Ed Burmila (for Gin & Tacos, but you already know that) has a pretty solid write-up in The Nation about the GOP Congress' utter lack of anything resembling a legislative agenda. Which is, as we all know, their job.
Or is it? As Ed correctly points out, the course they've charted since Saint Newton of Gingrich, some twenty-five years anon, has pointed directly toward....well, nothing. A void. Legislative nihilism, as it were. Not an effort to self-destruct, but a concerted resolve to do as little as possible.
Whatever their job quals or CVs may state, that is the operative criterion now -- to await instructions from the Koch Bros types that actually own and operate this country, and make jabbering mouth noises about the "morality" of this or that bullshit issue in the meantime. Making effective legislature that might actually help some humans who can't afford to donate? Not fucking possible!
And it's all consistently couched in a hoary (if modernized, to keep pace with tech jargon) rhetoric of pwnage and making snowflakes cry. This is something the Democrats can and must learn from Republicans -- get the strategy down, then layer it with the bullshit emotional appeals. If a Democrat can figure out how to make sweet-ass love to an inert, helpless flag, and then eat a whole apple pie in twelve minutes at a county fair, they can write their own ticket. The maroons will flock to them.
But it's most compelling that the Repubs have been able to get away with not actually being for anything in a very long time. They only stand in opposition to things. Sometimes it's bullshit "cultural" issues like black people rioting in cities because they're tired of their kids being shot like dogs for the high crime of pulling a cell phone. Sometimes it's having a black guy as president.
And sometimes it's issues such as a longstanding opposition to Roe v. Wade, which is inextricably linked to a desire to control women's sex lives. Now they're the proverbial dumb dog that finally caught the car they'd been chasing forever. How's that work out for them? Now they have to conjure excuses to the rubes who take that shit seriously. Bad dog!
Seriously, it's just about impossible to know what to say to people about this stuff anymore. Either you see it or you don't; either it pisses you off or it doesn't; either you're going to wake up off your dead ass or you won't. We'll find out in 105 days and counting.
Or is it? As Ed correctly points out, the course they've charted since Saint Newton of Gingrich, some twenty-five years anon, has pointed directly toward....well, nothing. A void. Legislative nihilism, as it were. Not an effort to self-destruct, but a concerted resolve to do as little as possible.
Whatever their job quals or CVs may state, that is the operative criterion now -- to await instructions from the Koch Bros types that actually own and operate this country, and make jabbering mouth noises about the "morality" of this or that bullshit issue in the meantime. Making effective legislature that might actually help some humans who can't afford to donate? Not fucking possible!
And it's all consistently couched in a hoary (if modernized, to keep pace with tech jargon) rhetoric of pwnage and making snowflakes cry. This is something the Democrats can and must learn from Republicans -- get the strategy down, then layer it with the bullshit emotional appeals. If a Democrat can figure out how to make sweet-ass love to an inert, helpless flag, and then eat a whole apple pie in twelve minutes at a county fair, they can write their own ticket. The maroons will flock to them.
But it's most compelling that the Repubs have been able to get away with not actually being for anything in a very long time. They only stand in opposition to things. Sometimes it's bullshit "cultural" issues like black people rioting in cities because they're tired of their kids being shot like dogs for the high crime of pulling a cell phone. Sometimes it's having a black guy as president.
And sometimes it's issues such as a longstanding opposition to Roe v. Wade, which is inextricably linked to a desire to control women's sex lives. Now they're the proverbial dumb dog that finally caught the car they'd been chasing forever. How's that work out for them? Now they have to conjure excuses to the rubes who take that shit seriously. Bad dog!
Seriously, it's just about impossible to know what to say to people about this stuff anymore. Either you see it or you don't; either it pisses you off or it doesn't; either you're going to wake up off your dead ass or you won't. We'll find out in 105 days and counting.
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