The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    stillidealistic's picture

    Snails and Republicans

    By stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 4:08pm |

    I don't normally get to garden much this time of year, but since our normal heat seems to be going to other parts of the country this year, I was able to get out and putter today.

    I do my best thinking out there. It's quiet, and pulling weeds and dead-heading plants require little brain power, so my mind gets to work on other things. Today, probably because of all the consternation the deadlock on the debt ceiling is causing me, I was reflecting on politics, and a comparison between politics and the garden came to mind.

    Earlier this year I planted a gorgeous dahlia plant. It was tall, sturdy, and had many blooms; a very healthy looking specimen. I positioned it in a place of honor because I was certain it would be a focal point.

    Well, this has been a terrible year for snails. I mean, good for snails, bad for the garden. They have been consuming everything I plant, and nothing seems to deter them. They have completely decimated my once beautiful plant, and it is very near death. But here's the deal. If they would just eat a few leaves here, and a few leaves there, the plant would have survived, grown more leaves, and the snails could continue on. But these snails are greedy. They eat very last leaf on the plant, and it dies, then they go on to the next one. If I quit planting new ones, they would quickly run out of food and die themselves.

    (I'd love to put a picture of a big slimy snail right about here, but I haven't mastered that technique yet, so you'll have to imagine it!)

    At risk of sounding partisan (which I have to admit, I am) sounds a lot like the Republicans to me. They want smaller government, so they are going to eat at it and eat at it until the whole thing dies. They refuse to compromise by eating just a few leaves.

    The problem is, my garden is expendable. If it goes away, I will have an ugly backyard, but no one will die, or go hungry because of it. Not so with our government. If they keep eating away the way they are, serious damage will be done to real live people. To our country.

    I really can't even imagine what they are thinking, which brings me back to the snails. Like the snails, they aren't thinking. They are just doing what they do. But there is no pesticide we can use to get rid of them. So we have to learn to live with them, and to do that we need to make some real changes in the way our government operates.

    So, I'm mulling this over when I come back in the house and jump onto the computer, when I come upon this article, "How To Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans." It was written in "The Atlantic" by Mickey Edwards, a former republican who served Oklahoma's 5th Congressional District from 1977 to 1993. He was defeated, primarily because of the House banking scandal in 1992, but since has written numerous articles about government's dysfunction, and although he remains a Republican, says he voted for Obama in 2008.

    In the current article he discusses 6 ways we can turn the government back over to the people. I'll leave you read it, and perhaps we can discuss your thoughts on these ideas, and whether they might be worth putting some energy into.

    I find myself really afraid for my country. If we don't do something soon, we WILL lose the Republic our founding fathers gave us.

    Comments

    If I were a snail, I'd be mighty offended by your analogy. Viva escargot!


    by Verified Atheist on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 5:53pm

    I know...I'm gunna go out and squirt some nasty tasting stuff on the plants they love the most, just in case! Wonder if it would work on repubs?


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 6:56pm

    If I were a snail, I'd be offended by your veiled threat to make of me a snack..."escargot ideed!"  Maybe this would be a good time to bring up the Fanny Farmers' Cookbook...


    by jollyroger on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 9:57pm

    A better MSM with real journalists instead of the narcissistic bloviaters and corporate hacks we have now would be the single most important change.  Ain't gonna happen, but as long as we're dreaming...

     


    by AmiBlue on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 6:00pm

    I agree AmiBlue...so #7... corporations can't own newspapers? Would work for me!


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 6:58pm

    Good post, Stilli. I put the article on FB, but gave you credit. Thanks for this, but I agree with the first comment...you will likely have an army of snails at your door after you insulted them so hideously. J

    by CVille Dem on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 6:06pm

    Thanks, CVille. I think the article needs to get a lot of attention. It's worth mulling over.


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 6:59pm

    I was just thinking about this subject.

    I go to my local grocery in the middle of nowhere and Tomatoes taste sweet and nice and like tomatoes. hahahaha

    In January they taste like....cold nothings.

