The Republicans in Congress don't give a shit if this nation is destroyed from within so long as they can circle the wagons around the plutocracy

Paul Krugman on Brainless Broder's bipartisanship:

You see, this isn’t a brainstorming session — it’s a collision of fundamentally incompatible world views. If one thing is clear from the stimulus debate, it’s that the two parties have utterly different economic doctrines. Democrats believe in something more or less like standard textbook macroeconomics; Republicans believe in a doctrine under which tax cuts are the universal elixir, and government spending is almost always bad.

Obama may be able to get a few Republican Senators to go along with his plan; or he can get a lot of Republican votes by, in effect, becoming a Republican. There is no middle ground.

If there were ideas to be contributed - ideas with some kind of proven value, not tax cuts, which we know don't stimulate growth, and trimming inconsequential spending - that would be one thing. But more of the same bad thinking and faulty fantasy economics that put us in this mess just do not constitute a valid contribution. There is no value added.

Dicking around with the whole thing for the sake of posturing and trying to safeguard those tax cuts for the wealthy (as in trying to make them permanent) is not sound economics, not clear thinking, and not patriotic action in a time of crisis.

So, as the poster says, How about a nice cup of shut the fuck up?



Where's my chainsaw?

And why are we doing such a lame-ass job of getting actual facts out to the American People? Why are Republicans and Villagers on the airwaves with hardly anyone else out there framing the debate? Why isn't as technically sophisticated a team as the Obama crew not blanketing the public with a clear presentation of what we stand to gain or lose? And why, oh, why is anyone listening to such economic dim bulbs as McCain, Limpbone, and Broder? The treatment in the media of our global economic crisis and attempts to address it constitutes another layer of disaster.

[Yes, I know one reason we have this problem is that virtually unregulated, overly consolidated media tend to suppress anything that would upset the applecart of the corporatist plutocracy that controls access. And in a situation like that you don't really have a free press, do you? Into that vacuum step things like blogs and because of that vacuum we tend to get shrill.]

As BarbinMD writes: "It's pretty sad that President Obama seems to be the only Democrat making the case for the economic stimulus and pushing back against the GOP attacks against it."

Bipartisanship only works when both sides play the same game. That has not happened in so long that it is really delusory (= stupid) to think it will work in today's climate. It is itself a wedge issue designed to defeat any attempt to serve the common people, to maintain the pretense of a conservative social agenda, to crush unions, and to keep the powerful in power and the rich unhampered in maintaining and increasing their wealth, the rest of us be damned.

It is appropriate for the President to attempt to work with the opposition. It is also clear that they are not going to return the favor. It is not the President who is not collaborating; it is the obstructionists. Their ability to project is stunning - and sickening. The louder they shout that Democrats are not being bipartisan the more you know it is they who are guilty. The louder they shout about ethics, morals, corruption, fiscal responsibility, or any other topic, the more certain you can be that they have serious problems in these areas. The track record is clear and the hypocrisy is patent.

This is class warfare and it has been going on forever. Folks, rise up! Fight back! Do not let them screw us over!

h/t to Joe Sudbay at Americablog
--the BB (who was raised in a Republican anti-union household)