Laughter is the best medicine when one is sick of the political class

http://reason.com/blog/2013/03/01/sequestration-a-cia-like-coup-a-shadowy

Of course, it's the Tea Party's fault. Robert Reich believes the Tea Party has inflitrated all levels of government and is now bringing it all down. Chris Matthews believes the Tea Party rightwingers are somehow behind a CIA coup which takes power from Obama and gives it to the Right. David Brooks simply thinks his base is stupid. Poor Brooks would rather associate himself with more sophisticated, intellectual types like Robert Reich and Chris Matthews. Oh, I forgot, there's a religious Leftist who  believes God hates the Tea Party, Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite -- David and Susan even share a name.

If you don't find this hilarious, then you have no sense of humor, or you're smarter than those of us who keep up with this stuff and have no idea what the political class is doing. Unfortunately, though, you need to keep up with it, because, although it's funny, it's also dangerous since these clowns have political influence. No, wait, on second thought, these clowns don't have influence -- nevermind. Just take my word, laugh, it's funny.

Moderate madness

http://www.politico.com/blogs/joe-scarborough/2013/01/for-gop-is-better-than-155584.html

Joe Scarborough agrees with David Brooks. In a previous post I wrote about Brooks' recent column in which he calls for a second GOP of Centrists who can guide the party away from the crazies. Scarborough picks out a conservative in Virginia who has said controversial things, then draws a distinction between that conservative and Colin Powell, making the claim that the GOP has to win back the Colin Powells of the party.

This is what's wrong with Centrists -- it's why the GOP is imploding. Republican Centrists don't stand for anything except maintaining a two-party power arrangement and creating the appearance of smart governance. Any Republican who wishes to please Colin Powell, who voted for Obama twice, has no principles. Powell voted for Obama knowing that Obama would fight for national healthcare, increase economy killing regulations, cripple energy production, and basically push a Progressive agenda to the detriment of the private sector.

How can any Republican consider Powell a part of the party? It's incredible. The Republican Party is quickly dying, and the useful idiots like Scarborough don't have a clue. Centrists are proferring a false choice between a strawman radical rightist who thoughtlessly hates all government actions and their idealized version of a smart conservative who intelligently compromises for the good of the country, unafraid to govern when legislation is necessary, while at the same time wisely holding back the excesses of Progressivism. Cucinelli vs Powell -- good Lord. There aren't many, but there are a few Republicans like Rand Paul and Mike Lee, and, while they aren't complete libertarians, they are the closest thing to it in the party, and this is where the hope lies. After all the damage done by interventionist policies, Centrists are concentrating on government interventions to solve our problems. It's madness. We may not be able to limit government power before America collapses, but we really need to, because afterwards there's no telling what madness might rule.

David Brooks at least declares the war

While Centrists like Joe Scarborough, Sam McKinnon and Michael Steele pretend to maintain limited government principles, they do so only to soft-sell their interventionist, status quo intentions. Centrists in the GOP are attempting to gain complete control of the party and Brooks has now brought it out in the open. Brooks is opposing more that radio talk show hosts and radical social conservatives. Brooks is uncovering the real opponents of the Centrists -- the limited government/free market conservatives who lean toward libertarianism. Brooks, in his sophomoric, psychologizing style, attributes limited government beliefs to regional culture that has programed the minds of southerners -- those durn revenoors!

Brooks ignores reality, as usual. Haley Barbour, Lindsay Graham, Saxby Chambliss and Lamar Alexander are some of the most centrist politicians in the GOP, not to mention the political players above, so his southern/northern dichotomy is silly. Brooks says that Centrists have to gain control through an alliance within the party, then they can force the guvmint hatin' southerners to go along with the plan. Brooks is not totally honest, because he still acts as if his GOP would not like excessive Progressive advancement -- they would work hard to curb statist excesses, but the GOP has to stop their criticism of Big Government, because it makes it impossible to govern effectively if you don't trust Big Government, or something like that.

This is nothing new, except that now the stakes are higher, and if the GOP continues the statist, Centrist route, there will be no opposition at all to the Progressive agenda and the expansion of State power. The need for a viable third party has never been greater. I said in 2008, when libertarian ideas were being discussed in MSM, and a faction of limited government conservatives formed in the GOP, that libertarianism would be attacked viciously by statists from both parties so that libertarians are marginalized and excluded from the GOP -- I was right.

Morning Joe 10/30/2012 -- Political dance of the Centrists

Centrists are not really devoted to party -- they take a pragmatic approach to dealing with political events like the 2012 election. Joe Scarborough is representative of the Centrist mindset, and it's been interesting watching him manuever as the political reality on each side of the election has shifted, almost daily lately. David Brooks was on Morning Joe and he's another prime example of the Centrist mindset. Brooks, however, is more honest and analytical about his Centrism. Brooks has made his peace with a Romney presidency, reasonably sure that Romney will go to the middle and get big things done with bipartisan support.  

Centrists were willing to watch the GOP lose when the Republican primary started, because it appeared  the Tea Party's influence set the tone for the election, as different far-Right candidates took their turns in the lead. Scarborough wrote off the whole process as so many clowns in a circus performance. You could tell that Scarborough and the Centrists were thinking either about the 2016 election or some surprise candidate, like Daniels, Christie, Jeb Bush, or Scarborough himself, from the Center. Then Romney broke loose and confused the Centrists.

Scarborough harshly criticized Romny when it looked as if Obama was headed to an easy victory, but Scarborugh became confused when Romney took the first debate and polls changed in Romney's favor. What now? Centrists are mainly concerned with the political realm, power and control, how best to use an interventionist government to manage the economy without bankrupting the country. Centrists believe that we can raise taxes and cut spending, stimulate the economy and implement efficiency in the process. Scarborough has two problems -- he's not sure that Romney will join the Centrist establishment and welcome people like himself (he has friends with Obama in the WH), or if Romney will create something different in the Republican Party, led by New Republicans like Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Rand Paul and the like. Scarborough likes to associate himself with both sides so that he's always in touch with whichever way the tide turns, but Scarborough is basically a Brooks-type Centrist, a pragmatist. The thing with pragmatism is that different people have different ideas reagrding what's pragmatic, and whether the pragmatic choice is politically motivated to advance a politi9cal career or motivated by what's best for the private sector and economy. Winners set a course and take a chance -- they understand what they want to accomplish and why they want to accomplish it -- succeeding politically is always small and insignificant in the long run.

One point that the Morning Joe crew and Chris Matthews made is that Obama needs to act as if he's in control of the storm situation and the response to it. It's all about impressions, you know. I hope they get the right photo ops. Do any of these people in the political class have a clue what's real and what's make-believe?

Yes, it's an interesting election indeed.

Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood and Glenn Beck

I wonder when David Brooks, Bill Kristol and other Really Smart Republicans will apologize to Glenn Beck for calling his ideas wacky when Beck predicted the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood during the Arab Spring.