Thursday, August 11, 2011

SCOT's Corner


America has a political problem, but we've seen this coming for some time, haven't we? A party increasingly contemptuous of knowledge and science, built on a voter base beholden to superstition and a quasi-relgious ideology, is one of our two main parties. It serves the purposes of billionaires, and the capital class, but trades on its proletarian appeal to masses of anti-government idiots with their racist anti-Mexican talk, their obsession with guns and abortion, and jibberish about cutting taxes.

Which wouldn't be so awful if the Democrats weren't philosophically adrift. This is Obama's great failure. He is a good man, but perhaps not as great as the man we need.

11 comments:

Dashmann said...

I am picking up my "Recall Snyder" petitions tomorrow and will circulate them dutifully as a symbolic effort to protest the Republican agenda.
Getting the proper number of signatures for recall appears to be a monumental job, but I shall be clear in my mind that I have done my part.

Alice said...

YAY, Dashmann!!! That's what grassroots is all about!!!!! They also have what is called 1P1P (1person,1petition) that you can give to others who might be interested in getting some signatures. Ask your petition provider. Let me know if they can't help you. I can. We're gaining alot of momentum. We have about 300,000 nad the gathering has been extended to Sept. 29th to get on the February ballot.

scot s w said...

I don't recall mentioning Snyder in my comment.

scot s w said...

I suppose it can be argued that I was referring to him in my comment; I'm not. I actually find Snyder to be one of the less-offensive Republicans in many ways, though I fundamentally disagree with his School-cuts-to-fund-tax-cuts approach. At least he is what he says he is, and isn't a Bachmann/Palin/Santorm-type. I was referring mostly to the Washington GOP.

Bill said...

Scot's reference to Snyder being a "what you see is what you get" politician is interesting. Snyder is following a present day politically heretical stance of "doing what I said I would do". Totally unacceptable.

Sparty said...

Can somebody show me where Snyder proposed, during the campaign, that he would, if elected, propose eliminating the EITC, tax school employee pensions, eliminate the homestead tax credit, etc., etc.

scot s w said...

I'm not going to defend Rick Snyder's record as governor, Sparty, because I don't agree with much of what he's done. But if you can't distinguish between his technocratic Republicanism and the insidious fundamentalism of the bunch I was referring to in the original post, maybe partisanship has too firm a control of your brain. Snyder I disagree with. Palin/Bachmann/Santorum et al I despise. He isn't running a crypto-fascist assault on gays or women's rights, or people of color. He hasn't used demogoguery. In a Democracy, we're going to disagree, so I'm OK with the idea there will be a party full of people I disagree with (people like, say, Snyder). I'm not OK with the idea that there will be a major political party which hates science and knowledge, denies palpable reality, and which trades on fear and lies and deception (running up a huge deficit, then using said deficit to justify depredations against the poor, for example). That's where the illness comes in, and the failure to deal with that is Obama's big shortcoming so far.

Again, anyone want to discuss the original topic, or is the important-but-parochial obsession with Snyder's education budget going to dominate everyone's thoughts regardless of the proffered subject?

Sparty said...

I accept the proposition that Snyder isn't as crazy as Michele Bachman, though I find little comfort in that. My comment was a reply to the "he is what he says he is"/"what you see is what you get" characterization of Snyder. With the Palins, Bachmans,Perrys,Santorums, et al what you see is in fact what you get. Snyder, on the other hand, did not propose taxing retiree pensions during the campaign, he did not propose eliminating the earned income tax credit, or eliminating the homestead tax credit for most. In my opinion that kind of subterfuge is more injurious to the democratic process than the extremists rantings of "crypto/fascists."

Bud said...

To go back to the original opinion in Scot's Corner, I have to say I for one completely agree with you, Scot.
When it comes to some of those nitwits running for President, I have to agree with Sparty: What you see is what you get.

Dashmann said...

Sorry I steered the discussion away from Scot's original entry.
I too can't understand working class people accepting the republican policies of dragging money from their own class to the capital class.
I further don't understand Obama's failure to fully protect the segment of the population who elected him, and to appear willing to weaken the social ( yes, there is that dirty word) programs that have made the US a humane place to live and grow old in.
Again, I apologize for putting the damper on what could have been a lively discussion of Scot's entry.
I am almost 70 ---

Irene said...

It wouldn't be so awful either if the media wasn't so complicit with the greedy,scare-mongering agenda of the Republicans.