Wednesday, November 07, 2012

The Truce of the Bear

I am pleased to note that that my countrymen were, indeed, not That Fucking Stupid.
OK.

Some were.

But the critical mass of Americans rejected the siren call of Republican cloudcuckooland. the fantasy that we could lower taxes and fight wars and "privatize" everyfuckingthing and not get screwed like a drunken prom date.

Better; it seems that the immense Edifice of Stupid that calls itself the Tea Party managed to find candidates that were not just stupid but stupid and indiscreet to the point where not even the most purblind of scriveners and the least informed of voters could ignore them.

That the sort of men like Akin and Mourdock are now, happily, hopefully, now filling out the employment application at the local quickee-mart warms my liberal heart.

Note to the GOP: next time, run fewer rape philosophers.

Krugman summed it up well: "...one big thing that just happened was that the real America trumped the “real America”. And it’s also the election that lets us ask, finally, “Who cares what’s the matter with Kansas?”

But.

That was merely a battle. The war continues. Now is not the time for complacency or mercy. Now is not the time for pity or ease. Listening to the commentary late in the evening on CNN I was stunned by the punditry talking about how this victory meant that Obama and the Dems would need to make MORE compromises with the plutocrats and oligarchs.

The Rovian disease abounds in the land; nearly half our countrymen voted for an entitled dick who wanted to govern like Herbert Hoover and whose functionaries are worse, who are working for the New Feudalism. The people who loved them some Bush, some Cheney, will not respect our "cooperation" and our "bipartisanship". They never have. They will respect a boot in the face.

Bob Reich talks about how we must "rediscover the public good".

But that would mean purging the Right of those Visigoths who deny that there IS such a thing as "public good"; the relentless union-busters, government-shrinkers, privatizers, theocrats, and teatards.

We must always remember; as it is presently constituted the Republican Party cannot be reformed. Ceterum censeo GOP delendam esse.
"But (pay, and I put back the bandage) this is the time to fear,
When he stands up like a tired man, tottering near and near;
When he stands up as pleading, in wavering, man-brute guise,
When he veils the hate and cunning of his little, swinish eyes;

"When he shows as seeking quarter, with paws like hands in prayer
That is the time of peril -- the time of the Truce of the Bear!"

Eyeless, noseless, and lipless, asking a dole at the door,
Matun, the old blind beggar, he tells it o'er and o'er;
Fumbling and feeling the rifles, warming his hands at the flame,
Hearing our careless white men talk of the morrow's game;

Over and over the story, ending as he began: --
"There is no truce with Adam-zad, the Bear that looks like a Man!"

~ R. Kipling The Truce of the Bear

13 comments:

jim hruska said...

Chief,
In my corner of the universe we re- elected a tea bagger for a second term in Congress.
I have studied American politics in college and have followed this thru life, and i cannot put any logical thought to these affairs.
In Tallahassee there were blocks of folks waving banners for R/R and Southerland and they were pure white bread party faithfuls. In my hometown of Quincy it was just the opposite. Not one white man for O/Lawson.
Maybe this is an unfair comment,BUT neither white nor black bothered to populate the OTHERS cheering sections,but there must've been crossover.
Or so i tell myself.
jim

Anonymous said...

Last night, watching Obama send his wife and daughters off-stage, I thought he looked like a man girding up for the Colosseum. He has no illusions about what the next four years will be.

I hope, this time around? That when the REthuglicans of the House block action, I hope Obama takes to the airwaves and names them publicly and gives out their freaking phone numbers and tells the real America go give them a hard piece of mind.

Anonymous said...

"Hoping" was what influenced my Obama vote in 2008, haven't seen that fulfilled in the past 4 years and I don't expect to see it fulfilled in the next 4.

But I do enjoy surprises.

Local news, what moderate republicans Kansas had were primaried out of existence and what Democrats Kansas had left were thoroughly trounced.

b

gruff said...

Regarding your wish that the Republican Party be destroyed, you might find it interesting that some on the far right wing are making similar noises:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2956166/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2956240/posts

Big Daddy said...

Closer to home, my Fox news watching in-laws are threatening to flee the country. I think I'm going to call them up tonight and sing The Internationale over the phone.
My fondest hope is that this election convinces Obama to stop coddling Wall Street and start beating on the Republicans.

FDChief said...

This morning I got off the plane in Coos Bay, picked up the rental car, drove to the hardware store to pick up supplies and the very first person I met in town was the dude in line that was tying to convince the clerk that President Obama looks like Curious George.

It just doesn't stop, does it?

mike said...

Chief –

Nice bit of Kipling. That bear is already gearing up for the 2014 congressional elections. That is where the true test will be. Bronco Bama’s victory yesterday will be good for our Foreign Policy and maybe for our Supreme Court. But not much else I fear.

