While the rest of the press corps was slavering over Jusse Smollett (who I had never heard of) Rachel Maddow was using her time to reveal some newly-discovered Spiro Agnew documents.
There were two sets.
In one, Vice President Bush, in a close race with Mike Dukakis, turned for campaign advice to Agnew. It seems in character. Following his recent death, we were all invited to admire how decent he was, compared to today's politicians. I didn't buy it then, I always thought he was mean as a snake.
The Agnew letters confirm it.
The others had Agnew seeking money from the Saudis in order to attack Jews. No surprise there, except perhaps that at that late date in his sordid life it seems overoptimistic for him to have thought anybody would care about him. Poppy Bush excepted, of course.
Comes now E.J. Dionne to weep crocodile tears over the sad decay of decency among the Republicans. While I suppose there must have been some decent Republicans in the past, the overall tenor of the party during all of my lifetime has been ignoble, vicious and racist.
I tend to agree with some political scientists who think FDR's electoral success drove the Republicans out of their minds, although that does not explain 1) why the Democrats did not do likewise during the long GOP ascendancy from 1860 to 1932; or 2) why the Republicans did not regain their equilibrium during their ascendancy since 1952.
Look at the record. Endless investigations in Congress intending to prove Roosevelt plotted to have Pearl Harbor attacked. McCarthyism. "Twenty years of treason." Southern strategy. Whitewater. And now Trump, who really was a Democrat (to the extent he was anything but a Trump) most of his life.
It should have been so easy for the party -- if it had some decent core that only Dionne seems to be able to palpate -- to have brushed aside Trump and forced him on the Democrats.
Proverbs 26:11.
Harry wrote: "Look at the record. Endless investigations in Congress intending to prove Roosevelt plotted to have Pearl Harbor attacked. McCarthyism. "Twenty years of treason." Southern strategy. Whitewater. And now Trump, who really was a Democrat (to the extent he was anything but a Trump) most of his life."
ReplyDeleteHere, let me fix that for you...
"Look at the record. Endless investigations attempting to prove illegal collusion between the President and Russia. Japanese internment. Jim Crow laws enacted by democrat dominated state legislatures. Political correctness. "Punch a Nazi" where a Nazi is anyone who disagrees with the progressive agenda. Trashing the reputation of and death threats against a 16-year-old child who was wearing a certain hat."
Look. I actually agree with you about republicans. However, I think that democrats are just as bad. That's why I want to take power away from them all.
I am a New Dealer. But I recognize that the FDR coalition depended on the Solid South. The only decent thing Nixon ever did was suck them out of the Democratic Party. (If you haven't seen Maddow's 'Tricky Dick,' you should. He was even more of a criminal than I thought.)
ReplyDeleteI do not think that half the things on your list are mainstream Democratic, while the mean streak in the Republicans seems very deep.)
American democracy is now older than any similar experiment and it's a question whether or how a party system can avoid devolving into a mere struggle for ascendancy, like the Blues and Greens in Constantinople or Whigs and Tories in the late 18th c.
I have long argued that most of the great issues of democracy were resolved in the 19th c., leaving no great questions of political principal to 1) inspire leadership or 2) provide an organizational core for a party.
As to death threats: in the era of social media, ANY appearance of a new actor will bring out 'death threats.' Were the treats against the Covington boy anything other than some moron typig in his jammies? The threats against the Parkland kids were concrete -- rifles in the street.
I wish Clovis would weigh in. I imagine his mind is preoccupied with real political crises that make those in the US look paltry.
Harry asked: "Were the treats against the Covington boy anything other than some moron typig in his jammies?"
ReplyDeleteProsecutor: Hundreds of threats made against Covington Catholic after DC march firestorm:
https://www.wlwt.com/article/prosecutor-hundreds-of-threats-made-against-covington-catholic-after-dc-march-firestorm/26014571
Just morons typing in jammies? No. From:
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/twitter-refuses-to-remove-insane-vicious-death-threats-against-covington-st
"Hollywood producer Jack Morrissey, who worked on Disney's Beauty and the Beast, tweeting that the Covington kids should be thrown screaming into a wood chipper. He included imagery of a wood chipper spraying blood. "
'"Muslim activist and former CNN host Reza Aslan tweeted that one of the Covington students, Nicholas Sandmann, had a "punchable face."'
