"Conservatives today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960's".
Those aren't the words of some smug liberal gloating over the passage of health care reform, not at all.
They are the words of David Frum, a former top speechwriter for GW Bush and a highly regarded mainstream conservative.
Frum went on to say, "It's hard to imagine the magnitude of this disaster. ...No illusions please. This bill will not be repealed".
"...Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to reopen the 'doughnut hole' and charge seniors more for their prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition?... And even if the votes were there, would President Obama sign such a repeal?"
Frum continued, "We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement and they led us to abject failure and irreversible defeat."
Pretty strong words but, thankfully, also true.
If a conservative and diehard GOP loyalist like David Frum holds these views I can only wonder what other mainstream Republicans and intelligent independents must be thinking as they bear witness to the fallout that's resulted from the once great party of Abraham Lincoln being usurped by politicians like Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann, and Tom Coburn, and media demagogues like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
All five of the aforementioned people are the personifications of "the most radical voices" in the modern GOP and conservative movement and as Frum said, they led their followers to "abject failure and irreversible defeat."
But I, quite frankly, hope they, and the so called Tea Party movement, remain front and center on the public stage because the more they do, the more likely, especially as the 2010 political season heats up later in the summer, and more Americans start paying closer attention to politics, the more Americans will say; "Thanks but no thanks" to the overt racism, homophobia, and xenophobia that "the most radical voices" in the GOP and Tea Party movement are really all about.
I also think we should all fasten our political seatbelts because, to paraphrase Bette Davis in "All About Eve", this coming political season is going to be one bumpy ride, one very bumpy, and quite possibly very ugly, ride indeed.
Michael Cook
PV de Limon , CR
& Nbpt
Sunday, March 28, 2010
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12 comments:
please provide one example of "overt racism". thanks...
Let's see, does the calling of John Lewis, a hero and veteran of the American civil rights movement a "nigger" as he made his way up the steps of the Capitol to cast his historic vote FOR health care reform count?
Does Rep. Tom Tancredo's calls at the Tea Bagger convention for renewed literacy tests for voter eligibility, a tactic that was a hallmark of the South's excluding Afro-Americans from votig prior to the Voting Rights Act being passed in 1965 count?
Sorry anon, the Tea Party movement is overwhelmingly an angry mob of not well educated, or even terribly bright, whites, who are being manipulated by the GOP as it desperately tried to figure out how to regain power.
It is all eerily reminiscent of the effective tactics the racist and nationalistic Nazis used in the waning days of the Weimar Republic - EERILY REMINISCENT.
Mr. Cook,
It is sad that you seem so gleeful that a major political party seems to be self destructing. I am sorry that you are so bitter. I do believe that we need to hear diverse opinions to make this country better. Many of those may seem irrational to you. But that is just your opinion. Feel free to keep them coming.
@macsurf
Let's see, does the calling of John Lewis, a hero and veteran of the American civil rights movement a "nigger" as he made his way up the steps of the Capitol to cast his historic vote FOR health care reform count?
no proof whatsoever exists to back up this claim...
Does Rep. Tom Tancredo's calls at the Tea Bagger convention for renewed literacy tests for voter eligibility, a tactic that was a hallmark of the South's excluding Afro-Americans from votig prior to the Voting Rights Act being passed in 1965 count?
not overt racism, nice try though.
and calling members of the movement Tea Baggers is hardly helping your cause.
good effort, still waiting for some actual facts though...
Sean Hannity challenged the Left to provide proof of both Lewis and another African American congressman being called "n*gger", and the other congressman being spat upon. The video is out. The proof's in.
Hannity has been remarkably silent in reponse to the video.
Then there was Barney Frank being called "f*ggot" by a Tea Partier, and most of the mob erupted in cheers.
Lets, see, Congressman Weiner had to close his Queens office after a mysterious white powder was delivered with angry references to his support of HCR.
The brother of another Dem congressman had a gas line into his house deliberately cut after a Tea Party website posted his name and address, with a Google map attached on the internet.
