Why Congress has become so dysfunctional, discredited
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
— Mark Twain
Voters have rarely held Congress in high regard. In fact, over the 38 years in which Gallup has asked the question, only 34 percent of Americans typically say they approve of its performance. These days, however, public disgust has never been deeper. In its most recent poll, Gallup found that just 10 percent of Americans approve of how Congress is operating.
Personally, I don’t know what that 10 percent is thinking, because Congress is by any measure a broken institution. While never a paragon of efficiency, in recent years it has lost the ability to function at almost any level. It produces nothing, it solves nothing, it does nothing. It serves solely as a stage upon which political actors strut and prance.
The question of why has many answers, most of them traceable back to the very beginning, to the days in which the Founding Fathers were designing the structure of government that we still retain today.
Given their ties to Great Britain, it would have been natural for the founders to model the American system after the British parliamentary system they knew so well. They didn’t. Instead, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and their colleagues consciously rejected the parliamentary model, and they did so for very American reasons.
First, they had seen enough to recognize that a parliamentary system was a “winner-take-all” system. The party that controls the majority of votes in a parliamentary system also wins the right to name the prime minister, giving it control of both the legislative and executive branches. Our founders distrusted the untrammeled power that produced, so they built a system that conspired against it.
The founders also understood that under a parliamentary system, voters cast their ballots less for individual lawmakers than for the party they represent. Moreover, once in office, members of Parliament owe more loyalty to their party leaders and platform than to the folks back home who elected them. Those were all evils that Madison, Hamilton and others wanted to minimize, even if they could not avoid them altogether.
As a result, the American system of government diffused authority and undercut party loyalty. Individual politicians could be more independent, able to vote their own conscience and the interests of their own district. And with neither party able to dictate to the other, and with the legislative and executive branches acting as competitors, compromise across party lines would be required to get anything done.
For most of our history, that system functioned more than adequately. So what has changed?
I would argue that over the past two decades, our political parties have gravitated toward a mindset in which elections have been nationalized, party discipline takes precedence over personal conscience and compromise is considered losing. It is in essence a parliamentary mindset, which is precisely what the founding fathers had hoped to discourage. And when you take that parliamentary, winner-take-all mindset and graft it onto a political system designed specifically to frustrate that mindset, you get what we’ve got: No movement.
Put another way, if you take a system that is designed to run on compromise, and you deny it access to compromise, it cannot operate.
Historically speaking, the party most responsible for that transformation is the Republican Party, and the single individual most responsible is Newt Gingrich. That observation is not intended as criticism, because from their point of view it made perfect sense. By the early ’90s, they had served as the minority party for most of the preceding 60 years, and they had grown frustrated. They could and did compromise, thus allowing the system to function, but as they compromised they saw the arc of history bending against them. They saw compromise as a way to lose slowly, and they no longer wanted to play that way.
The result, however, is a system in which two things are true: 1) With no compromise, change can now occur only when one party holds absolute dominance and 2) The pursuit of absolute dominance is hopeless, particularly in a country as evenly divided as this one.
The result, sadly, is a system of governance rapidly losing credibility with its people.
– Jay Bookman
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818 comments Add your comment
JamVet
August 28th, 2012
10:04 pm
BOTH, I can’t tell you how much fun I had at that free concert Saturday night. They tore the place down.
I have always been crazy in love with that band’s music and getting to meet them backstage was a real thrill!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYNZAK7WOws&feature=related
Brosephus™
August 28th, 2012
10:06 pm
@ 10:02
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYEoN4BBwbE
Red Carded!!!!!
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:07 pm
Damn Jam
Where did they play?
How bout inviting a brother next time
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:08 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj5f7gRLVFQ&feature=related
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
10:08 pm
Well, just damn! Fred! I haven’t heard that in ages! Thanks!
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:10 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g6nPYyIS_I
Brosephus™
August 28th, 2012
10:11 pm
They BOTH
When you walk with a glide in your stride and a dip in your hip, you can’t have nothing but patience..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7y6QLAalNU&feature=fvwrel
Kamchak ~ Thug from the Steppes
August 28th, 2012
10:11 pm
Will we get to see how good the princess’ spoofer thingie is?
