Political Theatre category archive

Via SLANTblog.

Afterthought:

Stolen labor has been fundamental to the American economy since 1619.

Robyn Blumner considers the state of political discourse and suggests some new norms. Here’s one.

Rule One: Identify yourself. Reputation is a powerful civilizing force, while anonymity exerts the opposite push. The role of anonymous money for vicious political attack ads coarsens the debate. The people giving would never affix their names to what’s being said. Stop the cowardice and lower the temperature.

The rest pretty much flow from that one.

The comment (here’s an example) misses the point.

The Republicans didn’t invite Clint Eastwood to speak. Clint Eastwood was just a vehicle.

They invited Dirty Harry. Anything else was gravy.

Thom explains the con:

The courts seeem to be seeing through the con.

Ronald E. Riggio, blogging at Psychology Today, has a simple explanation:

So, the question is why do politicians so often lie, exaggerate, and distort the facts? The short answer is that it works! People are notoriously bad at detecting when others are lying, and there are several psychological reasons for this.

He goes on to explore very briefly those psychological reasons.

If you pay attention to politics–or maybe especially if you do not pay attention until an election nears–this should be required reading.

Der Spiegel is not improessed.

But Ryan still sees himself as a man of the people. He loves to quote Ronald Reagan’s assertion that, when the rich have more, their wealth will “trickle down” to all citizens. He seems to forget that the results of that experiment are well known. In 1982, Reagan had to massively increase taxes because the US budget deficit had grown so huge.

But that doesn’t shake Ryan’s convictions. In terms of hypocrisy, he is a worthy heir to those Republicans who condemn the state but are happy to use it when they want to ban something that does not fit into their worldview. Ryan, who is supposedly so skeptical about government, has supported more abortion restrictions than his party colleague Todd Akin, who recently caused a scandal with his remarks about “legitimate rape.”

Read the rest.

This picture purports to be about the London Daily Mail, but I think it’s about Fox News.

Via Mr. Feastingonroadkill.

Reg Henry comments on convenient conventional lapses:

The most amazing lapse of memory concerns the president whom Mr. Obama succeeded — you know, what’s his name, the Texas-drawling fellah from Maine. Republicans have wiped all mention of him from their collective memory banks, which is strange seeing how much they liked him at the time. We have gone from having a vice president at an undisclosed location to an ex-president with an undisclosed persona.

(snip)

This is a truly inspired type of forgetfulness, because it makes Mr. Obama responsible for everything. Republicans are blessed because they can’t remember the deficit when what’s-his-face was in the White House, suggesting to them that it probably didn’t happen. Nor can they remember Rep. Paul Ryan’s part in supporting the huge spending by whoever was doing it.

Click to read the rest, wherein he also wonders what the Democrats will forget in two weeks.

Mitt the Flip’s flip side.

You can’t make this stuff up.

An attendee at the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Tuesday allegedly threw nuts at a black camerawoman working for CNN and said “This is how we feed animals” before being removed from the convention, a network official confirmed to TPM.

Details at the link.

Words fail me.

A letter to the editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer reminds disaffected lefties that creating change takes work, not magic.

Here’s a nugget:

WHAT DOES change look like? You thought the euphoric wave of hope would spread and wash over a nation by virtue of sheer will. You thought that casting your one vote for President Obama sealed the deal. You thought that Grover Norquist would acquiesce. You thought that the Koch brothers, Adelson, Friess and the Romney-likes were going to cede the least bit of their privilege to the common laborer, the soccer mom or the working poor for the good of a nation.

This is what change looks like: Forty-some millionaires and billionaires fund the flood of negative ads across the airwaves. Romney approves flat-out lies – in three waves of welfare attack ads, despite independent fact-checkers and Mr. Conservative, Joe Scarborough (“Morning Joe”), discrediting his claims. No shame – the ads continue!

Read the whole thing.

Then take his advice and grow up already.

Via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.

Loosely based on the Jefferson Starship’s silliest effort:

Via Delaware Liberal.

Tony Norman finds the bright side of teabaggery:

You have to give the Republicans credit. The expansion of Tea Party warriors within GOP ranks has produced candidates this election cycle who, unlike their more mainstream brethren, are incapable of lying about their positions.

They tell you exactly what they believe, no matter how ridiculous it sounds.

Zandar:

And this is the problem, this fundamental reason why the GOP is jamming on the race card button as hard as they can. The notion that white America has lost control of the highest office in the land has driven more than a few of them over the edge.

Read the rest.