Tuesday, May 26, 2009

A bad thing for liberals.

I have not been posting lately, but this came via e-mail recently and it is a pretty good summary of the implosion of one of our major parties. I have never voted for a Republican, I have never encountered one worth voting for. I must admit that I am considering voting in the Republican Primary next year so I can vote for Kay Bailey Hutchison. But that is not because I like her, but rather because the Hairdo from Dallas must be blocked at all cost.

All that aside, the implosion of the Republican Party is a really bad thing for the United States and a really bad thing for the Democratic Party. Yes, a bad thing. The problem is that we need more political parties, not fewer and as the GOP eats itself and slides off the "flat Earth" they so love they leave the Democrats in a position that they do not handle well. Unbridled power. It will be good for liberal public policy, but I know the Dems will mess it up. They won't be able to help themselves.

Corruption, over-reaching and alienating the vast moderate middle. They will put up with liberal public policy like environmental policy and health reform, but many will balk at liberal activism. A question for y'all; what is the difference between liberal public policy and liberal activism? Where is the line?

Time will tell.

Long story short, we need a sane and grounded conservative counter-weight to keep the Democratic Party honest and even-keeled.

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Angry GOP divorced from reality

By Bill Maher
April 28, 2009

If conservatives don't want to be seen as bitter people who cling to their guns
and religion and anti-immigrant sentiments, they should stop being bitter and
clinging to their guns, religion and anti-immigrant sentiments.

I still don't know what those "tea bag" protests were about. I saw signs
protesting abortion, illegal immigrants, the bank bailout and that gay guy
who's going to win American Idol. But it wasn't tax day that made them crazy;
it was Election Day. Because that's when Republicans became what they fear
most: a minority.

The conservative base is absolutely apoplectic because, because ... well,
nobody knows. They're mad as hell, and they're not going to take it anymore.
Even though they're not quite sure what "it" is. But they know they're fed up
with "it," and that "it" has got to stop.

Here are the big issues for normal people: the war, the economy, the
environment, mending fences with our enemies and allies, and the rule of law.

And here's the list of Republican obsessions since President Barack Obama took
office: that his birth certificate is supposedly fake, he uses a teleprompter
too much, he bowed to a Saudi guy, Europeans like him, he gives inappropriate
gifts, his wife shamelessly flaunts her upper arms, and he shook hands with
Hugo Chavez and slipped him the nuclear launch codes.

Do these sound like the concerns of a healthy, vibrant political party?

It's sad what's happened to the Republicans. They used to be the party of the
big tent; now they're the party of the sideshow attraction, a socially awkward
group of mostly white people who speak a language only they understand. Like
Trekkies, but paranoid.

The GOP base is convinced that Mr. Obama is going to raise their taxes, which
he just lowered. But, you say, "Bill, that's just the fringe of the Republican
Party." No, it's not. The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, is not afraid to say
publicly that thinking out loud about Texas seceding from the Union is
appropriate considering that ... Mr. Obama wants to raise taxes 3 percent on 5
percent of the people? I'm not sure exactly what Mr. Perry's independent nation
would look like, but I'm pretty sure it would be free of taxes and Planned
Parenthood. And I would have to totally rethink my position on a border fence.

I know. It's not about what Mr. Obama's done. It's what he's planning. But you
can't be sick and tired of something someone might do.

Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota recently said she fears that Mr.
Obama will build re-education camps to indoctrinate young people. But Mr. Obama
hasn't made any moves toward taking anyone's guns, and with money as tight as
it is, the last thing the president wants to do is run a camp where he has to
shelter and feed a bunch of fat, angry white people.

Look, I get it, "real America." After a long run of controlling the White
House, Congress and the Supreme Court, this latest election has you feeling
like a rejected husband. You've come home to find your things out on the front
lawn, or at least more things than you usually keep out on the front lawn.
You're not ready to let go, but the country you love is moving on. And now you
want to call it a whore and key its car.

That's what you are, the bitter divorced guy whose country has left him -
obsessing over it, haranguing it, blubbering one minute about how much you love
it and vowing the next that if you cannot have it, nobody will. But it's been
almost 100 days, and your country is not coming back to you. She's found
somebody new. And it's a black guy.

The healthy thing to do is to just get past it and learn to cherish the
memories. You'll always have New Orleans and Abu Ghraib.

And if today's conservatives are insulted by this, because they feel they're
better than the people who have the microphone in their party, then I say to
them what I would say to moderate Muslims: Denounce your radicals. To
paraphrase George W. Bush, either you're with them or you're embarrassed by
them.

The thing that you people out of power have to remember is that the people in
power are not secretly plotting against you. They don't need to. They already
beat you in public.