Comments

1
God! Do they even listen to themselves??? Every. Other. Developed. Nation. has universal health care, and every one of those countries has lower infant mortality rates (the marker of a country's health, right?) than the US...how can they defend that? I mean, I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but does their stupidity know no bounds? Grrrrr.
3
if you saw the video of Mitch McDouchnozzle speaking, you couldn't help but think that he was giving the ol' nudge-nudge, wink-wink to every gun wielding nutcase to go take out the Prez. He's the new Enemy of the State.
4
Of course they know that @1, but it simply doesn't matter to them. Not if it means moving even one half-step closer to the "socialist nightmare" their mid 19th Century world-view tells them will start the nation on the path toward people having to rely on others besides themselves. Because, "murka is the land where everybody does for themselves, and themselves alone.

That, and the fact their Insurance Industry lobbyist friends don't like it, so...
5
It's stunning really. Comte, I know what you say is true, but it's so hard to process. There was a quote on JoeMyGod from Tony Perkins:
"At its core, this is a center-right country where things like 'hope' and 'change' are still measured against our greatest ideals. It's still a place where freedom matters more than 'progress.' "

So, I guess if "hope," "change," and "progress" are dirty words to you, maintaining the status quo for yourself and other straight, white men trumps dead babies.

I wish they'd discuss infant mortality rates with all of these "pro lifers" (or, as they describe it at the place where I volunteer, "anti choice.")
6
They should try to explain the indefensible military spending they're so fond of.
8
Wasn't there something else Republicans said they were going to do first? Something that was basically the entire reason they all got elected? I remember it had something to do with the economy... Something about the unemployment rate, maybe? Well, no matter. Keeping someone else from getting re-elected sounds like a good use of their time.
9
Oh come now, Canuck! Increasing the survival rate of infants not born to families that can afford adequate medical care is utterly immoral. The Republicans want to do their part to decrease the surplus population.
10
Normally, I wouldn't dream of regurgitating another publication's comments here, but this editorial on the election from the Pueblo (Colorado) Chieftain just blew my mind:

Voters nationwide repudiated the most liberal president in the nation's history when they sent to the U.S. House of Representatives at least 63 Republicans from districts held by Democrats.

The president went on television Wednesday and signaled a willingness to compromise with Republicans on tax cuts and energy policy.

Democrats in Congress overstepped, thinking they were So Smart. The public wasn't buying it.

Now the Republicans must come up with rational ways to right this ship of state so as to gain the trust of the people. After having acted as Democrat-lite politicians when last they controlled Congress, they are definitely on probation.
12
I kind of feel more nervous about the next two years than I did when Bush was re-elected.

Or maybe I simply forgot the terror of those days...
13
@12 Yeah, I think you forgot.
14
I understand your frustration @5, but I just don't know how you convince people who refuse to be uprooted from an 1870's frontier mentality, where "every man for himself" may have been a rational survival strategy, that in the 21st Century this same paradigm actually works against them. They continue to see themselves as isolated homesteaders working the land, and seem to vehemently resent the fact that they're dependent on others for any part of their lives or livelihoods. That's essentially the the undertone of Perkin's statement as I read it at least: these people would rather live in a nation where socio-economic progress of any sort remains stagnant or actually devolves, in exchange for upholding the "freedom" to live in an illusion of self-sufficiency.

What they just don't seem to get is that the people they continue to put into office are far, far better at playing the "every man for himself" game than they ever will be.
15
The Democrats are saying they want to fix the economy. The Republicans are saying they want to put the Democrats out of power.
How do they fool half the populace into liking them, anyway?
16
@10: the really capitalized "So Smart"? it reads as if it were written by a 6th-grade girl.
17
Now will liberals stop whining about how Republicans get "everything" they want? Republicans are (almost) as hamstrung by procedure and politics-as-usual as Democrats are.
18
Where are the 500,000 jobs the GOP promised us by Friday?

All I see are 150,000 private enterprise jobs President Obama created ...
19
@16 - I actually read it in a Teen Girl Squad voice...
20
@19 ftw
21
It goes without saying that those who demonstrate their displeasure with greedy bankers by enthusiastically electing the blatant toadies of greedy bankers have precious little grip on reality but their constant shrieking about freedom and having their freedoms taken away is just so laughable. The right has been behind basically every measure to ratchet up the police state and stomp on civil liberties since basically the dawn of time.
23
They view the military as sacrosanct. It doesn't phase them that the military budget is around 900 billion to 1.03 trillion, that the US is about 46.5% of the total worldwide military budget. We sell about 39% of world's arm sales. We are embedded in a culture of fear and it is viewed as un-american and un-Christ like to question "The Trinity" which is our American credo that it is our right as a nation to shape the world by 1) our global presence, 2) our projection of power, and 3) our right to start preventative wars by invading upon suspicion. Such cultural narcissism and fear of death allows us to be manipulated into believing we must invest in our self-preservation at the cost of our own lives and of the lives of others. Just look at the investment in F-22s.

The GOP lovers that I'm related to love screaming about Obamacare, and feel free to ignore the numerous additions made to it by their beloved Republicans. The idea that "dying to oneself" might not mean beating someone over the head with their Bible to convert them and might actually mean take a smaller slice of the pie, just enough to mute the pang of hunger, so the rest can eat too never fails to earn me uncomfortable moments of silence at family events.

Such is the power of culture of fear. No wonder, "end times" series make a pretty penny and are consumed so readily. To read something like the parable of the Widow and Two Sons, falls upon deaf ears.

There was once a poor woman who dwelt in the neighborhood of the landowner. Her two sons went out to gather gleanings, but the landowner did not let them take any. Their mother kept saying, "When will my sons come back from the field; perhaps I shall find that they have brought something to eat." And, they kept saying: "When shall we go back to our mother, perhaps we shall discover that she has found something to eat." She found that they had nothing and they found that she had nothing to ear. So they laid their heads on their mother's lap and the three of them died in one day. Q/Thomas

Of course, their savior wouldn't criticize US foreign policy or military spending. He is all for it. Now, seeing that everyone has their daily bread, forgiveness of debts is something he'd frown on. He didn't care for them at all.

Or as Tom Sheehan (Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford and Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago likes to say,

"When the rich concern themselves with the affairs of the poor it is charity.

When the poor concern themselves with the affairs of the rich it is anarchy."

Get their backs up and make them fear for their own personal well being and you've offended them. Mitch McConnell is offended and his parties contribution to the Obamacare escapes him. Maybe, he has been sleeping.
24
Alternate Universe!

Way to make shit happen repubs! Just flush everything down the shitter but yer guns an' ammo! You're true anarchists that want to take down the governments.

We don't need hospitals, let them pray!
People don't need school, reading is for the elites!
Corporations don't need to be regulated, they will do the Right Thing!
The environment is bullshit, God wants us to transmorgify the earth!
Kill all feminists, gays, and blacks, the 14th century was where it's at!
Shut up, get in line, work! and shut up!
26
I hope the Dems actually try to defend passing the health care bill, saving the US auto industry, pulling the stock market out of its nosedive, etc., rather than let the other side repeat their talking points unchallenged.

If there's anything to learn from this election, it's that ignoring the bully doesn't work.

Please wait...

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