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:13 pm
So there are no surprises tomorrow, please know that all the speakers tonight did the best job ever and the base is energized.
You will hear the same about the Democrat convention.
And of course the other side will say it sucked each time
getalife
August 28th, 2012
10:13 pm
I guess Jay answered my question.
He claims to use an ip spoofer to beat the ban so we will see if he does.
Fred,
Sure why not?
Fred ™
August 28th, 2012
10:14 pm
Sooth: You are welcome. Sometimes it’s good to be reminded just WHY the beatles were THE BEATLES. Like everything else in life we take it for granted and sometimes need a wake up call.
Of course my favorite was probably this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yluW8i-1J9Y
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:15 pm
Bro
Smooth selection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQTVYFRj_UA
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
10:17 pm
RepugNOwecan’t message: Obama’s “magic wand” is broken, so elect us!
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:18 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM02WcvlKn0
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
10:18 pm
Fred: it’s always amazing to me how George made it sound so easy. It’s easy for us to forget that he was a genius. And, all those amazing guitar parts were his creation.
Ahem
August 28th, 2012
10:21 pm
http://www.gallup.com/home.aspx
Check it out.
Fred ™
August 28th, 2012
10:23 pm
TBS: Look at YOU with the Victor Lamont Wooten. Isn’t he something? Until he came along I always thought this guy was one of the “kings of the bass.” Notice I say “one of” with Victor, he IS the King.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeCczUfCcsU
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
10:24 pm
American women, don’t despair. You can meet a feller like ol’ Mitt. Yes, he’s out there, you just gotta keep looking. You can leave that trailer park behind. There’s a better future just a’waitin’ fur you. You just gotta find that “right” feller. That’s all there is to it!
JamVet
August 28th, 2012
10:26 pm
BOTH, it was at the lawn in front of the Duluth City Hall, which surprisingly is a fine place to see a show.
And sorry about not telling everyone here about it. I found out about it late in the week and was trying to talk myself out of going. But it was only an easy 25 minute drive from my house, it was free and it was the Atlanta Freaking Rhythm Section!
Great Metheny piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38fJIY3vTko
Fred ™
August 28th, 2012
10:27 pm
Sooth: I know what you mean. Free your mind of everything and listen to Let it Be like it was the first time. Or Bridge Over Troubled Waters which is a more than appropriate song for the blog that Jay wrote……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-XCmb6t6Zw
Teavangelical
August 28th, 2012
10:27 pm
All you gotta do to get banned on Jay’s blog is for a Conservative to act like a Liberal.
JamVet
August 28th, 2012
10:28 pm
So the non Freddie Prince got sh*tcanned.
The guy NEVER learns…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4Sz8ZTa1UQ
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
10:29 pm
No, all you gotta do is spew personal insults. Even after you have been warned or spew insults that are so repulsive that you receive an immediate ban.
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:31 pm
Fred
I love Rush, Seen them 6 or 7 times, but Lee is not in the league of Marcus Miller, Stanley Clarke and surely not Victor Wooten.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrav_MSMjNs
Saw Clarke at the Variety Place House two weeks ago. Seen him before. He was awesome.
Marcus Miller is playing there next month. Seem him as well, but might have to see him again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrav_MSMjNs
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
10:32 pm
When you said Metheny, I thought you were talking about this guy!
Listen, you’ll love it!
Teavangelical
August 28th, 2012
10:33 pm
My personal insults were a tad cruder than yours but you didn’t get banned. I guess the insult of Teabagger is politically correct for a Liberal. Besides, how can I insult a Liberal calling them a homosexual if it’s not a problem to be one? Hypocrisy, thy name is Soothsayer.
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:33 pm
Fred
Check out this Marcus Miller bass slappn jam
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHabNK0_D3Q
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:35 pm
Sooth
Guess the spoofer works or he ran down the road to sign in elsewhere
You have to love it when someone is so desperate that they will drive to 100 places just to long in, so they can get ridiculed for their stupidity
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:37 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRpLlbOgtx4&feature=related
Brosephus™
August 28th, 2012
10:37 pm
Well, since it’s play the victim hour, that means it’s time for me to…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3EryN4stwQ
JamVet
August 28th, 2012
10:37 pm
Tealibaptist,
The whiner’s forum is next door.
