Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
by John Cole| 23 Comments
This post is in: Previous Site Maintenance
Every time sit down to write a blog post it comes out pointed and nasty.
In a nutshell, I can’t figure out why half of America thinks Bush is the enemy and the other half wants to blame the fags for everything, and I am tired of being polite to either group.
It is sunny outside.
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Hot Air Time Out?
The Balloon Man may want to consider that even the best hitter needs to step out of the batter’s box sometimes:
In A Slump
Every time I sit down to write a blog post it comes out pointed and nasty.
In a nutshell, I can’t figure out why half of…
ppgaz
If that’s a question, I propose an answer:
Yes, I do consider Bush an enemy of what I think America ought to be, for a variety of reasons, one of which is …
..he panders to people who want to use gay-bashing as a tool of political manipulation.
That fact alone makes him unfit for office as far as I am concerned. And by that I mean, any office. Any position of trust, for that matter.
The additional fact that he lies through his teeth and pretends that the situation is other than as I have described it, makes him unfit.
Gay bashers and liars are running the country. I don’t think that politeness is an option any more. These bottom-feeders came into power with promises that they would “restore” honor and integrity to government. Well, it’s five and half years later, and their record is shockingly and consistently one of doing exactly the opposite. The Haliburton apologists and the Saudi butt-kissers and the gay bashers and the Jesus hypocrites have worn out their welcome.
Now I have to sit here and listen to Bill Frist make a maudlin speech which seems to rest on the idea that stalled judicial nominees “deserve the courtesy” of a vote. Excuse me? The judicial future of this country should rest on whether the sorry nominees to a post deserve “courtesy?”
The government of this country owes me the frigging courtesy of telling me the truth about a war, telling me the truth about their ideological agenda, telling me the truth about the national debt and taxation schemes and the Social Security Trust Fund and global warming. They owe me the courtesy of explaining why, in a country of 270+ million people, the business of the country should revolve around five or six judicial nominees, when there must be hundreds of other qualified candidates upon whom agreement could be easily reached. They owe me the courtesy of explaining why such a thing can’t be handled by reasonable people who are truly interested in governing a divided and worried country, and why it isn’t just a staged pissing contest trumped up by people don’t give a damn about the half of the country that doesn’t agree with them.
Polite? I am in no mood to be polite, and I don’t expect anyone to be polite to me, either. We’re in a nasty struggle for the future of the country, and I’m up against people I consider to be evil, dishonest, and dangerous to everything I want America to stand for. Fuck politeness.
Deb
I am so jealous of your sunlight. Clouds haven’t more than thinned in close to a week here. Go enjoy the weather.
Dave Ruddell
But John, pointed and nasty is why I come here. Especially pointed. Skewer those idiots, whatever side they claim to be on. I’m sure I’m not alone. OTOH, I can see where that might get boring, for you as an author.
bendover
Mr. ppqaz,
Thank for illustrating to us why your party is now, and will continue to be, out of power.
Sojourner
Looks to me like ppgaz brilliantly said all that needs to be said.
Next question?
Mr Furious
Great comment ppgaz. Your “courtesy” paragraph is the best thing I’ve read all week.
And, bendover, you’ve perfectly illustrated the mentality of the ignorant, bully mentality of the current majority; nothing of significance to add, just smug posturing.
Rick
So, John posts a rumination, yet the comments descend to circling the wagons around the moonbat in the middle.
John, you better call a plumber.
Cordia…I mean, smugly…
Anderson
Now, if only we could find proof that Bush is gay, we could really unite this country …
Jeff
Oh yeah, well i’ll take liars and Halliburton apologists over people that think “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor is a great song, and still wear Abercrombie and Fitch in their forties.
In all seriousness, though, while the Republican party has lost me due to their major shift right on social issues, the Democratic party will never have me.
What am I gonna do, leave a party that has vile scumbags like Rick Santorum and Tom Delay just so i can go join sides with other vile scumbags like Ted Kennedy and Maxine Waters, as well as less significant scumbags like Kos, Atrios, and Ollie Willis?
So, I guess I’ll just do something really crazy like become and Independant and vote based on the candidate, not the party.
Eric
I keep wanting to look for ultimate causes in the way the discourse has reached the basement so quickly. As a liberal I want to blame the republicans for acting so bloodthirsty towards Clinton. Politically, he was a centrist and a coalition builder. They villified a charicature of a person thus setting the stage for cleaving the electorate in half and, at least in the 2004 election, managing to get the extra sliver of the electorate that put their guy on top.
