Obama Must Go!, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #238
August 29, 2011 Mike Gold 17 Comments
Fighting three wars simultaneously while our economy is in the toilet is bad enough. Forcing a socialist heath care system down our throats is even worse. Lying about his heritage – “I did not have birth with that nation” – is tantamount to treason. Denying tax breaks and loopholes to the incredibly wealthy is simple jealousy. Becoming the pet monkey to murderous revolutionaries while disguising himself as a Christian is criminal. But now, Barack Obama has gone beyond the pale.
While the rest of us were trying to celebrate Senator McCain’s great victory in Libya, Obama maliciously distracted us with a devastating earthquake centered south of Washington DC and – as Muslims would do – caused significant damage to the National Cathedral. When that didn’t knock his personal failure to capture and kill Muammar Gaddafi off the front pages, he sent Hurricane Irene up the right coast to distract us.
Yes, that’s the right coast.
How much more are we going to tolerate from this Islammunist dictator? What is it going to take for us to take our nation back? Locusts? Floozies turning into pillars of salt? A national outbreak of health?
When is our national great white whale, Christopher Chris Christie, governor of America’s best-smelling state, going to step up to the plate and save our national soul? More important, if he does step up to the plate, will we still be able to see it?
Yes, it’s time for us all to put aside our petty differences and unite behind the 21st Century Fat Fury, Chris-Chris Christie, so that he can fight the good fight and end economic oblivion, destroy the evil unions, end health care, shutter the public schools, bring an end to hurricanes and earthquakes and return America back to its constitutional roots where black people know their place – which is an attractive 3/5’s of a white person’s place – and send Hispanic-Americans back to Hispania where they belong.
And if the Great White Whale cannot be convinced to take up the challenge, we must turn to the Great American Christian Rick Perry to save us from the evil black Moslem menace.
As real Americans, we must bring an end to Obamaism now! All Power To The White Righteous People!
——
Media metaphysician Mike Gold does some sort of Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind rock’n’blues show that streams four times a week on www.getthepointradio.com and is also available at that same venue on demand for those who simply can’t wait. He also joins Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com, where he also holds the ethereal title of editor-in-chief.
Martha Thomases
August 29, 2011 - 7:05 am
Michelle Bachman suggested that last week’s earthquake and hurricane on the east coast were God’s judgment on Washington. By that logic, God really really really hates Texas and Rick Perry.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 7:07 am
And this week s/he’s not too crazy bout the Atlantic Northeast, either. Earthquake, hurricane… locus futures opened higher today.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 7:34 am
Follow-up to Martha’s comment. Talking Points Memo states:
Rep. Michele Bachmann’s (R-MN) presidential campaign says critics are making much ado about nothing when it comes to her viral quote stating last week’s East Coast earthquake and hurricane was a message from God to overspending DC politicians.
“Obviously she was saying it in jest,” campaign spokesperson Alice Stewart told TPM in a statement.
The quote, made by Bachmann at a Florida campaign rally over the weekend, is making headlines across the Internet and TV.
Here’s what she said, as reported by the St. Petersburg Times:
“I don’t know how much God has to do to get the attention of the politicians. We’ve had an earthquake; we’ve had a hurricane. He said, ‘Are you going to start listening to me here?’ Listen to the American people because the American people are roaring right now. They know government is on a morbid obesity diet and we’ve got to rein in the spending.”
Michele’s god sucks.
R. Maheras
August 29, 2011 - 8:34 am
Mike — Regarding politicians, I give a rat’s ass about someone’s skin color, religion, gender or waist size. I just want my politicians to be effective and fix the tough problems that other politicans are afraid of, ignored or created.
