Inchoate: being only partly in existence or operation, especially imperfectly formed or formulated.
From the Simpsons:
Homer: Here it is everybody! The world’s greatest web site! [a highly annoying newbie web page, complete with several clashing sounds, is seen] You’d think all the noises would be annoying, but they’re not.
Bart: I got suspended from school today.
Homer: No kidding [obviously ignoring and then continuing to ignore Bart] What do you think of my page, Lisa? Be honest, it’s great, isn’t it? Go ahead, say it’s great if you want to.
Bart: They found a switchblade in my locker.
Lisa: Well, a web page is supposed to be a personal thing. You’ve just stolen copyrighted material from everyone else. They could sue you for that.
Bart: I took a swing at a cop.
Homer:They can’t sue me if they don’t know who I am. I’ll just call myself Mr. “X”.
Bart: I’m just mad all the time.
Homer:Yep, you just can’t go wrong with Mr. “X”.
What are you rebelling against?
What do you got?
Ron Fournier, writing for the Associated Press, has a column trying to find political themes shaping this year’s political cycle: Antipathy toward elected officials and the establishment. The power of special interests. Tests of party purity. The tea party. The quixotic fight against hyper-partisanship.
For my part, I think people are mad, and the things they’re mad about are just too big and complicated for them to handle in any focused kind of way, so they’re just lashing out. They hate partisanship but punish party members who cooperate with the opposing party. They hate big government but want the government to shove aside the invisible hand of the marketplace that’s not cleaning up the Gulf. They want lower taxes and deficit reduction but can’t seem to identify government expenditures from which they benefit which they’d be willing to do without. My guess is that these issues are just lightning rods for general dissatisfaction. The dissatisfaction comes from a sense of economic insecurity. Job security is nil, and there is no real confidence that the U.S. is going to get its act together and get going in a direction where an individual willing to work hard is generally assured of becoming economically comfortable, surpassing the standard of living of his or her parents, and reasonably expecting that their kids will be able to do the same.
As Fournier points out:
The unemployment rate is nearly 10 percent. Oil sullies the Gulf of Mexico. U.S. troops die in Afghanistan and Iraq. Government bailouts and Obama’s health care initiative stir fears about the national debt. And, nine years after 9/11, doubts linger about the country’s defenses.
Oh, and in other happy news, I’ve heard that Afghanistan has surpassed Vietnam as the longest war in U.S. history. (I disagree with that method of counting; but it’s still a sobering milestone.)
Whatever it takes to create a distraction is what the republicants do all of the time, 24/7. The oil spill is because Obama had in place a manager who was incompetant, Turns out same said manager (the one who got the boot) wrote a report on BP rig that blew up back in 2000 pointing out the dangers and the lack of preparations and proven techniques to deal with just such a spill that deep in the gulf. Anyway, 8 years of bush cutting back regulation of the industry and cheney’s secret meetings with the industry is not mentioned by faux news, just that Obama has failed to solve the problem. It is his fault.
Of late, if the democrats are pushing an agenda, I am not aware of it. Where is it? What is it? Republicants tell us that liberals are socializing our country, led by an illegal alien, and dangerous to Americans. They want our country back. They want to send Washington and politicians a message that we are tired of the same old thing. And we oppose any thing that Obama does.
Except they elect the same people and follow faux news as if it was real information. If you challenge them on the facts, they provide a response from another site, like rush, that is just a repeat of the faux news stuff. If one says it and the other says it, it is true. People are mad, but they are to blame. These same people elected bush and his ilk to congress and then turned their backs, or pilloried those who did not, on what bush was doing to America and our freedoms. Now we see the results of that. People need to think for themselves. Stand up for America.
I want my country back from the hate media on tv and radio. How do we get rid of them?
Akla wrote:’ I want my country back from the hate media on tv and radio. How do we get rid of them?’
That’s the same stated goal of Professor Glenn Beck and what the Tea Party movement advocates .. The only way Obama is going to ‘take back’ the country for us common folk ( that’s how I see myself anyway) is to accomplish legislation that turns out effective and becomes popular . But how effective can compromised, watered-down legislation such as health care be? We may not know for 10 years and only after subsequent legislation to make what already has been passed be more effective.
In the end the BP disaster may be a catylist for a turn in grassroots thinking. The lesson should be that Corporatism is more entrenched and far more harmful than Big ‘liberal’ Government and Obama has been left little recourse against a monster, internationally-based corporation.
