Howdy

Well I'm trying my hand at this thing. Politics is a mine field of ugliness in this country right now. I often avoid the topic in discussion despite my obvious interest in the area. So here it is.

What motivates me is the state of our political system today. People will always have different views on politics. Many different political systems can get a society to the end they desire, the road travelled just looks different from one to another. So under normal circumstances I might both relish political discussion and love to hear from the "other" side (s).

Instead of this vigorous debate among the various sides we have a misinformation and distortion factory that is the modern day American right. I think the party of the right is no longer a sincere expression of right of center politics, I think it has become a cynical power generation machine.

From time to time, despite politics, one or another party becomes a "power generation" machine. Policy and ideas don't really mean anything. It stops serving the people and no longer represents what it claims to. The politics is just a sidebar to the generation and maintenance of power. This is what one would call a cynical order. That order today I believe is the Republican Party.

Why is it that I feel this way? The following are just some examples and these characterize what I have against this group.

1. Having southern populists and wealthy gentry in the same party is insane and illogical unless the intent is to build a constituency. These two groups have interests that are largely exclusive.

2. In every way that I observe it is the populists that get all the air time and also get the shaft. This party has no intention of delivering for them. It is also what the old guard knows will kill the party. They get the face time because they have been bringing in the votes and asking for little in return. Failure to deliver is blamed on the left.

Roe V Wade, vouchers and most of the culture war agenda all help rally the base and doesn't hurt their cause as long as the rest of the country doesn't believe they'll succeed. If any of the culture war issues actually goes the way of the populists and the whole apple cart will be rocked.

3. George W. Bush is the embodiment of this BS dichotomy. He's the old guard in new guard clothing. He has the ranch (new), his accent (total bs), his religion (he's an Episcopalian gone Evangelical for political reasons) and his apparent lack of New England anything.

His is the ethic of power. Yes there are those that really do believe in the rhetoric of today's GOP, but I can assure you, it is not W. His is a cynical crew.

4. Traditional American conservatives have never trampled on Habeas Corpus, privacy or civil liberties.

5. Conservatives care about the economy, enact policy that is good for it and love balanced budgets. Neocons won't do any of these things. You can't fight wars all over the third world and line the rich's pockets with tax cuts and still balance a budget without cutting services-an act that will certainly make you lose office. So they don't cut services and they bust the budget wide open.


It is clear to me that Rove and his buds have done the most amazing thing of all. They've gotten an entire subgroup, Southern whites (Christian and not Christian-beer drinking rednecks love W too) to vote, time and again, against their own economic and social interest in droves every election day and deliver power to wealthy, ethic-less, Yankees of any number of creeds and none, all the while they think they're voting for God's party.

Here's the best part of the joke. The two items that probably bring the Republican base to the polls more than anything else are not political at all. Abortion and the role of gays in society will not be settled in the courts, congress or in state legislatures. These items will be worked out at the water coolers, the blogs, the youtubes, the Oprah shows and the media players of the country. It is how the up and coming generations view these issues that will make the difference.

What is more, if the neocons were to restrict these behaviors in the courts the center will radicalize and you'll turn this country as liberal as Europe. The center has allowed itself to swing to the right due to a belief that they will reap financial rewards, national security and won't be personally impacted by civil liberty infringements.

However much the center might play free and easy with other people's civil liberties, don't mess with theirs. When people can't get a safe and legal abortion for their raped 12 year old daughter or for their daughter who is a 25 year old mother of three who dies during an avoidable delivery of a morbidly deformed and unviable baby, you will see the center turn left and hard.

What makes this all such a cynical state of affairs is that Rove, Bush and all their cronies in the inner circle know exactly what I mean and agree with me completely. There's is a platform to get out the vote. It is political pandering at its worst.

So on the Pragtopia meter how do they rate?

1) Pragmatic - to the end of getting power 10
- to the building of good policy 3

2) Utopian - for Evangelicals 7 (not a 10 because they have no intention of delivering on this stuff)
- for everyone else 2

OK so that's what brings me to being fired up and starting a blog. Most of the other things I write won't be exclusively about Bush bashing etc. I'm more interested in linking to articles and commenting on them in a way that suggests alternatives to the status quo or that call the players on the lies that they tell.

So happy reading and commenting. I won't hesitate to nuke any posts that are extreme in the offensive, but a well written rebuttal is welcome.