Imagine a Democrat waiting at the corner for the light to change so they could cross to get to his/her job and is approached by right-winger number one, “You’re all a bunch of lazy commies that think hard working people should provide you with a living.” Democrats rolls eyes and thinks of the ten hours of overtime they’ll have to work this week to help pay for their kid’s new braces. A few seconds later right-winger number two walks up and states, ” All you Democrats are rich elitists intellectuals that have lost touch with working people.” The Democratic party is a big tent, has been since FDR especially, but whatever we are, we cannot be both lazy commies and rich elitists, the depth of those arguments lies somewhere between dull crayons and dried gum stuck to the bottom of a desk. Since the last I read “Republicans had gained the upper hand in recent years, but 33% of Americans, in the latest Gallup poll, now call themselves Democrats, with those favoring the GOP one point behind. But Gallup says this widens a bit more “once the leanings of Independents are taken into account.” , this would make the two common assertions just plain absurd. With the current U.S, population at around 300 million according to conservatives about 100 million of those folks would be either rich elitists or lazy Bolsheviks. This day-mare of perverse thinking says more about the critic then it does about the subjects of the criticism.Though I have grown fond of the two barreled hypocritical lies that escape of the mouths of conservatives like a well worn joke that have taken up an unintended backfire, they’re like the second banana, a Margaret Dumont who doesn’t really get it or understand why the audience is laughing. That a scattering of Democrats have chosen to act like dull witted second bananas is a little odd at a time when unity, at least at the netroots level has been so high, Attacking the Means of Protest
Every mechanism the progressive movement uses to try and affect change, no matter how abstract, immediately finds itself under attack as soon as it makes any headway in actually affecting said change. And so the primary process is attacked. And so partisanship is attacked. And so blogs and bloggers are attacked. And so MoveOn.org is attacked. And so our email listservs are attacked. And so our employment histories is questioned by lobbyists with massive conflicts of interest. And so the self-starting Liberal Blog Advertising Network is tarnished. And so grassroots activists are attacked. And so netroots activists are attacked. And so Lamont’s wealth is attacked. And so fundraising requirements are instituted as barriers to debate participation after poll requirements are met. And on and on.
What is so deeply odd about this is that right-winger one and two each carry around a different chip on their shoulder and never attack each other. They’re united in their completely unfounded belief that all things wrong in the world can be traced back to liberalism. Why would a few Democrats help them by making small cracks into large fissures.
It looks like 56 percent of Michigan voters are either pro terrorist or more likely support the Constitution, Survey shows Dems, independents agree with court’s decision, but Republicans back president.
The Michigan survey found that 85 percent of Democrats and 55 percent of self-described independent voters agreed with Taylor’s ruling. Nearly 70 percent of Republicans, however, disagreed — siding with the president. A majority of both men (55 percent) and women (57 percent) said the ruling was the correct one.
So given a choice between supporting America and its values or supporting partisan politics, conservatives have chosen not to support America. Given this trend we can expect conservatives to support anti-american candidates in 2006 and 2008. Iraq has a constitution that everyone there ignores, perhaps given the millions that right-wing pundits have made off anti-american broadcasts, books and speeches, they could buy every conservative in America a one way plane ticket to Iraq where they’ll fit right in. One could say how ironic that conservatives have fully and without shame embraced the Stalinist purge mentality, but that is only if one hasn’t been paying attention. A great purge of anything and everyone ( Judge Diggs Tayor or John Murtha for instance) that that does not tow the ideological line is the essential ingredient in the conservative mud pie. That Judge Taylor is an accomplished intelligent black woman really sticks in their crawl. In their hearts they have always embraced the techniques and the bloody mindedness of the totalitarians on the extreme left and right. Thier’s is the one and only truth, but the made up truths of conservatism are always vulnerable to everyone that is not a kool-aid connoisseur. That is why their weapon of choice is almost never the intellectual, the thoughtful, or the wise – there weapon of choice is character assassination. Such an easy weapon to weld as any preacher on any given Sunday will remind the flock that we’re all sinners – a convenient cover meant only to be used by Republicans. Conservatives, to the very bone are and have for the last half century been the movement of laziness and privilege so it is only natural that when on the attack they choice the cheapest weapon and swing it in the laziest manner. Maximum effect with minimal effort, appealing to the lowest common denominator. Judge Taylor was not only right she dared questioned the divinity of their King. And when all else fails, just make things up, AP uncritically repeated Rove’s dubious claim that warrantless wiretapping “might have prevented the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks”.
He was not likely to forget; but you cannot dam up life like a sluggish
stream. It will break out and flow over a man’s troubles, it will close
upon a sorrow like the sea upon a dead body, no matter how much love has
gone to the bottom.
from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad
The Long Goodbye 