I was doing laundry and found myself reading the letters to the editor at USA Today, and came across this gem:
Wanted: God-fearing man
Rev. Kort Greene Jr. – Scottsville, Va.
I’m constantly being asked who I’m voting for or who I want to win the Democratic nomination. Many automatically assume that because I am an African-American I will vote Democrat — not!
I supported Mike Huckabee, not simply because he is a Republican but because he is a man of integrity and stands for godly principle. This is more than I can say about either of the Democratic candidates. They have so much in common and so many reasons why I could not in good conscience vote for either.
The only good thing I see about the Democratic campaigns is we are finding out how inept these candidates are, which is a plus for the Republicans.
Let’s pray that God will intervene and give us an honest, God-fearing man to run this country.
I read that and my first thought was that if McCain wins, it is profoundly unfair that I have to go down with the ship with this idiot, and then I immediately realized what it must have been like for the people who hated Bush all along, knew he would be a disaster, and had to sit around and suffer while jackasses like me voted for the guy they wanted to have a beer with or voted for Bush because they didn’t really “trust” John Kerry.
I guess that is the most depressing part of the Gas Tax nonsense below. Now that everyone on the planet is criticizing the McCain-Clinton plan, even Paul Krugman, grudgingly, the Clinton campaign will feel the need to respond. McCain of course, won’t, because he is a Republican, and Republicans don’t have to explain themselves when they say stupid things. They just say them, accuse the opposition of being weak or soft on terror and then move on to some other disastrously stupid statement.
Clinton, on the other hand, will feel the need to defend herself (Clintons only have two modes- attack and bunker mentality), and we will undoubtedly be treated to the spectacle of Clinton surrogates going on television spreading nonsense about how the gas tax holiday really will help blue collar voters, further dumbing down an already moronic electorate.
Doug H. (Fausto no more)
I hold out hope that the Clinton campaign will realize this is an incredibly stupid idea and flush it down the toilet before it grows legs. Then again, I’ve always been an optimist.
So I wouldn’t be surprised at the above coming to pass, thus reinforcing the Republican “gas tax is bad” narrative. Notch up another topic Hillary wouldn’t be able to use against McMaverick.
isit2009yet
Sure, the surrogates will try to defend the gas tax holiday to the blue collar voters, but will they hear the defense as they’re sitting at the base of a bridge that has collapsed due to a lack of road repair?
The interesting thing about HRC is her immediate willingness to make the tax holiday part of her platform after McCain did. It’s like a Republican knee-jerk reaction. I’ve got to give kudos to Obama for not going with the crowd. It’s a popular position for many.
Sasha
Welcome home!
Atlliberal
I am one of theose people who was against Bush from the beginning. I do understand your frustration, but I am much more hopeful this time around that the majority of Americans are starting to see through the spin.
Jon H
“I hold out hope that the Clinton campaign will realize this is an incredibly stupid idea and flush it down the toilet before it grows legs.”
Nah, the Clintons want to get back into the White House so they can steal the rest of the furniture.
Krista
Men like Kort Greene Jr. piss me of to no end. Why? Because of the following two quotes:
I’m a Canadian atheist for crissakes, but because I am aware of and agree with those two quotes, I’m a better Christian and a better American than Reverend Greene and all of the idiots whose blind admiration for vocal Bible-thumping is leading your country down the path to utter ruination.
Billy K
But aren’t you enjoying your free abortions?
Zifnab
Honestly, this is for the best. People aren’t going to look at their $4 gas – much less their $100 gas bills – and treat an 18.4 cent tax cut with anything less than the scorn it deserves.
This is really the height of ivory tower thinking. Assuming you can feed the wolves on your doorstep with bread crumbs. I’ve seen gas prices spike more than 20 cents in the last two weeks. No one was seriously going to do more than laugh at this pittance.
kchiker
Yep…you nailed it John. I have suffered BDS since the 2000 election. Now shut your eyes and put yourself in an America where W enjoys a 90% approval rating and every 10 minutes a Bushie is on TV talking about mushroom clouds unless we ‘defend ourselves’ from the that powerful menace Saddam. The press and even usually-sensible friends just lap it up.
