Wednesday, May 04, 2016

Today In Both Sides Do It: Every Damn Body




On the Right, Trumps' Pandemonium Carnival has finally pounded the last stake through the heart of the Party of Lincoln.  He did not steal or snooker the nomination away from his betters, because on the Right there are no "betters".  After 30 years of relentless reshaping by Hate Radio and Fox News, the GOP has now fully embraced its core concept of "Ignorance is Strength" and finally come out of the closet to proudly present itself to the world as the racist, fascist Party of Jefferson Davis we on the Left have been warning about for decades.

On the Left, the contest for the Democratic nomination continues, with two, qualified candidates fighting hard but mostly above-the-belt over the 10% of the issues which divide them.

And squatting in the rubble we find the same Beltway high priests of Both Siderism, still knee-walking drunk on their own privilege and self-regard, still casting the same ridiculous runes and interpreting the same moldering goat entrails and reciting the same old incantations.

Ruth Marcus in the Washington Post with the usual crap:
After Election Day, Democrats, Republicans and the media have some serious soul-searching to do

Now that the contours of the general election are reasonably predictable, it is time to start thinking about the tripartite institutional reckoning that should come in November’s aftermath — for the media, Republicans and Democrats...
Former speechwriter and permanent Beltway stalactite, Michael Gerson, predictably follows suit:
Republicans and Democrats are fixated on nostalgia — and have deformed our politics

...
Both Clintonism and Reaganism, no doubt, needed updating. But the parties have gone further, essentially abandoning the two most compelling, successful governing visions of the past few decades. With the influence of Bernie Sanders and the success of Trump, American politics has launched into uncharted ideological waters.

Tom Friedman copes with Donald Trump in the same way Tom Friedman copes with everything: by unspools his 1,000th New York Times column on China, Jobs and The Internet --


-- and concludes:
Every one of these challenges can be met if we put our heads and hands together. For that to happen, though, this version of the Republican Party had to be destroyed, so a thinking center-right party can emerge. If that is what Trump has done, he’s done the Lord’s work. We also need Democrats to be a center-left party, though, and not let Bernie Sanders pull them to the far left. If both happen, maybe something good can actually emerge from this crazy election.
Even Doughy Pantsload at the National Review -- who just broke up with Joe Scarborough because Joe kept insisting that a three-way with Donald Trump would make their relationship even more awesome -- joins the Both Siderist minyan gathering around the corpse of the Republican party:

Nationalism and socialism are in full gallop in America today while conservatives are without a horse.

Donald Trump almost never uses the language of traditional American conservatism, with its emphasis on classically liberal notions of limited government, constitutionalism, individualism, and free trade. He prefers to talk about “strength” and “winning” while vowing to restore the “greatness” of yesteryear through his indomitable will. Meanwhile, the Democratic party is embracing socialism. Hillary Clinton doesn’t call herself a socialist the way her tormentor-competitor Bernie Sanders does, but Sanders has not only pulled her to the left, he’s revealed the heart’s desire of the activist base of the party.

Still, even without Sanders’ influence, Clinton’s worldview was always that of top-down technocracy. Indeed, this is what unites Clintonism, Sandersism, and Trumpism...
Of course it is not strictly true that conservatives do not have a horse.  They, in fact, have a very large dead horse which they have been energetically beating for years, and by God if they just keep at it, one day soon that pile of gnawed bones and rotting flesh will raise itself up and ride them all off to glory.  But until then it is important to remember that, somehow, it is always Both Sides...Both Sides...Both Sides...

I'm sure there are others.  Many others, because they have no longer have any capacity to react to any crisis beyond running is circles and yawping the same, miserable lies that have paid for their home and hearth for 30 years.  Inevitably, most of the Beltway's best and brightest will end up camped out under the Both Siderist freeway overpass, jostling each other for space on the "Meet the Press" and "This Week..." where they can continue to build their little piece of the Both Siderist brand.  


11 comments:

Robt said...

Most warnings signs usually are short and simple. Leaving out the reasoning for the cooperation to comply.
For instance, "Please stay off the grass".

But why? Was the grass treated with a chemical? Did they just seed it? Is there insect infestations like fleas or ticks. So many reasons possible.

Your warning sign gives ample reason for cooperation to stay off the "meet the Press and This Week".

And I thank you for it with my full cooperation.

Last time I watched MTP I ended up stepping into a stinky pile with my new shoes. It was disgusting.
I await Lying Ted's endorsement of Trump as soon as his check clears the bank in the Cayman Isles tax avoiding bank account.

I have been enjoying those "Never Trump" folks of deep conservative values and principles to the ideology. The Republican Patriots.
As the ghost of Reagan told them,
You say this know but truth is.
You will deny the REagan 3 times before the Crock Crows at the convention in Cleveland..
So spoken, so it is written, so it is happening.

Now, Can the party Moolahs force a Dick Cheney as VP on Trump?

HenryFTP said...

It will be amusing, but mostly appalling, to watch the feverish flailing of the denizens of Versailles-sur-Potomac to fit Trump into their ever-rightward shifting Overton Window, so that they can bloviate on the general election campaign with the Both Sides to blame. Given how easily they covered up monumental blunders at home and abroad of the Bush Administration, insisting until almost the very bitter end that Bush remained "popular" even though his presidential approval rating had sunk below that of Nixon after articles of impeachment had been reported out on a bipartisan basis by the Judiciary Committee, I do not doubt the ability of our Opinion Elite to rationalize Trump and demonize Hillary Clinton. While the donor class may not be willing to go all-in on a Trump presidency, it will clearly want to keep the Overton Window locked in its rightward tilted position, and do its level best to prevent the return of effectively functioning government to Washington.

