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Thursday, August 27, 2009

That damned Hope

What's Mallard raving about today?

Presiden Obama, Enemies Lists, Health Care.

I will admit, to a change in President Obama since the campaign. The man who was generally unflappable during the campaign has been negotiating away key elements of Health Care reform, in the name of "bipartisanship," with a group of crazy people that won't vote for it no matter what was in it.

Republicans, meanwhile, have acted with shrieking, hysterical consistency. The violent, hateful, overheated rhetoric (and the grasp of reality) from today's Town Hall mobs is entirely reminiscent of the same mobs who attended Sarah Palin rallies.

21 comments:

CW in LA said...

It is extremely difficult to see what common ground can be found with cretins blithering about "enemies lists" and "death panels".

I've been trying to think of something more overrated than bipartisanship and not getting much of anywhere. Brett Favre, maybe, but even that's starting to look like a reach. St. Ronnie, but that's possibly too obvious.

vw: poriagol - Goooooooooool scored by Poria FC!

Rootbeer said...

Bipartisanship, when both involved parties are behaving rationally and reasonably, is the apotheosis of representative government.

When one party is expressly committed to nothing but obstructing the other party, it is a waste of time.

Anthony said...

I can't believe this needed annotation again.

He can change that footnote to "man drooling on my street corner" and it would be just as true.

dlauthor said...

Problem is, for Tinshley, "man drooling on my street corner" would be self-referential.

As would "man passed out on my lawn in a puddle of his own sick," "man snoring on my couch covered in a film of Cheeto dust and Old Milwaukee," and "man who just drove my car into that oak tree over there."

xy said...

the main difference i can see between the Palin rallies and the town halls is that Obama is no longer an Arab terrorist, he is a Communist Nazi.

what a difference.

exanonymous said...

Part of me is happy that Obama continues to TRY bipartisanship because doing what's right over what's expedient is the right thing to do.

The other half says "we voted, get it done already!" because I'm half afraid that the noise being generated by a certain minority is slowly being mistaken for a majority when the majority has already peacefully lined up and cast ballots months ago.

Steve the Pocket said...

Once again the "source" is "Fox News." If Fox News is going around trumpeting these flagrant ass-pull accusations as fact, aren't they guilty of libel and eligible to be fined or jailed or something?

More likely the "source" is one of their whackjob pundits, which gives them just enough plausible deniability to stay legal. Dammit. Well, I can dream.

Anonymous said...

"We are always reasonable and intelligent. Our opponents are always obstructive and stupid."
I can read one thousand variants of that whine here, on Free Republic, and on every GOP and Democratic blog. They're all right.

Not THAT Anonymous said...

Anonymous is going for the "Nobody is right; Everybody is wrong" troll, but it doesn't work as well as 4chan would have one believe.

While we tend to generalize Republicans around here (to the extent that Tin generalizes Democrats or liberals, duh), I believe most of the commenters at D&C recognize decent people can disagree and would welcome civil discussion between left and right.

You just won't get civil discussion from the neoconservatives (who are packing their "useful idiots" into the townhall meetings), nor between neoconservatives and their equally-extremist, pie/catshit-throwing Progressive brethren; their arguments are based purposefully on hysterical overreaction, demonization of the other side, and look-at-me-Mommy screaming and throwing fits.

rewinn said...

I would definitely welcome "civil discussion between left and right."

I'm waiting for a rightie to show up who can be civil. It hasn't happened yet.

CW in LA said...

I also think it's worth pointing out once again that it's not lefties who are showing up to large, emotionally tense gatherings toting assault weapons.

Mike said...

I think the Republican party is in its death throes. For every town hall they disrupt, how many right leaning voters think "You know, my side is looking a little crazy?" How many of them aren't neo-con mouth breathers like Tinsley, and are able to adapt to changing times?

We tend to demonize the right wing (understandable...it's an opinionated blog), and while there are a lot of things Republicans say that I don't agree with, when they can state them in such a way that doesn't sound like panicky hyperbole, I am willing to listen to them. For example:

"I don't believe in health care reform, because as a free market economy, America's financial strength is built on the backs of its corporations." Now, I can have a field day about what's wrong with that statement, granted. However, it's rationally spoken, and, if it can be turned into a dialogue, maybe--just maybe--I can change the person's mind.

"Obama is worse than Hitler! I'm going to bring my assault rifle to the town hall meeting, because he can't take away ALL my freedoms!" There's no arguing with that example. He is a nut job that exists only to be a mouth piece.

And I hate to sound biased, but during the Bush years, what crazies did we have? I'm not trying to troll or anything, so if you don't agree with me, just take it with a grain of salt: 9/11 truth guys, Cindy Sheehan, and MAYBE Sean Penn. He's a little wacky, sometimes.

Now? Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, the entirety of Fox News, Birthers, people who think Obama is a Nazi, and so on.

wv: outiony - The way out of alimony

Anonymous said...

Government Health Care The House Call. and this - The Biggest Threat to the Health of America. Lastly, The Truth Scar

CW in LA said...

It looks like we're up to two anonytrolls: There's the pseudo-even handed "both sides are wrong" one, and the same old reich-wing talking point peddler. At least Tinshley is willing to sign his name to his so-called thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Markley: "Medicare will take hit." A liberal congresswoman from Colorado said it folks. But BHO tells us not to even think that it will happen.

Months prior to the election I knew Obama was a racist radical but not many folks, even many Democrats had any idea he was this extreme.

I never thought I would say this but if I had any clue as to just how dangerous this man would be for our country, I would have supported Clinton.

Even though I voted for McCain I had to hold my nose to do so. Hillary is in over her head as the Secretary of State but would have made a better president. Her problem was to remove herself from under the shadow of Bill Clinton.

Anonymous said...

New York Times Turns on Obama; Can Flyover Country Be Far Behind?

GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. said...

Barrage of links that demonstrate nothing but look impressive because, hey, they're LINKS, aren't they?

Man, I'm really getting the hang of this anonycoward schtick!

Factinista said...

Well yeah, if you kept Medicare as is after introducing a comprehensive health care plan, it would be somewhat redundant. I guess common sense makes you a "racist radical."

And I noticed that there's absolutely nothing cited in that last article of yours. I'm betting it's because none of what they're quoting is accurate.

exanonymous said...

Ms. Betsy went on the Daily Show, made a fool of herself, and subsequently "resigned". And she had half the health care bill in paper form to back herself up, but what she was quoting and what she was saying was so different it was painful.

Kip W said...

Even "Prickly City" had to stop taking swipes at Obama this week to distance itself from the birthers.

But here comes reasonable ol' Anonymous to pose as Joey Tissue and put a friendly, superior arm around our shoulders and say, "When you come right down to it, you're both just a couple of dummies." Because there's no difference between somebody screaming at a cloud and somebody else who thinks that screaming at a cloud is kind of nutty.

rewinn said...

Let me thank Anonymous Coward for making the point the rest of us have been making:

We would definitely welcome "civil discussion between left and right." We are still waiting for a rightie to show up who can take part in a civil discussion; calling Obama names ain't it.