If I lived in New Jersey and Christie seemed to have a firm handle on running the state and was able to keep it from going bankrupt, I wouldn’t care if he was a cross-dressing Zoroastrian neanderthal who was so fat he had to be trucked into a press conference on a fork lift.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 8:55 am
Sadly, Russ, Christie is none of those things. If an election was held in New Jersey the Tuesday before Irene hit, he would have lost soundly. Today, maybe not: there’s usually a disaster bump for all politicians… except in Louisiana, I’m glad to report. But in the Fat Fuck’s case, his approvals will drop back to where they were. He hasn’t kept NJ from going bankrupt; his actions kept the hole from getting SIGNIFICANTLY deeper at best. He doesn’t have any handle on running the state. He lied repeatedly about his intentions and actions. He goes beyond simply crowd-pleasing “I paid for that microphone” megalomania into vicious, blatant attacks on people. He has deployed state resources for personal use, including using a state police helicopter to go to his kid’s softball game while demanding others make sacrifices. He has closed down hospitals and he has cut back medical services. He’s treated the elderly like refuse. He is not a popular guy. And I don’t even live in New Jersey.
Mind you, had he done that you suggest and was a cross-dressing Zoroastrian neanderthal who was so fat he had to be trucked into a press conference on a fork lift, I’d vote for him too. Hell, I’m inclined to vote for any cross-dressing Zoroastrian neanderthals who are so fat they had to be trucked into a press conference on a fork lift.
Sadly, Orson Welles is dead. We could use a good magician in office.
R. Maheras
August 29, 2011 - 10:23 am
Mike — I don’t follow NJ politics, but if my state’s governor used a taxpayer-funded helicopter for the sole purpose of attending his kid’s softball game, I’d be miffed too.
I just Googled the incident, and it looks like Christie relented and wrote a $2,100 check to the state to pay for his indiscretion.
But I can’t frickin’ believe he thought it was OK in the first place. Then again, with all of the goofy hubris exhibited by Illinois politicians over the years, why the heck am I surprised?
And is Christie’s waste any worse than the Obama’s going to Martha’s Vineyard on vacation in TWO separate planes? Two very expensive planes, I might add!
I think these guys need better advisors. If I had Christie’s or Obama’s ear, there’d be no such gaffes — unless, of course, they opted to totally ignore my advice.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 10:41 am
Well, since you asked, the President of the United States must have all that Secret Service stuff, whether he likes it or not. And the press follows him everywhere, although I do believe we are compensated (at least in part) by the companies involved.
Most important, there are all kinds of gizmos and communications devices and monitors and stuff that also follows POTUS everywhere he goes. This allows the President to stay in touch with any military efforts going on (we’ve got three wars going right now), any diplomatic issues such as, oh, say, the hunt for Gaddafi, and any natural or unnatural disasters that might be affecting millions of Americans such as, say, Hurricane Irene hitting Richmond, Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, New York City, New Haven, Hartford, and points north and somewhat east.
Most state governors do not have to get involved in such emergencies — except for the latter. And if Christie, or even Blagojevich back in his day, were to take a state helicopter back to the office to deal with such a trauma, I, for one, wouldn’t complain.
R. Maheras
August 29, 2011 - 11:20 am
Mike — I know all about Air Force One and its required bells and whistles. My point was, why couldn’t Ms. Obama just wait a few hours and go on Air Force One with her husband rather than take a separate, very expensive second aircraft, a second set of staff and Secret Service escorts, and a second motorcade?
C’mon! During an era of skyrocketing budget problems, that’s just common sense.
Do you have any idea how much that extra stuff costs? By comparison, it makes Christie’s police chopper ride to his kid’s softball game look like nothing.
I think every politician, regardless of whether I like them or not, should be showing some budgetary discretion at this point in time.
Martha Thomases
August 29, 2011 - 12:00 pm
While Obama is hardly my favorite person at the moment, I don’t begrudge him a vacation (with its attendant costs). I’m sure if you compare his costs, on a daily basis, to W’s, he’s way below average.
Maybe he had a meeting on the plane that Michelle didn’t want to interrupt? Or the kids had an appointment? Can’t we give her the benefit of the doubt?
Bill Mulligan
August 29, 2011 - 12:18 pm
If this line of argument is the best that Obama can muster, he is in deep deep trouble. Fortunately, he has usually been more savvy than a lot of his supporters. Although I suspect his re-election tactics will be geared more toward “Watch out! The other candidate is scary!” than “4 more years of this!”.
Watching the left act in exactly the same way they like to imagine all the Tea Partiers do is going to make for some real eye rolling fun for the next 15 months.