That is the hell I lived through.
Zifnab
Candidates who rally around this idea are going to be tying themselves to the anchor of GOP-bad-economics and diving overboard. If Clinton and McCain want to run around defending it, I say let’m. They’re only hurting themselves.
D0n Camillo
The Democratic Party, where people come for the free abortions and stay for the mandatory gay marriage.
Z
I understand those assless chaps can chafe a bit.
Bernie
Finally. I have been waiting for you to have the feelings of anger, frustration, hopelessness, and complete and utter disbelief that have been prevalent among Democrats during the Bush years.
Chuck Butcher
John,
Now you’re a Democrat, yes Bush was a known disaster to many of us, but there is a bigger disaster that you have yet to address, the drift rightward in economics. I don’t mean “godly” drift unless the plutocrats are applicable. We have created a system where the top 1% earns more than the entire bottom 50% and people still manage to think something falls off the table.
If you check the numbers across extended time what begins to become apparent is that the nation does best with the BOTTOM holding the rest up. Yes, this is directly counter to St Ronnie, sorry, he was an idjit. Despite being a consistent failure, top down keeps being the mantra despite the contributions of the top being not much more than playing paper games, resulting in the creation of exactly nothing concrete.
Yes, it is economic warfare I’m talking about, the difference between me and the Republicans is that I know they’ve been waging it for decades and winning. This is the LEFT speaking, wanna come the rest of the way? I know it is probably a shock to be invited…
KCinDC
What is the divine intervention Greene is hoping for? That McCain is struck dead and somehow replaced by Huckabee, who then wins the election? I mean, if you’re trying to pick the most religious of the three candidates, McCain would have to rank third by any measure.
Fledermaus
It won’t even be that much. The price may drop 18 cents, but in two weeks the savings will be around 10 cents, and after another month be back where it was. I almost hope they pass it just so people can actually see how useless it would be.
Dreggas
Anything you can do, I can do better!
4tehlulz
>>Let’s pray that God will intervene and give us an honest, God-fearing man to run this country.
But vote for the other guy.
mantis
Now that everyone on the planet is criticizing the McCain-Clinton plan,
Well some are criticizing it, while still claiming it’s good! I took a trip over to idiot-ville to see what Marsh had to say:
Make no mistake, the gas tax holiday is silly as energy policy. Worse than that, it’s posturing that doesn’t accomplish anything in the long-term. But it’s a way to reach swing voters, especially people who are desperate for any kind of relief at all. It’s a feel your pain moment that Clinton has grabbed, which Obama is ignoring for the high road. That’s his problem.
And she closes thusly:
It’s also why Clinton is winning lunch bucket Democrats, and Obama isn’t. She gets it. He doesn’t.
People want bullshit that doesn’t solve anything. Clinton gets it. Obama doesn’t. The mind reels.
Not THAT Barney
Actually John, you’re not truly a Democrat until you’ve undergone the “hold your nose and vote against the Republican (not for the Democrat)” ritual. Trust me on this. In 9 Presidential elections it was only the first, McGovern in ’72, where I could actually vote for the Dem.
Ninerdave
Already happening. As I was leaving for work, Andrea Mitchell was on MSNBC this morning with a Clinton surrogate explaining how this will be a big boon to the blue collar worker.
CaseyL
John, I don’t comment here as much as I used to – BJ’s braintrust regulars post all the good lines before I have a chance to even come up with any – but I just want you to know, after watching your transformation over the last 3 (?) years, I totally adore you.
Cain
Fuck me. There’s some poll out there with Hillary ahead by 8 points. Hillary closing the gap on MUP in NC with a 5 point difference. Sheesh..
MUP needs to get out in front of this and start stumping faster and harder.
cain
crw
So what’s the $25 equivalent of a muffler opponents of this crap can haul out when this idiocy goes before Congress?
Poopyman
John, welcome to my (our) world. It’s amazing that I haven’t needed antidepressants.
