Posted on 08/14/2014 11:21:38 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Got to blame someone for the lack of approval by the masses of their teleprompter spewing hero and the fact that people in his own party are now running from him and condemning his handling of events.
PChem isn’t easy for most people, but I’d think anyone who got that far would not bail. I’m sticking with Freshman Chemistry or the first Calculus course knocking him out of the box. He’s not charitably disposed toward me, no reason to charitably disposed toward him.
I see your point. A student that eventually turns to journalism getting past the concept of limits, or even to the equation for the first derivative, would indeed be an achievement that would mean that the cake degree is less of a challenge.
Chitcago Tribute ... ‘All the lefty cant that’s unfit to print’
If the political party in power respects and works with the minority, it is to the benefit of the people in the minority to work within the system to maximize their own power. This is why smart politicians are always trying to coopt their opposition, even when they have all the power.
However, if the political party in power shuts the minority out and runs rough-shod over any opposition, it is foolish to remain in te system and accept the abuse. At that point, it makes sense to step away from the table and start throwing (metaphorical) bombs.
Obama is not a smart politician.
Obama created the TEA Party. He passed his stimulus and Obamacare without a single Republican vote and with absolutely no consideration for the concerns of the minority party. Given that situation, the TEA Party was the completely rational and predictable response.
Full text:
The past few years have shown us that our political system is operating like a well-oiled machine, assuming that machine’s primary purpose is to function horribly while producing nothing of value.
Stubbornness and disagreement have been raised to art forms, and the American people have made it clear they rate Congress only slightly more favorably than “scorpions in pants.” The president isn’t viewed much better, with an approval rating hovering around a dismal 40 percent.
There’s ample blame to go around — leftward, rightward, centerward (which isn’t a word, but should be) — but a new poll homes in on one of the biggest problems plaguing politics: the shrinking yet increasingly loud faux-populist tea party.
The tea party has spent most of President Barack Obama’s time in office pushing Republicans to the right with such force that the GOP is spinning drill-like into the ground, poised to become the country’s first subterranean political party. Noisy and threatening as tea party adherents may be, their politics remain far outside both the Democratic and Republican mainstreams, yet their presence continues to gum up the works.
The new McClatchy-Marist poll found that 25 percent of registered voters nationally identify themselves as Republicans. And only 40 percent of those Republicans say they support the tea party. That gives you a sense of scale.
The poll asked, “Is your impression of President Obama a major factor, a minor factor, or not a factor at all in deciding your vote for Congress this November?” Overall, 52 percent of Americans say Obama isn’t a factor at all. A majority of Republicans who don’t support the tea party — 51 percent — say the president isn’t a factor. But Republicans who do support the tea party swing the other way, with 61 percent saying Obama is either a major or minor factor in how they’ll vote this fall.
Looking at the possibility of impeachment — a move most in the GOP recognize as fraught with political peril — Republicans who support the tea party are the only group in favor, with 52 percent saying Congress should impeach. Overall, only 26 percent of Americans share that opinion.
It’s the same general breakdown regarding the lawsuit congressional Republicans plan to file against Obama. Pro-tea party Republicans support the lawsuit by 69 percent while only 43 percent of Republicans who don’t support the tea party want to see the lawsuit go forward.
The masses — or to put it in tea party-esque, constitutional fetishist lingo, “we the people” — would like some sign that our government is still capable of doing the things that governments do. Like govern.
Instead, lawmakers left Washington for an end-of-summer break with a plan for a lawsuit most people don’t want and no plan for immigration reform, which most people — including many Republican-aligned business organizations — do want.
The reason for much of this is the outsize influence of the tea party, which hates Obama, loathes Obamacare, thinks government should shrink largely out of existence and views immigration reform as a threat to our sovereignty.
Many tea party Republicans even hate their own party. At a speaking event Monday, Mississippi Tea Party Chairman Roy Nicholson reportedly prayed that God would “be violent against” the GOP establishment.
And so it goes.
