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

    Where were you, Senator?

    By Michael Wolraich on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 5:12pm | Politics

    Any time you leave a bad idea or a dangerous idea alone, any time you ignore what could become an evil force, you wind up regretting it.

    -- Lindsey Graham

    Thank you for these wise words, Senator. I couldn't agree with you more. But pardon me for asking, where the hell have you been?

    Where were you in 1970 when President Nixon launched with the "Southern Strategy" to attract Democratic racists?

    Where were you in 1980 when Ronald Reagan praised "states rights" in Philadelphia, Mississippi and spoke at Bob Jones University, which forbade interracial dating?

    Where were you in 1990, when Jesse Helms's campaign ad intoned, "You needed that job, and you were the best qualified, but they had to give it to a minority, because of a racial quota?"

    Where were you in 1992 when the GOP invited Pat Buchanan, an anti-semitic, racist xenophobe, to deliver the keynote address at the national convention?

    Where were you in the 1990s when Rush Limbaugh and Fox News peddled bullshit stories of white Christian persecution?

    Where were you in 2004 when Karl Rove exploited "wedge issues" to bring out the Republican base for George W. Bush's reelection campaign?

    Where were you in 2008 when Republicans went ballistic about Reverend Wright, and John McCain picked the hateful, hopelessly unqualified Sarah Palin as his running mate?

    Where were you in 2010 when the Tea Parties slandered President Obama in racist, venomous, fanatical terms?

    Where were you in 2013 when House Republicans shut down the government in a futile attempt to block Obamacare?

    Where were you in 2016 when Republican senators refused to consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee?

    You see, Senator, dangerous ideas don't pop out of thin air like the Wicked Witch of the West. They follow behind other dangerous ideas, marching along in a devilish parade that grows fouler with each passing year until someone like you finally decides, "Whoa, we've gone too far this time."

    But then it's way too fucking late.

    Topics: 
    Politics

    Comments

    There it is.
    The car doors are locked.
    No bailing out now.


    by moat on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 6:27pm

    As I write this. David Brooks' Republican party establishment is being crushed.
    What elevates it to high comedy is the fact that David Brooks' Republican Party is being crushed by their own gravy train -- a hate-belching engine careening down the tracks that David Brooks' Republican Party spent the last 40 years laying down and then lashing themselves to.
     
    And as their own gravy train mashes them to aspic, all David Brooks' party establishment can say over and over again is, "Oh my God!  Where the devil did that train come from?  And who tied these deucedly intricate knots!"

    Driftglass


    by NCD on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 6:59pm

    Beyond words.  Thank you. 


    by CVille Dem on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 8:04pm

    Look Mike, Lindsey is still looking for the right woman. hahahahahah

    This bastard would vote for every goddamn corporate, right wing, anti-poverty, anti-environmental. anti-humane legislation that he could get his hands on. hahahahahah

    This hypocrite would vote for anything that would support the Confederate side of things for ole SC.

    Oh that is enough of that. I get so goddamn mad at times.

    But I grew to kind of like Lindsey. hahahahah

    The enemy of my enemies is....

    Still my enemy. But I still kind of like the guy.


    by Richard Day on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 9:19pm

    Party of Personal Responsibility, my ass.

    Great post, G.


    by Doctor Cleveland on Wed, 03/09/2016 - 11:34pm

    Simply to be  intellectually respectable we should discriminate between them.

    Obviously they'll all pay lip service to "the ticket". Back when the Southern Democrats were still Democrats our party was mostly silent about their racism.  Not entirely. Famously FDR backed an(unsuccessful challenge to Senator George of  Georgia. Later when someone remarked that FDR was "his own worst enemy" George's response was "not while I'm alive".

    So who are the current Republican Senators who have occasionally voted as we wanted.Or eschewed involvement in stupid exercises like "Benghazi Gate"? I'd say:

    Hatch when Ted Kennedy was alive. The woman from Maine. Rubio. The one from Iowa. And Graham.

    If we say they're all like Cruz, then they might as well all be like him.

    And remember when it was the world's most distinguished legislative body!

     

    . 


    by Flavius on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 12:48am

    Addressed in my latest blog, the Holy Trinity of the GOP - the self-promoting carny who'll say anything, the G Gordon Lilly-like scary-as-fuck amoral homocidal psychopath, and the nodding-head lost-souls chanters & partakers of the communal cant. There used to be a few more that got thrown off the island or learned to be quiet and accept the madness.


    by PeraclesPlease on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 5:12am

    Michael,

    When will you learn to write so that readers understand how you really feel? Btw, found it interesting that he apparently owes his first win to the late Senator Thurmond.  Of course, some say the Senator continued to control SC politics even after he died, but I digress. Nice work.


    by Bruce Levine on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 7:15am

    Great to see you, Bruce. Where you been?


    by Michael Wolraich on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 3:33pm

    Been around Michael, running around, but always a pleasure and look forward to reading you.


    by Bruce Levine on Fri, 03/11/2016 - 8:50am

    Shut the front door, man! Great!

    Per Palin, I think the Senator's prints were all over her as he realized she would be made special representative to Alaska and he, the Senator, already a drinking pal of McCain, would become de facto V.P. How'd that work out for you, Senator.


    by Oxy Mora on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 10:55am

    Thanks, folks!


    by Michael Wolraich on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 1:11pm