Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Extremists and Enablers

In toto from Dr.Paul:

These two stories are related:

1. Republicans are getting ready to hold American hostage again, refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless spending is cut drastically; basically, never mind the old-fashioned idea of actually passing legislation, they’ll just blow up the country unless their demands are met.

2. Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, two highly respected Congressional analysts with a reputation for being nonpartisan, have a book documenting the fact that our political dysfunction is very one-sided — it’s Republican extremism, not “both sides do it”, that’s at fault. Sales of their book have been very good, and there’s a lot of public interest. But guess what? They can’t get on TV to promote their book.

When future historians write about the fall of the American Republic, they will of course lay primary blame on the extremists of the right, who set out deliberately to destroy it. But they will also lay heavy blame on all the “centrists” and Serious People who not only refused to admit what was happening, but ostracized and silenced anyone who tried to point it out.

There's a big difference between accurate reporting and the corporate so-wildly-inaccurately-called "liberal" media's false equivalence. They will never blame themselves for any part of it when the nation augers in partly because of it.

3 comments:

Karlo said...

WaPo has a good article on how the filibuster is probably unconstitutional: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/is-the-filibuster-unconstitutional/2012/05/15/gIQAYLp7QU_print.html. If voters have to have more than 60% of one part in the Senate, a major in the House, and control of the presidency to get anything done, it doesn't bode well for the future of American democracy. We can thank the current Republicons for pointing out a huge flaw in our system.

Fixer said...

They will never blame themselves for any part of it ...

A few of them should be at the Hague with the Chimp and Cheney.

Gordon said...

Word.