Speaking of which, I was channel surfing earlier and saw the orange boner babbling on about Marxists or socialists or soemthing equally stupid.
No wonder the Princess and the other America haters constantly parrot that McCarthyist claptrap…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNvOu1rT-Fs
Teavangelical
August 28th, 2012
10:38 pm
Jay lifted my ban because he is a nice guy and understands that people make mistakes once in a while. And it was a mistake to post the words that got me banned for the weekend.
Brosephus™
August 28th, 2012
10:38 pm
They BOTH
Nah, I don’t love it. I think it’s pathetic. However, I do laugh at it!!!
Teavangelical
August 28th, 2012
10:39 pm
Facts about hypocritic Liberals isn’t whining. Whining is what you see in Obama’s ads because he can’t run on his record.
JamVet
August 28th, 2012
10:40 pm
Not to be greedy, but I shore wish they had played this one…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Q7j6s_OKg&feature=related
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:44 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnisBb2rVOg
Everyone have a great night and an even better tomorrow.
peace
Fred ™
August 28th, 2012
10:44 pm
TBS: When you preach at me about Victor you are preaching to the choir brother. Yeah I know Stanley and Marcus, (and Geddy), but that Victor…………. Just damn.
Fred ™
August 28th, 2012
10:45 pm
When it comes to politics and our Country I just wish everyone could remember…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmxJ7OzhCTY&feature=related
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
10:45 pm
Fred
Agree, Wooten is the man for sure
JamVet
August 28th, 2012
10:46 pm
Whining about your whining is…………………………. whining.
I too am out for the evening; running on fumes.
Later, gators…
Fred ™
August 28th, 2012
10:53 pm
Teavangelical
August 28th, 2012
10:38 pm
Jay lifted my ban because he is a nice guy and understands that people make mistakes once in a while. And it was a mistake to post the words that got me banned for the weekend.
++++++++++++++++++++++
No you ignorant noobie. Jay lifted your ban because he believes in free speech and struggles daily with that concept and the concept of policing a blog. I’ve been banned far longer and far more often than you can fathom from this blog. Jay cringes every time he sees my name by a post because he KNOWS I’m going to say whatever the hell I want to say and sometimes that is out of bounds and he as the monitor here may have to pull that. And as a proponent of free speech he doesn’t want to have to do that.
Jay’s a stand up guy even when he has to be a dick. And like us all sometimes he LIKES being a dick when we deserve it.
When you get banned from here, don’t blame Jay, blame you. YOU went to a point where he could no longer cover you no matter how much he tried.
Based on the little i know of you though and have read of you, here is a song for you……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_TyrEUpZ8Y
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
10:55 pm
Oh! look! The mob boss is speaking!
Teavangelical
August 28th, 2012
10:57 pm
As a Parrothead, you complement me.
Good Night
independent thinker
August 28th, 2012
10:59 pm
I feel sorry to all those people who have to listend to that oversized gasbag from New Jersey. When he talked repeatedly about bipartisan support and the need for compromise, I am almost lost my dinner. Those cheering fools forgot they have been the party of no and nonstop obstruction since the day Obama took office.Is he going to say anything about Mr Robot ?
Fred ™
August 28th, 2012
10:59 pm
My Pleasure Tea. Nice talking to you tonight.
skydog
August 28th, 2012
10:59 pm
Move down one Sooth…I don`t want to sit by this tearoot.
They BOTH suck
August 28th, 2012
11:00 pm
geatlife
I’m sure you have taken precautions.
Be safe dude, be safe
later
That Black Guy
August 28th, 2012
11:05 pm
I tried to catch up after work, but not happening.
Family in town and I have to take my bro and his wife to the airport at 0515.
nite all.
And remember, those uber right wing azzholes are the reason that those commie marxists are taking all our jerbs and making us go ghey to save us all from … uh, wait. It’s here somewhere…
Hold up, I can’t find my repubricrat talking points.
