Sunlight
Here's a pithy summary of exactly what's at stake in the upcoming midterm elections. It's also a good expression of why I've come to believe it is crucial that Democrats win one house of Congress, and preferably both.
There are times when nation trumps party, and I think this is one of those times. As for the possibility of a "forced withdrawal from Iraq," that's a canard that won't hunt at this point.
Of course, the current administration will say or do literally anything to prevent disaster in the midterms. But it's not just the administration. Some very powerful private sector interests have a vested stake not only in maintaining the status quo, but in preventing any real accounting of the last few years from taking place.
The key word for the next few months: vigilance.
There are times when nation trumps party, and I think this is one of those times. As for the possibility of a "forced withdrawal from Iraq," that's a canard that won't hunt at this point.
Of course, the current administration will say or do literally anything to prevent disaster in the midterms. But it's not just the administration. Some very powerful private sector interests have a vested stake not only in maintaining the status quo, but in preventing any real accounting of the last few years from taking place.
The key word for the next few months: vigilance.
posted by The Cunning Realist at Thursday, April 27, 2006
20 Comments:
There are many times when country trumps party. That's why there are so many registered "independents" in the country today. Here in Colorado, they number about a third of the registered voters.
I am and have been a registered Republican all my life. Yet I campaigned vigorously for John Kerry in 2004. "Country before Party" my button said.
This "decider-in-chief" has acted from the start as if he was elected King, by God himself.
The "uniter not a divider" squandered the opportunities for greatness after 9/11, not only in this country but for our country around the world. He has presided over the worst partisan split I've ever seen in my 50 years.
This "compassionate conservative" who is neither does not represent me. He does not represent what is best about this country I love. Conservative? He presided over a larger increase in our debt than all of the previous Presidents combined. Compassionate? Has anyone once heard him mention those freedom loving Iraqis who have experienced the ultimate liberation from this life?
And as a majority awakens to what exactly this tempermental little man has done to this country, I have hope.
When a majority voted to keep this maniac in office in 2004, I had none.
Vigilance isn't all we'll need.
Chances we'll get an insightful post about who those private sector interests are and what they are doing to maintain the status quo?
It's one of those cases where everyone assumes everyone else knows the details, but I could use a refreshing course.
Well, Diebold comes immediately to mind. I wonder how much of the "record profits" oil companies have made will be budgeted for campaign contributions, and just how tipped in favor of Republican candidates those donations will be.
Those are the two easiest ones, but far from complete. Any corporation has a Republican-dominated government in its own short-term best interests, for all the tax breaks/shelters, and for lax, "voluntary" environmental controls.
The problem for the Dems can be summed up in two words....Reid and Pelosi!!
I hear righties saying lots of negative things about Reid & Pelosi.
But they never say anything specific about them, exactly what annonymous did above.
Thank God for Harry Reid & Nancy Pelosi.
I'll use tha above to say two things that will haunt republicans in the '06 elections, & probably the '08 elections.
1) King dumbya
2) Iraq.
"There are TIMES when nation trumps party?!" Nation ALWAYS trumps party. Anything else is treason. Elevating the fortunes of a political party over the good of the nation as a whole is treason, period. The good news is the Nazis did it. So did the Communists. And look where they are now. Good riddance to the traitors. May they rot in Hell.
I am a conservative, but I grudgingly agree the Republicans should pay a price for their reckless mismanagement of the federal budget. Federal tax revenue was up more than 10%, but that still isn’t enough for them.
A message should also be sent over the war and our economy. However, I don’t think the Dems have anything to offer in the way of reforming government the way the ‘94 Republicans did. The Democrats will be worse, imo, but the message has to be sent.
The 1994 election certainly got Clinton’s attention.
With the economy in tatters, a quagmire in Iraq, and a lying sack of s**t in the White House, if the GOP doesn't lose, and lose badly, in November, I fear that the proverbial jig may be up for the American Republic as we know it.
I know that sounds hyperbolic (and maybe it is), but we have a long tradition in this country of punishing the party of an unpopular, failing Chief Executive in mid-term elections.
If Bush & his boys can maintain their "mandate" after 5 years of *this*, I simply won't know how to explain it to myself.
For a good summary of, among other things, why Bush is anything but a conservative, (which reinforces TCR's view here), see the current Rolling Stone, "The Worst President in History?" by Sean Wilentz. Money quote for fiscal conservatives:
"The monster deficits, caused by increased federal spending combined with reduction in revenue resulting from the tax cuts, have also placed Bush's administration in a historic class of its own with respect to government borrowing. According to the Treasury Department, the forty-two presidents who held office between 1789 and 2000 borrowed a combined total of $1.01 trillion from foreign governments and financial institutions. But between 2001 and 2005 alone, the Bush White House borrowed $1.05 trillion, more than all previous presidencies combined. Having inherited the largest federal surplus in American history in 2001, he has turned it into the largest deficit ever -- with an even highter deficit, $423 billion, forecast for fiscal year 2006. Yet Bush -- sounding like Herbert Hoover in 1930 predicting that 'prosperity is just around the corner' -- insists that he will cut federal deficits in half by 2009, and that the best way to guarantee this would be to make permanent his tax cuts, which helped cause the deficit in the first place."
For some old schoolers, perhaps, the idea that voting for Democrats is the fiscally responsible thing to do may seem hard to get the old noggin around, but the facts speak for themselves. Time to thrown the bums out.
Apologies to Kathleen in Co for stepping on her point a bit in my previous comment.
"What to Do With an Unreachable President"
Bush's answer: Propaganda
Gov't PR Manipulates Taxpayers With Their Own Money
The GAO studied the PR spending of seven departments from fiscal 2003 through mid-2005 and found spending commitments of $1.62 billion for ad agencies and PR firms during that period.
Bush may not be a conservative (whatever that is) but he certainly is emblematice of the values of the Republican Party.
You made him, you own him.
If you want conservatives, create a Conservative Party. The GOP is a dead force in history---hopefully.
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