    Only because I keep them in the fridge of course.

    I had a veg garden once. Tomatoes grown in a garden do not taste like tomatoes in a store.

    the end

     


    by Richard Day on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 6:07pm

    The snails leave the tomatoes alone... their problem is the tomato worms. I've got pics of them on my personal FB page if you're interested in in seeing what disgusting REALLY looks like!


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 7:01pm

    Just in case you're not watching, the after hours markets are moving lower in anticipation in the Asian markets that no deal will be reached.

    I hope these bums are watching as their 401k's start to lose value...this could get ugly.


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 7:07pm

    Stilli, run, don't walk, to your nearest library and get The Sound of Wild Snails Eating.  It will make all this political stuff fade away to the nothing it is.


    by AmiBlue on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 7:41pm

    Correction: the title is The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating.


    by AmiBlue on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 7:44pm

    Oh, Ami! I read a review... I need to hate these things if I'm going to kill them! How can you do this to me?????


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 8:06pm

    Save small containers that you can sink into your garden like yogurt  containers.  We use the little cat food containers.  Put them around where the snails are eating and push them down in the ground like swimming pools, leaving a little bit of the rim sticking out, then fill the little pools with beer.  They love the stuff and will drown themselves in it. Every morning you can collect the dead snails out of the beer.  Every couple of evenings give them some more beer or after a rain.  It really works.   


    by trkingmomoe on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 8:28pm

    My remaining plants thank you for the suggestion. I really am at my wits end over the money it costs to keep these snails as pets!


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 9:13pm

    They are hungry little fellows.  I have had trouble with them for years here in Florida.  I am glad to pass the tip on.


    by trkingmomoe on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 9:21pm

    I love the snail analogy.  The one suggestion that popped out to me was: "Turn over the process of redrawing congressional districts to independent, nonpartisan commissions."

    Although I would kind of miss the word, Gerrymandering.  Perhaps we can give the name Gerrymanderers to beer guzzling snails. 


    by MrSmith1 on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 9:03pm

    Thanks, Mr. Smith. I have to admit I cracked up when I made the connection between those ravaged, chewed on leaves and our government, and the slimy snails and republicans.

    And gerrymandering is a huge problem. So is corporate money. We may be pretty much screwed, but I'm still hoping we can turn it around.

     


    by stillidealistic on Sun, 07/24/2011 - 9:21pm

    Is it the snail's fault or the environment that breeds them? Snails's are part of nature and serve a purpose. If there are too many them then there's something wrong in the environment, so don't blame the snail's. So the real question is how does one control their numbers to a level where they are beneficial to the environment. So how does this apply to the politics of the day?

    Well, there needs to be an effort to identify those whom are the snail's. Then there needs to be some people to address the issues they raise and counter them with hard and undeniable facts that defuses their arguments. Then there needs to be some stern investigation by those in government to identify those in their ranks that are responsible for agitating the ill-informed. As well as chastising the MSM for fertilizing the miss-informed rather than fulfilling their responsibility to inform the masses.

    The real issue is about the Democrats in Congress afraid to step up to the plate and hold the GOper's and tea-baggers accountable for their words and antics. They should have wrung them through the wring back when they had the chance. By not doing so, them gave their implicit approval. And Obama's intentional demand for bipartisanism was the asphalt they needed to cement their course of actions in concrete.

    The only way I see of getting thru this current crisis is to let them have their way and not raise the debt ceiling and let the responsibility for what happens fall on them hard. There's no way any sensible person could make them change their minds ... they're too hard set and no one as their confidence to sway their opinions otherwise. So let them have their way and take full responsibility for what their actions bring.


    by Beetlejuice on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 3:48am

    I think you are saying, "Let the snails eat the entire garden and then they'll be sorry."


    by Rootman on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 8:02am

    naw...

    Snails have a purpose in a garden, just as worms, bees and other bugs. You have to figure out how to control them by using as honey pot ... something that attracts them more than your petunias.

