somehow better than the scary looming alternative. what the hell does it matter when the results are the same?

So, if the Democrats capitulate to the Republicans, they lose. Wall Street wants the debt ceiling lifted, so if Democrats attempt to do what needs to be done to get that and fail or win, then they are just serving their plutocratic overlords. There are only three ways to increase revenue and lower the deficit load in any significant fashion. Support terrorism (with an immediate and complete withdrawal of support to Afghanistan, and yes the "support terrorism" part was a sarcastic poke at what will be the public media narrative), raising taxes, and/or passing a stimulus significant enough to fully employ half of those unemployed and underemployed. All of those efforts have enough Republicant opposition that they would fail.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't.  That is the Republicant agenda.  Many in the progressive community seem to have missed Mitch McConnell saying that very thing a year ago.  They will burn this nation to the ground if it gives them the Senate and the White House back.  The media are helping them do that very thing.  I'm curious as to why so many progressives seem willing to assist that effort.

They don't care about deficit reduction.  They care about keeping voters interested in deficit reduction, where the rhetoric serves them.  They don't care about increasing revenue and will fight that tooth and nail.  They have so many folks twisted in knots that anyone liberal loses either way.  I'm not partisan for pointing that out.  I'm realistic.  I simply wish more progressives were.

Communism Built Our Icons!

So, I finally got to visit Mount Rushmore.  I've kind of avoided it in the past because I thought it was only the place where fat midwestern family types took their MickeyD's swilling fat kids to instill patriotism and an understanding of the Pledge of Alligience.  Okay, so it is kinda that.  It's also really cool.  It is one helluva sculpture.  From the turnout about a half a mile away from the parking area, it looks small.  From the viewing areas, it really isn't.   In real life, one can see the veins of granite which run through the sculpture and give it an animation I can't adequately describe.  This effort is impressive, to say the least.  And it was built by the father of modern communism.

There it is.  A bust of the Mount Rushmore builder.    That's Vladimir Lenin.   Look at it.  Don't believe me? 

 

 

 

How 'bout this?     That's obviously Vladimir Lenin, the father of modern communism.  There are two busts celebrating his will to engage the effort of the people in a strife to create the worker's story.  Rushmore was built with the people's money in celebration of the people's nation.  Of course that's Lenin.

 

Okay, maybe not.  But let's get real here.  Monuments like Mount Rushmore were built as a communal celebration of our national will, with national money and immigrant labor.  It is truly an icon of our will to be socialist when it fills us with pride to be so.  It's beautiful, and that I would never deny.  It did fill me with patriotic spirit.  It is a testament, a monument, to what people can achieve when they work together to build something grand.

 I fear that we've lost our way, on that score.

Quick Hits From The Trip To NN11

1)  Any rightwing idiot who wishes to promote the failed meme that Democratic/liberal women are inferior to Republicant woman because they aren't as attractive has obviously never attended Netroots Nation.

2)  Your tax dollars are paying for South Dakota to post federal Interstate signs promoting the home and birthplace of Republicant Senator John  Thune.  Don't believe me?  Drive through South Dakota.

3)  It may have only been the profusion of water, but anyone who still wishes to convince me that driving across North Dakota is a misery has never driven across South Dakota, and certainly never traveled between Gillette and Sheridan, WY.

$)  The breakout panel on messaging told me that no one actually reads beyond the 3rd bullet point.  Does it help if the 4th is a sign of money?

5)  Colorado drivers are m0re annoying than Billings drivers, and that's saying something.

6)  Marcy Wheeler is one helluva writer, but not much of a public speaker.  No insult intended.

7)  It's farther from Bozeman to the Montana eastern border than it is across North or South Dakota.  Few people from the East seem capable of grasping that idea of space.

8)  Howard Dean is dynamic.  He's also a lot shorter than I thought he would be.  His brother Joe is totally kick-ass.

9)  Darcy Burner rocks my world.

10)  I now truly believe that the western part of any Western state is the 'pretty part'.  And Rapid City, SoDak, is such a sweet little town.

11)  The Black Hills are not hills.  They are actually mountains, and good god how I was thankful for that after being in the flatlands.

More to come, I'm certain, as this all sinks in.

NoDak

Greetings from historic Jamestown, North Dakota.  Okay, I don't know how historic it is, but they do have a buffalo museum.  And rain, one whole helluva lot of rain.  Seriously, it's been pouring since a couple of miles this side of Bismarck. 

After seeing the Theodore Roosevelt National park (also in the rain), I began writing this post in my head.  Many folks have been telling me of the dreadful awful horrible drive across North Dakota, and I just wasn't seeing it.  Maybe it was the admirable geology, or the fact that everything over here is green.  The hills rolled, there was color, the scenery was interesting, there was water and beauty.  To be honest, I thought it was about a thousand times better than driving across eastern Washington.  But something happened about half way from the border to Bismarck.  It was still green, but everything got ... orderly.  The road was straight, little rise and little fall.  It just got boring.  And then there was Bismarck.  I hit right at rush hour, and more than anything, it reminded of me Billings.  I'm not fond of Billings.  Crossing the Missouri was cool, and holy crap is it full of water.

It was in Bismarck that I discovered North Dakota is 'phone challenged'.   I only have a crappy little TracFone, and there's been no service since some place in Montana.  I had a hotel clerk try to reserve me a room for her franchise in Fargo.  I just didn't feel like giving up the drive after 550 miles when I still had daylight. and 450 to go.  She connected me with both motels in Fargo, and neither of us could hear a word the person on the other end was saying.  So, I figured I'd take my chances, hopped behind the wheel and hit the road East.

One thing that is ~way~ cool about North Dakota is it's rest stops.  They are a damned site more than just an indoor outhouse.  And at the 3 I stopped at, not one of the phones would work.  About 12 miles from Bismarck, the rain started, and it just poured.  I did encounter emergency crews about 40 miles back that were diverting traffic because a reservoir had flooded the other side of the Interstate.  So I kept trying to get a call out to reserve a room and save me from the deluge.  Nope.  No phones, at least none that work.

I hit Jamestown and called it enough.  I'm still 90 miles out of Fargo, but I'll cross those flood waters when the time comes, or to reject the melodrama,  what most of us call tomorrow morning.  And I'll bet you anything that my phone works in Minnesota ...

It was long drive and a long day.  I discovered the final cruel blow when I rustled up some dinner and went to buy a bottle of beer.  In North Dakota, you can only do that at a liquor store.  What kind of half-assed anti-patriotic unAmerican hoohaw is that!?!

Rough Day

1900 miles is a long way to drive.  I'm not certain if I'm excited or scared.