tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post6115491108600739136..comments2024-03-21T14:41:14.622-07:00Comments on Graphic Firing Table: The RazorFDChiefhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-77817458525545193982008-05-19T05:46:00.000-07:002008-05-19T05:46:00.000-07:00Geez, Chief, I thought I was the pessimist here.Geez, Chief, I thought I was the pessimist here.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-71217731306641546782008-05-18T20:15:00.000-07:002008-05-18T20:15:00.000-07:00L: My parents, lifelong country club Republicans, ...L: My parents, lifelong country club Republicans, changed parties after the Gingrich Era. They cannot speak for loathing the present GOP authorities.<BR/><BR/>Mike: The "rank and file" Republicans have had a chance to repudiate the cretinous malefactors currently leading their party: instead they chose to anoint the Dauphin the drooling idiot King has misbegotten. I don fear driving them anywhere. They can be neither led nor driven but only, as befitting livestock, butchered and rendered for their useful parts.<BR/><BR/>The 20-25% percent of this country that is still giving Dick Cheney approval have been lost to Constitutional decencies. The nation will recover only as they shuffle (obedient to their masters as always) into the grave. "Change occurs one death at a time".<BR/><BR/>Pluto: I'm not sure that McCain is inevitable. But I fear that the Democrats have lost the <I>elan</I> to break out of our political death-furrow, and the Republicans would rather be ideologically correct than functional. Obama would simply prove that there is a conscience in our nation worth saving, not that it will be saved. The slow descent into decrepitude will continue.FDChiefhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10607785969510234092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-75024578182649719812008-05-17T18:07:00.000-07:002008-05-17T18:07:00.000-07:00I started off disagreeing with you, Chief. But as...I started off disagreeing with you, Chief. But as I parsed your arguments trying to figure out what I didn't agree with, I came to realize that you were going in a different direction than I expected. I believe that you are basically correct but I've got a few more thoughts to throw in as well.<BR/><BR/>1. The Republicans have been victimized by their own success. They've gotten everything they originally asked for, so what can they offer us now? Just more of the same until nausea occurs.<BR/><BR/>2. The Democratic party disintegrated when we weren't looking. A political party needs to do a number of things well in order to survive: raise money for its causes, achieve internal agreement on policy, enforce party discipline, and recognize and groom younger talent for future roles. The Democratic party only does the first well and that's not enough to govern.<BR/><BR/>An example of this occured when the Democrats took over both houses of Congress in 2006. They planned to pass their top 10 initiatives in something like 72 hours. It took over 30 days just to get enough internal agreement to turn the initatives into bills and only one ever got passed, a minor raise in the minimum wage.<BR/><BR/>The Republicans have used stalling tactics very effectively since then to ensure that the Democrats can't claim any legislative successes.<BR/><BR/>3. The Republicans know that the Democrats have disintegrated and that they really don't have opposition. This is a major problem for the Republicans because they know that they can do nearly anything they want. This has made them lazy, complacent, and corrupt.<BR/><BR/>It has also fostered a lack of willingness to compromise. Why work with the Democrats when you don't have to?<BR/><BR/>4. This last point has fostered a growing anger in the Democratic party (not unlike that found in a certain minister's speeches) that has further eroded any sense of the compromise necessary for a democracy to work.<BR/><BR/>When the Democrats finally took control of Congress in 2006 they took great glee in excluding the Republicans from leadership positions (just as they had been excluded). But this has been for naught because of the Republican stalling tactics and the inability of their own party to stay focused on anything but entitlement programs. <BR/><BR/>This has led to a bitter struggle between the parties that has spread to the state and probably the local levels.<BR/><BR/>While people from Oregon and Texas like each other, their political masters feel very different emotions and this can lead us into a world of trouble.<BR/><BR/>Add in a weakening economy and shrinking awareness of the actual state of the rest of the world by the average American and we're creating a bitter witches brew of government by hatred and innuendo that will last far longer than either of us and will do far more harm than either of us can imagine.<BR/><BR/>You and I both see Obama as the last hope to erase some of the damage done by the last 10 years. But I personally pity Obama. He has no idea of what the Republican propaganda machine is capable of and it has far too much information about his strengths and weaknesses for my comfort. I fear that President McCain is inevitable and I continue to prepare for the Dark Ages that follow the fall of the American Empire.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-91391044520867609492008-05-17T11:52:00.000-07:002008-05-17T11:52:00.000-07:00FDChief:I have always admired your thoughts and yo...FDChief:<BR/><BR/>I have always admired your thoughts and your gift with words. I for one would vote for you for office over both Obama and Clinton or any other. <BR/><BR/>And I agree with you wholeheartedly that the GOP has been badly misled and propagandized. <BR/><BR/>But rank and file Republicans, whether from Texas or Eastern Oregon, are not our enemies. Painting them as such - or painting them as deluded moronic racists - will only drive them (and many Independents) deeper into the arms of those who hope to prosper from political intrigue.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31246093.post-22058168391782314142008-05-17T10:11:00.000-07:002008-05-17T10:11:00.000-07:00Indeed, indeed.Love this: in the space of eight y...Indeed, indeed.<BR/><BR/>Love this: <I>in the space of eight years the GOP has become a freakish example of the parodistic effects of age, as ideas often become stiff and shrill exaggerations of the richer beliefs formed in our maturity</I><BR/><BR/>It reminds me a little of my parents and my in-laws. Unfortunately. As they are all also GOPers.Linda Dovehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02776352090489595324noreply@blogger.com