Lol @ Republicans
Posted on: April 29, 2009
So, Senator Arlen Specter switched parties today. That means that if Franken wins Minnesota the Democrats will have a filibuster proof majority, but I’m sure you knew this. This is funny because after 8 years of Bush/Cheney the Republicans are getting what’s coming to them. I’m not an Obama cheerleader and I’m not really sure if I like him or dislike him, but I know I hate Bush. I realize that according to the LATimes, Specter supported Bush 76% of the time. According to FactCheck, Obama supported Bush 40% of the time in 2007 (and Harry Reid 39%, but perhaps not in the same year). Furthermore, McCain supported Bush anywhere from 67% (2001) to 77% (2005) to 95% (2007). Much of this (probably at least 35% but that’s a shot in the dark) was somewhat procedural. Some things just aren’t controversial – like domestic violence (unless you’re Joe Biden):
Senator Biden, how, as vice president, would you work to shrink this gap of polarization which has sprung up in Washington, which you both have spoken about here tonight?
BIDEN: Well, that’s what I’ve done my whole career, Gwen, on very, very controversial issues, from dealing with violence against women, to putting 100,000 police officers on the street, to trying to get something done about the genocide in — that was going on in Bosnia.
And I — I have been able to reach across the aisle. I think it’s fair to say that I have almost as many friends on the Republican side of the aisle as I do the Democratic side of the aisle.
In his fairness he did want to change the topic which is very common in politics and is done by everyone on both sides of the aisle because it’s the only way politicians get to say what they want. But these aren’t really controversial issues, although at times the way to solve them can be. Still, it shows that eventually everyone votes with the President.
I’ve digressed. While Specter has supported Bush about twice as much as Obama and Reid he still has his reputation as a moderate Republican and the switch can only hurt the Republicans. The last thing the party needs is to be losing their rational Senators.
But those of us that aren’t partisans are secretly cheering becuase the Republicans will probably face a filibuster proof majority. They deserve this. Especially after all those stupid Tea Parties. While those who took part in them are overwhelmingly decent people and not “right-wing extremists” (also funny – learn about left-wing extremists), the troubling aspect is that an overwhelming number of tea-partiers were cheering Bush on. “Don’t mortgage our childrens future!” “Taxed Enough Already.” Why wasn’t there anyone angry that Obama appears to just be furthering what Bush started: The Great Bank Robbery of 2008. Turns out, the Treasury actually overpaid $78 billion for TARP assets. But it’s not robbery because they gave it away for us – semantics really.
I for one am tired about hearing how corporations are too big to fail. That we have to save the idiots who got us into this mess in order to get out of this mess. I’m tired of hearing criticism of Obama that is as – and frequently more – applicable to Bush. The hypocrisy kills me. So while I’m happy the Republicans will more than likely face a spanking, I will end with some solid advice on how to revive the Republican party: don’t focus on the religious right or nutjobs because these two groups are already more than likely going to vote Republican (unless they defect to a third party) just to prevent a Democrat from gaining office. The defectors will be offset by Democrats defecting to other third parties. Anyway, here’s the idea: martyr creationism.
Creationism contradicts widely accepted scientific knowledge about plate tectonics, volcanoes, diamonds, oil, fossils, carbon-dating, and a host of other “less important” issues like the creation of the planet and universe. It’s just dumb. Please stop talking about it. It’s like saying that the cell isn’t the most basic unit of life (one of the foundations of biology), which of course is exactly what Pro-Choicers argue. While Roe v Wade provides women the right to choose (and there is the restriction of “undue burden” in the ability to obtain an abortion), there is no reason women can’t choose expediently. Permitting abortions in the first 3 months isn’t too controversial because the Republicans’ hands are tied by the Supreme Court. Taking this stance, with the disclaimer that your hands are tied, but that you are pragmatic and believe in science – specifically cell theory and evolutionary theory – might not win over religious zealots but it will win over moderates. That’s the key demographic. If you believe in rapture, then you’re limited in who you can vote for. When you’re rational, there’s no limit to who can be voted for.
This is wild speculation but I would think that moderates are also better at voting because they know candidates names and not just their party affiliation. I shudder when thinking about how many people in Montana voted for Steve Bullock instead of Tim Fox because they either didn’t know what an Attorney General was or didn’t care. I gave money to Tim Fox and Obama. My Obama money is regretful, but at the time I gave him 2 $5 donations as a way of saying: way to go man, Hillary sucks (I was one of those white males that inexplicably didn’t like her – Palin fixed that almost overnight… there’s a bizarre study of human psychology somewhere in there). The money to Tim Fox was to say: I like you and want you to win. I was so naive that I actually thought the there was no way that Fox could lose; he lost by 24,677 votes. Thanks mostly uneducated voters (there are definitely some really smart Democrats out there and I love talking with them but they’re the exception and not the rule, almost the same holds true for Republicans but it seems that uneducated Republicans are more familiar with why they believe what they believe – even if it doesn’t really make sense).
So, the Republicans need to martyr creationism for their position on abortion and move the party left. Not far left, just a little left. They can get Specter back and they can even get me. But I want some Republican-reparations for Bush. I want to see a resolution pass that denounces the Constitutional offenses Bush and Cheney most certainly committed so that we can move on, possibly to Obama. It’s virtually impossible for many of us to criticize Obama too harshly, which consequently could allow the Republicans to regain control, without something significant.
P.S. I reluctantly add that I voted for Ron Paul. If you didn’t figure out that the Ludwig von Mises Institute (Great Bank Robbery Article) is Austrian economics, which Ron Paul subscribes to, and that I don’t like either party (although I supported Obama in the Democratic primary, a late-comer to the Paul movement); well, someone else would have. There doesn’t need speculation on this. I’m not crazy about Ron Paul anymore – he let me down by not putting his name on all 50 states last November. Also, his movement is filled with people who keep talking about global banking cabal conspiracies and the one world government conspiracy. Alex Jones is all about this, I’m not. But if you have time you might grab some beer and watch his video on Bohemian Grove – it’s fun.
Cognitive Coup 
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