    IMHO, I believe the tea-baggers have gotten away with screwing up the political debate simply because they are clueless and everyone's afraid to take them to task for being fools.

    What makes matters worst is without the tea-baggers in their ranks the GOPer's would be political roadkill. The problem is they're ignorant and the GOPer's need them to hold the majority in the House. The fact is that to pass any legislation without them requires Boner to work with Democrats - something that eats at their guts and won't happen because they've spent too much political capital painting Democrats as incapable over governing.

     


    by Beetlejuice on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 1:54pm

    The problem with letting them doing it (as rational as that sounds) is that they are not the only ones who suffer the consequences. We all do. The whole world. (I guess that is if the consequences are real - if they aren't, the dems end up looking pretty dumb.)

    When my kids were young, I took a class called "Natural Consequences" which suggested that by letting kids suffer the natural consequences of their actions, they'll learn what not to do. This works with young children, when the consequence is no more dire than missing a play date. When it is with young teens, the consequences can destroy their futures before they begin, and with adults, the consequences can have implications for the whole world.

    Personally, I don't want to endure the consequences of their mistakes, and would prefer to see them stopped. This is insanity. How can so few people control the whole government?

     


    by stillidealistic on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 11:58am

    But the Constitution gives them as much right to fuck it all up for everyone just as it gives you and me the opportunity to steer the country to a better future for all. As a minority, they have the enumerated rights to force the country to go in a direction the majority doesn't by simply refusing to cooperate and let the clock run out. They're hoping the majority will get so worked up, they'll capitulate and give in to their extortion. By refusing to throw in the towel and surrender to their ransom, we should just let the shit hit the fan. Once it's over with and the damage is done, the public will get their chance to weigh in on the governments inability to govern in 2012. The real problem isn't so much with the members of Congress as it is with the public that elects them. We have a serious problem with a portion of the public that is clueless of our history and how government works - city, county, state and federal, and is being exploited by the GOPer's to trump the larger public's interest in favor of the party's interest.


    by Beetlejuice on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 1:38pm

    I can't deny there is truth in what you say. There is something to be said for being in a position to say "I told you so." My fear is that it will come at a cost too high. I keep thinking these people will come to their senses, then I think about my tea party uncle and realize they don't have any.

    It's frustrating to have to sit by and watch it happen. I'm trying not to watch the blow by blow, but I can't seem to stay away for long.


    by stillidealistic on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 1:49pm

    Think of it like quitting smoking or drinking ... you have to hit rock bottom before you can pull yourself up.

    Tea-baggers have no clue, but know they have the political ability to bring everything tumbling down if they don't get their way.

    BTW, the 14th Amendment is a warning to Congress not to question the debt of the United States. So if the debt ceiling isn't raised and it hit the fan, I would expect either the President and/or SCOTUS to look into who is responsible for violating it. It's kinda difficult to expect Congress to police themselves and organize hearings and dish out punishments.


    by Beetlejuice on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 2:01pm

    I'm hoping that if push comes to shove, Obama will use the 14th amendment to pay the bills anyway, and let congress take him to court. They may win, given the make-up of the SCOTUS, but it would be interesting to watch. If the country is going to implode, we may as well go to the mat.

    I'm not politically sophisticated, so I can't play the game out 10 steps, but I'm sensing the dems have nothing to lose by trying to avert disaster. Somehow, no matter how bad things are, the repubs end up on top. When they are the majority they get their way, when they are the minority they get their way. I don't know if that says more about the repubs or the dems.


    by stillidealistic on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 2:14pm

    Agree.
    I take it for granted that we are going to suffer some economic hardship regardless of how this comes out. IMO the uncertainty caused by stalling raising the debt ceiling has already had a negative effect on the economy, thus helping the Tea Party bring down Obama but what's left of the Republican establishment.

    And I do not underestimate the intent of the Tea Party, which imo has as much or more of a repressive religious agenda than a fiscal one. 

    I think the worst outcome is for Obama to sign a short term extension of the debt ceiling--which would only encourage the Tea Party obstructionism. I say stop the Tea Party now, it will only get worse if we capitulate now.    

