Mr. Sullivan still seems to think this is the Oxford Debating Society:
Every Single Poll ...
... shows that the American public overwhelmingly supports higher taxes on the wealthy as part of a package to cut the deficit. The margins are staggering: the NYT poll shows a majority of 74 - 21; even Rasmussen shows a majority of 56 - 34. What the president proposed this morning is simply where the American people are at. If he keeps at it, if he turns his administration into a permanent campaign for structural fiscal reform, I don't see how he loses the argument.
I also watched Tweety and Chuck Schumer getting giggly and passing around phases "the public" and "the people" "most Americans" like like so many dirty postcards.
Which is all very fascinating, except what "the American public" wants is irrelevant.
Nearly 50% of "the American public" has no fucking clue that any of this is even going on, has no grasp of its implications and no sense of the players. They do not participate in the political or civic life of this country in any way so whatever they want/think/believe, they opinions matter as little as those of
Lazy Luke and Blubber Bear.
The remainder who pay any kind of attention to their government and how it works at all, are unevenly distributed across the 435 congressional districts spread across our 50 states. Their ranks swell during Presidential election years (51% in 2000, 55.3% in 2004, 56.8% in 2008) and shrink during off-years (37% in 2002, 37.1% in 2006, 37,8% in 2010).
And nothing I have seen during the last five years from the "We will destroy this country to take down the hated Kenyan Usuprer" GOP -- who now effectively "govern" this country as a hostage-taking minority and fuck what "the confederacy of fools " public thinks -- has caused me to back off one inch from what I wrote in 2006:
For a long time now, the casual invocation of the term “the American people” when explaining what we as a nation do or do not believe, or will or won’t stand for -- especially by the Right, but also by the Left -- has been pissing me right off.
Because at the moment, there is no more “We” in this country.
It breaks my heart but I believe the strategic and relentless poisoning of the public well by the likes of Republican Lee Atwater, Republican Newt Gingrich, Republican Rush Limbaugh and Republican Karl Rove has done its work. And other that geographical, there are no more categories in this country to which we can apply the term "Americans" any longer.
Now that the Right has repeatedly and irrefutably demonstrated their complete disinterest in "the argument" over what the public wants, I really, really wish our Elite Commentariat would quit pretending that this is a debate that anyone is ever going to win on points
This a war.
6 comments:
I notice your writings becoming more aggressive of late. I'm also noticing the same phenom in other blogs of the left.
Not sure if this is due to the frustration with our failed expectations of Obama, or if we are merely the matching the Breitbartian rhetoric from the right.
Have we, the left, reached a tipping point?
God, I hope so.
I can suffer the fools no longer.
There is a deep, deep undercurrent of anger out there. It may take a few more years, but i believe change is a commin'. Or at least I have to believe that.
the american public that schumer and mcconnell and the whole slew of other gasbag zombies speak of consist the crowd on K street, the gang on wall street and the friends at c street. toss in a few check writers from River Oaks, Palm Beach and Southampton - and voila -
THE AMERICAN PUBLIC!
it's like pulling an elephant or donkey out of a hat.
woman at my office: i am a republican i only vote for republicans
me: what if your next President and Congress take away Medicare and Soc Security, after all you are 57 years old (she doesnt hide that)
woman: they are just saying that to get elected (i cough) - and if they do, i can worry about those people who cant afford it. i will be fine.
welcome to America - land of France 1789
Now that the Right has repeatedly and irrefutably demonstrated their complete disinterest in "the argument" over what the public wants...
Hell, you can include our Preznit, too. He's only proposing this now because he's in campaign mode and there's no chance in hell of it passing.
Back when the Democratic Party had the power to do things, President Obama and company were busy sucking off our multinational corporations.
~
The aristocracy-in-waiting has no love of voting, and they know that the American people (sorry, I had to) don't care about voting either.
The media has turned elections into a reality television show. This is good for the aristocracy-in-waiting. Rather than paying attention to the issues, you see the political struggle as just another contest that you tune-in next week for the "winner". Repeat once every few years.
What should always be remembered but very few people know (because History is a useless subject to study) is that the original American Revolution was waged by a minority of colonists. To be sure, plenty of people took part and fought on behalf of the Revolution, but the majority of colonists at the time wanted to remain British. But the elites of the day pushed and pushed, citing "taxes and freedom" (sound familiar?) and eventually got their war.
The aristocracy-in-waiting know that all it takes is a weak government, a divided populace, and good organization to effectively seize power. Republicans have been patiently stripping voting rights, and encouraging people to go out and consume rather than pay attention ( "Get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.")
Call me paranoid, but the reason you see so many bills being introduced allowing concealed carry weapons in so many places is so the aristocracy-in-waiting can arm it's own police/militia. I know, I'm sure that sounds crazy, but take a look at how many concealed carry bills are being introduced everywhere. Coincidence?
Preaching hatred as patriotism, levying outright lies about anyone who isn't a member of the Republican brotherhood...you see where they're going, right?
They have no interest in trying to win on issues, because they know they can't. Instead, they'll continue to erode voting rights, create a permanent underclass that resents the government (rightly or wrongly), while appealing to the shrinking white majority. You know. So they can "take their country back."
It's all there. They aren't even hiding it.
It's a messed up world when when we agree with Pat Buchanan.
http://buchanan.org/blog/is-america-coming-apart-2159
"The question invites itself. In what sense are we one nation and one people anymore? For what is a nation if not a people of a common ancestry, faith, culture and language, who worship the same God, revere the same heroes, cherish the same history, celebrate the same holidays, and share the same music, poetry, art and literature?"
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