Chuck Dead?

The previous post probably makes the point moot, but my absence has to do with something other than death or illness or other catastrophe. Well most personal catastrophes anyhow. The politics of that last months is the catastrophe that's done it. Charles Pierce over at Esquire handles it with a delightful mix of mockery and sarcasm and facts. I can't manage that kind of writing and it is about my only refuge from the idiocy that's going on. I can do what I've done over the years and sing to the choir about things we all agree are somewhere beyond stupid or I can just let somebody like Pierce do it for me in a more amusing manner with a lot less effort on my part.

I don't know that the choices for voters will even begin to address what ails this nation. I'm real sure that one side is really a bad choice - but it is pretty hard to work up enthusiasm for writing about "not as bad as." The Democrats managed to do a couple things like Lilly Ledbetter and the DADT Repeal that weren't GOP policy. They did manage a stimulus that was hamstrung from the beginning by being written for GOP votes or sensibilities that weren't ever there. Otherwise it has been GOP policy dressed up. Sure, the ACA is better than nothing, but considering what it is in opposition to that is extremely faint praise - and that isn't because the GOP hung it; Democrats did that all on their own.

You can make a case that this President and the last two Congresses have faced unprecedented obstruction from the GOP. The problem with that case is that for the first two years Democrats could do what Democrats wanted to do and what they managed was essentially rewarmed GOP policy. In the face of the wreckage brought about by GOP economics the Democrats managed to pass GOP bills that the current GOP hates with a passion. I didn't expect a left agenda, but I expected something more than putting on the brakes - like pointing in another direction. Maybe it is my leftist viewpoint that makes just slowing the damage not seem in the least adequate or a generator of enthusiasm. How many times can I write that one side is crazy and our side is bought and owned to the extent that they'll do spit?

Just blaming the politicians is stupid, they do have to get themselves elected. Getting elected means that the voters are the folks sending them there to do this half-assed job and it appears that the voters don't know what it is they're trying to get done. If the voters don't know what the hell is going on; one would have to ask what reason there is for the media to have access to us? Radio and television use public space to spread their crap and when it pretends to be news or information and is nothing but corporate owned propaganda that space is being misused by those with no inherent right to use it at all. Print is another issue and its slow demise seems to make the case that it is not meeting the market's desires.

The real shame is that there are Democrats in office that understand what it is that I'm getting at and wouldn't need a hell of big push to go for some kind of change but the scared little corporate rabbits that make up the rest of the Party will make sure it is pointless just as they've done for decades. They have achieved real power with the advent of complete obstructionism from the crazy Party - so there you are. And here we all are.