Colbert: First question, why are you wearing a cross? You know Jesus preached social justice. Makes you look like a commie.
Matalin: Yes he did. He also preached teach em how to fish. Not give em a fish, right? You don’t work you don’t eat.
Colbert: He said “I will make you fishers of men.” I don’t think Jesus said “if you don’t work you don’t eat.” I think that was Cool Hand Luke.
I think this explains the reason why the Republicans are so upset at the idea that the government should do something to help the tens of millions of people who don’t have health insurance. They think it says so in the Bible. The problem is that the people they’re listening to see Atlas Shrugged as the Bible. That misunderstanding has led to some confusion.
You should go look at the video to see the size of the glittering diamond cross she’s wearing. I think she must have ripped it off of a Cathedral somewhere. I don’t think the Queen of England in her capacity as head of the Church has anything like that. (Either that or it’s one of those Baby Phat zircons you can buy in the Lillian Vernon catalog.)
The horror of forced health care is so terrible that it will, like slavery and the Great Depression, call forth poets and songwriters to speak for the oppressed and the displaced. I think when history records this era, it will see Michael Bérubé as the Woody Guthrie of the teabag movement:
The night the country died In the deep of a Sunday night In the land of the health care bill When the free republic died And they talk about it still When a man named Al-Barack Took his fascist voting bloc And he called his gang to war With the forces of the law I heard my grandma cry I heard her pray the night the country died Brother what a night it really was Brother what a fight it really was Glory be I heard my grandma cry I heard her pray the night the country died Brother what a night the people saw Brother what a fight the people saw Yes indeed And we took our tea in bags Through the streets around the Hill As we screamed at blacks and fags Chanting, “n****r kill the bill.” There was Boehner on the floor And threats of civil war But by midnight it was done And the socialists had won I heard my grandma cry I heard her pray the night the country died Brother what a night it really was Brother what a fight it really was Glory be I heard my grandma cry I heard her pray the night the country died Brother what a night the people saw Brother what a fight the people saw Yes indeed Then there was no sound at all But a hush upon the Mall For as the clock struck one The death panels had begun And then at the break of day Obama took grandma away* The night the country died The night the country died Brother what a night the people saw Brother what a fight the people saw Yes indeed
Congratulations Or Even A Sigh Of Relief Are A Waste Of Time
by tristero
Given their disgracefully clueless performances in the recent past, I have no doubt that right now leading Democratic strategists at the White House, in Congress, and across the country are pouring out the champagne and letting down their guard. Think I’m kidding? Read this:
All of the Rs have very long, very disappointed, very glum faces. None of them seem able to even conjure up a bit of good old-fashioned outrage for a decent rant. They know what’s coming. They know they can’t stop it. They look defeated. As a decades-long C-SPAN junkie, I don’t think this debate will have nearly the kind of fireworks that we might have been expecting. After all of this, I believe this is going to end with a whimper. There’s just no heart in the Rs for a fight anymore. I wonder if the same is true with the tea partiers. Will they be angered or deflated?
That question doesn’t deserve a response, but Josh takes it seriously, and thinks his commenter may be “prescient.”
Uh-huh. My guess is that such naively optimistic, and thoroughly delusional, sentiments are rampant right now. They think “we” won. Even worse, they think that Republicans realize they lost and have folded. That is sheer nonsense.
Democrats fail to understand that the real fight, the one with no holds barred whatsoever, began exactly one millisecond after the gavel came down. And if history is any judge, they are completely unprepared for what is about to hit them.
Foul epithets? Teabaggers carrying guns to rallies? Members of Congress finding excuses to justify terrorism against government offices? Don’t Democrats get it? That’s what the rightwing fanatics hellbent on wrecking this country were doing when they were being polite. That’s their idea of civility. The gloves have just come off. After all, they got nothing to lose.
“A republic if you can keep it,” a wise American once said. I’d feel a lot more confident that we could if I thought that Democrats had the slightest understanding of exactly what it will take.
Further reason neither to celebrate or relax: Let’s not forget this bill is, as they say, far from perfect.
Does all this sound ungrateful and churlish? Let’s see where we’re at in November. Then let’s see where we’re at in 2012.
Kathryn Jean Lopez chimes in, “Congratulations, Democrats. Beginning now, you own the health-care system in America. Every hiccup. Every complaint. Every long line. All yours.”
It’s like Lopez didn’t notice that the bill took almost a year to pass because of the constant bait-and-switch run by conservatives who pretended to be interested in a compromise. No Republicans voted for it in the end, but because of that process, the law has the indelible imprint on it of the obstinate Republican minority.
