Month: January 2012

Newtie and Ronnie

by digby

Walter Shapiro has a nice piece up today about the GOP primary, and in particular the Newt phenomenon. It’s worth reading completely but I think this is something that’s overlooked:

The fact is, the former House speaker personifies conservatism much as Ronald Reagan did in 1980. With two thirds of the state’s GOP electorate older than 45 (based on 2008 exit polls), voters remember that Newt was the most important Republican of the 1990s. His triumphs in a bleak decade for the GOP earn him a degree of latitude that will never be granted to Romney, no matter what hard-right positions Mitt takes in the quest for the nomination.

He’s not the genial side of Reagan, he’s this side:

“There has been a leadership gap and a morality and decency gap at the Uni­versity of California at Berkeley where a small minority of beatniks, radi­cals and filthy speech advocates have brought such shame to and such a loss of confidence in a great University that applications for enrollment were down 21% in 1967 and are expected to decline even further.

You have read about the report of the Senate Subcommittee on Un­American Activities-its charges that the campus has become a rallying point for Communists and a center of sexual misconduct. Some incidents in this report are so bad, so contrary to our standards of decent human behav­ior that I cannot recite them to you in detail.

But there is clear evidence of the sort of things that should not be per­mitted on a university campus.

The report tells us that many of those attending were clearly of high­school age. The hall was entirely dark except for the light from two movie screens. On these screens the nude torsos of men and women were por­trayed from time to time in suggestive positions and movements.

Three rock and roll bands played simultaneously. The smell of mari­juana was thick throughout the hall. There were signs that some of those present had taken dope. There were indications of other happenings that cannot be mentioned here.

What in Heaven’s name does academic freedom have to do with riot­ing, with anarchy, with attempts to destroy the primary purpose of the Uni­versity which is to educate our young people?”

The Newtie version:

“All the Occupy movement start with the premise that we owe them everything,” Gingrich said. “They take over a public park they didn’t pay for, to go nearby to use bathrooms they didn’t pay for, to beg for food from places they don’t want to pay for, to obstruct those who are going to work to pay the taxes to sustain the bathrooms and to sustain the park, so they can self-righteously explain they are the paragons of virtue to which we owe everything. That is a pretty good symptom of how much the left has collapsed as a moral system in this country, and why you need to reassert something by saying to them, ‘Go get a job right after you take a bath.’”

That’s the heart of movement conservatism. And Romney has no feel for it.

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Open your legs America

by digby

The Daily Show’s John Oliver explains why Gingrich’s “swinging” past is actually a big plus:

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

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Good Conscience Clause News

by digby

Hey, here’s some very welcome good news coming from the administration today. It looks like the Catholic Bishops and the Forced Childbirth zealots are going to be disappointed: birth control must be available at no cost in all health plans. It was a very hard fought battle, but it would appear that the administration felt that keeping Plan B away from younger teenagers was going to have to be enough.

This isn’t a huge change for the vast majority of health plans in the country already.28 states already have this requirement, although many of them allow co-pays and deductibles so that’s a positive change even for them. This merely extends that concept across the country to all Americans.Evolution not devolution.

Think Progress frames the principle here very well:

This decision honors the conscience of these women over that of the institutions that employ them and ensures that cost will no longer be a barrier to accessing basic and essential preventive health services.

If a woman does not want to use birth control as a matter of conscience, that’s her perfect right. But institutions, whether corporations or churches, aren’t “persons” and they don’t have “consciences.” People do. Even women. The church will have to deal with them on an individual basis. If they can’t convince their adherents that they should not use birth control that’s their failure in their own realm. The state is in the business of guaranteeing liberty and justice, not individual morality.

Good for the President for standing up to the powerful Catholic Bishops on this. They are essentially a political organization affiliated with the Republican Party and have been for many years. There’s just no margin in appeasing them — and a huge advantage to standing up for women, who vote for Democrats far more than men do. It’s good policy and good politics.

Update: Irin Carmon has a good piece on this at Salon:

Pro-choicers were worried that they would get their way, particularly when Archbishop Timothy Dolan sounded triumphant about a one-on-one meeting with the president. And they were outraged when the same Department of Health and Human Services on a decision that would make it easier for younger women to access emergency birth control. But it looks like sense and public health — and a little caterwauling — prevailed this time.