Rick Oliver
August 29, 2011 - 12:58 pm
When Katrina hit, Dubya continued his vacation in Crawford and said everything was under control. Before Irene hit, Obama cut his vacation short and flew back to Washington.
The news about Bachmann’s wrath-o-god comment and her spokesperson’s subsequent “just kidding” retraction appeared back to back in my RSS feed. Pretty funny.
I think Perry and Bachmann would make a great team, since they both seem to come from the “ignore everything I said” school.
I have already predicted on Facebook that Republicans will complain that the government’s response to Irene cost too much. We’ll see.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 1:06 pm
Bill, the left has been highly critical of Obama. The left are, by and large, not a bunch of holy-holy hypocrites whose view of god is that of a hoary thunderer out to butcher the poor, the sick, and the unemployed. The left abandoned the biggest and more dangerous nincompoop of the 20th Century, Ayn Rand, right after they finished Atlas Shrugged, the Mein Kampf of the great American right. Atlas Shrugged is the Baggers’ bible, and I damn them for it.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 1:09 pm
Rick, if the Baggers don’t criticize the governments’ responses, then they are a bunch of hypocrites. Poor people, the uninsured, the uninsurable, the unemployed — it’s the Baggers’ record of response that all these people are lazy and stupid and deserve to get screwed. Why should hurricane and tornado sufferers be treated any different? Particularly in an “act of god.”
The right is so reactionary they simply cannot comprehend how video tape works. They are devout lying opportunists, and we have them on tape, on record to prove it.
R. Maheras
August 29, 2011 - 1:09 pm
Rick — “Obama cut his vacation short” sounds good when you say it fast and leave out the specifics, but in my world, cutting a vacation short by one day is hardly worth mentioning.
Bachmann’s comment was ill-advised, insensitive and entirely unpresidential, but since she has no chance at getting elected into the Oval Office, it just makes for a good “I’m appalled” sound bite for her lefty critics.
If the Republicans are smart, they’ll take the high road and focus on addressing the reconstruction efforts, not politics.
Yeah — that’ll happen.
Rick Oliver
August 29, 2011 - 2:14 pm
Russ: Dubya didn’t even get out of his rocking chair — but the real difference is that we were actually prepared to do something this time.
I’m no Obama defender, but I’m not going to go out of my way to diminish the administration’s actions when they get something right. Right now I can think of a grand total of two: Irene and Gaddafi.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 2:15 pm
Osama?
Steven Atkins
August 29, 2011 - 2:31 pm
“Act Of God” reminds me of the Billy Connolly movie THE MAN WHO SUED GOD.
R. Maheras
August 29, 2011 - 2:46 pm
Rick — As always, perspective is nice. Katrina was a Cat 5 hurricane, which, unless you’re from the Bachmann school of climatology, was not the sitting president’s fault.
Irene was a Cat 3, but petered out to a waek Cat 1 by the time it hit the most populated East Coast regions. If Irene had been a Cat 5 when it hit DC or New York, “Obama’s” hurricane would have made Katrina look paltry by comparison.
As for Obama’s successes, kudos to him.
But keep in mind that after the U.S. military’s spectacular victory during Desert Storm in 1991, Bush the Elder had considerably more than twice the approval rating as Obama currently has, and STILL ended up losing his re-election bid 20 months later because he lost sight of the thing most of us really care about: The economy.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 3:15 pm
Hmmm. Define “weak.”
Daughter Adriane and I got fairly lucky right where we are because I bought a place on top of a big hill, but most folks out here still don’t have power and a great, great many won’t until after Labor Day weekend. Lots and lots of flooding — that “weak” Cat 1 hit during high tide, and knocked most of the seaboard silly. Then it veered up to Vermont, a place that gets hit by hurricanes so frequently they had to look it up in the dictionary. Irene kept going north/northeast, and now the Québécois no longer have to worry about the next vote for separation: Québec is getting nailed so bad it’s floating off into the Atlantic.
