Political Theatre category archive

Werner Herzog’s Bear spots the winner (emphasis added):

What about the people who didn’t vote? Not only do they outnumber the number of Republican and Democratic voters, they outnumbered all voters period. This means that yet again, the Didn’t Vote Party swept the midterms. It amazes me that elections which will determine all kinds of policy and will have a profound effect (especially on the state level) on so many people saw much fewer than half the voters show up.

Daniel Ruth:

It’s merely a guess, but the 2014 midterm mugging might well go down in electoral history as a great example of the politics of “Run away! Run away!” Rarely has a political party turned into a bigger gaggle of gutless poltroons than this assemblage of Democrats who spent the past few months trying to pretend: a) they really weren’t Democrats and/or b) they barely remembered the name of the president of the United States.

Follow the link for the rest.

Some of the comments in the clip get very strange.

I am not a partisan. I’m an activist, though not as active as I used to be. I support Democrats because they are the only feasible alternative to the vile and loathsome thing that Republicanism has become on its journey to becoming the Party of the New Secesh.

Those who beliee that a third party is the answer betray their ignorance of American history and the workings of American politics. Those who believe in some mystical “third way” between the two existing parties are, by and large, Republicans’ dupes, symps, and fellow-travelers made uncomfortable by the actions of their fellows and desiring to perfume the pig sty.

Nevertheless, I do recognize that, for the last 30 years, since the reign of Reagan, the Democratic party, with few exceptions, has run scared, peopled with gutless wonders unwilling to stand up for anything much.

The gutless are destined to lose. Let Shaun Mullen explain.

There is a bright side, I guess. I will stop getting a lot of stupid emails that have clogged my inbox for the past three months.

Addendum, Bright Side Dept.:

My email is down by at least 75%.

Not in Pennsylvania, there isn’t.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

I voted “in-person absentee” on Saturday. It’s a weird thing we have here in Virginia: There is no early voting, but, if you are eligible to vote absentee, you can vote early in person at designated locations as well as by mail (the first vote I cast was a mail-in absentee ballot for Shirley Chisholm). Since I’m working the polls in a precinct other than my own, I was eligible to vote “in-person absentee.”

The polling location was quiet and the poll-workers were nice. They told me that that voting had been steady; they had had about 25 voters by the time I arrived at 12:30 p. m. In idle conversation, I remarked to one that “My father taught me through example that voting is not a right; it is a duty. I can even remember my daddy paying his poll tax so he could vote.”

Some other voter over there said, “It’s a privilege.”

Clearly, she missed the bit about “poll tax.”

I said, “Indeed, there are some who are working to make it a privilege.”

Driving is a privilege. Voting is a duty.

Words fail me.

Warning: In worse taste than usual.

Juanita Jean points out the dialect of Libertarianism:

The problem with being a libertarian is that it is impossible to be ideologically pure and govern and (sic) the same time.

Follow the link for her example de jour.

Remember, a Libertarian is nothing more than a Republican who is ashamed to admit it.

Chris Honore marvels at the selfish mean-spiritedness that “conservatism” has become.

No excerpt or summary can do it justice. Just read it.

Daniel Ruth thinks that Jeb Bush will run. A snippet:

It is the dead of winter in Iowa, and the Republican presidential wannabees are gathered for yet another dreary debate.

Up on the dais are Texas Sen. Ted Cruz looking like a used shark salesman, grumpy New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie foaming at the mouth, Sen. Marco Rubio playing jacks, sanctimonious former Sen. Rick Santorum showing everyone his stigmata, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal handing out beignets, Texas Gov. Rick Perry waxing about how great it is to be in Hawaii, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee trying to raise the dead, and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan reciting Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged.

And thus Bush thinks to himself: “Holy cow, that’s not an assemblage of serious presidential candidates. It’s the campfire scene from Blazing Saddles . . . . Compared to these rubes I come off as Benjamin Disraeli meets the Founding Fathers. Yeah, I’m in.”

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Via Juanita Jean.

Daniel Ruth compares the relative merits of Florida governor Lex Luthor Rick Scott, Attila the Hun, and Godzilla. He finds the choice difficult. Here’s a bit of his reasoning:

Mr. Godzilla also has some problematic concerns, such as temperament. And his retail political talents could certainly use some refinement. However, Scott is also known for speaking in an incomprehensible tongue.

Working to his advantage is Mr. Godzilla’s unfortunate overexposure to radiation. This might well suggest a Godzilla administration in Tallahassee would be far more sensitive to environmental concerns, which have languished during the Scott administration.

Timothy Egan wants to lead a tour.

Justice Anthony Kennedy doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy I’d want to share a beer and a brat with, or be stuck next to on a long flight. But I would like for the most influential swing voter on the Supreme Court to step away from his legal aerie and wade through some of the muck that he and four fellow justices have given us with the 2014 campaign.

How did we lose our democracy? Slowly at first, and then all at once.

Follow the link for a travelogue.

Via Kos.

Not just in Pennsylvania, folks.

Colbert takes on Pennsylvania Governor (and destroyer of public schools) Tom Corbett’s photoslop.

Below the fold in case it autoplays.

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