(Caterwauling refers to Dana Milbank telling silly female twits to stop worrying and learn to love the forced childbirth zealots.)

Update II: Sarah Posner writes that this isn’t over — they have a legal strategy already in place for turning this back. (Scroll down.) Of course they do.

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Wingnuts’ little helpers

by digby

Over the years we have often discussed the idea of rightwing projection or co-optation of certain memes for the opposite purpose. It’s very effective — it confuses the opposition and twists conventional wisdom to whatever purpose works for them.

Here’s a good example from just the other day, via Right Wing Watch:

This, again, brings us back around to the larger subject of this Occupy Wall Street, this astroturf movement that’s been funded from [George] Soros down and from every other angle, taking a bunch of over-educated, over-indulged white youth and attempting to force change … So we shouldn’t be surprised that this group, this Occupy Wall Street movement, which has been endorsed by the Messiah himself, President Barack Obama, that they are now trying to infiltrate the schools and corrupt the minds of children.

I think the Occupy Wall Street movement, the larger movement, is anathema to the idea of American Exceptionalism. In fact, I would go so far as to say that many of those involved in this movement hate America as it was originally formed and founded as a free market country rooted in the Judeo-Christian ethic.

They take the term “astroturf” which correctly defines many of the Tea party events, and apply it to Occupy, throwing in Soros in place of the Koch Brothers. The meme is out there, he’s just converted it to his own use. The infiltration of the schools tracks nicely with the myriad court cases insisting on teaching creationism and reintroducing prayer in schools. Then we go into straight up, old fashioned Godless Commie bashing, which apparently never goes out of style.

After observing this phenomenon for many years, I’ve come to believe that it’s actually a thought process not a well thought out propaganda technique. They have a finely tuned sense of the zeitgeist, which they just naturally apply to their own philosophy. They fit the world around them into their own worldview rather than confronting the dissonance. It’s the only way they can make sense of things.

I suppose we all do this to some extent, but the hardcore right is the only one to make a profit at it. Their well fed preachers and talk show hosts are human Prozac, reassuring their flocks that “everything’s fine, everything’s fine, don’t worry, you’re not crazy, they are.”

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Republican Responses

by David Atkins

Last night’s GOP debate in South Carolina was a lesson in how to play to the conservative base. Here’s Gingrich responding to the issue of his marital problems:

On the other hand, here’s Romney answering a question about releasing his taxes:

Which just goes to show that when called out for bad behavior, a Republican knows that the right answer is shout at the liberal media and apologize for nothing. The base eats it right up.

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Today in politics

by digby

Most of you probably wisely skipped the debate tonight and if you don’t want to torture yourself by watching it on TiVo, just look at this and you’ll get the gist.

I’ll just link to this article from 1999, to provide some context that John King forgot to provide:

The speaker once again pledged to say during every public appearance that Americans have the right to know the truth about the Lewinsky matter and that the president is not above the law.

Whatever.

If you didn’t catch our chat earlier today with Elizabeth Warren, you can see it here.

Here she is answering our questions:

It’s not too late to donate to her money bomb (which has passed a million dollars in one day!)You can still do it here.

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Vox Gop

by digby

Howard Fineman says the real story of the debates “isn’t on the stage; it’s in the audience” and he’s right:

The long string of debates have shown viewers a Republican Party in the raw, not in the words of the candidates but in the groans, boos, cheers and applause of crowds who blithely ignore halfhearted TV network admonitions to keep quiet.

The audiences have been loudly patriotic and enthusiastic about the campaign. But their outbursts have also uncovered a GOP id that cheers for Texas’ vigorous use of the death penalty; cheers repeated attacks on the national media, even when it is embodied by Fox News moderators; boos at the suggestion that the federal government, not the states, should enforce immigration laws; boos at anything less than a send-them-all-back immigration policy; boos a gay soldier who asks a question about gay rights; cheers at the mention of waterboarding and torture as a means of interrogating terrorism suspects; and boos at an African-American reporter who asks repeated questions about race, poverty, inequality and racial stereotypes.

To a degree not seen since before the days of television (and the foundational Kennedy-Nixon debates of 1960), candidate debates are now a theatrical exercise, in which the Greek chorus of the crowd plays as much of a part as the give-and-take among the candidates and the moderators.

