update: 6/5/12--if you have a Cousin Bob or an Aunt Ethel in Wisconsin, be sure to remind them to vote today in the recall election. Walker leads in polls but Barrett is closing late (w/ a little help from Bill Clinton).
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this first quote comes from Brian K, a regular reader and commenter (and a friend of mine, full disclosure), who was responding to my recent post about Patty Duke (not really--but it's the one w/ Cousins in the title).
I'm not sure if Brian K would connect his comments to this piece by E.J. Dionne on the Walker recall, but it's what came to mind, as both make the point about a disingenuous approach to discourse and debate in contemporary politics. Dionne, below in an excerpt from the linked piece I've included above from The Washington Post, identifies quite clearly, I believe, how modern conservatism has been bastardized into something else and what these implications are, not just for Wisconsin next Tuesday, but for all of us, esp this November.
Like most things, how we got here has taken time. And we've had contentious, salacious politics since way back when. But it just feels different now; Paul Krugman in his book The Conscience of a Liberal posits that it's during times of extreme income inequality, much like today, that we are our most partisan, citing the relative overlap of Republicans and Democrats in the '50s, which also happens to be the peak of middle-class economic prosperity. Obstructionism is just a way of doing business nowadays and there is very little that either "side" can agree on, and the Scott Walkers and the John Boehners and the whole Grover Norquist crowd are doing something to our democracy that is shameful and yet amazing because work-a-day folks still support them, even as many Republican politics and policies are detrimental to the lives of these same supporters.
Are you a Republican and need a ride to the polls? Hop in, we have room. With many of the far right driving today, not only will they zoom past you, they might just try to run you over.
* * * * *
note that I've taken liberals, Democrats, and President Obama to task many times recently, so I'm not just a cheerleader for my team. But things like voter disenfranchisement does seem particular to today's Republican party.
* * * * *
this first quote comes from Brian K, a regular reader and commenter (and a friend of mine, full disclosure), who was responding to my recent post about Patty Duke (not really--but it's the one w/ Cousins in the title).
Brian K May 30, 2012 9:26 PM
Good call, Eric on the lack of tolerance for a dissenting opinion. The 'news' talk shows tend to yell down opinions as part of their format, but the biggest damage done to free speech is the right’s assault on questioning war policy as not patriotic and the left’s stifling charges of racism if someone has a politically incorrect opinion. You scream “racist” or “commie” and you don’t have to win the debate with better ideas, you just shut the debate down with a perceived higher moral ground. We need to stop acknowledging that perception.
I'm not sure if Brian K would connect his comments to this piece by E.J. Dionne on the Walker recall, but it's what came to mind, as both make the point about a disingenuous approach to discourse and debate in contemporary politics. Dionne, below in an excerpt from the linked piece I've included above from The Washington Post, identifies quite clearly, I believe, how modern conservatism has been bastardized into something else and what these implications are, not just for Wisconsin next Tuesday, but for all of us, esp this November.
Walker is being challenged not because he pursued conservative policies but because Wisconsin has become the most glaring example of a new and genuinely alarming approach to politics on the right. It seeks to use incumbency to alter the rules and tilt the legal and electoral playing field decisively toward the interests of those in power.
The most obvious way of gaming the system is to keep your opponents from voting in the next election. Rigging the electorate is a surefire way of holding on to office. That is exactly what has happened in state after state — Wisconsin is one of them — where GOP legislatures passed new laws on voter identification and registration. They are plainly aimed at making it much more difficult for poorer, younger and minority voters to get or stay on the voter rolls and to cast ballots when Election Day comes.
Like most things, how we got here has taken time. And we've had contentious, salacious politics since way back when. But it just feels different now; Paul Krugman in his book The Conscience of a Liberal posits that it's during times of extreme income inequality, much like today, that we are our most partisan, citing the relative overlap of Republicans and Democrats in the '50s, which also happens to be the peak of middle-class economic prosperity. Obstructionism is just a way of doing business nowadays and there is very little that either "side" can agree on, and the Scott Walkers and the John Boehners and the whole Grover Norquist crowd are doing something to our democracy that is shameful and yet amazing because work-a-day folks still support them, even as many Republican politics and policies are detrimental to the lives of these same supporters.
Are you a Republican and need a ride to the polls? Hop in, we have room. With many of the far right driving today, not only will they zoom past you, they might just try to run you over.
* * * * *
note that I've taken liberals, Democrats, and President Obama to task many times recently, so I'm not just a cheerleader for my team. But things like voter disenfranchisement does seem particular to today's Republican party.