Got it? No? Ok, let me explain.
I got no problem with refuting stupid, emotionally irrational, and utterly fact-free assertions from crazy people through the calm use of reason. But responding to Lopez’s loopy claptrap by writing “the indelible imprint … of the obstinate Republican minority” isn’t calm or reasonable rhetoric. It’s just pretentious, self-indulgent and condescending.
So what’s better? Well, I only had a minute or so, but here’s a start:
For over an entire year, Republicans refused to act like grown-ups when it came to healthcare reform, They never proposed anything even remotely serious. And rather than help the American people understand the issues, they simply chose to scare us. They lied, they delayed, they threw genuinely enormous tantrums, and they lied some more.
Finally, when push came to shove and they had the opportunity to vote, they behaved like immature, frightened infants. Not a single Republican had the guts to defy their dictatorial leaders and the deep pockets of the corporations who back them. Not a single Republican had the courage to represent his country’s interests instead of the insurance companies’.
Congratulations, Republicans. You are now officially the Party of Two-Year-Olds.
The teabaggers are all upset that the Democrats passed a bill without any Republican votes. Evidently, this makes it illegitimate and unconstitutional. I’m not surprised they think this. They get their constitutional instruction from Glenn Beck.
But what can you say about the front runner for the 2012 presidential nomination?
A Campaign Begins Today [Mitt Romney]
America has just witnessed an unconscionable abuse of power. President Obama has betrayed his oath to the nation — rather than bringing us together, ushering in a new kind of politics, and rising above raw partisanship, he has succumbed to the lowest denominator of incumbent power: justifying the means by extolling the ends. He promised better; we deserved better.
He calls his accomplishment “historic” — in this he is correct, although not for the reason he intends. Rather, it is an historic usurpation of the legislative process — he unleashed the nuclear option, enlisted not a single Republican vote in either chamber, bribed reluctant members of his own party, paid-off his union backers, scapegoated insurers, and justified his act with patently fraudulent accounting. What Barack Obama has ushered into the American political landscape is not good for our country; in the words of an ancient maxim, “what starts twisted, ends twisted.”
I can’t help but recall hearing a whole lot of patronizing advice from these same people a few years back when anyone breathed that President Bush might not have legitimately taken office since he lost the popular vote, his brother manipulated the system in Florida and he was was installed by a partisan supreme court decision. Back then it was all “get over it,” and “I’ve got political capital and I’m gonna spend it!” Now, these same people are all screaming that it’s a usurpation if the Democrats win the majority and then pass legislation that they don’t like.
It’s fairly clear that Republicans don’t understand how democracy works. You campaign, people vote, you win elections, you get a majority, you pass legislation. They seem to think Democracy means that that elections are irrelevant, majorities are meaningless and that all legislation is contingent upon the permission of the Republican Party.
I’m sorry these people are so unhappy. I know how they feel. I used to hate it when the Republicans passed some disgusting initiative that went against everything I believe in. But I don’t recall having a mental breakdown at the notion that they could do it even though I didn’t want them to. The idea that they were obligated to do my bidding didn’t actually cross my mind.
As they used to say repeatedly, “elections have consequences.” If the people don’t like this bill, they have every right to turn the Democrats out of office and repeal it. But screaming hysterically that it’s cheating to pass legislation with a majority just proves that these folks’ great reverence for the constitution is based more on their love of wearing funny hats than anything that’s written in it.
This is how the system works. If you don’t like it, start pressing for a constitutional amendment that requires that all legislation be approved by every teabagger in the land before it can be enacted. Or start campaigning to put your teabaggers in office so they can have a majority and enact the legislation you like. In either event, stop the whining about “abuse of power.” They passed a bill you don’t like, for crying out loud, it’s not like they seized office with a partisan decision by the Supreme Court and then invaded a country that hadn’t attacked us or anything…
In 1968, a ten-year-old boy had to go to the hospital four times a week for treatment. Without that treatment, he had trouble breathing, and he felt like he was suffocating. Because he was suffocating. His health care was covered by his parents’ health insurance. But then they lost their jobs. They were worried about how they would pay the rent. He was worried about whether he would live or die. How can we let a 10-year-old think about such things? Whether you are Democratic or Republican, left-wing or right-wing, liberal or libertarian, you know in your heart that that’s wrong. And it’s what you know in your heart, your empathy, that makes you human. I was that 10-year-old boy. And I haven’t forgotten.
