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Sat. Oct 03, 2009

We Are Covered In Bipartisan Bull

I was on the road most of last week, and during that time, it’s become even more clear how poorly served we are by our “elected representatives,” on both sides of the aisle. Yes, whether you are red or blue, there’s blood below for you.

On the right, in the past few days we’ve seen a Facebook poll asking “Should Obama die,” followed by a Republican representative declaring that Obama is “an enemy of humanity,” followed by a columnist at NewsMax declaring the only solution to the “Obama problem” is a military coup.

Where I come from, the United States of America, that’s called sedition (The Smith Act of 1940 makes it “a crime to advocate or teach the desirability of overthrowing the United States Government, or to be a member of any organization which does the same. It was often used against Communist organizations.”). Perhaps that’s why NewsMax pulled the column (closing the barn door after the horses are gone). Apparently our time honored tradition of democratic elections that has worked for over 220 years is just not good enough for some on the right.

I feel like I’m witnessing the Republican Party committing an ugly bloody suicide, perhaps seeing who they can take with them. I do know this; until I see some repentance for obvious sins, or at least acknowledgement the fringe has gone too far, this Independent Voter will not vote for a Republican for dogcatcher. The party seems to have not only completely lost its way, but has moved on to endangerment, of itself and others.

Or, in wonkese:

Politics is generally viewed as a zero-sum game: When one party gains, the other loses. But Republicans have pursued a strategy turning politics into a negative-sum game: Both parties lose. They have effectively harmed the Democrats’ agenda but done so at great cost to their own favorability numbers […] In 1994, Republicans managed to obstruct Clinton’s agenda in a way that effectively established them as an alternative. In 2009, they are battling Obama’s agenda in a manner that’s totally discrediting their party.

They even root against America, and cheer when she loses, because their hatred of Obama blinds all else. Apparently they love America during the four to eight years their party controls it, but when they are out of the Oval office, she can’t lose enough for their liking.

Even Joe Scarborough can’t help but see it:

Chicago is a beautiful city that would have made a perfect backdrop for the Olympics. The President was right to fly to Copenhagen to try to land the games, not for the sake of his city, but for the good of his country. The fact President Obama failed makes me respect him more for taking the chance, and the fact many right-wing figures opposed the President’s mission shows just how narrow-minded partisanship makes us all.

For the better part of 20 years, a bitterness has infected our politics that has weakened our country.

We Republicans spent eight years trying to delegitimize Bill Clinton.

Democrats spent the next eight years doing the same to George W. Bush.

Now that a Democrat is in the Oval Office again, it is the GOP who is trying to delegitimize a sitting president.

Some of the rhetoric is dangerous. But what we saw from some conservative corners regarding the President’s failed Olympics bid was just plain stupid.

Punishment at the voting booth is the only option. That is, for those who still believe in democracy. Those who think assassination, secession, or a military coup are solutions, I invite you to move to a country more suited to such attitudes. Perhaps Libya or Somalia. Maybe you could go knock off Castro and take over Cuba. Here, we vote, and accept the outcome, at least until the next election.

Not try and tear down the country for the next 4 years, like some giant hissy fit by a poor loser.

But on the left, We, The People weren’t really served any better this past week. In the Senate Finance Committee, the public option was shot down, not once, but twice. Both times, all Republicans voted against it, as expected, because that’s all The Party Of No has to offer on health care.

But it was truly defeated by Democrats. Five of them. Max Baucus (D-Mont), Kent Conrad (D-ND), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark), Bill Nelson (D-Fla) and Tom Carper (D-Del). These five Democratic Senators represent states that contain, in total, less than 8% of the US population. Oh, and they apparently also represent the insurance companies that have collectively given them over $19 million dollars in “political donations.”

Furthermore, “The industry and interest groups have spent $380 million in recent months influencing healthcare legislation through lobbying, advertising and in direct political contributions to members of Congress. The largest contribution, totalling close to $1.5m, has gone to the chairman of the senate committee drafting the new law.”

Let’s call a spade a spade. These contributions are bribes. Perhaps not in a prosecutable sense. But just the same, they are huge multi-million dollar bribes of multiple public officials. And they worked.

We, The People, no longer control anything that happens in DC, left or right. We are so very screwed. I don’t have $19 million to bribe Senators, or a third of a billion to lobby/advertise in favor of a public option. Hell, I don’t even the $35,000 a year it would cost to buy health insurance for me and my wife.

Back in July I twittered, “I don’t want to lead you to believe the people debating our health care policy are self-interested idiots. I’d hate to ruin the surprise.”

It’s no surprise anymore.

On the left, I am at the mercy of the elected & bribed non-representatives, who band together in tiny numbers to gum up the whole works, perverting the idea of “majority rule.” In a country where 65% favor a public option, representatives of less than 8% of the population defeated it. And on the right, I am at the mercy of those who no longer seem to believe or participate in the democratic process, they are too busy rooting for America to lose. At anything, as long as it might make Obama look bad.

We are collectively covered in the bipartisan bullshit they’ve been slinging. And they’ve been slinging it so long, we don’t even notice the smell any more. They have to let loose with some truly noxious offal for us to even notice.

Which is exactly the way they want it. They are winning. We, The People, are losing.