Neo Tuxedo said...

most of the Beltway's best and brightest will end up camped out under the Both Siderist freeway overpass

I notice how you leave out that these are only the best and brightest by Beltway standards of goodness and brightness. Meanwhile, here on the ground in Balnibarbi, the actual best and brightest remain confined to soap-boxes on street corners, and to blogs like this one, including this one.

tjan said...

I saw that Friedman had written about l'affaire Trump/Cruz, got about two paragraphs into his presumably algorithmically generated "column", closed the page. When Friedman begs forgiveness for "suck on this!" maybe I'd consider reading his crap again, but probably not. India, hot, lot's of peoples yearning to be free, flat, olive trees, globes, something...blah blah blah.

trgahan said...

Mark this date in history:

Failed businessman turned reality TV star Donald Trump apparently managed to frog stomp a dozen "widely popular center right" Republican Presidential candidates winning a overwhelming number of primaries without a single person voting for him. But no worries! All it means is that Republicans just need to do a tweak or two to how they have been running their party and it will be generational electoral majority, baby!

Meanwhile, a would have be ignored if they didn't need the other side to Both Sides, Democratic primary contest is a scorched earth battle of a corrupt technocrat verses a fifth columnist over the wreckage of a failed liberal ideology that no one in America wants.

How are they going to spin another likely 60/40 (or worse) Democratic win and lose of the Senate?


Lit3Bolt said...

The corollary to Both Sides (besides Liberals Are Worse) is that Conservatism Can't Fail, It Can Only Be Failed.

After Trump loses? Not a True Conservative.

Romney? Not a True Conservative.

McCain? Not a True Conservative.

Bush II? Not a True Conservative (and he won!).

And so on and so forth. It's all very confusing that these very conservative people vote for very conservative candidates but all end up not being True Conservatives for some reason that's never quite fully explained, but when Conservatives fail there's always outside forces and reasons that can explain everything, but when Democrats fail it's because they lack character and hate America and worship Bhaal and is always an indictment against liberal ideology.

Yet no one has to answer for conservative ideology...

Part of this of course is the MSM's flailing strategy of "doubling down on the olds." Assuming only old readers of newspapers or politics, and that all old people are insane racist bed-wetters are usually good bets, and such all of these articles and gasbagging and thinkpieces are aimed at coddling the elder Baby Boomers that Nothing Is Their Fault.

Because if you don't go with Both Sides, then you have to do RESEARCH, and bring up HISTORY, and cite SOURCES, and consult EXPERTS, and assign RESPONSIBILITY, and it's all very inconvenient and tiresome when you can simply name-drop whoever's currently in the news, attribute it to both sides, call America "Late Stage Imperial Rome" or some other authentic sounding gibberish, quote Mark Twain or Will Rogers or HM Mencken for a humorous anecdote about politics, and turn in your "analysis." And their corporate editors will nod approvingly when they turn it in, saying...

"Both Sides again, eh? Well, we know they eat that shit up. Good job, David."

And then they wonder why their readership and/or vierwers are dwindling.

RUKidding said...

Friedman Dump Unit: "We also need Democrats to be a center-left party, though, and not let Bernie Sanders pull them to the far left."

Fer the luv of all that's holy, let us not become "truly leftwing" - shriek! moan! shudder!!11!!

All these twits whine about the so-called "center-left" and "center-right," all carefully finding fictional boundaries as to what is "acceptable" to their high-born bosses. So tedious and meaningless.

I remember the CPAC convention in 2009 after Obama was inaugurated (twice!!). El Lusbo stepped up to the podium and adjured his weeping racist fans that: "this nation is a CENTER-RIGHT country, and it will remain CENTER-RIGHT!!!" (no matter what that N***a in the White House says or does). And by god, the GOP did it's best to throw tantrums and hissy fits and be as obstructionist as possible to this very day.

These comments, of course, are bloody well meaningless, but I guess these hacks are highly compensated to spew them out.

Well they've blamed just about everyone, including Obama, for the rise of Trump... everyone, that is, except themselves. And so we witness yet another sun descending in the west on yet another day ending in "y" with these shills hacking out the same tired, twisted, debauched and meaningless phrases: Both Sides! Both SIDES, damnit, had better start DOING something about this because BOTH SIDES are responsible (eg, that means the dirty horrid LIEbruls are more to blame, of course... goes without saying, don't it?).

And so on and so forth and scoo be doo be doo beee...

To be continued (unfortunately).

stratocruiser said...

I must admit that, in my ignorance, I do not understand how "traditional American conservatism" can emphasize "classically liberal notions."

Neo Tuxedo said...

because BOTH SIDES are responsible (eg, that means the dirty horrid LIEbruls are more to blame, of course... goes without saying, don't it?).

Or, as our host put it years and years ago when there were wolves in Wales and uncles at Christmas:

Officer: So according to this "Centrism", every time a Republican assaults someone, somewhere out there is a Liberal who is at least equally to blame for it?

Brooks: Correct.

Officer: And every time a Liberal does something wrong, a Republican is also at fault?

Brooks: No, every time a Liberal does something wrong Conservatism is vindicated and Ronald Reagan smiles down on us from Heaven.

Officer: I see. (closes his notebook) I think I have all I need here.

baragon63 said...

Having recently seen "The Revenant", this brings back the image of Leonardo DiCaprio wrapping himself inside the bloody, hollowed-out corpse of his horse to keep himself from freezing to death, and primarily to avoid being discovered by the Indian tribe who shot his horse and ran him over the cliff...

Robt said...

I predict, Trump and his Great huge best campaign, will not be able to tweet his way through the General 'election.
Because now, it is R vs D so both sides will return to it;s cave and remain dormant until after the election.