Anyway, your party SUX (at least that’s they tell me)!
Towncrier
August 28th, 2012
11:05 pm
Okay…well I did tune in to the RNC long enough to listen to Christie deliver his speech. Whatever jokes may be made about his weight, I think there is no denying he is a powerful speaker. And he is also someone who unquestionably gets things done. He was one of my top choices for becoming president, but he was unwilling to go the route. Hopefully, Romney will include him in his administration (if he is willing to so serve).
Go RNC
August 28th, 2012
11:07 pm
Awesome start to the convention
Ann Romney is amazing
getalife
August 28th, 2012
11:11 pm
Both,
Wind is picking up but no rain yet.
This one is slow.
Towncrier
August 28th, 2012
11:19 pm
“Jay cringes every time he sees my name by a post because he KNOWS I’m going to say whatever the hell I want to say and sometimes that is out of bounds and he as the monitor here may have to pull that. And as a proponent of free speech he doesn’t want to have to do that.”
Wow. What a thing to be proud of. There is no such thing as absolutely free speech. Even here in America there are limitations upon speech. So a line is drawn to demarcate those limitations. I happen to believe the line is drawn in the wrong place – that, for instance, computer generated child porn is alright while real such porn not (what sophistry – pornography is not SPEECH). But some people think, like a lewd Lenny Bruce or one of his vile disciples, that it is also just fine to be able to profanely joke (with some derivative of the word f*** used every three seconds) about some sexual act for ten minutes to an “audience” of drunken and witless people. Hey Fred, why don’t you prove your claim that you don’t care what anyone says or that you don’t change for anyone and travel down to certain parts of any city and issue inappropriate racial slurs. Or better yet, let me introduce you to some guys whose mother you can insult to their faces. Let’s see what happens then, big brave Fred.
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
11:23 pm
Fred has left the building. Can I get you another drink?
Towncrier
August 28th, 2012
11:27 pm
“Fred has left the building. Can I get you another drink?”
Seeing this is a blog rather than a building, perhaps you should have no more to drink. Me? I rarely do. But thanks for asking.
skydog
August 28th, 2012
11:29 pm
`crier – How do you check the ID of one of those Anime people?
getalife
August 28th, 2012
11:30 pm
“Me? I rarely do”
Perhaps that is why you cry all the time.
Oscar
August 28th, 2012
11:34 pm
Missed the speeches tonight. Took a nap instead. Think that was a more productive use of my time. Nap had to have been better.
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
11:35 pm
Anger, the common thread that ties all of the Fright-Wing together.
Not just regular anger, but all-consuming, gut-wrenching anger that demands and outlet.
Ergo, Jay’s blog.
skydog
August 28th, 2012
11:42 pm
You would be angry too if you had $10,000 worth of ammo and no real boogie men on the horizon.
Soothsayer
August 28th, 2012
11:46 pm
skydog: you’re my kind of blogger! Goodnight!
skydog
August 28th, 2012
11:56 pm
Later Sooth,
Braves 2-0 top of 7.
There is a giant paint can(advertisement) in the outfield of San Diego ballpark. If a ball is hit in the can a charity gets $500,000. Uggla hit one that rang the can and bounced out!
It`s probably like those peach baskets at the fair.
Towncrier
August 28th, 2012
11:59 pm
Brosephus
“It’s not really the ideology that attracts or detracts as much as it is a learned behavior to outside stimuli.”
Well, that certainly sounds more plausible. I could not see how “ideologies” per se were making the difference.
“…it is no different than the learned behavior exhibited by Pavlov.”
That is a very unflattering thing to say. You are essentially saying that certain people are largely unthinking. I hope that is not true. I think we are all of us unthinking at times, but I really believe we all have our waking moments…
“Each significant advancement of minorities (including Women’s sufferage) rights have come by way of pushing the envelope and attacking the status quo to push for changes. That follows the line of Classical Liberalism. The opposing forces that were fighting those changes would fall along the line of Classical Conservatism, or the desire to keep things as close to the same as possible.”