Ah well, the century’s still young.
Andrew
Geesh John, what were you doing reading McPaper? I hope it was the only reading material available in the laundromat, cuz I’m pretty sure that reading USA Today actually causes your brain to shrink.
Dr. Squid
I remember when the 4.3 cent gas tax came in under Clinton – the gas tax the George W. Cokespoon still says is bankrupting Americans – and I remember that the price of gas was lower within 2 weeks of it being in effect.
Some gouge.
Andrei
Quoted for motherfucking truth.
Dennis - SGMM
Yeah, Obama, treat the voters like a bunch of brainless fucking sheep, all the cool candidates do it! Go ahead, man, tell ’em that electing you will be just like busting a pinata: candy and money will just rain on down. Once you’re elected you can just blame someone else for why you can’t deliver.
Uncle Herb
Yeah, I read this today also. I couldn’t believe this was one of the best letters on the topic, and then they decided to publish it.
Bob In Pacifica
Before lukasiak appears, Clinton’s gas tax plan is different from McCain’s. She wants to raise taxes on oil company profits (or not cut Exxon’s taxes as fast, or something) in order to replace the money.
The problem being that you’re not going to raise taxes on the oil companies with chimp in the White House. So she’s promising what she knows she can’t deliver.
Shinobi
When Canada starts to look good, you know you are screwed.
Dennis - SGMM
Neither Democrat will be able to deliver much of anything without a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate – preferably one led by someone other than “Kneepad Harry” Reid.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
“Shanna, they bought their tickets, they knew what they were getting into. I say, let ’em crash.”
Tim in SF
Boy, you said it. On 9/11, when I was done gasping after watching the second tower fall, I turned to my horrified friends and said something along the lines of “oh, fuck, and we have that CHIMP in the white house to deal with this. GREAT.”
And then we nearly suffocated under an avalanche of flags and knee-jerk patriotism. It was sad and horrible. My mayor, Willie Brown, came up with the lamest of all possible responses – even lamer lamer than Freedom Fries.
Bush was the worst possible man at the worst possible time. It seems only lately that the rest of the country understands what I knew on 9/11.
It’s no great pleasure to be right. I would much rather have been wrong.
TR
Amen to that. 2002 felt like being trapped in a fucking Twilight Zone episode.
Zifnab
You could break me open and take my candy, but would you like something better?
Z
2004 was worse. I thought for sure the public, even the knee-jerk patriots, knew how incompetent Bush was by then. I was crushed.
gex
I’ve just read an article (sorry forgot the source) stating that under Bush we’ve had our first economic expansion that has has ended and median family income is lower now than it was at the onset.
I personally have never figured out why this isn’t commonly accepted since we’ve long been talking about how consumer spending is the thing that has been driving our economy. And things have been dodgy for a while, but it isn’t really going to go kerblooey until Americans really start cutting back. They’re just starting to cut back now.
I believe you are in good company there. Warren Buffet called the GOP on their “class war” accusations, explaining that the upper classes were the ones who declared and were waging that war.
Zifnab
That’s just the global warming talking.
Brachiator
Actually, it looks like a Clinton (and McCain) win on the gas tax nonsense. Just as with the phony Stimulus Rebate checks, people hear “tax cut” and just want it, even if the amount returned is trivial, even if the proposal would cause more problems than it would solve, and even if the rich or connected get a huge special break later.
Clinton (and McCain) will also be able to slap Obama around with the “out of touch” stick because he clearly doesn’t care about the average joe. Clinton won’t even lose any of her Populist Mama street cred despite this little tidbit reported on the Andrew Sullivan site:
Obama can’t just throw water on these proposals just because they are stupid. And he can’t point out that even people like Krugman opposes stuff like a gas tax holiday, because Krugman doesn’t have much name recognition outside of … elite … circles.
