Tuesday, June 5, 2012

It's even worse than it looks

The Daily Show with Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Norman J. Ornstein & Thomas E. Mann Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
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What has happened to America?

Republicans are concerned only with their own political ambition, whatever it does to our country. "Anything is OK if it works to achieve that end."

And it's working. Republican foot-dragging is causing our economic recovery to stall, exactly what they intended. Well, most voters are astoundingly ignorant and will simply vote their feelings.

Barack Obama inherited this economic mess from George W. Bush, so you'd think that the last thing people would want is to return to the same policies that got us into the mess in the first place. Frankly, after the Bush administration, I'm astonished that the Republican Party still exists.

But there seems to be no limit to what Republicans are prepared to do, and no limit to the ignorance and gullibility of the American people. Well, this is why we've been in decline for 30 years.

I thought that part about parliamentary procedures was particularly telling. We don't have a parliament in this country. Our political system is different from most European systems. Yet I keep seeing people acting otherwise, whether it's Republicans using parliamentary tactics to destroy America's system of government or third-party advocates of all political persuasions.

Well, if we let them do this, we only have ourselves to blame.

Here's the followup, the web-only part of the interview:

The Daily Show with Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Norman J. Ornstein & Thomas E. Mann Extended Interview Pt. 2
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full EpisodesPolitical Humor & Satire BlogThe Daily Show on Facebook

To some extent, this is a bit misleading, since it seems to imply that Republicans don't want our government to spend money. In fact, they spend money like drunken sailors, but it's overwhelmingly military spending.

This isn't about cutting spending, not really. Republicans talk about cutting spending, but the rhetoric isn't the reality. Well, they talk about deficit reduction, too, but they push plans - including even more tax cuts for the rich - which would balloon the deficit even worse than what they did in the Bush years.

Of course, they've got Fox 'News' behind them, pushing the party line. Sadly, propaganda still works in the 21st Century. As a species, we haven't gotten any smarter.

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