Well, that strikes me a very simplistic. If all of the changes “liberals” have pushed for were good and moral, then I would be more taken with your assertions. But that has not been the case. Case in point: the SCOTUS redrawing the obscenity laws to the point of absurdity – I mean, really, the court painting itself into such a illogical corner that is must
conclude that computer generated child porn is protected speech. PLEASE tell me you are not “down” with that or even that you are willing to sit passively by and say something like “Well, I don’t have to look at it”.
It is that outside stimuli that either attracts or repels minorities to or from the parties. When both parties had differing ideologies under one roof, the polarization was negligible. As the parties have polarized, the differences are stark and very obvious.
“There are many different incidents that have contributed to the divergence as well. You have political movements, like the Lily White Movement and the “Southern Strategy”. There were organizations that contributed like the KKK and the White Citizen’s Councils. There were other things like the Riots of 1919 and the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement.”
And here we get into acts of racism by SOME Republicans that strangely all get remembered but those perpetrated by the Dixiecrats and their ilk are all forgiven. Both parties had members that were guilty of vile racist acts so really they shouldn’t even factor into the equation – it being a kind of wash.
“Taking them all in totality, the negative forces against minorities were all intent on keeping things the same whereas the people fighting to make things better were trying to advance the system by changing the status quo.”
In 2012, I don’t know what you would be alluding to here.
“If we had achieved complete integration between all races in all areas of life including social, financial, educational, and other areas, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation at all.”
I don’t know what your ideal vision is, but the reality is that men and women segregate at parties. And Sunday is the most racially segregated day of the week. These are voluntary acts, not the consequence of governmental inactivity. I am proud to say that I have attended churches almost all of my adult life that are integrated (with a minority representation of about 30%). I simply refuse to attend an all white or black or Hispanic or Asian church. That is because I feel certain God is not bigoted (indeed, there is nary a word said about race in the Bible). My point is that people have to make efforts to integrate on their own. Government is not going to make that happen.
“However, when you have an undercurrent that actively fights to keep things from changing, that will always draw up those old emotions from both sides.”
How does the GOP actively fight to keep things from changing for blacks? What, specifically, are you talking about? I have already acknowledged that it could have been more proactive in finding solutions to help blacks rise above their current station. But I have worked for a Fortune 15 company and I can tell you that probably 30% of the employees there were black. Yet probably 90% or better of them vote Democratic.
“Since the communities never really completely integrated, the learned behaviors from the past are easily passed to the newer generations. Hence, you get the same responses from people now when race is brought up as you would have gotten 30-40 years ago.”
There may be some truth to this. If so, that is indeed a sad situation. Especially from the perspective of someone like me who has done quite a few things to personally help out my black brothers and sisters. And you have probably sensed my frustration at being thought of as “racist” because I am a conservative when I suspect I have done more things to help others than a number of liberal posters on this blog combined.
I’ll quit there before I get too long winded…
Dieter
August 29th, 2012
12:28 am
I think we’ve got to break the 2 party dominance and make it easier for 3rd parties. Then let them compromise on individual issues as they come up to get majorities to pass the legistlation. I think for the House of Representatives (federal and state level), we should abandon First Past the Post (FPTP) / Plurality and move toward a combination of Alternative Voting/Instant Runoff (AV or IRV) and Mixed-Member Proportioanl Voting (MMP). We’d still have districts where AV would be in place to pick the winner, but then MMP would ensure the final make up of the body more closely resembles the party make up of a given state. With FPTP, some could win all districts in a state even though they only received 50% + 1 vote (or in some states just the majority even if less than 50%). That leaves the remaining 49.9%+ without representation. AV + MMP combines local representation plus ensuring everyone will have representation. (well, not everyone, a party would need to either win 1 district seat or a certain threshold (3-5% of the vote) to gain their share of ‘top up’ seats).
Here’s a very simplistic video of how it works. In this example it utilizes FPTP for the district seats, but AV could be substituted.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
The party list/’top up’ seats representatives could be determined during each parties primary using AV in that election as well. Gerrymandering would be rendered ineffective and voters in smaller parties could actually vote for their candidate/party actually be represented.
skydog
August 29th, 2012
5:53 am
getalife – How high is the water, Mama?
