Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The disappearance of reasonable Republicans

What can one make of the screeching behavior of once-reasonable, measured Republicans like Orrin Hatch? This duplicitous op-ed is par for the course. Hatch has always been conservative but used to be of the dealmaking, likable group of conservatives, just like his colleagues Judd Gregg and Lamar Alexander. All three have recently become known, depressingly, as partisan attack dogs.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but I suspect stuff like this is why it's happening. In no universe can Bob Bennett be considered liberal, but he is interested in solving problems and working with Democrats, which is apparently not allowed anymore. These other dudes have seen what's up and are hamming it up for the Tea Party crowd, but they don't really have the knack for it, so they come off as unbelievably obnoxious. It's just kind of sad.

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.