Our economic future, energy future, our health&fitness futures, and the social issues we hold dear still remain in the hands of Boehner, Cantor, and Ryan. The real power is in the House of Representatives where we failed to win. And the power to rig those congressional elections is with the gerrymandering power of state legislatures. I think we did win a few state legislatures, but not enough. I heard we took both the Senate and the House in Minnesota – hmmm, that would be great to get rid of Bachmann. But maybe there is a smarter strategy? Instead of trying to get rid of Bachmann or other right wing whackos, do like the Dixiecrat Republicans did to dilute the democratic vote throughout the south in the late 70s and 80s. Do not get rid of Bachmann’s district, instead make it more Republican. Ghettoize wingnut congressmen by making their districts 95+% Republican, thereby watering down their vote in other congressional districts. It worked for them in the south. We need to stop playing Mr Nice Guy. As you or some other wise man said, this is a duel in which they chose the weapons. We should be able to use those weapons also. That is the only way to drive a stake in that bears heart.

BTW – regarding your October trip to Hoodsport and the post ”Down Among the Dead Men”. The one where you mentioned seeing all the Romney/Ryan signs out in front of rundown shacks. I thought you might be interested in the election results of that fair county.

- Obama by 6 points (better than his national avg)
- Cantwell (D) for Senate by 13.5 points
- Kilmer (D) for Congress by 4.5 points

Maybe those guys are not so dead after all. I suspect a lot of those RomRy signs you saw were bought and paid for by people not living in the shanty back behind the sign.

FDChief said...

jim: Given the openly racist tone of the GOP I can see no point in any person colored darker than skim milk skewing Republican. It would be a simple case of self interest. As for white people in the D's, well, they must have been there, as you note.

Labrys: The war continues, yes, and hopefully now Obama and the Democrats "get" that accomodation wins them nothing from these people.

basil: At this point we CAN only hope. I do not EXPECT to see Obama and the D's become any more left than the Eisenhower Republicans they are now.

Sadly for Kansas, electing people who believe that government is bad is pretty much a guarantee that they will govern badly. Kansastan and the red states can serve only as an example for more prudent polities at this point.

gruff: Ironic that the Freepers - who helped drive the GOP clown car into the ditch as much or more than anyone outside Drudge and Limbaugh - are now mewling that they want their souls back from the devil. Fuck 'em, I say. I don't want the GOP to "improve" a little from where it is now. IF I can't have the pre-Reagan GOP I grew up with, the Rockefeller party, then I want it napalmed and the corpse dismembered.

FDChief said...

mike: I was JUST reading about how the outright gerrymandering help produce the Red House we have now. Ridiculous. Friends in Arizona are telling me about Maricopa County, where the local GOP worked its ass off to suppress the Hispanic Obama vote.

Worse than just the chicanery in this sort of bullshit is the damage it does to a democratic citizenry. When the people lose faith that a simple honest vote will get them anywhere the entire system falls into disrepute. From there the way is open to despotism.

There is no reasoning with sort of people who would risk destroying the entire structure of their government for petty political advantage. There is only the boot and the fist, the double-tap in the back of the skull.

And good to hear about MAson County! Glad that the residents there rose above the electioneering to fight for their own best interests - which are NOT the same as Stimpson Timber's...

rangeragainstwar said...

Chief,
Bottom line- this election was not a victory for anyone.
Let's take my Congressional district win by a right wing christian dedicated to not spending money we don't have. This puke was elected b/c he opposes obama care.
OK O won the white house.
Can he control or work with people like my congressman??
Ironically Southerland won't spend money we don't have, but he sure cashes his pay check, which is 40% money we don't have.
All this election e=insured is future grid lock.
The Repub party must move to center as must the Dems. Otherwise they will die. This is historically correct.
The only reason the dems will survive is not that they're better but b/c the poor disenfranchished 'HOPERS" will vote them in.
Obama was not and is not POTUS material, but he was electable.
I hate to use your statement, but wasf'd.....
I read Jared Diamonds book COLLAPSE during the last week and avoided all election noise.
jim

FDChief said...

jim: If the Democrats moved any further to the "center" they'd be Taft Republicans. They're ALREADY "Rockefeller Republicans" and have been since the Clinton triangulation.

There's only really one solution here; we're going to have to become the nation that the GOP wants us to be - the oligarchic neofeudalist nation where the plutocratic crust rules the lumpen mass - or the GOP as presently constituted must be destroyed and replaced with a "conservative" party that actually believes in government.

There IS no "compromise" possible between the current parties that leaves us 47% with sustainable lives.

And I'd argue that Obama is no worse than the alternatives. He's a technowonk and a compromiser by nature, but his politics aren't really out of line with the Dems as a whole.

Lisa said...

"... the most purblind of scriveners" -- I love your hyperrealistic descriptions of the drudges (of both parties).

Wonderful use of Kipling, too. I would ask Jim why he feels the Democrats need to come to the center; aren't they already (as led by Obama) pretty centrist? I do agree the Republican party needs to regain its senses; however, since that would entail losing the wing nuts (=votes), I doubt they will.

The Republicans are playing on the last vestiges -- the dying light -- of a world which has moved on, and it panders to those who wish to hang back with the brutes. It exploits those nostalgic feelings, doing its faithful no service in not bringing them into the light.

Lisa said...

p.s. --

I recently discussed this with RAW and he explained that the Democrats are too far RIGHT, and need to come to the middle (to the Left), just as do the Republicans.

([ think we both thought he was suggesting the Dems move from the Left to the middle in some sort of conciliatory gesture.]