Thursday, April 12, 2012

Really? Calling People Pinko is so 1950.

I might not make it until November without my head exploding.

Maybe literally.

Figuratively is bad enough.

A Republican house member from Florida was in his home state this week and said that "about 78-81" Democratic members of Congress were Communists.

On how many levels is this just insane?

Is there a consipiracy?
Do they have horns or something?
Where does this bizarrely specific number even come from?
Do they carry cards?

My other new favorite is all the candidates who have pledged to vote a certain way AHEAD OF TIME. I'm not talking about campaign rhetoric--these pledges are something else entirely. This is signing their names to back positions before they see a bill. Before they discuss a bill. Before stopping to consider what might be best for the voters. They are selling out instead to the PACS with all the money. This is such thinly veiled vote buying that it makes me fear for the future of our country. Where are the statesmen??

Mitt Romney has committed both in writing and in words to a lot f these. The linked article is an editorial, and admittedly, a bit inflammatory, but it presents some really important questions. Who will really be running the country if he is elected? The money makes me sick. I know. . . . I know . . . those of you more right leaning can make the argument the other direction: who is running it now? The to-the-right answers range from socialists to communists to unions to intellectuals. But if I had to choose, I think I'll take my chances with the unions and intellectuals over the banks and oil companies.

4 comments:

Kimberly Bluestocking said...

This is why I hate politics. If I think about it, I start feeling disgusted, disillusioned, paranoid . . . virtually every lousy emotion there is.

But if we don't think about it, things will only get worse because good people will offer no resistance at all to greed and outright foolishness.

Melanie said...

Hmm, a junior senator alleging that other lawmakers are card-carrying communists but that he won't provide the names. I think I've heard this one before! (If I didn't know better I would have thought that this was an April Fool's joke.)


PS Senator W: take a lesson from history - it doesn't end well for the one who starts pointing fingers.

Cathy said...

About the pledges--this is actually fairly common, common enough that President Obama talks about pledges he was asked to sign during his senatorial election campaign in his book. I agree that it's fishy, and that it may be very poor governing policy. But it's common in both parties.

And yes, calling people communists and then not producing names or proof mostly discredits the person making the claim--at least with those who think instead of blindly follow.

Scully said...

As a constituent, I'm appalled. They aren't even trying to hide it behind a thin curtain of democracy - it is a straight up oligarchy if PACS and, especially, superPACS are dictating legislation so openly. It is so frustrating to feel so ignored and so ineffective. Yes I vote, but this pledging is telling me that my vote is immaterial to the people who want my vote. Unless my priorities line up with the priorities of their biggest donors. Which they do not.