Obama doesn’t have to pander or even come up with a hastily conceived counter-plan to the Clinton-McCain gas tax proposal, but he has to exhibit something more like Truman’s earthiness, as shown in something like the following:
He’s got to be able to convey the sense that he is not just bringing something different to the White House, but that he is bringing something better.
nightjar
In 2000, I was an idiot thinking about voting for GWB and then during one of the debates Bush answered a question about the death penalty and I got a knot of dread in my gut. The next day, I became a democrat (from independent) and haven’t looked back. With each passing day toward the end of his reign of stupid that knot gets a little looser, notwithstanding the silliness going on right now in politics. January, 2009 can’t get here soon enough.
Pablo
Please, for the love of god-fearing men…run Bob Barr RUN!
Green Eagle
After listening to talk radio and reading letters to the editor since the 1960’s, I have learned the following thing: there is a phrase which, when heard, entitles you to automatically assume that it is a lie, and what follows will also be a lie. That phrase is “I’m a lifelong Democrat, but…”. This is nothing but a variation on that ploy. I’d bet my Corgi dog that this person is neither an African American nor a Democrat, but rather a Republican troll.
Warning: he barks a lot.
Zifnab
Truman nearly got gutted in the ’48 election. I don’t know if I’d call that “giving them hell”. I’d much rather see Obama a Kennedy or a liberal Reagen than a Truman or an LBJ. This country needs another liberal revolution like we saw in 1940 and 1960. We don’t need another Clinton – ecking by for eight years before collapsing the party on itself.
Sasha
Shouldn’t this entry be filed under General Stupidity? The dummy you quote never says he’s a Democrat, just an African American.
xephyr
Trust me, having known from the outset that Bush would be a disaster, there is no, nada, zero comfort in having been proven right over and over again. I remember feeling physically ill when I realized he was going to be the president, because I knew he would create a mess that would take more than a generation to clean up.
D-Chance.
LOL… so the left wants a “liberal idjit”.
That’s what amuses me so much about liberals… Reagan was a moron, an “idjit”, Alzheimer’s riddled, clueless, empty-suited, etc, etc, etc… but, God, they want someone JUST LIKE THAT to lead their party, too.
Seriously, the mere mention of Ronald Reagan’s name turns liberals into the political version of Batman’s Two-Face.
Rick Taylor
Bingo!
And then add to that watching sick to your stomach as the country enthusiastically goes to war, when you know it’s going to be a quagmire, and that years from now we’ll be in a damned-if-we-stay-damned-if-we-leave occupation with war supporters condescendingly telling you it doesn’t matter how we got in, now that we’re there we have to stick it out. And hardly any war supporters had the decency even to be ashamed when it turned out there were no weapons of mass destruction, and when destroying the government in Iraq did not result in the spontaneous formation of a secular democracy that would inspire the people and threaten other despotic governments of the Middle East.
Krista
Hey, no need to start bashing the neighbours. We’re not the ones who voted for that asshat.
Richard Bottoms
Let me get this straightt, I should be upset because Hillary knows how to play the game? It should be evident by now a sizable chunk of the electorate ARE stupid.
Nitpicky policy debates get beat by slogans and fake tax holidays. Jesus, get a clue. Do you want purity or to fucking win?
nightjar
Touche’ !
Sasha
Mediocre straw-maning there. Try harder.
Say what you will about Reagan, no one can deny he was a Great Communicator . . . even if what he communicated was frequently wrong. His charisma helped give the right wing a friendly face, rehabilitated the GOP, and sell conservative policies that would normally give a person pause. Consequently, his tenure helped tug the overall direction of the country rightward. Basically the anti-JFK.
The hope here is that Obama will be able to inspire a much needed left turn in national political thinking and discourse, rather like Ronnie did for the right — not that he’ll be an “idjit” like our current conservative executive.
But you already knew that, I’m sure.
Sasha
Wherein I Playfully Mock Our Host #1:
Hey, John, do you still think that Jacob Weisberg is a bleeding idiot?
Zifnab
We all become ex-District Attorneys with a coin fetish and a thing for bank robbery and menage-a-tua? I don’t get it.
