The Days of Fractured Disaffection
By David Glenn Cox
It is indeed an interesting time to be alive, to watch as the teeth of government's gears begins sheer off. Where the high court affirms the rights of corporate person hood to the detriment of 300 million or so actual biological persons. Where a rag shoved down a dead prisoners throat is not considered grounds for an inquiry. Nor does the court say that the government is required to admit whether they secretly taped conversations between prisoners and their lawyers.
It is a time when we can feel the weight of Lot's burden, where would you go to find one good man in Washington? The Morton salt company waits anxiously to know. The administration of George W. Bush obliterated the Republican Party and with no fuel left in the tank they have splintered to become the party of sheer insanity. Jubilant at their early poll numbers the Republican's saw reason for hope but as each day goes by the poll numbers seep downward as the Republicans are actually losing an election with themselves.
The Republicans ran against one of the most unpopular Democratic Senate Majority leaders in recent memory and in a state with one of the highest rates of unemployment and home foreclosure a nut. The Republican's choose to run a nut against him when all they need in a situation such as this is a man or a woman with a dignified persona, a good speaking voice, a clean suit and a decent vocabulary. Instead the Republicans choose to run a nut case.
In Alaska, a Republican leaning state if ever there was one, where you don't even need the clean suit or the decent vocabulary the Republicans choose to run a nut. In the Delaware Senate race the Republicans again chose a nut, a women whose campaign has been such an embarrassment that the national party should pull the plug on it. But they won't, not when the chairman of the party goes on national television and talks about lowering the minimum wage and when asked what the minimum wage actually is claims he's being trapped.
It is the last days of the French monarchy, Weimar and the Romanov's all rolled into one. It is a dark alley where the dogs fight for scraps just to see whose top dog. Where money talks and everyone listens, where the players pull the strings and the puppet's dance. The days of fractured disaffection and crooked sign posts.
In 2008 the Democratic party had a once in a generation opportunity handed to themselves. Control of the White House and Congress with a huge bank of political capital. All the people wanted and craved was a government slightly responsive to their needs. Rather than listening to the echo of Bill Clinton's mantra "It's the economy stupid" they chased after the windmills of health care reform and the puppet masters said, "very good." The stimulus was done ad-hoc and was fashioned as a compromise by committee. A camel is a racehorse designed by a committee and the administration got the ball on their opponent's twenty yard line an opted to kick a field goal on third down.
So enamored was the administration with healthcare reform that they ignored the crisis in their lap. As the negotiations dragged on the public began to feel a pit in their stomachs as the Democratic leadership capitulated to compromise after compromise. So it was at the eleventh hour when the public option disappeared all together that millions of Americans didn't feel disheartened by the administration but used by them.
Winston Churchill once said, 'I like a man who grins when he fights". If the Republican's are the party of "no" the Democrats are the party of "can't." The Democrats claim to have achieved the best healthcare reform possible to which Churchill would have answered, "It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary."
Not sixty days after the healthcare reform legislation was passed than New York representative Anthony Weiner takes to the well of the House of Representatives pleading tearfully for money to assist in medical expenses of 9-11 responders. Added to this bill by the Democratic house leadership was a provision to end tax breaks on overseas corporations. It was a lead anchor attached to the bill designed to sink it. It made Weiner's speech just so much falderal, a stunt and a media opportunity performed at the expense of the injured and ill. Just to be safe and just to be certain that through accident or serendipity this bill didn't pass the Democratic house leadership required a two thirds majority vote for passage.
When the Senate was debating the 99 week unemployment extension it was Democratic Senator Ben Nelson who cast the deciding vote voting with the Republicans. A vote that held up benefits for one million unemployed men and women who were struggling to survive on less than half of what they once earned while the Senate adjourned and went home. If Nelson were a chess piece he'd be a Bishop because he always moves on the diagonal. After the recess and the appropriate political milage the Senate reconvenes and this time Nelson votes with the Democratic majority.
This is politics as usual, the worst kind of politics as usual, but they forget we are in unusual times. We aren't talking about pork belly subsidies were talking about the welfare of the American public. A Congress so mired in their own corporate corruption that Caligula is expected through the door at any moment coupled with an administration that likes to admire its self in the mirror.
Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest one of all?
The public answers, "not you!" and the administration responds with thin skinned approbations.
"Rahm! Get me a new mirror this one's broke or something!"
"I'll take care of it right away Mr. President, the f*cking retards."
"Gibbs you're the press secretary what should we do?"
"You should go on the attack Mr. President, kick those supporters of yours right in the nuts. We'll call them whiners and the professional left and then suggest that they should all be drug tested!"
"That's a brilliant strategy Gibbs what with the elections coming up and all. I'm going to recommend that they promote you to the head of the DNC!"
A muddled mass of mildewed mucilage mired in money metaled with pomposity and performing with egregious muppetry. It is the "The Royal Nonesuch " come to flesh but these Dukes of Bilgewater and rightful Dauphin to the throne of France don't have the sense to get out of town.
Recently, a lawsuit called into veracity the major banks efforts to foreclose on thousands of American's homes. The banks were using improper affidavits and bank officials were swearing to things in these affidavits that they had no actual knowledge of taking place. Just a rubber stamp bum's rush, "Serve the papers and throw them out!"
Wall Street analyst's feared that this could draw out the home foreclosure crisis for years if the big banks were actually made to follow the letter of the law. The banks responded by publically halting foreclosures while stealthily whispering to their friends in Caligula's Congress.
So it was that the parties who so regularly spar, the party of "no" versus the party of "can't" quickly agreed to the "Interstate Recognition of Notarization's Act," The act requires that all federal and state courts recognize notarization's made in other states. Even notarization's that are made en mass by computers, it means the court must now recognize as valid anything a banks attorney places before the court.
Your depositions and affidavits can still be questioned but not the banks. It is the most callous act of government since Hoover burned out the Bonus marchers. The speed and stealthiness of legislation passed so quickly and without public comment is a clear indication of just who your friends are in Washington. It destroys all illusions of good guys and bad guys. The party of "no" is the party of "crazy" but the party of "can't" is actually the party of "won't."
"You prayed to the Lord above
Oh please send you a friend
You prayed to the Lord above
Oh please send you a friend
Your empty pockets tell you
That you ain't a-got no friend."
Bob Dylan
It is a knife through the heart of pragmatic Democrats and it is a knife in the heart of struggling home owners. Two years on and the administration's mortgage rescue program still fails 50 percent of those who apply The Senate bill was taken away from the Senate Judiciary committee which hadn't acted upon it quickly enough. Democratic Senator Robert Casey then took the Republican sponsored legislation and placed it on the Senate floor where it was immediately and without debate passed by unanimous consent.
It now sits on the President's desk waiting for his signature. Do any question that he'll sign it? They have the nerve to call it an enthusiasm gap when what it should be called is a nausea gap.
"To hell with them. When history is written they will be the sons of bitches - not I."
Harry Truman