One Utah

Back in November, I wrote:

Repeat this endlessly: Everything bad in America is the fault of Republicans and conservatives.

Be prepared for brutal, unfair, unfounded, vicious attacks from conservatives - it’s all they’ve got . . . Don’t get psyched out – the R’s play a brutal, no holds bar, no prisoners taken game. They’re wounded . . . and more dangerous than ever . . . play offense, not defense. “Well, Chris Matthews, I’d say that the problem with Karl Rove’s statement is it’s complete divorce from reality. What’s real is that Americans support fair treatment of all citizens and Republicans are opposed to it. They have to attack us because they can’t defend their insane war in Iraq, their divisive tactics at home or their completely failed policies of extremism and pandering to the most ideologically extreme parts of the wingnut base.”

Don’t try to work with them. Any time you feel the urge for some sort of bi-partisan comity, remind yourself that Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for having sex and passed a law to make it legal for Dubya to declare anyone he wants an enemy combatant and then torture them. . . . Ignore Holy Joe Lieberman when he advises you to work with the R’s. And never stop blaming the Republicans for being obstructionist.

Be proud of your stances on any all issues – We’re Right, They’re Wrong. Got it?  . . . Reproductive freedom? We’re right, they’re wrong. Gay rights? We’re right, they’re wrong. Iraq war? We’re right they’re wrong (the details can be worked out later!). Public education? We’re right they’re wrong. Family and children’s rights? We’re right, they’re wrong. Taxation? We’re right, they’re wrong. Federal budget? We’re right they’re wrong. There isn’t a single issue one which conservatives are right. They’ve had six years to enact conservative legislation to their heart’s content and the result was New Orleans drowning and the Iraqi quagmire and the Federal budget disaster. We don’t even owe conservative ideology lip service.

Ignore the bobbleheads on the Sunday Shows. Seriously. Last night was a referendum on conservative governance and conservatives lost. The bobbleheads will tell you to marginalize the liberal wing of the party. They’re not just wrong, they’re dead f-ing wrong. Most Americans (see my post on Bill Scher’s book) agree with liberal positions on social and economic issues. When the bobbleheads yammer on about moving to the center, look them in the eye and tell them, in no uncertain terms, “Screw you, you mealy-mouthed, cowardly, self loving and self loathing Republican enablers. We’re right and you’re wrong.”

To their detriment, the Dems have largely ignored my advice ( and the similar advice of almost every blogger).  Fight back - that’s all we want and that’s what America wants.  Fight back against the Republicans.  The Dems have endlessly tried to come up with some sort of “bipartisan” solution and all they’ve done is embolden the Republicans and screw up policy and make themselves as unpopular as George W. Bush.  The insidery back slapping self worshipping Beltway press plays a role.  High Broderism in all its dismal vainglory tells Dems they must always move to the center and for reasons I cannot begin to fathom, the Dems listen.

Glenn Greenwald eviscerates David Brooks today for his latest bout of Broderism:

So what “most Americans” want is hawkishness on Iraq and Iran and the Middle East generally. In other words, they all embrace Bill Kristol and Dick Cheney’s foreign policy views. What a coincidence! As always, what the “high school educated women in the Midwest” all believe happens to be exactly what David Brooks wants! By contrast, anyone who rejects those views resides in “cuckoo land.”

Thus, Democrats can win elections only by repudiating those rabid anti-war bloggers who hold Fringe Views (such as favoring an end to the Iraq War and opposition to a war with Iran) and instead vow to remain in the Middle East more or less forever, ruling the region militarily. Because that’s what “high school educated women in the Midwest” women want.

Of course, Brooks’ entire column is factually false. That’s why he does not cite any polling data, because it shows the exact opposite of everything he says . . . Only in the twisted, fact-free, self-loving world of the Beltway Pundit is a political approach which produces these disastrous results “smart” and “successful.” But they are so convinced that what they believe is always what Real Americans in the Heartland believe — they so endlessly equate their own views with “centrism” — that they will never accept that their orthodoxies are unpopular, even when facts prove conclusively that they are. That is why the gap between the Beltway and America continues to grow rapidly.

What the Beltway Establishment believes more than it believes anything else is that the U.S. should continue to intervene in other countries, dominate the Middle East, and rule the world by superior military force. Thus, no matter how many Americans come to reject that mindset, affirming that mentality will remain a prerequisite for Seriousness and for being approved of by the Beltway class. Any politician, Democratic or Republican, who rejects these basic orthodoxies, no matter how unpopular the orthodoxies become, will be relegated to “cuckoo land.”

The real goal of the Beltway class is to eliminate all real differences, all meaningful debate, on these central questions. The Beltway class demands bipartisan agreement on the most important issues. Along with the belief that crimes committed by the revered Beltway elite should never be investigated and especially not prosecuted, they venerate this harmony above all else.

And even when the American citizenry rebels against this bipartisan consensus — as it plainly has done with regard to Iraq specifically and generally concerning our imperial behavior in the world — the Beltway class, led by the likes of David Brooks, will simply take to lying, falsely claiming that “most Americans,” the good pure Heartland, really do agree with them and that Democrats therefore must continue to embrace these shared Beltway pieties if they have any hope of winning. And because David Brooks and David Broder and the like rule the Beltway opinion-making world, Democrats listen and follow.

Our elected Democratic Congress is letting us down.  I admire Reid for forcing the overnight debate, I admire that they’ve done a number of things they’ve promised to do, I admire them for passing SCHIP and expecting Bush to veto it.  Now stand up with regard to Iraq.  Americans want out of Iraq - pass a funded withdrawal from Iraq and let Bush veto it.  Scream to the heavens when the Senate Republicans add another filibuster to their ongoing 153 filibusters.  Talk about obstructing the will of the Majority.  It’s time to represent the American people - not the beltway insiders, not your egos, not your campaign donors.

We’re on your side - why aren’t you on ours?

This entry was posted Wednesday, September 26th, 2007 at 2:26 pm and is filed under 4th Estate (Media), Crimes, Democracy, George W. Bush, Iraq, Party Politics, This Blog. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.