Political Theatre category archive

Preparing the world for a new generation of Oliver Twists.

Via C&L.

Fred Sanford’s war.

Every week, as the U.S. troop drawdown accelerates, the United States is selling 12 million to 14 million pounds of its equipment on the Afghan market.

Returning that gear to the U.S. from a landlocked country halfway around the world would be prohibitively expensive, according to U.S. officials. Instead, they are leaving behind $7 billion worth of supplies, a would-be boon to the fragile Afghan economy.

But there’s a catch: The equipment is being reduced to scrap before it is offered to the Afghan people . . . .

Brian Greenspun thinks he knows:

He lives in Henderson and his name is Bob!

Follow the link to learn why.

Arthur Poskocil isn’t fooled:

Blaming Congress as a whole probably appealed to many uninformed individuals as a sensible and concerned position. Unfortunately, it is just such citizens who make it possible for those truly responsible, such as Sen. Ted Cruz and our own Rep. Bob Goodlatte, to exercise the great negative and obstructionist power that they have wielded.

As the shutdown progressed, national polls showed that a sizeable majority of Americans did realize that congressional Republicans were to blame. Yet 30 percent of respondents still blamed the president and his party. That reflects far too many Americans who are utterly ignorant or ideologically blinded, too many Americans taking the side of political terrorists.

Via PoliticalProf.

In the Roanoke Times, John Winfrey sees precedent for teabaggery, and it’s not pretty. (Unfortunately he trips over Godwin’s Law along the way).

A nugget; follow the link for the rest:

From the beginning, the tea party intended to shut down our government and destroy all of our social programs. Just how far is it willing to go? Its members have gained the power to do that, and it fits their ideology. Surely by now we realize that we are dealing with an ideology, not rational, moral thought.

In the fairly recent past, the world has seen how ideology can trump common sense and basic morality. It happened with the Church and Galileo, and later during the Inquisitions. It happened with Hitler and National Socialism, with Mao Zedong in China and with Pol Pot in Cambodia. We should no longer be surprised that ideology can trump common sense and basic morality; it has been done so many times throughout history.

The usual warnings.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Via BartCop.

Senator Ted Cruz is the reincarnation of Senator Joe McCarthy.

Different topics, same tactics.

When I lived on the Main Line a long time ago, I always looked forward to Clark DeLeon’s writing; he had a delightful column on bits and pieces in the Metro (I forget exactly what it was called) section. Eventually, he left the Inky and I left the Main Line.

Recently, he was back in the Inky writing about the recent Republican decision to ungovern America. A nugget:

The shifting story lines followed by face-saving strategies of the Republican leadership reminded me of a letter regarding the petty obstructionist Confederate legislature during the Civil War.

“Pardon me, Is the majority always drunk?”

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

PoliticalProf provides a handy guide to finding the conspiracy theory that’s right for you.

Follow the link; you’ll be glad you did. I can’t scale it down to fit here and keep it legible.

Updated: A half-formed version of this post excaped captivity prematurely.

Long-time Maine Republican Matthew Gagnon has an interesting take on the current shenanigans within the Republican Party. He thinks it’s a battle over means, not ends. A nugget. (Read the rest, then bookmark Matthew Gagnon. He’s a sane voice from the right.):

Think of it like this. If you made Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, absolute ruler of the United States for a day, the end result of what he would remake the country into would not be all that different from what Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., would do were he given the same power. Honestly it wouldn’t be that different from what Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, would do, if we are being honest.

Yet to the average Republican activist, those three senators are as different as night and day, and the source of their perceived difference is mostly in their tactical approach to governing.

Given that, why did they do it? Because, as Chauncey Devega explains, it just felt sooooo goooood.

How Faux is Faux news?

Read this.

Noah Feldman in the Charlotte Observer.

But the outcome is clear: Safe Republican districts gave us the tea party.

Freed from chasing the median national voter, tea party representatives could move far to the right without fear of being voted out of office. The motivated voters who showed up for primaries pushed out more moderate Republicans still playing the old game.

The disastrous consequence for Republicans is a self- perpetuating party-within-a-party that doesn’t care if it makes the wider party unelectable nationally. Tea party supporters think they are fighting for the Republican soul, and they are: If they win, they will drive the party so far from the median voter that a Republican president will become unimaginable.

Read the rest.

Well, that sure worked out nicely.

Daniel Ruth doesn’t like the blend. A nugget:

Many years ago I heard a Baptist preacher offer up this golden piece of advice: You cannot talk your way out of a problem you behaved your way into.

If only Sen. Ted Cruz, R-I Feel Petty, Oh So Petty, had been paying attention.

(snip)

Are there lessons to be learned from Washington’s answer to “Hee-Haw on the Potomac”? Sure, beginning perhaps with the notion that civic illiteracy, especially among many elected officials, is at epidemic proportions.

Read the rest.

Oh, do please read the rest.