Wednesday, July 29, 2009

In re birfers

Weigel digs up some gold:

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What I find hilarious about this is that the wingnuts are already blaming the media for this. Well, with a birther bill that has what, 10 cosponsors, almost all of the talk radio goons, and a growing percentage of the right wing, I don't understand why it's not a legitimate story. Just because it makes Republicans look bad doesn't mean that it's not a legitimate story. But I think we're seeing the limits of Republicans' inability to impose self-discipline, as it has evolved over the past few decades. More and more this party is looking like the UK Labour Party in the 1980s--just lost, unable to govern, unable even to appeal to voters. It took Labour 18 years to get back into power.

I also liked Ta-Neheisi's observation here:
I think this is what happens when you only fulfill half of your duty as a leader. Surely part of it is to represent your folks. But another part of it is to protect them from the mob mentality. But when you actively cultivate Schiavo, "intelligent" design, Confederate Flags, and homophobia, I'm not sure what you expect.

To paraphrase Douglass, a Party is worked on by what they choose to work on. Work on stupid, expect to get stuck there. Expect to have to take meetings with a Russian-born dentist/lawyer about who's American, and who's not.
He forgot realtor/tae-kwon-do master.

The Man, The Myth, The Bio

East Bay, California, United States
Problem: I have lots of opinions on politics and culture that I need to vent. If I do not do this I will wind up muttering to myself, and that's only like one or two steps away from being a hobo. Solution: I write two blogs. A political blog that has some evident sympathies (pro-Obama, mostly liberal though I dissent on some issues, like guns and trade) and a culture blog that does, well, cultural essays in a more long-form manner. My particular thing is taking overrated things (movies, mostly, but other things too) down a peg and putting underrated things up a peg. I'm sort of the court of last resort, and I tend to focus on more obscure cultural phenomena.