As of this writing (Monday 6PM EDT), hundreds of thousands of folks up here have no power. Lots of cell towers are down. Three-quarters of the commuter trains are still down, NYC subway service is up to about half-schedule, flights are backed up, Amtrak’s Philadelphia – NYC – Boston corridor is still down (it’s a major route with hourly service), there’s been billions of dollars in economic damage and that’s growing, the tourist industry got nailed, nearly 30 people have died, food is scarce, trees are continuing to fall, lots of homes are standing but badly in need of rehab — holes in roofs, damage to cars, etc. Beach erosion is so severe that Long Island is a lot shorter today. If we get hit with another Cat 1 (we’ve still got “Hurricane José” through “Hurricane Aardvark”) or another, even slightly bigger earthquake, we will be living in the United States of Shit and it’ll affect the whole nation.
The good news is the oil refineries didn’t get hit (that’s amazing) and, since a lot of roads were closed and a lot of people won’t be visiting grandma over Labor Day weekend (and we have no Jerry Lewis to fall back on), gas prices should stabilize for a bit. Lots of kids have their school openings postponed — note, I list that as “good news,” Some parents might disagree.
This is nowhere near anything like Katrina. Absolutely not. But it will have a further impact on our national economy. I wouldn’t wish this on anybody except Creationists.
Bill Mulligan
August 29, 2011 - 3:22 pm
“Bill, the left has been highly critical of Obama.”
The left will get in line and do anything they can to get him re-elected. Which is why he has and will completely disregard them. They will boo hoo hoo about how he takes them for granted, which is true and absolutely the normal thing for a politician to do when he knows he doesn’t have to do jack diddly to get their vote. Talk about how disappointed they are in him pales next to the frothing hatred they express for anyone who might win the republican nomination so why exactly should he spend an iota of political capital on them?
He knows he doesn’t have the 40% of the voters who are conservative. he knows he has the 21% who are liberals. He needs a big chunk of the 35% who see themselves as moderates. On paper it looks like an easy win for the republican if they don’t screw it up. Which means it will be interesting to see how they screw it up.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 3:43 pm
Bill, unless Barack grows a pair real soon a lot of the left, particularly the students and the petty white liberals, will stay home. That’s the difference between the Left and the Baggers. The Baggers will show up at the polls even if they’re screaming “brains!”
The only thing that will spur these voters on might be a really hysterical Republican candidate — Bachmann (I’m not as sanguine as Russ on this), Perry, Palin (probably a non-starter), Paul (either one), Cain… And I’m not sure the Baggers will be happy with Mitt.
So we might have the race of the turtles next year.
Not that I’m buying into your statistics. Here’s another way of looking at the votership: 34.8% of the voters identify themselves as Democrats, 34.1% as Republicans, 32.1% unaffiliated. My source is Rasmussen Reports, August 1 2011. The trend is slightly against the Republicans, surprisingly, with 1.2% shifting from Republican to Independent and only 0.1% of Democrats making the same move. That’s generally seen as a reaction against the Baggers.
REGISTERED Democrats continue to outnumber REGISTERED Republicans by about 3 to 2. Or as Groucho said: “I wouldn’t want to be part of any club that would accept me.”
R. Maheras
August 29, 2011 - 4:28 pm
Mike — Imagine how bad it would have been if Irene HAD been a Cat 5.
Katrina had sustained winds of 175 mph — that’s as powerful as an F3 tornado!
When Irene hit New York City, its sustained winds had lessened to 65 mph — a little more than a third of Katrina’s peak strength.
So it sure could have been a lot worse.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 4:35 pm
Like I said, it was nowhere near anything like Katrina, and I’m happy for that. The infrastructure out here is way, way too old to handle anything like that. But I only had to go a mile and a half up the road for things to have been significantly worse: those 65 MPH winds hit at high tide. I think all of us in the Atlantic Northeast share one thing with our brethren in New Orleans: none of us want to be in a Cat 5. Except maybe Anderson Cooper.
I didn’t mention that the 9/11 location was largely unhurt and the memorial will be going on as planned. I might go down there for it. It’s a Sunday, so that shouldn’t be a problem. I’m planning on going back to Chicago for a visit a couple weeks after that.
John Tebbel
August 29, 2011 - 5:36 pm
Anyone who stays home, right, left or center, is a nincompoop.
That’s nin for nin, com for com, and poop for poop.
R. Maheras
August 29, 2011 - 5:37 pm
Mike wrote: “…none of us want to be in a Cat 5. Except maybe Anderson Cooper.”
