Darn tootin' I'm a partisan
It's a bit unfair to take short excerpts from Digby's Hullabaloo, but here she makes an important point about the increasing (and increasingly bogus) calls for bipartisanship:
One party rule is actually how things get done. There's a difference between freely elected governments being controlled by one party and an authoritarian regime, of course.
Still, I would expect to hear continued blather from Republicans about how awful it is that Democrats run everything and are being mean to them. Frankly, during the Legislative session I was amazed at how accommodating Democrats were. But you know those crazy Democrats, actually believing that representative democracy is actually for democracy rather than a fun game for screwing people over.
One reason conservatives are being so crazy nasty (I know, it's hard to tell) right now is they're scared we'll give them the political treatment they deserve. With the 28% crowd working on becoming the 19% crowd, they have good reason to be nervous about next year. If a true realignment happens, the far right will be out of power for a generation or more, as it becomes more and more difficult to win as a Republican.
It's come at a fearsome cost in human misery, but there's been no better demonstration of conservative ideology than the last six and a half years. From the west coast energy crisis to the pathetic spectacle of Alberto Gonzales lying his head off to Congress, and all the horror in between, everything conservatives have touched has turned out badly. It's partly because the real world doesn't operate according to tidy aphorisms uttered by Ronald Reagan and partly because the conservative movement was so utterly and transparently populated by liars, crooks and morons, but it all adds up to failure.
As the GOP casts about for the inevitable "re-inventing itself" formula, here's one you'll probably never see: "America, we're sorry." It's far easier to blame the dirty hippies and the press than to take responsibility.
You can't forgive people who can't apologize, so yeah, I'm a partisan Democratic progressive, and I say "lump it" to anyone who wants to moan about partisanship. We have a Constitution to restore and a country to protect and build, and the people who are going to do that are Democrats. That doesn't mean all Democrats are always above reproach, but it does mean that I know which party will better represent all Americans.
"Bipartisanship" is only operative when the Democrats are in power. I don't recall hearing the commentariat scolding the Republicans for not being more accommodating to Democrats during their 12 year reign of terror, do you? I certainly don't recall a lot of garment rending over how the Republicans were isolating their moderates. My recollection was that everyone was cheering the GOP's responsiveness to its "traditional values, low tax, patriotic" base. You remember --- the Real Americans? Karl Rove was widely considered to be a genius.Exactly. The same thing tends to happen at the state level sometimes, with dire warnings about "one party rule," with its sinister connotations of a dictatorial police state.
One party rule is actually how things get done. There's a difference between freely elected governments being controlled by one party and an authoritarian regime, of course.
Still, I would expect to hear continued blather from Republicans about how awful it is that Democrats run everything and are being mean to them. Frankly, during the Legislative session I was amazed at how accommodating Democrats were. But you know those crazy Democrats, actually believing that representative democracy is actually for democracy rather than a fun game for screwing people over.
One reason conservatives are being so crazy nasty (I know, it's hard to tell) right now is they're scared we'll give them the political treatment they deserve. With the 28% crowd working on becoming the 19% crowd, they have good reason to be nervous about next year. If a true realignment happens, the far right will be out of power for a generation or more, as it becomes more and more difficult to win as a Republican.
It's come at a fearsome cost in human misery, but there's been no better demonstration of conservative ideology than the last six and a half years. From the west coast energy crisis to the pathetic spectacle of Alberto Gonzales lying his head off to Congress, and all the horror in between, everything conservatives have touched has turned out badly. It's partly because the real world doesn't operate according to tidy aphorisms uttered by Ronald Reagan and partly because the conservative movement was so utterly and transparently populated by liars, crooks and morons, but it all adds up to failure.
As the GOP casts about for the inevitable "re-inventing itself" formula, here's one you'll probably never see: "America, we're sorry." It's far easier to blame the dirty hippies and the press than to take responsibility.
You can't forgive people who can't apologize, so yeah, I'm a partisan Democratic progressive, and I say "lump it" to anyone who wants to moan about partisanship. We have a Constitution to restore and a country to protect and build, and the people who are going to do that are Democrats. That doesn't mean all Democrats are always above reproach, but it does mean that I know which party will better represent all Americans.
