POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Defending Business As Usual

AP article by Ron Fournier:

Charlie Crist's departure from the Republican Party is not just a Florida story; it's an American story — a tale of two parties driven by their ideologues, squeezing out moderate candidates, alienating independent voters and isolating the place in U.S. politics where most things get done: the middle.

Crist, a populist governor with a history of bipartisanship, bolted the GOP on Thursday to run for the Senate as an independent. He did so only after it became clear that he would lose his party's primary to conservative purist Marco Rubio.

No matter who wins a three-way race in Florida, the factors that drove Crist from the GOP are a microcosm of broader political and social changes contributing to polarization.

"We have a deadlocked democracy," said Pat Buchanan, a conservative commentator and three-time presidential candidate. "Both parties, held hostage by their extremes, are incapable of tackling the issues that threaten this country."

The article goes on to state that the Republicans are more likely to impose "purity tests."

Well, it's not exactly a surprise that the Republicans have become polarized by this most polarizing of American administrations, or by the kind attentions of Dead Man Walking Reid and San Fran Nan. Obama's simultaneous programmatic demonization of political opponents and forcing of an unpopularly radical agenda naturally has that effect. His policies, simply put, amount to expanding government and its control over American citizens at any cost, and he seems to believe that the costs, as ruinous as they are, are worth it. His critics would say that his administration's inability to address unemployment and the economy in general amount to failure, but that's not true. By any measure, his anti-prosperity agenda has been an enormous success. That's why statements such as this are so telling:

Obama, who made $5.5 million last year, mostly from proceeds of a book that many suspect he didn't write, will tell businessmen when they've earned enough. Is he going to tell Jeffrey Immelt when he's earned enough? Oprah? Actors? Baseball players? Nancy Pelosi? Al Gore? Chicago pols? Government employees?

Were you aware that Obama himself was instrumental in helping to found the Chicago Climate Exchange?

At any point in the past year, Obama could have stepped up and said, "Hey, let's not go over the top criticizing the Tea Partiers. Let's not call them 'tea baggers,' for starters." But he didn't. Instead, taking orders from Mark Potok and the other ideologues at the SPLC, he and his DoJ decided to paint his opponents as potentially violent extremists, despite the fact that the violence at Tea Party events has been committed by SEIU goons and other counter-parties, who've gone so far as to bite the fingers off of peaceful protesters.

Instead, he continued blaming all of his woes on Bush. Running against him, he repeatedly referenced the erosion of civil rights, yet advocates policies such as "net neutrality," that go far beyond anything projected by Bush. He overturned centuries of contract law in order to undergird the unsustainable pensions of union workers, then criticized members of the Supreme Court as radicals during the STFU SOTU. He lied about the costs of health care and continues not to contradict GM's absurd claim that they've paid back their government loans. He lied about not increasing taxes. He supports mobbed up, bailed out ex-banker Giannoulias for Illinois Governor at an astroturfed event in Quincy, even as his administration continues to characterize Tea Partiers as astroturf. He nominates and then backs judicial appointees who neglect to come clean about their backgrounds, even as his other appointees scramble to pay their taxes after the fact. He withholds, at considerable cost, a multitude of personal documents that traditionally are released by presidential contestants, yet backs laws that would be uniquely invasive to citizens, yet considers providing official identification at the polls or for nationals of other countries burdensome, unless it's after amnesty. He treats his press enablers with absolute contempt, he doesn't hold press conferences, and his administration stonewalls requests for information with impunity. He insults our allies and coddles our foes (hey, Iran was just elected to the UN Commission on Women's Rights!). He characterizes America as being in an acute stage of crisis due to the failure of our institutions, except for most of the government ones, while decrying fear-mongering on the other side (Al Gore just bought an $8.8 million ocean-view estate).

In sum, one can't help but conclude that Obama sees government, not as the servant of civil society, but as its raison d'etre.

And Mr. Fournier observes that there's polarization? Goodness. Business as usual is what got us here, dude.

I urge you to read Cass Sunstein's paper on conspiracy theories, if you haven't (pdf). You can begin at page 23 for the really good stuff.

Via a friend in Chicago, Daily Beast crunches the numbers to determine the most corrupt enterprises in the US (apart from government per se). Will the people who lied about the solvency of Fannie and Freddie be prosecuted, too?

Not related: Any of you who are auto racing fans, please check out this awesome article by Jerry Wilson.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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