     


    by Oxy Mora on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 12:29pm

    Well, I hope the paychecks of the obstructionists are put on the bottom of the pile, along with their healthcare premium bills. Maybe if their health care lapses due to lack of payment, they'll reconsider. Perhaps the most frustrating part of what congress does, is that they don't have to experience the consequences of their actions the way regular people do.


    by stillidealistic on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 1:54pm

    But how does one stop a group hellbent on disrupting the political process legally? They hold enough votes in the House to force the GOPer's to do their bidding. Otherwise, Boner would have to go to Polosi and ask for her help which wouldn't look good for GOper's in 2012.

    As for creeping religious undertones, it's been a part of the GOP platform for years. It just finally broke free from it's cage and has their master on  short leash ... they're finally going to get what they've been promised all these years even if it means we all go broke in the process.


    by Beetlejuice on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 2:08pm

    Right. I think the creepy unholy alliance of (Christians of a stripe which I have trouble labeling without recrimination but who I think are bent upon forcing their beliefs, esp. about abortion, on everyone else) with the(combination which I would never label but tend in the most part to be corporate--connected, members of financial industry, the entire health care industry, and those who have definitely "made it" in the financial arena) came to fruition in 2010 and now is the time of reckoning within the Republican party, and perhaps, elsewhere. I think the establishment Republicans running for re-election have less options than  the Democrats. They will be challenged by the Tea Party which ever way the debt debacle turns out. That's the worrying thing, that establishment Republicans may only bring the TP  to heel after the market tanks.


    by Oxy Mora on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 2:22pm

    Stilli, as I read your post and the article by Mickey Edwards, for some reason it brought to mind Betty Ford's request that her eulogy remind everyone of the way things used to be in Washington.

    From Cokie Robert's eulogy for Betty Ford....

    We all had fathers who were away a lot and mothers who ran everything and we all grumped and giggled together about it because we were all friends. And that’s what Betty Ford wanted me to talk about here today.

    A couple of years before he died I came here to the desert to interview President Ford for a series on former presidents and the constitution. When we turned the cameras off, the President turned to me and sighed, ‘You know, Cokie, I just don’t understand what’s happened in Washington. When your father was Majority Leader and I was Minority Leader, we would get in a cab together on the Hill and we would go downtown to some place like the Press Club and we’d say ‘Ok, what are we going to argue about?’ Now, it was a real debate. We had different views about means to an end. We genuinely disagreed with each other, we were certainly partisans. But after we went at it, we’d get back in the cab together and be best friends.”

    [snip]

    That friendship made governing possible – they weren’t questioning each other’s motives, much less their commitment to the country. Underlying many of those Congressional relationships across the aisle, and even more remarkable, across the dome, was the relationship among the wives.

    So, the old-timers have had a bead on the hyper-partisan problem for a while now. Too bad no one listened to their warnings and musings.

    The last line from Edward's article:

    The goal is not to destroy parties but to transcend them; to welcome their contributions but end their dominance; and to take back from these private clubs control of our own elections and our own Congress. (emphasis/bold mine)

    Me likes that.


    by wabby on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 8:12am

    Oh, and... you should invite a couple of ducks over for lunch in the garden. They love escargot. They'll even leave you a bit of organic fertilizer for your generosity. wink


    by wabby on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 8:17am

    Thanks for the suggestion and for the words from Cokie Roberts.

    It was a different world, Flower. Far from perfect in many ways, but they did work together better. Now? Scares me Flower. The divide is so wide, and I just don't know how we're going to bridge it. IMO this new breed of politician we're seeing in the freshman class of repubs represents the worst of America. It's hard for me to believe this is REALLY what people wanted.


    by stillidealistic on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 11:04am

    I might add, we will find out if this is really what people want in 2012. If people vote for more of the tea party types, we'll know that this IS what many of our fellow Americans want. If they lose, maybe not so much...


    by stillidealistic on Mon, 07/25/2011 - 3:30pm