Bud Wiser
August 29th, 2012
6:19 am
JamVet
August 28th, 2012
8:16 pm
Does anyone know if Herman “I was too young to be involved in the Civil Rights movement” Cain is gonna speak at the Polkafest?
Ah yes, the plantation owners from the left always have to slip in their racist ownership views of what they consider ‘their’ own political voting block, not to be tampered with, and certainly none smart enough to look at what the other side has to offer, and most assuredly not capable of making rational decisions about their own lives.
Normal Free...Pro Human Rights Thug...And liking it!
August 29th, 2012
6:52 am
It’s strange….the RNC comes on and AJC changes it’s format…Coincidence?
I feel like I’m in some alternate universe or something…
As to the RNC, I offer this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJY8jJkDoMY
BTW, Good morning to all y’all no matter what universe I’m in!
bob
August 29th, 2012
6:57 am
It’s the republicans fault that not one single democrat in the senate voted for Obama’s proposed budget.
Skip
August 29th, 2012
7:03 am
You mean thr Rep. budget that they called Obama’s?
TaxPayer
August 29th, 2012
7:15 am
Romney/Ryan 2012-Feed the Greed
TaxPayer
August 29th, 2012
7:18 am
Elect me and I promise you I will get more tax cuts – Mitt
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
August 29th, 2012
7:28 am
The best way to learn about history is to live it, so I stayed up and watched another Republican convention.
2008 was much better looking and sounding.
Nikki Haley was the strongest speaker.
Ann Romney seems to be a fine woman. She spoke of love.
Christie pooh poohed love in favor of respect.
Wasn’t somebody going to tell us all about Mitt?
GT
August 29th, 2012
7:29 am
The right is all about money. They have bought the politicians. They can’t win on a national scale consistently enough to control the government, but have found the corrupt weak character of local government can be bought just like the state controlled the counties though corrupt uneducated sheriffs. This is Newt and Ralph Reeds forte to hand the keys of the grassroots to the highest bidder. Nixon had Harold Dent broker a strategy that turned a blind eye to integration for the support of his evil empire. Then Lee Atwater added the religion and found rich donors parading as pillows of the church can turn religion into a political machine, to the point you even can change the meaning of religion to suit the politics by using bigotry as a commandment. In short they bought off the preachers. Then Newt, who had to move several times to find a patch of real estate that would elect him to congress, tied up all the loose ends with superpacs, federalism, and a conservative think tank similar to the one the Nazi Germans had in the 1940s. The last touch was controlling the media with money, even buying a network and controlling the airways. Congress goes through one power outlet now, and it is turn on and off as that power sees fit.
TaxPayer
August 29th, 2012
7:32 am
Republicans, the party of the white, the part of the southern strategy, point fingers at Democrats when challenged about their lack of racial diversity and accuse them of being the plantation owners.
bman
August 29th, 2012
7:35 am
The democratic convention will no doubt be exciting. Not quite as exciting as before simply because, many people have grown tired of the pep rally type of talks. A late-nite infomercial “you can do it” sort of thing.
Win-less football teams do the same exact thing before each and every game. At the end of the year, their losing record speaks for itself. The next year, the we can do it thing starts all over again…
Rightwing Troll
August 29th, 2012
7:39 am
“How does the GOP actively fight to keep things from changing for blacks? What, specifically, are you talking about? I have already acknowledged that it could have been more proactive in finding solutions to help blacks rise above their current station. ”
“Blacks” need to step up a bit to help in the task of finding ways to rise above their current station. The whole hiphop and thug culture isn’t helping.
Mick
August 29th, 2012
7:40 am
Watched a bit of the convention last night…santorum was clearly the most passionate but still had to repeat the lie about obama changing welfare to work…the best interview of the night? Charlie crist telling chris matthews the real truth about the republican brand and why he left. It’s true that the party left him and others, they are way too far right, bye bye…
JamVet
August 29th, 2012
7:40 am
Ah yes, the cowardly RB always has to to coverup for the lying cowardly Cain..
Birds of a yellow feather.
And his screed is idiotic.
