Cornell History Professor Lawrence Glickman uses Twitter to call for a ban on the use of the word “Washington” to smear Democrats by lumping them in with the intentionally bad governing practices of the GOP.
Appropriately he uses Maggie Haberman to illustrate this practice, though he could just as easy use Chuck Todd, Andrea Mitchell or any other of the numerous journalists who employ this method of gas-lighting the American people.
(Below is the Twitter unroll of his tweets, but I’ll include his first, in case you want to peruse the comments.)
“I hereby call for total and complete shutdown on the word “Washington,”which both ignores the issue of asymmetric polarization AND materially aids the GOP by serving up their chief talking point that “Washington is broken” and government is disfunctional.
The GOP has developed a remarkably blinkered conception of what governance means. Beyond tax cuts for the rich, cruelty toward the poor (especially if they are women,nonwhite, LBGTQ, or Muslim),military spending, and court packing, many members of the party disdain governing.
Tea Party Rep. Raul Labrador spoke truthfully when he used the word"governing" with air quotes. As he told @RyanLizza,“If people just want to ‘govern,’ which means bringing more government, they’re always going to choose the Democrat.”
Linked New Yorker article
As Labrador's quotation suggests, the GOP has shifted from a distrust of government to a disdain for doing the actual work of governing.Michael Lewis's book, "The Fifth Risk" shows the dire consequences of this attitude, by examining how the Trump administration runs things.
Employing the word "Washington" rather than naming the Republican Party,creates a "both sides do it," style of reporting that helps the GOP whose goal is to create maximum cynicism about the ability of government to accomplish anything constructive.
The linked @CNN article,discussing the "hard consequences" of failing to agree on a budget says, "Democrats would have to accept equally painful cuts to domestic programs, which have long been their top priority in talks."
I will also include this link to the Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Big Short) book Glickman mentioned. I haven’t read it yet but I heard him discuss it on Chris Hayes’ Why This is Happening Podcast and he made many excellent points about the great work being done under the radar by our Federal Employees.
He was also on Bill Maher last night discussing the book:
(Hold your nose long enough to listen, Bill was an A-hole once or twice.)
Our Federal Employees toil, to often great results, in anonymity and go largely un-credited by Wash….er...Republicans.
Thanks to Glickman and Lewis for their great work.
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[cross-posted to PolitiZoom]