I don’t think Bush and the Republican powers that be want, or are in a position, to compromise on their agenda and so are largely responsible for polarizing both the government and the electorate. If anything, the left has had to radicalize in response to radicalized right. I think that republicans have spent years now campaigning on fear of marginalized groups that have little effect on the daily lives of the people now worried about them. By falling back on slippery slope arguments that mimic the NRA’s political rhetoric, they’ve created a scared and mobilized body of voters who are doing a much better job (actually 1% better in the ’04 election) of showing up to the polls.
I’m not very proud of the Democrats at the same time. They’ve been suckered into a loosing deal and can’t respond effectively to the attacks on it from the right and so a president elected as a wartime president is now running roughshod over the reforms that I hold dear, which have taken about 70 years to put in place. And, again, morally, they seem to be just as mucky as the republicans. So there doesn’t seem to be much to be proud of from either the side I can’t even begin to understand or the people I wish really were the staunch, admirable defenders of the system that has taken so long to put in place.
As far as how honorable and noble the politicians are, I think they are all somewhat corrupt. It’s disengenuous for democrats to call foul on republican abuses when it seems that they’ve all been doing largely the same thing for years. It seems to be part of being an American politician and for the most part, the electorate accepts that. If it didn’t, then we would see actual progressive candidates winning elections.
I believe in the ideals instilled in me in elementary school. I think diversity, innovation, and hard work are what have made this country great. I think Republicans are making it easier for people who run our industries to the detriment of American industry and society. They seem to be attempting to create an “American” morality where one did not exist after about 1950. They also seem to be saying that all religions are equal, but evangelical christianity is more equal than the others. I also see a war we are prosecuting, unjustified on anything but idealistic grounds in which many demonstrably evil people are being killed but in which many good, innocent people are paying with their lives as well. When the level of discourse has reached the bottom, these are the things that I think many liberals are looking at and loosing it over. They are the some of the major things that I often loose sleep over, anyway.
Grotesqueticle
Well, I don’t think Bush is the enemy. When I was a kid, I really really hated Howdy Doody. I didn’t blame him, I blamed the idiot with his hand up Howdy’s ass. THAT is who I blame for everything, the people with their hand up Bush’s ass.
And just because there is a collective hand up someones ass, doesn’t mean I am blaming faggotry for all our societal ills.
rilkefan
Bendover, some suggested reading.
Rick
rilkefan,
Why, when we have ppagz here to distill the “wisdom” for us.
Cordially…
bendover
Mr. rilkefan,
Some sugguested reading:
realclearpolitics.com/2004-2000.html
See, anyone can play this game ;)
Kimmitt
Go with the sunny outside-ness. It’s easy to get burned out on this stuff.
Sojourner
Wow, there’s something to be proud of. Karl Rove finds a way to scare people into voting for his boy. Raise the terror level, send Cheney out with threats of destruction. Yeah, they won. But notice the buyer’s remorse that’s happening. Bush has the lowest approval ratings of any second-term president. What a guy.
General Washington
John,
I enjoy your blog… and there’s no need to be polite to anyone. If you were (overtly) polite I would remove your link from both my favorites and my own blog – and destroy any evidence that I’d ever read anything you wrote.
Just tell it like you see it and any consternation about being pointed and nasty will disappear.
For we may disagree on many things (I sure disagree with you and others on many things: liberal conservative or otherwise) – but that is what makes this particular piece of national real-estate worth trying to save… is it not?
adk46er
There’s no way 50% of the country believe that Bush is the enemy and the other 50% believe gays are. None the less millions of people do fit into one of your two categories and that’s too bad. I think the internet is at least partially to blame for the perception that the fanatics have taken over. Some of this has to do with the fact that on the internet its easier to call someone you don’t know a moron than it is to have an intelligent back and forth with that person. It also doesn’t help that so many blogs are extremely partisan and even if a blog has moderate views almost without exception their comment sections are taken over by the fanatics.
anomdebus
adk46er,
Thanks for those words.
caleb
I’d say it’s more of a 20/20/60 split in reality.
20% Bush Haters
20% Gay Haters
60% General population who form their political decisions based on 30 minute nightly news broadcasts and televised debates.
This 50/50 split is only a mirage that we see here in this internets that we all play in.
Birkel
I’d take caleb’s point even further.
10% Bush Haters
10% Gay Haters
40% Evening News Watchers without really strong views
40% Don’t care one whit
50/50 is a mirage because the only people you discuss these things with are similarly motivated to discuss such things. All the people you meet who you don’t discuss politics with, those are the other 80%.
The cashier at the grocery store. The cashier at the gas station. Et cetera.
XB
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