'Comedian Ben Isaac Hoffman performs as Wheeler Walker Jr., and tweeted disturbing comments from that account. "I know I have fans in Paris Hills, Ky. If you know this little s‑‑‑‑, punch him in the nuts and send me the video of it and I'll send you all my albums on vinyl, autographed."'
Etc.
SNL Writer Offers Fellatio To Anyone Punching Covington Minor in Face
https://dc-chronicle.com/2019/01/21/snl-writer-offers-fellatio-anyone-punching-covington-minor-face/
Their school was closed because of the threats:
Catholic School Whose Students Were in Viral Standoff with Native American Elder Closes 'Due to Threats'
https://people.com/politics/covington-catholic-closes-threats-violence-protests/
https://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2019/january/covington-catholic-reopens-under-police-protection-after-death-threats-like-tweet-that-puts-boys-in-wood-chipper
So no, not just people in jammies.
And to say that "mean streak in Republicans seems very deep" looks to me to just be your bias.
Barber shop talk, nothing close to menacing Parkland kids with rifles. Real rifles.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, it's a continuation of the type of provocation used by the Hebrew Israelites. If everybody is obliged to respond every time they encounter a jerk, society will indeed be finished.
Harry wrote: "...nothing close to menacing Parkland kids with rifles..."
DeleteDo you have a link for the specific event to which you are referring?
https://washingtonpress.com/2018/03/24/armed-white-men-just-showed-up-to-terrorize-the-students-march-for-our-lives-rally/
DeleteI heard about it when Dave Cullen was interviewed on 'Fresh Air.' Link has photographs
Thanks for the link. Yeah, I agree that's well beyond the pale.
Delete[Harry:] Barber shop talk, nothing close to menacing Parkland kids with rifles. Real rifles.
DeleteYou have completely perverted English.
What Bret cited above, and there are many more examples to be had, were legitimate, explicit, incitements to violence. They included doxxing, which made those threats actionable. You would have to be completely ignorant of the last couple years to not fully understand where that could very easily lead: getting shouted out of restaurants, terrorized at home, getting sucker punched, etc.
And that's aside from the demanding expulsion from school and insisting colleges refuse applications from these kids.
It takes no imagination whatsoever where the prog-mob intended to go with these kids -- remember Justine Sacco? -- had there not been incontrovertible evidence showing their innocence.
But turning evident viciousness into barber shop talk isn't enough. You insist that some 2A supporters menaced the Parkland kids with rifles.
Please explain, exactly how those 2A supporters menaced the Parkland kids. Menace is a word with an actual meaning, so I am sure you can justify your use of it.
Harry,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the invitation to comment.
I will be happy to give my two cents about American politics, but I will refrain from talking further about my own.
Down here, speech is no longer free, and nowadays I can't quite afford its price.
That's what I meant; our disputes seem small in comparison.
Delete[OP:] Following [Bush's] recent death, we were all invited to admire how decent he was, compared to today's politicians. I didn't buy it then, I always thought he was mean as a snake.
ReplyDeleteMeaner than LBJ?
While I suppose there must have been some decent Republicans in the past, the overall tenor of the party during all of my lifetime has been ignoble, vicious and racist.
Says the man who's only tool is a hammer.
'20 tears of treason' That was the party's rallying cry when I was young.
ReplyDeleteThe Republicans have only gotten worse since.
So, yeah, ignoble, vicious and racist.
'20 tears of treason' That was the party's rallying cry when I was young.
DeleteI was young at about the same time you were young. I don't recall that being the GOP rallying cry. But even if it was, might there have been some reasons for it?
The Republicans have only gotten worse since.
That is pure nonsense, but telling. Conservatives disagree with progressives about, among other things, the best means towards the end of having African Americans become fully actualized citizens.
But, like all progs, instead of making even a tiny effort to understand any argument which contradicts your catechisms, then you just bring out the racist hammer.
So, yeah, you are a typical, unreasoning, hate filled, progressive. And not getting any better with time.
BTW, have you figured out how the 2A supporters menaced the Parkland survivors? I'd hate to think that you, as an ex-journalist, was just making stuff up.
That's why I usually ignore your demands for links. When I post them, you're afraid to look at them.
ReplyDeleteHarry, where did I ask for a link?
ReplyDeleteYou said “menaced”. I think you abused the heck right out of that word. But please, prove me wrong.
And it be perfectly clear, I look at your links every time. Almost without exception they are either irrelevant, or constitute a self inflicted wound.
I am quite certain you will quibble and whine, rather than demonstrating “menacing”.
Because it didn’t happen, and you know it.