...to come to the aid of the Democratic party.
I'm a fan of the Stephanie Miller Show (been to the shows, both live and Zoom) and of radio person John Fugelsang, but as the GOP continues dragging our struggling democracy towards a shallow grave deep into the woods, I have become heartily sick and tired of appeals to save our democracy pitched like this:
We are not Democrats, Republicans nor Independents so much as we are majority-rules Americans. And our mission is to help ensure America hears the voice of the majority of voters.
That was from the "Let Majority Rule" outfit which advertises heavily on the Stephanie Miller Show and for whom of John Fugelsang is the spokesperson. And their whole website is like this: carefully edited to avoid blaming any group or particular political party for the crimes of one very specific political party. Instead there is a lot of handwaving about "holdout U.S. Senators" and "legislators" and "a handful of institutional processes of our government" which have, for some unknown reason "changed dramatically, and not for the better" in "recent decades".
There you'll find the Great, Imaginary Center still being mythologizing:
A timeless, oft-used phrase throughout our nation’s history is “The Center Holds.” It is this nation’s relatively vast political center that may not receive the most amplification in talk media and social media but which we believe is best served by a system that ensures majority rules.
You'll find a group that is still so addicted to huffing the desiccated remains of Both Siderism that it will dig through through the racist shitpile that is the GOP until it finds one Republican it can sorta kinda valorize...
Say whatever you will about Sen. Mitt Romney – and people on both sides of the political aisle seem to say plenty about him – he can always be counted upon for truly civil and respectful debate.
...and then turn right around and blame Democrats as a party for being "unserious" partisans because they could not find a single member of the Anti-Democracy Party to support any pro-democracy legislation..
The Democrats’ latest justification for eliminating the filibuster is Republicans’ unwillingness to pass partisan election-reform legislation. Democrats have filed these bills numerous times over numerous years, almost always without seeking Republican involvement in drafting them. Anytime legislation is crafted and sponsored exclusively by one party, it is obviously an unserious partisan effort aimed at messaging and energizing that party’s base. Any serious legislative effort is negotiated and sponsored by both parties.
This reeks of the same drivel that every other boutique Third Way/Country First/No Labels grift is flooding the market with and it is profoundly disappointing to hear it being advertised on one of the very few syndicated "liberal" programs on the radio.
Also, speaking as a professional writer, I feel obliged to point out that the whole thing is very badly written.
Look, this isn't hard. Our democracy if under threat from the Republican party. If your program or project or appeal or telethon or whatever is not explicitly targeted at driving a stake through the heart of the Republican party and burying it at the crossroads, then you're either time travelers just arrived from 1995, or flighty Beltway dilettantes drunk on old David Brooks columns, or you're just another Third Way/Country First/No Labels scam.
And whichever you are -- time travelers, dilettantes or con men -- in the immortal words of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., you are cordially invited to take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon!
3 comments:
I especially liked the partisan election reform dig. Because requiring polling stations to stay open and staffed is partisan, but giving a state legislature the power to throw out votes and replace electoral voters is wildly non-partisan.
I wonder about the motivation for this brand of thumb-sucking denialism. I know your argument that it's the paymasters driving this willful blindness in the media, but what billionaires are funding these Third/Central/United/CantWeAllJustGetAlong things?
I can think of 3 things. First, we "need" 2 parties in a 2-party system, so as long as Mitt Romney is around the Republican Party is a respectable organization that looks good in dark blue suits. Second, staring into the abyss that passes for the Republican soul leads to some dark places, and they simply won't go there. Third, I believe that the third of eligible voters who can't be bothered to vote eat this stuff up with a spoon. They are marks begging to be taken. In all these cases, it still adds up to a willful denial of reality, and reality always bats last.
Don't forget that they can take a flying fuck at a rolling donut.
A fkn MEN.
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