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    Michael Moore and Lawrence O'Donnell: Man, those Republicans! They get it!

    By Ramona on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 9:17am | Politics

    Oooh, that hurts. The two Democrats who still admit they're Democrats sittin' and jawin' about how Obama got it wrong and the Republicans got it right. 

     Okay, we know the message the Republicans have honed to perfection is this:  Cut the budget and the taxes and keep Big Money happy and the government will fall and life will be good.  It's a downright nutty message, considering the state of our economy and the pain that's been inflicted on the working class by the people who keep spreading it, but they get away with it because while we, the lousy, lonely hoi polloi, keep complaining about their cheating and their lying and their back-stabbing, Obama and the Dems in congress keep stroking them and feeding them in hopes that they'll lie down and sleep awhile. 

     They're animals, for chrissake.  They're not going to do it!

     Moore:  "This is what I love about Republicans.  I honestly secretly  really admire them because, man, they have guts.  They come in with both guns blazing; they take no prisoners. . . There's 420 bills that the house has already passed that the senate could pass right now because we have enough votes to do that.  Yet they won't do it, I know they won't do it.  Even the simple child nutrition bill. They won't do it.  but I'll tell you what--if this was--the shoe was on the other foot--if this was the Republicans in a lame duck session, dammit, they'd be passing as much as they could because that's how they are.  Because they believe in something.  And that's why Americans love the Republicans.  Because they just believe in something."

     O'Donnell: "And their guts come from a very simple minded position:  cut taxes.  Which is their answer to everything, including job creation.  I've asked Republicans, 'tell me how you would create jobs'.  The answer is the same every time:  'I would extend the low tax brackets we currently have for everyone, especially and including the top tax brackets, because low tax brackets miraculously create jobs'.  Though there is no evidence for that."

     Moore:  "There is absolutely no impirical evidence to support that position. . ."

     O'Donnell:  "But who cares?  The Republicans hang in there."

     

      In that video clip Michael Moore talked about a new website that lists Obama's achievements in a really clever way.  I forgot to go to the website that night, but this morning I had an email from that very bunch.  I've been getting a lot of emails with achievement lists lately, but this one is fun.  (There are two versions, one using WTF and one using WTH.  So you just know, don't you, that I'm going to use the "heck" version.  But when you get there you can switch to the WTF version. It's exactly the same, but one is for me and one is for you.):

     http://whattheheckhasobamadonesofar.com/

     But we still haven't answered the question of how we light a fire under Obama and the Dems in congress.  They're feeling dismal after the mid-terms when they should be feeling stupid.  It's not like we haven't been trying to tell them.

     (Cross-posted at Ramona's Voices here.)

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    "...but they get away with it because while we, the lousy, lonely hoi polloi, keep complaining about their cheating and their lying and their back-stabbing, Obama and the Dems in congress keep stroking them and feeding them in hopes that they'll lie down and sleep awhile"

    Well, no.  The main reason they get away with it is that they get an awful lot of votes from the "hoi polloi."  And an awful lot of people who make the same complaints we do can't trouble themselves to go out and cast a few votes every couple of years.  


    by brewmn on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 10:01am

    That's true, brewmn, that's why we're so lonely.


    by Ramona on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 10:34am

    I noticed the "lonely' part as I was typing my comment.  I just find myself getting more and more angry with the notion that people don't have an obligation to vote, even if we're not voting for our ideal candidate.  The apathy of those who support a progressive agenda but can't be bothered to vote, combined with the discipline and passion of the 35-40% who ALWAYS vote for the other side, are the main reason behind most of our political problems. 

    But many writers/commenters in the lefty blogoshpere want to deny people agency for that apathy (not intended as a criticism of your post, BTW).  We need to make the apathetic understand that not voting is not an option, and that they need to take some responsibility for the mess we're in if they choose not to.  That is a part of the discussion that seems missing from all of the progressive hand-wringing over the last few years, IMO.  


    by brewmn on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 11:24am

    So many of us who are urging GOTV on our side have no problem understanding the apathy.  I want the Democrats to win, but sometimes I feel like I'm fighting hardest against the Democrats themselves. Most of them are either sitting in a corner sucking their thumbs or are out there trying to win the votes of an enemy who wants no part of them.  That gets us nowhere.

    But I guess I'll never understand holding back your vote to make a statement.  One less vote on our side gives clear advantage to the other side.  We vote to make changes and we have that chance on the Federal level every two, four or six years, yet only a small percentage of voting-age Democrats did it this year.  I would say that's unconscionable, except for the fact that the Dems didn't work all that hard to get the votes of the people who were out there in force two years ago.  They had promises to keep, and, while there were achievements of sorts, they weren't the kinds of actions we thought would come when it was clear we were in a state of emergency.

    Still, liberals/progressives choosing not to vote?  Nothing could have made the RWNJs happier.