The rube writes that it is the Democratic plantation owners who cause blacks to be in ‘their’ own political voting block, not to be tampered with, and certainly none smart enough to look at what the other side has to offer, and most assuredly not capable of making rational decisions about their own lives.
C’mon and just admit it, racist.
That is all gobbledegook for saying that blacks are too damn dumb to figure out that YOU and your neocon kind are their best friends and are really, really looking out for them.
Selling stupid works well in your little Lily White Party confabs, but not in the real world.
Try something else a little less sophist to explain why virtually every American minority wants nothing to do with your scummy political party…
All night long
August 29th, 2012
7:40 am
bman
Not sure if anyone told you but a Republican isn’t in the WH and a Republican isn’t leading in the EC projections.
It is you who had out your pom poms last night, cheering and hoping the 08 losers can overcome.
Just saying
Rightwing Troll
August 29th, 2012
7:41 am
“Wasn’t somebody going to tell us all about Mitt?”
What is there to tell? We know all we need to know about Mittens, plus whatever insights might be shared are sure to etch a sketch themselves tomorrow.
GT
August 29th, 2012
7:43 am
Notice the window dressing of the Republican convention. They have delegates with the most black faces sitting up front to give the country the impression they are inclusive. You have the Virgin Islands on the front row, can’t even vote yet they have VIP seats to lie to the American people who this crowd really is. They have one woman in a leadership position in a Republican controlled Congress yet they are showcasing women like it was an equal employer. They have put most of their luggage in a closet and not allowed them to speak to the American public so we might think this farmer’s daughter is marrying material instead of the head twisting devil pocessed streetwalker she really is.
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
August 29th, 2012
7:45 am
Rightwing Troll
August 29th, 2012
7:41 am
“Wasn’t somebody going to tell us all about Mitt?”
What is there to tell? We know all we need to know about Mittens, plus whatever insights might be shared are sure to etch a sketch themselves tomorrow.
.
.
Call me old fashioned but I think the keynote speech at a major political convention should be about….well… the nominee.
bman
August 29th, 2012
7:46 am
Mick .. .. Charlie from Florida left the republican party only after he lost his election running as a republican. Had he won, he would sill be a repUblican.
So, you’re 1/2 right. The republican party left him. Zell Miller said the same thing about the democratic party, only it didn’t take an election loss on his part to say so…
All night long
August 29th, 2012
7:48 am
bman
Artur Davis left the Democratic Party after losing an election, not before.
Just saying
bman
August 29th, 2012
7:49 am
All night long .. .. You’re not going to be able to find any post of me cheering away about republicans. You believe anyone who isn’t pro-Obama is far right. Nice try
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
August 29th, 2012
7:51 am
The Secret Weapon: All of Us
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/29/opinion/kristof-the-secret-weapon-all-of-us.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120829
“Who built this country? Entrepreneurs, yes. But so did schoolteachers and railway construction workers. Doctors and truckers. Scientists and soldiers. You didn’t build it, Mitt Romney — we all built it.”
Fred ™
August 29th, 2012
7:51 am
I don’t like the new layout. It’s almost impossible to find all the blogs I read.
Fred ™
August 29th, 2012
7:53 am
LOL bman, you have your own personal cyber stalker. Don’t you feel important now……………
All night long
August 29th, 2012
7:54 am
bman
Don’t be so simple and don’t put words in my mouth.
I never said you were far right, now did I?
But I doubt you are voting for the winner this year, which is the guy already in the WH.
So play it up like you are not voting for Romney. If you are already using coping mechanisms and deflection tactics because you are smart enough to figure what is coming, that is cool with me.
Mick
August 29th, 2012
7:54 am
bman
Yes, but at least crist exhibits some common sense about president obama and how his policies have helped americans not hurt them. Everybody forgets the state of this country when he walked in – an absolute disaster. We are slowly diggin out and I have not heard of one policy that romney stands for that will make a positive impact. More tax cuts for the wealthy? You’ve got to be kidding me, enough of that garbage already…
bman
August 29th, 2012
7:59 am
Fred.. .. I need to check the new version. Everything on the iPhone looks the same.
