Our Poisoned Politics

I don't know now if even Obama is capable of bringing in "a new kind of politics," as was his refrain of the campaign. The Republican Party, through their leadership and other key figures, have made it impossible to have any sort of serious debate on the issues of the day. RNC chairman Michael Steele now calls the stimulus package the "Generational Theft Act" and has publicly threatened to cut off funding the Senate campaigns of Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Arlen Specter, the three Republicans (out of 220 in Congress, making them the new 1% Moderate Republican wing) who voted for the stimulus. Alan Keyes, Obama's once Republican rival for the US Senate in Illinois, has called the president an "abomination" and a "radical communist" and questioned his qualifications to even be President and refuses to call him as such. Rush Limbaugh commands the apologies of actual members of Congress for even considering working with Democrats. And who would be the hopefuls for 2012? None other than Sarah Palin -- no introductions needed there -- and Bobby Jindal, the Louisiana governor who is now leaning on denying the people of his state much needed stimulus money, a good portion of which is slated for unemployment benefits. These people have no problem ballooning the deficit when it comes to an illegitimate war and tax cuts for the rich. But helping Americans in need in a depression? Ha! It's "generational theft," they say. There are no words for this kind of chutzpah.

Our two-party system, to put it mildly, sucks. So long as "bipartisanship" is something to be valued, and which translates to powerful Democrats capitulating to a cabal of radical right-wing ideologues whose policies have long-ago been discredited, it is shit. Because of this capitulation to these economic royalist terrorists, 40% of the stimulus is tax cuts, many for the already well-off and most of which will not get spent on "stimulating the economy." Because of this capitulation we have $700 billion bailouts for banks that think nothing of running off with the money while not lending a penny to people in need but purchasing million-dollar office makeovers, lobbying the government for more goodies and giving out billions in bonuses to worthless CEO scum. Fincancial frauds Rick Santelli the and Jim Cramer get to be on CNBC and rant like some bizarro "populist" madmen. Another notable fraud, "Sir" Stanford, by the way, was also feted on same network just a short time ago. And while we're talking about frauds, Sam "Joe" Not-Plumber Wurzelbacher gets to be on T.V. and is considered a legitimate voice on a major [propaganda outlet] network. Now he's considering running for Congress. I wonder which party he'll join for that enterprise.

We now have exactly ONE major political party that is serious about fixing the nation's ills, and exactly ONE other major political party that wants to shit on the entire country. And yet the Cokie Robertses and David Broders of the world, the "people who matter," want us all to hold hands and work out our problems in a "bipartisan" fashion. And that, according to them, is what we want. Well, it's not what we want. We want an economy that provides good-paying jobs and decent health care and a decent environment. That means investing in infrastructure with things like high-speed rail, light rail, more train lines and more trains, and more buses that go to more places. And it means making greener cars and trains and buses. And it means building greener homes. And it means universal heath care that is affordable and functioning. Democrats campaign on delivering these things. Republicans want none of them. Bipartisan this, Cokie.

The problem with the Just Barely Sane Three -- that would be Collins, Specter and Snowe, -- is that not one of them will stand up to the bullies of their party and say "enough." What people don't really understand yet is that the Republican Party is run by a bunch of punks and bullies and know-nothings whose members see no harm keeping it this way.

I'm not sure this type of politics is sustainable for very long. More political parties with a seat at the table coupled with a full-scale repudiation of Republican ideas would be a start. Traps are meant to be dug out of.