Party or Wake?
The political scene in our country today represents something akin to the crowds outside Wal-Mart on the morning after Thanksgiving. No amity, no grace, just full-bore me-mine-get-out-of-my-way. An interesting piece in Politco underscores the nature of this mad melange, speaking specifically to efforts by traditional Republicans to separate their party from the fringees, including the whackier members of the tea-baggers (if that isn’t redundant) plus the birthers who insist that Barack Obama was born in another country and the truthers who are convinced that Nine-Eleven was organized by the White House.
The Republicans were glad to attract these crypto-conservatives as long as they were supporting basic tenets of their political agenda, but those too-far-out voices are presenting the left with some pretty big targets and mainstream "just say no" GOPers are concerned that the nutso contingent will hurt their chances of beating the Democrats in November.
It’s ironic that the Republicans are struggling since the Democrats have presented themselves as stunningly incompetent at governance, but their poll numbers show that the public hasn’t bought their game.
The bottom line truth is that the Republicans, for all their protestations, aren’t real conservatives, any more than the Democrats have even a passing relation to true progressive ideas. Both parties have sold their soul to special interests who are quite happy with the status quo, thank you very much. Which is, of course, at odds with the needs of the nation.
For goodness sakes, Obama doesn’t seem to realize that the reason the country has shown such diminished support for his health care, um, reform, is that it does so little when so much is needed, starting with a public option. It’s the same with his energy program. We don’t want more nuclear, we want solar.
It’s tragic that both parties are just playing politics. America’s future is in the balance.
©2010 SetonnoteS
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