Our goverment has been really big for a longtime and the bigger it gets the less liberal it seems.
It’s hard to blame Obama for being feckless on one hand without also blaming the free market of no regulation,since BP is the perfect prototype creation of ‘no goverment regulation’ .Hopefully ,more and more people will realize these free market monsters are the big government that are stealing everyone’s wealth, and pretending they didn’t do anything wrong,while warning us about how government regulation is the road to socialism.
Small government is a myth. There’s too much wealth to gather up and there will always be an another BP waiting to consolidate power and govern itself with a well-funded international power base.
And our American conservative movement complains about the United Nations and the World Court compromising American sovereignty! It’s kind of funny in a non-humorous way.Pure ideology is always myopic.
Thinking about this post, Doug, and the comments of Lou and Akla above, please let me quote from the late and great Dr. Andrew M Lobaczewki’s book, entitled, POLITICAL PONEROLOGY, which he designates as a science on the nature of evil adjusted for political purposes:
“If someone asked me what should be done to heal the USA, a country which manifests symptoms of macropathy, I would advise subdividing that vast nation into thirteen states — just like the original ones, except correspondingly larger and with much more natural boundaries. Such states should then be given considerable autonomy.
That would afford citizens a feeling of homeland, albeit a smaller one, and liberate the motivations of local patriotism and rivalry among such states. This would in turn facilitate solutions to other problems with a different origin.”
Sounds great to me. Have you seen and listened to the song and video of the only man whose video was nominated for best video of country music stars, on the country music channel on cable, which was about his observations, from a Texas country man, on America of today? I can see why it was nominated!!
Hey, I’d be satisfied with Obama if he got us out of Iraq as promised, closed Gitmo, stopped printing valueless money, stopped borrowing from foreign nations, stopped deficit spending (that was important pre-election, right-o Doug?), ended the pointless drug war, lived up to the transparency he talked about, or pressed for a reversal on the Patriot Act. Any one of those, and I’m thinking well of him.
Liar, liar, pants on fire, MK. lol
I’d be satisfied if he’d just give the country back to its original owners. Starting with Hamilton county. ;-)
Ok.. it must be a Friday – I agree with almost all of Mike Kole’s views.
BTW – Mike, I’d like your take on Rand Paul and the woman in NV who wants to shut down half the government. Are those true Libertarian views? How far would you go? Do you have a blog on these ideas?
@VG- No! It’s true! I know that I’m not going to get what I want generally from a Democratic administration. Ok, that’s life, but I find that I share a desire for greater civil liberties with most Dems, so I didn’t think it unreasonable to hope for those things- especially since Obama campaigned on them!
@Doghouse- I’m ok with that too. Shall you start the proceedings?
@ Hoosier1- Glad to be of some service, even if that’s generally as a reverse Rex Reed.
On Rand Paul- I think he’s an idiot. He’s only on the map because of his father, and then he goes out of his way to say emphatically that he’s not a libertarian? Brilliant. Yay. I share some views (esp on the Federal Reserve and monetary policy), but am greatly opposed on others (foreign intervention and immigration in particular). And, he was a complete idiot in handling the questions on civil rights. To repeal the whole thing because of a 3% fine point disagreement? A political novice.
On Angle of Nevada- I don’t know much about her, other than that her one primary opponent launched attack ads, and that Harry Reid’s team is sounding the same attack notes. I only know this because my best friend recently moved to Vegas and has been sharing highlights with me. I really don’t know much beyond this, and that she was favored by the tea party folks and had her support in rural Nevada.
True libertarian views? Good grief. I try not to get involved in that kind of thing. I try to build bridges with people who will work with me where we agree. One of the highlights of my 2006 campaign for Secretary of State was when a libertarian issued this criticism of me: “Mike Kole is the Libertarian candidate without a trace of libertarianism in him”. This was because I was too moderate, not throwing enough red meat, and focusing on- get this- the issues related to the office of Secretary of State. I think of myself as a ‘true libertarian’, but apparently for some, if you aren’t calling for an immediate shutdown of half or more of the govt, then you’re not true.
In this sense, the Libertarian Party is exactly like the Rs & Ds. The base wants ever more.
Political bases are kind of like parasites in that respect: get as much as you can without killing the host. So, they want to try to push the part as far toward their views without losing power.