Ha!
That’s so true! There were so many news reporters standing out in the gale-force winds, I half-expected one to be impaled by a flying sign-post or something. Mark my words — one of these days it’s gonna happen! Especially during a Cat 5!
Bill Mulligan
August 29, 2011 - 6:51 pm
“Not that I’m buying into your statistics.”
MY statistics??? I’m a humble teacher of science. Those are Gallup’s statistics. http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/conservatives-single-largest-ideological-group.aspx
If you’re not happy with the results take it up with them.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 7:08 pm
Russ, I’ve been waiting for that to happen for years. When I was in Journalism school, I do not recall anybody ever telling me that was part of the job. It’s really, really stupid and yes, it will happen live on the air someday. Idiots.
Mike Gold
August 29, 2011 - 7:16 pm
Bill, they were your statistics in that you were the one that offered them. And by saying I wasn’t buy into them, I was not demeaning you in the least. The stats you offered differ from the stats I offer. There’s different ways of looking at every situation, and as I’ve said here many times before, you have to look behind the numbers to put them in perspective. Conservative and liberal are but two choices — would all libertarians define themselves as conservatives? I doubt it. I would not define myself as a liberal. My views are all over the map, and I sympathize to more classic conservative values than I do to liberal values. I’m a fucking radical. That cuts all sorts of ways.
I guess what it boils down to is this: I really don’t trust somebody who identifies himself or herself strongly as a liberal or a conservative, a libertarian or a progressive. Think for yourself.
Politics is an art form; sadly, it’s almost always bad art. But if you want to accomplish something, it’s the only game in town. And THAT disgusts me.
Thanks for sourcing your reference. I appreciate it.
Bill Mulligan
August 29, 2011 - 8:40 pm
No problem…though I would give more credence to people’s self identified ideas of their political philosophy over party identification. There is no real reason to think both stats aren’t true–there are conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans. In fact the Gallup poll showed that 22% of democrats identified themselves as conservatives. So I guess the question really is how many of those conservatives will vote to re-elect Obama–are they the sort who will hold their nose and vote for anyone the party offers or do they put ideology over affiliation?
Mind you, I still think Obama wins–he will have the power of the incumbency, money out the wazoo, I seriously doubt the Republican will get better press coverage, and I haven’t seen any reason to think the GOP has the smarts to beat a guy who may not be any great shakes as a president but is one hell of a smart candidate.
Mike Gold
August 30, 2011 - 11:10 am
Obama doesn’t have the same campaign staff as he did in 2008, and he’s going to have to work a hell of a lot harder to get out the college vote. But the Republicans really don’t have a candidate who can beat him right now — Mitt comes closest but he doesn’t exactly inspire the Baggers. We might possibly see a “well if nobody else can beat him I can” latecomer, but that’s pretty damn close to a political fantasy. Even then I don’t see anybody who can pull it off, at least not right now. The hard right won’t back guys like Giuliani, Romney, or Huntsman (who’s the closest thing to a dark horse candidate the Republicans have), although the independents might go for Romney or Huntsman.
The problem with independents is that they send money but they don’t raise money. The problem for the Republicans is that there’s no candidate who can attract the big money, the Baggers AND the independents.
Moral: don’t let zealots hijack your party. Obama might win twice against two different groups of zealots.
Rick Oliver
September 1, 2011 - 9:35 am
Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. courted the religious right, and then pissed them off by not walking the walk. I suspect many of them staid home in 2008. Now the Republican party has been more or less hijacked by the tea party, which in turn was hijacked by the religious right. I predict that Rick Perry will the Republican candidate in 2012.
Mike Gold
September 1, 2011 - 9:43 am
If their convention were to be held today, Perry would win in a walk. I don’t see anything happening to change that, but there’s almost a year to go. I don’t see Perry beating Obama — today — but Perry’s people WILL get out the vote. Can Obama’s? We’ll find out. It’ll come down to getting the vote out in the swing states as it always does — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa. If Obama can paint Perry as a rabid southerner, he might pick up a majority of those states.
The right won’t have some of their best fear tactics next year. When it comes to inspiring independents to vote Republican I think the Muslim / birther thing has been played out.
