Morning Joe 8/2/2011 --Squishy centrist with no center

On Morning Joe today Joe Scarborough represented the worst of the politics. Scarborough praised Mitch McConnell, Joe Biden, John Boehner and Harry Reid for being "leaders" and getting a deal done, then challenged the representatives who voted no on the debt ceiling deal to explain their no votes when the "full faith and credit" of the US was on the line (If they don't have the words, they can borrow from Obama's speech when he voted no on raising the debt ceiling under Bush). Scarborough then, after using the hyperbole of Aug 2nd "default", criticized the pundits on both sides who awfulized the debt ceiling situation. Then later in the show, Scarborough praised the Tea Party representatives for hanging tough in negotiations, and Scarborough remained silent when his friend Tom Coburn, who opposes the deal, stated that America is headed toward a Greece-like crisis because we haven't addressed our spending problem. John Heilemann confronted Scarborough for his contradictory praise of both the establishment "leaders" and the Tea Party, after criticizing the Tea Party earlier, but Scarborough put his clown hat on and dimissed Heilemann with a cute joke.

It's ironic how centrists usually have no center -- they juggle in the middle in constant contradiction taking temporary positions for political expediency, and Scarborough is a prime example. The Republican Party is in conflict between the professional politicians, who pretty much act like Scarborough, and the principled limited government conservatives/libertarians who went to DC to make serious changes to the system.

Scarborough wrote a column for Politico basically saying that all the warnings from both sides about calmamity are overblown and that in the end deals are made -- so, we're still America, by God, and we keep on ticking. Another thing centrists do is draw false equivalencies to show their balance. It is true that both parties have supported a statist system which has brought us to a debt crisis, but one party, at least one part of the party, is correctly revealing the danger of our statist system, and the other party is using hyperbole regarding "cuts" to government that will kill old people and leave sick children to die without medial care to avoid dealing with our debt problem. Scarborough and his centrist, squishy ilk, choose to ignore the real problem by taking a middle approach that says the system is working when compromise can be reached, regardless of the content of the disagreements.

The debt ceiling deal does nothing to address our financial and economic problems -- nothing. But the political, statist establishment is pleased with itself today because it made a deal. Big freaking deal.

An example of media framing

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/05/jon-huntsmans-climate-problem

The above is an example of how liberal media will push Huntsman closer to Obama and make it impossible for Huntsman to take a rightwing position without being associated with earth-destroyers and bigots. Many on the Right will concede that the climate is changing, but they disagree on the responsibility of the government to "do something" about it. Many on the Right have compassion for gay people, but they still uphold the tradition of marriage being between a man and a woman, but rags like Mother Jones will hold up the stereotypical far rightwinger/hatemonger as the average Republican who is clearly and vigorously opposing Obama's policies -- so if Huntsman takes any stand that would upset a Democrat, he's pandering to the Republican base, and they are all kooks, you know.

These partisans on the Left are becoming so obvious and collectivized it's both funny and frightening.

Why action is more important than words

http://mises.org/daily/5009/The-Reagan-Fraud-and-After

As John McCain and others herald President Obama as a centrist, and as many remember today Ronald Reagan's great libertarian speeches, it pays to remember that actions and results are all that count.

What we need is not more words, but serious actions to roll back State power and economy-killing regulations.