Congresswoman Slaughter has been directly threatened.
And let's not forget Sister Sarah Palin telling her cult followers to "reload", and her listing the names of 20 potentially vulnerable Dem reps who supported HCR, and identified their states by placing gunsights in them on a map of the US.
Such an action is almost a carbon copy, with all the suggestions of violence, of what ant-abortion zealots did when they posted the names and home addresses of ob-gyn docs who performed abortions - and we all know what that led to on several tragic occassions.
Sorry anon and anon, but your posts reveal you have sympathy for much of what this movement is promulgating, as much as you no doubt will deny it, and if this turns violent, it's people like yourselves who are making excuses and living in denial as to what the very real dangers emerging here are who will bear no small degree of responibility if violence occurs.
Sorry, but with al due respect, that's just how I see it - and, tnankfully, more and more intelligent and responsible Americans, regardless of party affiliation, are beginning to see it that way too.
@ macsurf:
Is it OK for me to notice the the FBI just arrested an Obama donor for making death threats against Eric Cantor and his family?
There are nuts of all flavors, out there...and for anyone to try to single one or two individuals in an effort to characterize a broader array of indivduals in a political movement.
Yours is an unproductive game, in my opinion. It inviteds tit-for tat responses.
macsurf, there is abosloutley no video of anyone being called the n word. the spitting incident was confirmed by the man who was spat on as spray from the man as he was yelling. a despite whether or not Frank was called a faggot, it still isn't racist. again, show one concrete example of the overt racism Mr. Cook claims, i beg you. i've got time, i'll wait....
One misguided lefty making a threat against Cantor does NOT counterbalance the sheer number of threats and tomfoolery coming from the right.
You know that and I know that; don't pretend to be obtuse.
- The Carrot
Of course it's OK to slam whoever the nut job was threatened Congressman Kantor.
In terms of him being an "Obama donor", I'd like to see verification of that, not that it really matters, given the guy has posted multiple threatening you tube videos aimed at Obama, Reid, and Pelosi, along with REpubs like Kantor.
The guy is obviously a whack job and the full weight of the law should be thrown at him.
But Sarah Palin, who urged her cult followers to "reload" and identified the states of twenty vulnerable dems who voted for HCR on a map on her web site using the symbol for the cross hairs of gun sights, is SUPPOSEDLY not a whack job, but she is coming perilously close to inciting violence against thise with whom she disagrees politically.
Rep, Steve King, R-Iowa, brought a Tea Party crowd to its feet last week by urging them to beat "to a pulp" those who supported HCR.
Tea partiers are posting the home addresses of Dems who voted for HCR, along the names and adresses of thise Dems' extended family members on line, with Yahoo maps attached.
It was such a posting that the FBI says led to a gas line into the home of the BROTHER of a Dem congresman being cut in an overt display of intimidation and threatening.
Such tactics are a carbon copy of what the anti-abortion zealots did when they posted the names and home addresses of ob-gyn docs who provided abortion services to women- and we ALL know the tragic consequences that kind of extremism led to on several occasions.
Sorry to you two right wing anons, not Carrot, you can't have it both ways.
This Tea Party gig is your bailiwick and it is obviously spinning out of control and revealing itself to have much more in commonmwith Hitler's Brownshirts than it does the Founding Fathers or original Minutemen of this still great country.
still can't prove there is any racism. as for the rest, you lost all credibility after the 8 years of president bush. the hypocrisy is palpable and your outrage then was lacking. tossing bombs like racist around is ignorant and is the last ditch effort of someone with no facts and no valid arguments. you've lost your place at the table. however, fact check your claims about racism and feel free to get back to us...the adults will still be having a conversation.
in case you need a refresher...http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/04/how-quickly-they-forget/
@ macsurf...
That is two times you have gone with the Nazi references on this thread.
I presuem you are familiar with Godwin's Law?
If not, you should google it...
anon -
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