Mouth of Newt
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The polling is clear, and devastating, for the Democrats in Washington. Americans in general favor free-market capitalism over big-government socialism by a huge margin (59 percent to 16 percent). Among swing voters, there is an almost five-to-one advantage (82 percent to 18 percent).
Perhaps most ominous of all for the Washington Democrats, swing voters already believe, by a margin of 69 percent to 31 percent, that the $3.5 trillion spending bill proves big-government socialists now define the Democratic Party.
When the detailed version of the $3.5 trillion bill makes clear its wide range of tax increases and enormous expansion of government into our personal lives, Democrats will have two choices. They could vote "no" to soften their images back home and defeat the bill. Or they could double down, vote "yes," and hope the Pelosi-Schumer-Biden wave of money will overcome the immense voter hostility to big-government socialism.
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The problem with today's Congress, and it goes back a long, long, time, is that people don't know what they're voting for or against.
The Obamacare bill was full of this shit, and budgets before and after it were similarly obscure.
How can you have an informed representative, when the proposed legislation is more than a thousand pages...and you have 6 hours to review it?
We are broken.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@george-k said in Mouth of Newt:
We are broken.
It is all about theater and gamesmanship, redefining the aims and goals of the "other" side. Congress has become so dysfunctional as to be merely a source of fodder for the click-bait media while manipulation and obfuscation permit limited gains in actual policy. Congress is a temple of hypocrisy. I cannot think of a single member of congress whom I respect and can point to as "principled."
Reminds me a bit of dialog from one of George Bernard Shaw's plays, "They are not clean: they are only shaved and starched. They are not dignified: they are only fashionably dressed. They are not educated: they are only college passmen. They are not religious: they are only pewrenters. They are not moral: they are only conventional. They are not virtuous: they are only cowardly. They are not even vicious: they are only “frail.” They are not artistic: they are only lascivious. They are not prosperous: they are only rich. They are not loyal, they are only servile; not dutiful, only sheepish; not public spirited, only patriotic; not courageous, only quarrelsome; not determined, only obstinate; not masterful, only domineering; not self-controlled, only obtuse; not self-respecting, only vain; not kind, only sentimental; not social, only gregarious; not considerate, only polite; not intelligent, only opinionated; not progressive, only factious; not imaginative, only superstitious; not just, only vindictive; not generous, only propitiatory; not disciplined, only cowed; and not truthful at all: liars every one of them, to the very backbone of their souls.”
I've always been troubled by philosopher Isaiah Berlin’s pessimism for humanity, but the more time that passes, the more my fears and his seem to align too closely.
Perhaps the next species to arise post meteor strike will fair better.