     


    by Ramona on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 1:19pm

    Totally agree, brewmn.  It can be hard to complain about this much without sounding holier-than-thou, another charge leveled constantly against liberals over the years by Right-wing activists which may deter some liberals from doing so, who knows?  My approach is just to ask people I know, who I think or know are likely to vote for my candidate, to vote, and not mix into that message, at that time, a plug for my candidate unless they seem receptive or inquire.  

    One of my local heroes is my friend John.  John, who is very active doing very useful, public-spirited things, is unemployed--he is not bringing in any money to speak of for his efforts.  (Fortunately for John and for us, his wife has a job.)  One of our northern Virginia Reps, Dem Gerry Connolly, squeaked by by a few hundred votes.  John talked to hundreds and hundreds of people door-to-door.  And went back to many of them. 

    He is an extremely modest person--he consistently downplays his contributions.  If you met him you would never know of some of his outstanding accomplishments because he's not into trying to impress other people with any of that.  He's all about now and the future.  So when he told me that he estimated that he was able to get 100 people who despise the Republicans but were going to sit this one out, out of disgust at what has happened these past two years, to get out and vote for Connolly, I am inclined to believe that is, if anything, an undercount.

    I asked John if Connolly was going to treat he and his wife to a nice dinner out, on him, for quite possibly saving his job.  He said, answering my rhetorical question, not likely.  Connelly does not know and most likely never will.  HT, John.


    by AmericanDreamer on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 1:49pm

    Aw, Ramona! The "F" is my favorite word! And it makes me giggle that you prefer the "H". I also take it as a little bit of a challenge. I'm going to find something to write about that will make you so righteously indignant that you'll use the "F" in spite of yourself. Cool


    by Orlando on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 10:38am

    Oh, honey, I've been mad and madder but never that mad!  My kids (and my grown grandson) think it's hilarious that I'm so cringy about that word, but they try not to hurt my ears by using it. 

    I don't have a problem--wait, yes I do!  But it's just a word, and sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.  So, really--feel free. 


    by Ramona on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 10:59am

    To think I never even heard the f-word until I was 16 years old!  Seriously!. Embarassed  Mebbe we need some more Berneros to hammer it home for the Dems.


    by wabby on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 11:55am

    Good ol' Virg.  Just lost the gubernatorial election and there he is, giving it all he's got for jobs, jobs, jobs.  And on Fox Finance, no less!  What a guy. 

    Makes me even sadder that he didn't have the money to make a righteous charge. (It's always about the money.  Snyder had nothing else going for him that I could see.)

     


    by Ramona on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 1:57pm

    Well, both O'Donnell and Moore are absolutely correct. The GOPer's haven't the slightest problem with pushing bad legislation thru and making it law while the Democrats let their good legislation get whittled down to nothing more than simple words on paper and have the damnest time getting anything passed that isn't ripe to be exploited by the GOPers. For instance, the GOPer's knew they didn't have enough support to make the original Bu$h tax cuts permanent, so they passed what they could using the reconciliation process hoping that within 10 years they could get the support necessary to make them permanent. That's gusty and it make just work even though they're the minority. So it makes me wonder why the Democrats didn't do the same with HCR and finance reform? Just think how much support it would have generated this past election cycle to get more Democrats in Congress to make them permanent. People fight harder to keep something they want rather than accept something that isn't what they were expecting.


    by Beetlejuice on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 12:22pm

    The Repubs are so much better at this than the Dems will ever be.  So the tax cuts are supposed to expire at the end of the year but the GOP has already talked the Dems into extending the temporary cuts for two years.  Terrific.  Right around the time of the election, where there's a good chance they'll win and then they can make them permanent.  Any sane person could see right through that and do everything they could to let them expire, but no. . .

    They president and the Dems are actually considering it.  No strings, no bargaining, no nothing.  Just like the bailouts, where we gave everything and got nothing in return.  The Repubs don't even have to work at it.  They get handed this stuff just because they say they want it.  They don't even have to have the majority--all they have to do is act like it.


    by Ramona on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 2:09pm

    You're reading my mind. The underlying intent of the GOPer's was to do exactly that...tease Obama and the Democrats to keep the Bu$h tax cuts alive long enough for them to win back a majority and the White House. That takes guts and determination...something missing from the Democrats and I wish they had some.


    by Beetlejuice on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 3:52pm

    It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion, Ramona. 


    by anna am on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 6:51pm

    Sadly, you're right, Anna.  It's the slow motion part that's so infuriating.  Surely there's a point where it can be stopped, but nobody near the wheel knows how to turn it.  Nobody near the brake knows how to pull it.  And here we go, over the cliff.


    by Ramona on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 8:21pm

    I've been thinking it will be stopped, it has to stop, for it seems like three lifetimes now.   But the knot just seems to get pulled tighter and tighter.


    by anna am on Wed, 11/10/2010 - 8:26pm