So here’s my prediction of the big “new” Republican anti-Obama tactic for 2012: Michelle is a dangerous bitch who secretly controls her husband. Yeah, they’ll just dust off those old Clinton scripts.
R. Maheras
September 1, 2011 - 10:18 am
Rick — A little clarification about the Tea Party. From what I’ve seen, the Tea Party is not primarily about religion — not even close. The Tea Party appears to be primarily about out-of-control government spending, the state of the economy, and jobs. Religion is a quaternary consideration, at best.
I think many Tea Party members do want there candidate to have “traditional Christian values,” just like liberals want their candidates to be pro abortion and pro gay marriage.
I think this, in either case, is pretty damn short-sighted in the overall scheme of things. If Americans, as a whole, objectively made a list of the most serious problems facing this country, religion, abortion rights and marriage rights probably do not even make the top 10.
Bill Mulligan
September 1, 2011 - 10:24 am
Of course, if Obama continues to act like a filet-o-human sandwich like he did this week he may just concede the election before a vote is cast.
Rick Oliver
September 1, 2011 - 2:32 pm
Russ:
The current tea party favorites indicate that the tea party has a very, very strong religious component — that goes much further than “traditional Christian values” (whatever that means).
R. Maheras
September 1, 2011 - 4:09 pm
Rick — The Tea Party favorites are fiscal conservatives first and foremost. That was the primary basis for its creation.
For example, Ron Paul is one of the Tea Party darlings and he rarely refers to his religious views. He’s a Christian, but he doesn’t beat people over the head with it.
The reason political opponents are trying to stamp a myriad of other, non-relevent labels on the Tea Party because there just is no defense against the Tea Party’s initial and basic beef about the out-of-control government spending and the bad economic policy choices of the past two presidential administrations.
I’m no Tea Party member, but I bristle when Tea Party opponents mischaracterize what most of them are fighting for. It INTENTIONALLY diverts focus from the core economic problems this country is facing, and sends the discussion down unrelated issue ratholes. I also happen to be ticked off about the economic pickle this country is in, and I think it’s obscene that we’re closing in on three years without a federal budget. That’s freakin’ insane!
Like I told Mike in an earlier post, I don’t care what personal viewpoints a politician has, I just want someone to step up, lead, and fix our economic mess.
Rene
September 1, 2011 - 5:23 pm
Maheras, we could just as well turn your assertion onto its ear and say the reason political supporters try to characterize the Tea Party as focusing mainly on economic problems is because religious fanaticism and ultra-conservative social mores are unpopular to people who are not already a part of the choir.
I would also dispute the notion that there is no defense against the Tea Party’s economic viewpoints. Many people outside the US see the economic crisis as a consequence of the US being TOO deregulated since the 1990s, and the Tea Party as a symptom of the disease, fighting for even more of the Free-Market-trickle-down-fiscal-austerity delusion, in essence not healing the wounds, but picking at them and opening them even more.
Personally, I have no oppinion about the causes of the economic mess. I’m just saying that the Right’s viewpoint of the economic crisis isn’t as well-accepted outside the US.
MOTU
September 1, 2011 - 6:11 pm
I wonder if Jesus would deny people health care because they can’t paid for it.
Mike Gold
September 1, 2011 - 6:13 pm
Forgive me for being ill-informed, oh MOTU, but wouldn’t Jesus just, you know, HEAL ’em?
Mike Gold
September 1, 2011 - 6:18 pm
I just don’t see a strong, articulated and consistent economic policy from the Baggers. Some are opposed to damn near all government spending, others want the government to keep its hands off of social security and/or medicare. Some want disaster relief, others want to let the rats drown.
However, I DO see a far more consistent policy towards religion and religion-based issues. Which is about as anti-libertarian as you can get.
Rene
September 1, 2011 - 8:16 pm
Wasn’t there some big research published days ago about the Tea Party? I do think it said a great many Baggers are very much for Christianity in government, and also xenophobic.
