I am sorry, but the hysteria about Ebola is misplaced. People should not be angry that our infrastructure for containing outbreaks has holes in it. They should be angry at republicans for cutting CDC's budgets. The agency works with much less resources than they have in the past because of the reckless and uncaring budget cutting of the ultra right wingers in congress. Maybe they should be turned into front line healthcare workers in this current crisis. These are the guys who hate government, except when you need them and they can't respond because of the actions of these guys.
Especially in Texas. Last night I watched a Frontline presentation on the execution of a father who was accused of setting a fire that killed his three daughters. All of the evidence that was collected was proven wrongly validated. All that idiot Governor Perry could say was essentially, Meh!
I really don't understand what has happened to that party. I know all republicans are not idiots, any more than all democrats are honest, but the silence of the moderates is somewhat akin to the silence of most of the peaceful Muslims in the world. If you don't speak out you get lumped in with the radical crazies.
Especially in Texas. Last night I watched a Frontline presentation on the execution of a father who was accused of setting a fire that killed his three daughters. All of the evidence that was collected was proven wrongly validated. All that idiot Governor Perry could say was essentially, Meh!
I really don't understand what has happened to that party. I know all republicans are not idiots, any more than all democrats are honest, but the silence of the moderates is somewhat akin to the silence of most of the peaceful Muslims in the world. If you don't speak out you get lumped in with the radical crazies.
2 comments:
Amen. There will be a big reckoning, to be sure, when waves start to lap at the businesses along Wall Street if not before that.
And when peoples' fantasies about Capitalist ingenuity being able to solve the problems coming with global warming are proven wrong.
There was severe flooding of the Thames in February, and the UK government couldn't respond because the Thatcherite free market fundamentalists had cut millions from the very departments that were in charge of flood control. Capitalism cannot do anything about something like that. No one will invest millions and sit around and wait for a flood to bring on the profits. But government can do something about that.
After they were all done blaming each other the prime minister said they'd spend whatever it took. David Cameron, Mr Margaret Thatcher Junior, said that, and it'll be the same here. Republicans will all become Roosevelts.
When I taught, I used to tell my students – we are at a unique point in time as we witness the undoing and remaking of the Republican Party. Ten years from now the party will look very different then it does today.
For the last decade or so the major underpinnings of the Republican Party have been crumbling. Their cosmological view, if you will, is increasingly under threat. The idea of the economy as some naturalistic organism that produces optimal outcomes (the “invisible hand” of the market, its self correcting nature, etc) was shattered in 2008. Environmental collapse is increasing the necessity of government intervention/action (and further threatening their market oriented view). Their traditional voter base is dying off. Its being replaced by a more complex group of younger party members who are much more socially liberal (read here less fundamentalist on abortion and gay marriage). All of this leads to a “batten down the hatches and damn the torpedoes” mentality.
Add to this the increasing forces over the last 40 years of segregation – economically, politically, and socially – its much easier to operate at the “extreme” end of the political spectrum (something which the Democrats bear just as much capability for)
Perhaps the Republican Party will split in two, who knows. But systemic forces are pressing much harder on the Repub’s then the Dems.
Tim D.
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