That’s why I support universal, comprehensive and affordable health care for all American. For you. For me. And for sure, for my five young children, and yours, too. The supposed “sins” of joblessness, homelessness and poverty, those “sins” of the parents, should never descend on the children. I’m fighting for a decent life for all, especially our children. That’s why I voted yes on today’s health care reform bill. It’s an historic first step. Historic. But we’re not done. The framework for a comprehensive health care system is in place. Now we must finish the job. Our Medicare You Can Buy Into Act now has over 80 cosponsors in the House and over 40,000 citizen cosponsors at WeWantMedicare.com. It’s a simple bill, to let you and me buy into Medicare. You want it, you buy it, you got it. www.wewantmedicare.com
This reform bill has many holes in it, as you know. And when that becomes obvious, it’s going to be necessary to have the public plan sponsored and ready, the idea fully developed and the political support in place to quickly pass this when the opportunity strikes.
I have to go out and live some real life. The vote is imminent and will, according to all we know, pass. So, I’ll just breathe a big sigh of relief and say congratulations to the Democrats and the president and onward to the next big battles in the Senate.
And more importantly, onward to Alan Grayson’s Medicare for all bill HR4789, which I hope will be part of every progressive’s platform going forward until it’s done.
Update: BTW, I hope the Democrats are prepared to rebut this lie that the bill isn’t paid for. David Gregory, who clearly doesn’t understand anything, can’t stop talking about how expensive the bill is and how it depends on future congresses doing something they likely will not do. Evidently, he thinks deficit projections are written in stone, but legislation is ephemeral.
That’s what David Frum is calling it. And if one is talking about the end of the Republican Party as a serious organization dedicated to governing the people of the United States according to the founding principles, that battle was lost some time back:
Conservatives and Republicans today suffered their most crushing legislative defeat since the 1960s.
It’s hard to exaggerate the magnitude of the disaster. Conservatives may cheer themselves that they’ll compensate for today’s expected vote with a big win in the November 2010 elections. But:
(1) It’s a good bet that conservatives are over-optimistic about November – by then the economy will have improved and the immediate goodies in the healthcare bill will be reaching key voting blocs.
(2) So what? Legislative majorities come and go. This healthcare bill is forever. A win in November is very poor compensation for this debacle now.
So far, I think a lot of conservatives will agree with me. Now comes the hard lesson:
A huge part of the blame for today’s disaster attaches to conservatives and Republicans ourselves.
At the beginning of this process we made a strategic decision: unlike, say, Democrats in 2001 when President Bush proposed his first tax cut, we would make no deal with the administration. No negotiations, no compromise, nothing. We were going for all the marbles. This would be Obama’s Waterloo – just as healthcare was Clinton’s in 1994.
Only, the hardliners overlooked a few key facts: Obama was elected with 53% of the vote, not Clinton’s 42%. The liberal block within the Democratic congressional caucus is bigger and stronger than it was in 1993-94. And of course the Democrats also remember their history, and also remember the consequences of their 1994 failure.
This time, when we went for all the marbles, we ended with none.
Could a deal have been reached? Who knows? But we do know that the gap between this plan and traditional Republican ideas is not very big. The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.
Barack Obama badly wanted Republican votes for his plan. Could we have leveraged his desire to align the plan more closely with conservative views? To finance it without redistributive taxes on productive enterprise – without weighing so heavily on small business – without expanding Medicaid? Too late now. They are all the law.
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 re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage? And even if the votes were there – would President Obama sign such a repeal?
We followed the most radical voices in the party and the movement, and they led us to abject and irreversible defeat.
[…]
So today’s defeat for free-market economics and Republican values is a huge win for the conservative entertainment industry. Their listeners and viewers will now be even more enraged, even more frustrated, even more disappointed in everybody except the responsibility-free talkers on television and radio. For them, it’s mission accomplished. For the cause they purport to represent, it’s Waterloo all right: ours.
Yes, they were defeated. But that was part of the plan. This toxic machine is a creature of the same conservative movement and corporate sponsors that run the GOP. They have no one to blame but themselves. And I don’t know that I believe anyone but David Frum and David Gergen mind much. The party thinks they will win big in November, whether the bill passes not — and that’s all they care about. The point is to keep their people at a fever pitch so they can beat the Democrats’ turn-out. If a few “unfortunate incidents” happen in the meantime, well — that’s what happens when you foolishly put Democrats in charge and make the neanderthals angry.
What that means is what we already know — the wingnut fringe is in charge of the Republican party and if they manage to get a majority (and God forbid, the presidency) this country is in big trouble. And whatever small corner of sanity still exists in the party has shown that they are completely impotent to do anything about it.
What that also means is that these crazy people could very easily do what seems unthinkable: repeal this legislation. They play a very different form of politics than everybody else. I think that should be obvious by now.