To me, the solution is rather simple. The majority of us — Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever — would like to see a functioning government run by people smart enough to know that “compromise” isn’t a four-letter word. The tea party activists, on the other hand, would like to have things their way — period.
So, given their concern for protecting the border and their desire for limited government, I say we give all card-carrying tea party members Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and the bottom one-sixth of California south of Los Angeles. (I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want all those Hollywood liberals anyway.)
They can build as big a fence as they want along the border with Mexico, figure out their own health care system, hang guns on their Christmas trees and have a government so limited that its only rule is that you can’t speak unless you’re holding the conch shell. Have fun, guys.
The rest of us will remain in the “upper 445/6” and see if we can’t actually get something done. The first order of business, I think, should be building a gigantic wall along our new border with Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and that little bit of California.
Because the last thing we need is any of those dang tea partyers trying to sneak in and threaten our American way of life.
In the end, it is another few paragraphs in a mountain of them tell us simultaneously that a) the tea party is a spent force and b) that wields a maddening amount of political influence. Of course, they can’t both be true but that has never stopped the table-pounders.
The reality is this and similar articles would not be written if the authors did not fear (and therefore respect) the power of a truly grassroots conservative movement. If Obama is the catalyst for such a movement, so much the better but it was inevitable given the generational timing: persons in positions of power, money, influence, etc. lived their more youthful days under Reagan and to a lesser degree GHW Bush. They know what limited government, strong defense and a projection of power, and free markets look like and they don’t look like $4 gas, absolute chaos in more regions and nations than we can count, and economic stagnation for years on end. In short, leftists have spent nigh on 30 years telling us how awful the good times were, either because they are delusional enough to believe it or because they know that the current pilot project for the People’s Republic of America is such a shocking failure.
The article fails to support its thesis so often that commentary is almost superfluous. Self-regarding columnists are never ‘modest’ in their proposals and articles that suggest, however facetiously, that conservatives should be marooned in a particular state or region are nothing more than juvenile make-it-go-away fantasies.
At the risk of considering the writer’s individual points….
The past few years have shown us that our political system is operating like a well-oiled machine, assuming that machine's primary purpose is to function horribly while producing nothing of value.
Cliché count: 1. When the machine has run in the last few years, it has produced Obamacare and several DOA immigration ‘reform’ bills. When the president declares with numbing frequency that he will veto anything that isn’t 100% of what he wants that isn’t the fault of Congress or the GOP or conservatives.
Stubbornness and disagreement have been raised to art forms
Cliché count: 2 (running total: 3). This is otherwise known as ‘representative government.’ If Congress is split roughly in half by party ID, then such a struggle is inevitable. It’s also entirely correct and proper and proof that our Constitutional system, despite the 17th Amendment, is working as designed..
…, and the American people have made it clear they rate Congress only slightly more favorably than "scorpions in pants." The president isn't viewed much better, with an approval rating hovering around a dismal 40 percent.
Ratings of Congress as a whole are, frankly, nonsensical. The whole point of Congress is representation. Conservatives may dislike Nancy Pelosi and liberals may dislike Jeff Sessions but those individuals are elected by their respective districts and/or states.
If the writer thinks Obama’s rating is low, he is implying that it should be better. We, of course, wonder on a daily basis how nearly half the nation would rate him anything other than a disaster. Polls are somewhat relevant where one person’s job performance is concerned but when a radical leftist has a 20% built-in, reflexive head start in any poll the number is largely meaningless as well.
Washington DC and statists in general believe that once Congressman X and Senator Y arrive in the swamp they are obligated to act a certain way and when they don’t, the media claim that Congress as an entity is viewed unfavorably. Because freedom, liberty and economic growth are predicated on popularity. Aren’t they?
There's ample blame to go around — leftward, rightward, centerward (which isn't a word, but should be) — but a new poll homes in on one of the biggest problems plaguing politics: the shrinking yet increasingly loud faux-populist tea party.
Cliché count: 3 (running total: 6)
This is the oxymoronic crux of the article: the Tea Party is small but powerful.