[…]

The changing role of the “mainstream” media is one explanation for the vox populi tone. Facing conservative suspicion, some networks decided to partner with Tea Party, state party or other grassroots organizations to stage the debates, and part of the co-sponsors’ price was to bring along a partisan audience. (Thursday night’s CNN debate is co-sponsored by the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.)

Well, yeah. CNN has been especially whorish in this regard, not only sponsoring debates with the Tea Party but hiring their spokespeople as “analysts” and catering to them as Real Americans in contrast to everyone else. But nonetheless, I can’t imagine anyone expected that these audiences would be quite as gratuitously cruel, crude and bigoted as they’ve been. And it’s not just South Carolina, it’s been in Iowa, California and New Hampshire too.

It’s modern conservatism stripped down to its essence. This is who they are and they aren’t embarrassed or ashamed of their throwback attitudes and retrograde politics. And why should they be? They’ve been validated by talk radio and Fox News and more recently by CNN and the entire GOP establishment. They aren’t delusional in thinking that this behavior is thoroughly acceptable and mainstream. It is.

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Love it or leave it, hippie

by digby

Mitt goes all mid 20th century on their asses:

The protester loudly shouts a question at Romney: What does he plan to do for the 99 percent, given that he’s part of the one percent?

Romney responds:

Let me tell you something. America is a great nation, because we’re a united nation. And those who are trying to divide the nation, as you’re trying to do here, and as our president is doing, are hurting this country seriously. The right course for America is not to try to divide America, and try and divide us between one and another. It’s to come together as a nation.

And if you’ve got a better model — if you think China’s better, or Russia’s better, or Cuba’s better, or North Korea’s better — I’m glad to hear all about it.
But you know what?

America’s right, and you’re wrong.

Translation: We need to come together as a nation — so love it or leave it commie. And that includes the Kenyan president. Republicans really do believe that the nation needs to come together — which means do what they say or shut the hell up.

I’m sure this will play well down there in South Carolina, but he’s got a way to go before he gets a standing ovation for dressing down an uppity black reporter on national television. It’s a high bar. I don’t know if Mittens has what it takes.

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Loving v. Virginia 45 years ago: A reminder of progress

by David Atkins

Hard to believe that Loving v. Virginia is only 45 years old:

Just 45 years ago, 16 states deemed marriages between two people of different races illegal.

But in 1967, the U.S. Supreme Court considered the case of Richard Perry Loving, who was white, and his wife, Mildred Loving, of African American and Native American descent.

The case changed history – and was captured on film by LIFE photographer Grey Villet, whose black-and-white photographs are now set to go on display at the International Center of Photography.

Follow the link to see some of the beautiful photos of this brave family.

For a 31-year-old like myself, it’s hard to comprehend that my parents grew up in a world in which people of different races weren’t allowed to marry. I hope that my children will be able to say the same of a world in which same-sex couples were denied the same privilege.

It’s another reminder of just how much progress has been made in the last half century on social issues. Social conservatives feel the acute sting of their defeats in this arena, which has done more than anything to accentuate culture wars and partisan divides in America.

Those culture wars in turn have been easy prey for the plutocrats in reversing the ground won by the New Deal and the Great Society. Reaganism would never have gotten off the ground without the cultural resentment of Nixonland.

Has it been worth the price? I would say so. Changes to economic structures can happen quickly, often with a single stroke of a pen. Social changes take much longer, require more effort, and cannot be pronounced through fiat legislation.

Hard-won gains in the culture wars may have been an inadvertent cause of the dark economic period in which we find ourselves. But this time, when we do take back our economic future from the plutocrats, we’ll be able to do it for all our citizens, not just the straight white males.

And that will be a beautiful thing indeed.

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Quote ‘o the day

by digby

Guess who?

So Newt wanted an open marriage. BFD. At least he asked his wife for permission instead of cheating on her. That’s a mark of character, in my book. Newt’s a victim. We all are. Ours is the horniest generation. We were soldiers in the sex revolution. We were tempted by everything from Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice to Plato’s retreat, Deep Throat to no fault divorce. Many of us paid the ultimate price, AIDS, abortion, or alimony for the cultural marching orders we got. Hell, for all I know we should be getting disability from the government.

I just … oh, whatever.

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