US POLITICS SPRING 2011: Let's just call off this country.

Oh no, I got there, but there are like eddies of wtf in a larger current of reasonable human feeling, I think. I'm grateful for even that much, in Michigan.

in terms of giving something in return, that day will come ten or more years down the road when these kids grown into adults. A little compassion now will help determine the course that's to be followed. It sends the message that they are valued members of a community and can go a long way towards helping these kids (who are already behind the eight ball) to grow into the kind of men and women you'll want living next door.

Do you know how happy it makes me to hear even that much sense? Deliriously.

Knucklehead David Brooks is sad:

Moreover, the two parties are about to run utterly familiar political campaigns. The Democrats are going to promise to raise taxes on the rich to preserve the welfare state, just as they have since 1980. The Republicans are going to vow to cut taxes and introduce market mechanisms to reform the welfare state, just as they have since 1980.

The country is about to be offered the same two products: one from Soviet Production Facility A (the Republicans), and the other from Soviet Production Facility B (the Democrats). It will react just as it always has.

It will react just as it always has.

By applauding when David wins a Pulitzer.

what, another round of soviet robot candidates?!

not AGAIN

Brooks actually not as off the m as usual, for him. I saw that fucker on PBS, CNN and NBC this weekend WITHOUT EVEN TRYING!

does you TV just turn on by itself

mine does

Mine gets hot when Cokie makes an appearance.

Moreover, the two sides are about to run utterly familiar strategies. The Rebels are going to promise to blow up the Death Star and defeat Darth Vader, just as they have since 19 BBY. The Empire is going to vow to crush the resistance in order to ensure galactic trade, just as they have since 19 BBY.

The galaxy is about to be offered the same two products: one from Droid Factory A (the Rebels), and the other from Droid Factory B (the Empire). It will react just as it always has.

in soviet russia, brooks is still stupid

we have a whole class of political writer who doesn't like politics at all.

most of the big names are like that

it wasn't my TV, Snarky Mo

What he left out of his Soviet mini-metaphor is that the Republicans will try to do what they promise, mostly.

in soviet russia, brooks is still stupid

^^^^ our next US Politics thread title

yeah, David Broder didn't really much like politics either. ergo his reflexive "centrism."

friedman! they all hate it

why do people take them seriously?

i guess cause ""people"" hate politics

These people. If they hate politics so much, they can damn well stop participating in 'the conversation' or accepting payment for their involvement.

The problem with Friedman is that he's also accepted as a foreign policy sage.

so we have to endure him on at least six cable news channels.

another problem is that there are at least six cable news channels

(I don't even pay for cable)

Ah, Friedman - the most famous person ever to write for my high school's newspaper.

I assume this was last year

In fairness to the guy, he pays for a scholarship for aspiring journos from my town so he gets mensch points for that.

DJP ty for that

lol damn

LOL Dan.

hate politics? Methinks they dost protest too much. It's a filthy emdeavor, and pundits take to it like pigs to slop.

Well, and besides, the political commenter at Brooks' level of fame assumes an air of detachment: they're the only ones who can see Things As They Are. Which is why Obama will have a lucrative career on television in sixteen months or six years, whichever comes first.

journos and commentators like the "inside baseball" aspects of politics, plus the gossip. politics is showbiz for ugly people, as either frank zappa or jay leno once said. they don't like detailed discussions of policy, partly because they don't understand policy discussions but mainly because that shit is for technocratic geeks (because it's like hard and requires analysis and knowledge).

David Brooks was told there would be no math

but its not that brooks and friedman and (RIP) broder hate policy or numbers! they hate conflict. friedman in particular would love a country run by a council of technocratic geeks

The worst kind of totalitarianism imo.

don't they know that conflict builds character

It's like the scenario in Devo's "Through With Cool."

the brooks/friedman/broder wing just doesn't like that there are different kinds of people in the country, with different desires, ideas, and relative levels of power. none of those guys has shown to have much of a read on the real source of political energy, and can't understand why the whole thing isn't just sorted out by now.

I want more fighting, myself

you could move to wisconsin

or Syria

no, the progressives-with-balls kind, not the limbs-flying kind.

Meanwhile Ezra Klein follows Andrew Sullivan's lead and posits that Obama has been a terrific conservative president.

Too bad so many conservatives will vote against him because he is a Mau-Mau and a communist. Of course, the John Birchers called Eisenhower a communist sympathizer, too.

Klein actually says: President Obama, if you look closely at his positions, is a moderate Republican from the early 1990s

"we are the change we voted against 20 years ago"

OBAMA 2012

haha he actually did all those policies republican wonks put together to have something on file, but republican pols were never ever going to do

x-post

but its not that brooks and friedman and (RIP) broder hate policy or numbers! they hate conflict. friedman in particular would love a country run by a council of technocratic geeks

― ban drake (the rapper) (max), Tuesday, April 26, 2011

My aerospace engineer brother sometimes endorses this Friedman point of view.

during the healthcare debate i remember feeling like "why am i supporting bob doles health care plan"

"why am I paying to keep Bob Dole alive?"