There can be no doubt that the writer fancies himself a ‘centerward’ i.e. centrist but anyone agitating for constant government intervention in the most trivial aspects of life is a leftist. It’s been successfully demonstrated her and elsewhere that this so-called center is a myth. Worse, it is a canard employed by the media to convince voters and politicians that if they don’t adhere to the media (read: leftist) agenda they are fringe-dwelling zealots. But if the choice is between freedom and the various antitheses of freedom, is there really a center? Like the center, the political continuum is another myth. There is freedom and then there are various oppressive policies and acts devised by men. Our Constitution simply established the least-oppressive framework seen to date with the results clear to all.
If the tea party is faux-populist, why the angst on the left? A very plausible (and probable) explanation is that the ‘shrinking’ of the tea party is actually its expansion into the mainstream of political thought. Newspapers and newspapermen staring goggle-eyed at another quarter of horrible financial results still refuse to admit that the Internet no longer requires political dialogue to run through their little company towns – in fact, they are being bypassed altogether.
The tea party has spent most of President Barack Obama's time in office pushing Republicans to the right with such force that the GOP is spinning drill-like into the ground
Cliché count: 2 (running total: 8)
Almost gave him a pass on the ‘pushing to the right’ but since we never hear of liberals ‘pushing to the left’ he’ll have to wear that one I’m afraid. And here we have more of the ‘GOP is doomed’ magical incantation. Yes, the GOP is so doomed that it won the House back during a ‘popular’ president’s first term and will win the Senate back during a ‘popular’ president’s second term. More doom please!
poised to become the country's first subterranean political party. Noisy and threatening as tea party adherents may be, their politics remain far outside both the Democratic and Republican mainstreams, yet their presence continues to gum up the works.
Cliché count: 3 (running total: 11 – double digits!)
More invocation of the mythical mainstream! If Democrats and Republicans are opposing forces, how can there be a stream i.e. a flow, a current of any type? The problem with clichés is that they appear to be reasonable but can never stand up to even the most superficial analysis./b>
The new McClatchy-Marist poll found that 25 percent of registered voters nationally identify themselves as Republicans. And only 40 percent of those Republicans say they support the tea party. That gives you a sense of scale.
Actually, it doesn’t. Polling biases are legion and tea party members, God bless them, are less likely to play the pollster games. In fact, we are intelligent enough to cut landlines, ignore strange caller ID, etc.
The poll asked, "Is your impression of President Obama a major factor, a minor factor, or not a factor at all in deciding your vote for Congress this November?" Overall, 52 percent of Americans say Obama isn't a factor at all.
If you believe that, then tuck into bed early tonight and await the Tooth Fairy.
A majority of Republicans who don't support the tea party — 51 percent — say the president isn't a factor. But Republicans who do support the tea party swing the other way, with 61 percent saying Obama is either a major or minor factor in how they'll vote this fall
Er, hang on. Why are we worried about a lame-duck president to begin with? For the GOP, conservatives, tea party, whomever, it’s NEVER been about a relocated Chicago ward heeler. Obama is the tree but the roots go everywhere wide and deep. It’s the Jarretts, the Psakis, the Tavenners, the Holders, the Lerners, the Kerrys. We are opposing government, specifically corrupt, coercive government. Obama has unwittingly shown every voter, regardless of party ID or personal views, exactly what such government looks like. The tea party’s hypothetical warnings were made real.
Looking at the possibility of impeachment — a move most in the GOP recognize as fraught with political peril — Republicans who support the tea party are the only group in favor, with 52 percent saying Congress should impeach. Overall, only 26 percent of Americans share that opinion.
The only ones looking at the ‘possibility’ of impeachment are the Democrats who begged and pleaded for it despite knowing it would never happen.
It's the same general breakdown regarding the lawsuit congressional Republicans plan to file against Obama. Pro-tea party Republicans support the lawsuit by 69 percent while only 43 percent of Republicans who don't support the tea party want to see the lawsuit go forward.
We can hardly expect the writer to give the tea party or Republicans proper credit for seeing Boehner’s fan dance for what it is.