Ah I don’t have any stalker. I didn’t watch the republican convention, either. I don’t care too much for either party. The Obama, Reid and Pelosi gang make just as sick to my stomach as the Santorum republican crowd.
Fred ™
August 29th, 2012
7:59 am
Mick: I can understand the uber rich like Romney , Limbaugh, Boortz and Hannity supporting the no taxes on the rich thing as it directly benefits them enormously. What gets me is the idiots who post here preaching for the Republicans to raise their own taxes while cutting taxes for the uber rich. Don’t make a lick of sense to me………..
Fred ™
August 29th, 2012
8:04 am
Bman: Well maybe all night long is more of an unrequited wannabe lover than a stalker lol. He sure has you in his sights though.
As to the Pelosi gang: That’s what I tell folks who call me a leftist. I remind them that I haven’t forgotten that if the Democrats win back Congress that the blithering idiot Pelosi will be right back in power damaging our Country as hard and fast as she can. The current impasse between the parties can, in my opinion, be laid directly at her feet because of the way she crammed healthcare down the Republicans throat without giving them ANY input.
Fred ™
August 29th, 2012
8:05 am
Wow. Once you get off the front page the layout is the same. I guess I just need to get to Jay’s and then I can find all the blogs the old fashioned way.
bman
August 29th, 2012
8:05 am
All night long.. .. If you’re certain Obama is going to win, you’re definitely the smart one here. I wouldn’t bet on either right now. You must be a 1%er with all that knowledge.
Normal Free...Pro Human Rights Thug...And liking it!
August 29th, 2012
8:07 am
I was listening to NPR yesterday and they had the leader of the Log Cabin Republicans, the Gay Republican group on and I was listening as to how (editing some here) one day the GOP would accept Gays as equals and promote Gay Rights. This still strikes me as pie in the sky naivety on their part. As long as the GOP has strong right wing religious forces within their power structure, the GOP will never recognize Gays as anything other than sinners to be burned in Hell, no matter what that Gay man or woman might believe politically. But the GOP sure will take their votes, you betcha. It strikes me as sad/strange that the Gay community would even consider the GOP. They would be voting against their own interest no matter, as I just said, what they believe politically.
—————————–
There is also a Latina who is the Governor of, I forget, New Mexico? Anyway, the point is she was a Democrat before becoming a Republican and running for office. She was elected Governor, mainly because of her race and not her party, because this State she represents is a little more than half Hispanic…and most of them Democrats. The State is strongly Democrat, both State Senate and House, so she hasn’t been able to get much done. One would think she would have a lot of empathy for President Obama there…
.
Anyway, they (GOP) are trotting her out as proof they are pro Hispanic and maybe even pro woman…think it will work?
GT
August 29th, 2012
8:08 am
Chris Christie is amazingly unhealthy. They whole time I am watching him, maybe 5 minutes I was thinking heart attack. This is the key note speaker? He promotes himself as a acid tongue straight shooter, I see a guy that doesn’t feel good, in a bad mood because of this and letting the world have it because he can barely breath. How can a man obviously of little disciple be taken so seriouly about anything relating to another person’s program when it is so visible he has no brakes on himself? If they could have had Newt follow Christie as a speaker, with his multimarriages, and fine figure, you just about would have a complete set of talk the talk but screw the walk leaders of the Republican Party.
kayaker 71
August 29th, 2012
8:09 am
Nikki was definitely the best speaker last night. Christie needed to kick some serious ass and he didn’t. Spoke too much about NJ and himself. Wanted to tell him that Mitt is the nominee, not him. We have some catchin’ up to do.
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
August 29th, 2012
8:14 am
k 71
either the earth just moved or we agreed on Haley and Christie!
will wonders never cease?
Rabbit
August 29th, 2012
8:20 am
Jay, your analysis is sound. …and Newt’s reign was the tipping point. But the reason the fringes can hold onto power when even their own constituents want a moderate is the crazy redistricting strategies employed by states. There are too many “safe” districts with people who neither understand nor care about the huge responsibility they owe to the preservation of the union.
Recon 0311 2533
August 29th, 2012
8:20 am
Nikki Haley just might become the first female president.