I lost my temper today. Kossacks who have read my previous diaries and comments might not recognize me. Attached to the diary entitled
I responded with the following comment, then turned it into a diary, a split second before clicking "post."
A number of Kossacks disapprove of the tone of that diary. I avoid those diaries myself. Numerous arguments on dKos for improving the tone and upholding the written community standards are affirmed and rebuffed sometimes within the same comment. Respectful Kossacks stay here because over at RedState, if rated at all, they will be a troll rated for simply disagreeing.
What we see is that partisanship acrimony is simultaneously condemned and fostered on both sites. It is frustrating to hear Republicans on the House and Senate floor criticize Democrats for "partisan obstructionism" for standing up for what's right.
Some of the wrong things:
- The vote to change the rules for Delay's benefit.
- The Republican obstructionism of an inverstigation into Ohio and Florida especially in light of Blackwell's refusing to appear before Comgressional committees.
- The confirmation of Gonzales for obvious reasons.
- The confirmation of Rice whose lies are becoming ever more obvious since her hearing with the release of the Clarke memo. I expect as more and more documents are declassified, we will all know. I have heard Republicans say that of course she lied on behalf of Bush; that's her job.
- Threatening the "nuclear option."
These kinds of partisan Republican actions are threatening the foundation of America as a democratic country governed by the rule of law. Democrats are right to characterize their efforts to fight the threat as necessary intervention. For their efforts, Democrats have been vilified on RedState. As an independent observer, I see Republicans trying to put Democrats between a rock and a hard place as in the Rice vote. Hoping to find that middle ground of legitimately objecting to Rice and avoiding charges of partisanship, the Democrats logged a mixed vote.
Republican hypocrisy has been truly stunning in many arenas, the latest of which is the Gannon affair. Gannon, a proven phony, is simply not in the same league as Rather or Jordan, both well-established journalists with long, respected careers. The lack of conservative outrage over Gannon is revealing.
I am neither a Republican not a Democrat. I am thoroughly embarrassed by the way this administration has represented itself to the world. I am grieved because the people we elect to uphold the best values of America are betraying those values. I am angry because Republicans (though fewer and fewer everyday) defend this administration.
The latest approval rating of 48% is too high, and I am upset that so many Americans would rather be Klingons of the keyboard. Meanwhile, young, able bodied Americans who supported this war are not enlisting, prefering that others risk future income, leave young families at home, or interrupt their schooling. I support going to war to protect the US against imminent threat, but now I worry my sons may eventually be drafted for another one of Bush's ill-conceived and poorly planned adventures. Whoever heard of a Secretary of Defense who believes that planning for war is impossible because the future in unknowable. Contingency planning is a bulwark of military planning, but who needs that when they're going to throw flowers at us, right?
On Social Security, comments like the following irritate me, fostering as they do, a generational battle that doesn't have to be. The old do not want to take from the young. After all, the young are their children and grandchildren.
In our burgeoning ownership society, I think the best bet is to pit the greed of older people for their social security against the greed of younger people for their own paychecks. For a younger worker like me, the thought of getting to keep 2 or 3 or maybe even (gasp!) 4 percent more of my paycheck to invest instead of flushing it down the zero-interest hole of social security is almost too thrilling to contemplate.
It is hard to battle the AARP and the rich elderly organizations when they set their minds to enriching themselves at the expense of the younger generations.
This sort of impugning of motives effectively shuts down any positive discussion.
Or how about this beaut?
Just as the Republicans are "the Stupid Party", Democrats (at least post-1965) are "the Evil Party". At some level, the Liberals know that higher tax rates mean lower economic growth and lower tax revenues, but this is the outcome they secretly want. A weaker private economy and more people in need translate into more votes for Democrats and greater relative status and income (and therefore happiness) for the academics and government employees who compose the core of the (post-1965) Democratic Party.
I don't know anybody who feels like that.
This admistration has taken America so far off the moral path that I worry that only full-scale repentance will be enough to restore America's respect in the world. I shun labels, but I suspect many Kossacks would consider me conservative. As long as RedState assumes that a conservative credential includes support for this adminstration, I clearly am more at home here than there.