The masses — or to put it in tea party-esque, constitutional fetishist lingo, "we the people"
Cliché count: 2 (running total: 13)
Why do leftists always claim to speak for the masses? Why do they have such an addiction to the Appeal To Majority fallacy? There is some deep-seated character flaw that constantly sees them citing what the other guys are doing. They fancy themselves free thinkers but the hive mentality is nearly universal among them.
— would like some sign that our government is still capable of doing the things that governments do. Like govern.
‘Govern’ does not mean rule. It does not mean churn out unread legislation composed by lobbyists, rent-seekers, bureaucrats and leftists (possibly redundant). It does not mean involvement in our daily lives. If ‘govern’ means ‘to manage’ perhaps they should try to manage getting out of the way.
Instead, lawmakers left Washington for an end-of-summer break with a plan for a lawsuit most people don't want and no plan for immigration reform, which most people — including many Republican-aligned business organizations — do want.
Again with the lawsuit! It’s a mirage only visible to the gullible.
Is the writer being disingenuous or merely obtuse? Those ‘Republican-aligned business organizations’ are the Chamber of Commerce and its smaller imitators. They want cheap labor and no borders. That isn’t ‘reform.’ It’s surrender. Or possibly suicide.
The reason for much of this is the outsize influence of the tea party, which hates Obama, loathes Obamacare, thinks government should shrink largely out of existence and views immigration reform as a threat to our sovereignty.
Hmmm…I’m starting to notice a pattern here. The tea party influence is ‘outsize’ because it’s effective. Would the writer say the same about the homosexual agenda, which represents less than 2% of the population?
Many tea party Republicans even hate their own party. At a speaking event Monday, Mississippi Tea Party Chairman Roy Nicholson reportedly prayed that God would "be violent against" the GOP establishment.
Hate is too strong and too simple a word. We are sentient beings. We know how the process and people work. We will do what it takes to effect change even within this flawed system.
And so it goes.
Cliché count: 1 (a standalone this time!) (running total: 14)
To me, the solution is rather simple. The majority of us — Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever — would like to see a functioning government run by people smart enough to know that "compromise" isn't a four-letter word. The tea party activists, on the other hand, would like to have things their way — period
The inevitable self-regarding conclusion: the writer is smart and so is anyone who agrees with him. The smart people want smart government i.e. the kind pushing 54 mpg CAFE standards and feeding 6-3, 250-pound high school football players a meager school lunch resembling prison food.
Compromise? Does that describe Harry Reid And His Permanent Senate Recess?
So, given their concern for protecting the border and their desire for limited government, I say we give all card-carrying tea party members Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and the bottom one-sixth of California south of Los Angeles. (I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want all those Hollywood liberals anyway.)
And, finally, the writer is undone by his snooty revenge fantasy.
They can build as big a fence as they want along the border with Mexico, figure out their own health care system, hang guns on their Christmas trees and have a government so limited that its only rule is that you can't speak unless you're holding the conch shell. Have fun, guys.
One small problem: fences work. They worked in Berlin. They work around the White House. They worked around Fort Knox.
Figure out our health care system? There was nothing to figure out. We had the greatest system in the world. Innovation, research, miracle drugs, surgical techniques, and a competitive insurance marketplace. It was wiped out in favor of the pilot program for socialized medicine – a program which even its authors and implementers can’t ‘figure out.’
The rest of us will remain in the "upper 445/6" and see if we can't actually get something done. The first order of business, I think, should be building a gigantic wall along our new border with Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and that little bit of California. Because the last thing we need is any of those dang tea partyers trying to sneak in and threaten our American way of life.
Oh dear. He’s simply come unglued now. Has he seen the county-by-county electoral map? Lots of red and very little blue there. Contradicting his own point in the previous paragraph. If fences don’t work, why is he advocating one? Leave it to a leftist to demand subservience and then to demand separatism when he doesn’t get it.
Bravo
Yeah, I couldn’t get in either without subscribing. Can someone, who can get in, cut and paste the rest of the article in your comments section.\?
I’m replying to this thread 2.5 years on because I’m guessing the writer’s head exploded Nov 8 2016.
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