Heavy Paper Parking Lot
One day after the gold rush while biking through the Capital building's parking lot; this was in the days after the House and Senate turned over back in 1994. In the time of the Gingrich revolution. I remember coming upon huge piles of stuff, office furniture, equipment and especially paper, outdoors in the middle of the lot. Seeming years of filing and documentation all in clumps arranged in a line sitting out in a light rain slowly becoming sodden and heavy. I never learned whether this was part of an agreed on transition process, or some declasse exercise in gamesmanship. It looked like one of the neighborhoods I was used to living in, during first week of the month when the landlords kick all the post-due clients and their equipage to the curb. I lifted a MS DOS 6 manual, only slightly rain-warped out of one of the piles and took it home with me.
The New York Times has an article out (this was also discussed on the blue ) on Republican presentations in the days before President Obama took office on being the Party of No Republican Game Plan Led to Historic Victory - NYTimes.com. This illustrates effectively that the republican causcus's partisan refusal came not out of the broil of praxis, of practical engagement with executive branch proposals, but as an a priori decision to cripple governance. There was never any intention of cooperation with the incoming administration, not any trace of a basic acceptance of his presidency. He was regarded as not possibly legitimate. There would be no exercise of power except theirs. There were in various thickness of conception a two year plan to reduce Nancy Pelosi, and a four year plan to do the same to President Obama. Inside the GOP's Plan to Undermine Obama - Yahoo! News. As the MetaFilter thread pointed out a number of times, when the media looks to spot meaning and trend in this election, a lot of it comes down to money. The new conservatives may find their momentum hard to sustain without the opinion-shaping, opinion-creating role of big money. And they should look again before they settle down on attacking health care reform as their main issue.
I followed a number of tea-leaf readings by NPR and others in the days following the election. The first piece here deals the republican leaderships appetite for cooperation, based on various talks and commentary that Boenher, McConnell and Cantor have given Mellman And McKinnon On The Midterms : NPR. It was pointed out the source of McConnell's "Single most important thing" quote was a piece in the National Journal. One commentator tried to argue that in the whole interview McConnell gave a broader view. He does (I did look at it), at the same time that doesn't detract from the basic accuracy of the pull quote. It captures his attitude and practice well NationalJournal.com - Top GOP Priority: Make Obama a One-Term President - Friday, October 29, 2010. That quote was carefully and deliberately intended at any rate. There was an interview with two Texas Tea Party identifying leaders both with a "we are marching to Washington with our crowbars and break hammers" attitude Tea Party Leaders Go Over Election Wins, Losses : NPR:. A pair of dollar store Carrie Nations. With feet too clay, hands to usurious to throw any money lender out of a temple. What they bring is a cheap ignorance. They collapse federal spending to deficit spending, equate the effect of this spending on investment markets, with crowding out the private sector, it doesn't crowd out those industries actually performing the work. Saturday's Morning Edition program brought a conversation with Pennsylvania congressman, Mike Fitzpatrick Penn. Rep. Takes Back His Old House Seat : NPR. His entire and facile prescription lies in cutting taxes, cutting regulation. The banking crises was nothing really, a minor self-correcting episode until people stepped in and made it worse with Keynsian thinking. It was all caused by democrats, he believes, creating socialist programs like Fannie Mao. Then ordering them to give tax dollars to certain kinds of urban and rural people for mortgages, who should just know they don't belong in the property owning class. The White House at least, after this election ought to be aware they're out of touch with a broad swath of the American people, The Republicans may be kidding themselves, if they think stubbornness is all they need bring to the game. The new Republican caucus certainly contains a contingent that won't feel they've done due diligence unless they at least try something towards impeachment. Hearings on birth certificates and voter registration drives, will the the bone that the leadership tosses them.
There's too much I toss out on the pile of: tr;dr (too reactionary, didn't read). I have a day job, I'm not reading the National Review, or Commentary. Professional news people can take that bullet, I'll pay attention to the summary. I don't get cable and I am spared Fox and MSNBC thereby, neither of which are an especial endorsement for electricity. I'm generally glad when an election season ends. Whereas I'm sad when a baseball season ends.
My interest in politics, was never expressed through an interest in oppositional political process. More, and incompletely via in-completion, by an interest in the forms, and institutional relationships of governance. It just seems that what libertarians want to be big, respected, to be opinion leaders, to be followed. So they will then have power; you can take it from there. Their essential motivations, their solutions are not new or unique or interesting. There are many other things to consider. And for a spell, while 2012 is still hull-down on the horizon, I look forward to writing about them.
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