Seriously though, that new Batman movie is going to be awesome.
koz
Unfortunately the problem with this is it’s hard to tell who exactly is pandering. It’s at least plausible that Hillary or McCain (or both) really favor the “tax holiday” as a matter of policy.
Any short or medium term solution for our energy issues is going to involve substantially more production and that will, at current high prices, big profits for oil companies. I used to think that anybody who used “oil companies” and “windfall” in the same sentence was just a mindless demagogue, but it’s happened long enough now to where you have to consider they actually mean it.
gex
You forget to add that we were accused of *wanting* all this failure just so we could feel smugly self satisfied. I don’t feel that way at all. I’m frightened that we are one GOP president away from no longer being the United States of America except in name only. And I have found myself more and more grateful I don’t have kids whose future I have to worry about. That’s not a good sign.
TR
Obama has a nice ad coming up on the gas tax nonsense.
Frank Jacobs
I read that and my first thought was that if McCain wins, it is profoundly unfair that I have to go down with the ship with this idiot, and then I immediately realized what it must have been like for the people who hated Bush all along, knew he would be a disaster, and had to sit around and suffer while jackasses like me voted for the guy they wanted to have a beer with or voted for Bush because they didn’t really “trust” John Kerry.
John, you’re almost there. You will know the pain some of us have been feeling for the last 7 years when the worst of the worst of all possible plans are put into motion despite the protests of yourself and millions of Americans, only to have it completely blow up and flush the next decade of progress down the toilet, and as solace you get to hear it repeatedly echoed: “No one could have predicted what a disaster x was going to be” as a chorus to drown out any peep of “But WE predicted! WE told you so, you fools!” When you can only feel pain and regret from being repeatedly proven right, you will know the pain of the Democrat.
koz
When you can only feel pain and regret from being repeatedly proven right, you will know the pain of the Democrat.
Well, given that it’s been about forty years since anybody credibly believed that the Democrats could change anything for the better, you might see why J.Q. Public was skeptical.
Chris Johnson
I find that even as I try to hang in there, the circus of madness and thestupid surrounding me has its effect anyhow. I just learned this anew. I’m hanging in there keeping busy doing things like work on my car (more power/MPG good) and I’m fixing up a tailpipe that I just discovered was rusted out again, and went to print a map of not very hard directions, only to find that my laser printer, which can still print test pages, just stopped responding to USB information.
The RAGE.
I thought I was handling things very well, but my God, the sense of betrayal when a thing that I thought I could trust to work unexpectedly blew a gasket (two, if you count the exhaust pipe). I’m so, so used to expecting politics, the media, my country to blow gaskets and I pretend not to be angry, to be patient with all that. I see stuff like women flaking out and acting crazy trying to protect their children, or flipping out at their husbands for ‘not being there for them’ (a specific neighbor’s relative) and I think to myself, I bet this is a result of the madness of our times that these people are driven over the edge by the frustrations they cannot address.
And then it turns out I’m in exactly the same boat, and want to smash up my laser printer with a sledgehammer- and my throat hurts from a few very loud shouts- bellows, really- along the lines of “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!”.
So hard to hang in there some days. I would like to get some more days where I can con myself into thinking I’m not surrounded with disaster.
Chris Johnson
And then it turns out to be a bad USB cable that just quit. Good thing I didn’t take a sledgehammer to the printer! Though it would have been very soothing…
Tax Analyst
Uh-uh…not until you take the Final Ritual Step of beating yourself in the head with a hammer while you read about teh stupidity. Consider yourself a confirmed Democrat if you turn the head of the hammer around and beat yourself with the claw end as you re-read the article.
You already know about being lectured by the “adults” about how unrealistic and soft-headed you are. Everything (except GOP malfeasance, incompetence and cronyism) has to be dealt with harshly, optimally with maximum belligerence. Take no prisoners, unless you mean to torture them. Remember, if you torture them they must have been guilty, so you’ve done the right thing.
dj spellchecka
from the article :”Let’s pray that God will intervene and give us an honest, God-fearing man to run this country.”
i’m a little surprised that voters still fell that way considering how well the last God-fearing man to run this country did.