R. Maheras
September 2, 2011 - 2:12 am
I never said the Tea Party had some magic wand that can fix what ails the government. All I said is they evolved because two consecutive presidential administrations spent this country into a hole we may never be able to dig ourselves out of. They are a manifestation of people’s frustration with an ineffective, and at times, almost clueless, American economic policy — not some sinister Christian plan to take over the world.
I mentioned earlier that our government has not passed a budget in well over two years, but what is so startling about the president’s failed attempt to pass a budget in February is that the Senate voted UNANIMOUSLY to reject it, 97-0. If the submission of a budget NOBODY supported was not clueless, please tell me what it was.
R. Maheras
September 2, 2011 - 2:30 am
And let me foot-stomp something I wrote in a letter to Bush the Elder early in 1992: Fix the economy or you will be a one-term president.
He did nothing, of course. In fact, he continued to claim there was no recession, so I, and most other independents, did not vote for him. We were sort of a Tea Party in our day, and most of us voted for Perot, split the ticket, and Clinton squeaked in a victory with a paltry 43 percent of the popular vote.
Since, in my opinion, it’s deja vu all over again, let me foot-stomp things one more time for THIS president: Fix the economy or you will be a one-term president.
Denial, blaming and whining did not work for Bush the Elder, and it won’t work for Obama.
Bill Mulligan
September 2, 2011 - 4:59 am
Obama said as much once, that if things don’t improve he won’t deserve to be re-elected.
Since things are likely to stay bad through 2012 they will have to go to plan B–destroy the opposition if possible. What else CAN they do? Of course, the media will not go along with such a cynical appeal to the politics of personal destruction. I kid.
Rene
September 2, 2011 - 5:07 am
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/opinion/crashing-the-tea-party.html?_r=1
“Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.”
Bill Mulligan
September 2, 2011 - 7:01 am
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/05/AR2010100501491.html
“half of those who consider themselves part of the tea party movement also identify as part of the religious right”
So I guess half don’t.
Rick Oliver
September 2, 2011 - 7:30 am
The economy is broken because 30 years of Republican and Democratic administrations broke it. As long as voters cling to the fallacy that “free trade”, democracy, and Christianity are somehow synonymous the economy will stay broken. As long as both parties see their primary role when they’re not in power as obstructing anything the other party proposes in order to make them look bad the economy will stay broken.
The tea party started out as a loose coalition of voters disaffected for many reasons. It has been HIJACKED by the religious right, just like the Republican party. Their darlings are anti-science because science contradicts their fundamentalist interpretation of the bible. Ron Paul and Rick Perry have publicly stated that they don’t believe in evolution. Perry and Bachmann are dominionists.
It takes a very determined effort to ignore the fact that their FUNDAMENTALIST outlook deeply colors all their thinking. There are many mainstream Christians who think fundamentalists are either stupid or crazy.
Mike Gold
September 2, 2011 - 7:45 am
Rick, when you say fundamentalists are either stupid or crazy, you are doing many of them a disservice.
They could be both.
Rene
September 2, 2011 - 7:46 am
Bill, did you read the whole article you posted?
Here are some bits that I loved:
“The new poll, however, showed large swaths of the tea party looking for a STRONG GOVERNMENT ROLE in hot-button social issues.”
“Now the word ‘conservative’ is accepted to mean generally small government in the ECONOMIC sphere but an activist government on SOCIAL issues,” he said.”
Gotta love them Conservatives. They really want a small government, so small that it can slip under your door and get right into your bedroom.
R. Maheras
September 2, 2011 - 10:44 am
Rene wrote: “Gotta love them Conservatives. They really want a small government, so small that it can slip under your door and get right into your bedroom.”
You think the Tea Party was formed because it wants to police your bedroom? That all of its complaints and indignation about the economy are just a smokescreen to mask their REAL agenda.
Really?
The economy is in a shambles. Unemployment is at sustained levels not seen since the Great Depression. Every economist with any objectivity at all agrees that the deficit will destroy this country — soon, mind you — if not addressed. The government has no budget, and hasn’t had one for more than two years. It’s last proposed budget was rejected by the Senate 97-0.
This administration can go on kidding itself that the Tea Party’s dire economic warnings are the disingenuous rantings of nutcases, but from my vantage point, the inmates of the Tea Party asylum have merely pointed out that, no kidding, the building is on fire.