Dick Morris Comes Out and Says It

[paft.livejournal.com]

Dick Morris on Sean Hannity, 2/28/11:

We may at long last have a way to liberate our nation from the domination of those who should be our public servants but instead are frequently our union masters and free our politics from their financial power…What is at stake here really is freeing our schools so that we could keep good teachers and fire bad ones, freeing our state government so we don’t have high local taxes (and exactly how are those good teachers going to be paid?) and obliterating the financial power base of the Democratic Party.

The money quote is underlined above. This attack on collective bargaining is not about helping kids. It’s about establishing what amounts to a one-party system. Eliminate the power of unions and the G.O.P., with its corporate backing, gets to run things pretty much unopposed.

These people do not grasp the most basic principle of an open society – equal access to the political process as a voter and as a candidate.

Crossposted from Thoughtcrimes

*

Comments

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

You're giving credit to Obama then? ;)
And what's the criteria by which you define "more oligarchic - less oligarchic"?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

You're giving credit to Obama then? ;)

In that he fucked up badly enough for the rest of the nation to wake up? Sure!

And what's the criteria by which you define "more oligarchic - less oligarchic"?

In that the Tea Party was the truest grassroots movement we've had in a long time, and their power helped broaden the power base.

The folks who think we're anything resembling an oligarchy either don't know what an oligarchy is, don't understand how the US works, don't understand who the players in the US are, or some combination thereof.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

- In that the Tea Party was the truest grassroots movement we've had in a long time, and their power helped broaden the power base.

HAHAHAHA! You made my day. :))

LOL some of the guys who I've heard saying this about you being an oligarchy have actually lived under oligarchy for decades. Try another argument.

I guess a US-born Nobel economics prize laureate for example doesn't know shit about how US works, amirite?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA! You made my day. :))

You don't actually buy the nonsense that it's some sort of front, do you?

LOL some of the guys who I've heard saying this about you being an oligarchy have actually lived under oligarchy for decades. Try another argument.

I have my doubts, to be blunt. And if they've lived under one and can't recognize it, all the worse for them.

I guess a US-born Nobel economics prize laureate for example doesn't know shit about how US works, amirite?

Depends on what they're talking about.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

- the nonsense that it's some sort of front

Sorry, didn't get that one.

Have your doubts. I've talked to Russians who've lived under nomenclature apparatchik's paradise and who now live under the epitome of oligarchy - Putin's regime. One or two are actual minor politicians. Do you request more credentials?

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Sorry, didn't get that one.

You do understand how decentralized and decidedly non-corporate the movement is, right?

Have your doubts. I've talked to Russians who've lived under nomenclature apparatchik's paradise and who now live under the epitome of oligarchy - Putin's regime. One or two are actual minor politicians. Do you request more credentials?

That's all well and good, but if they're living through that and somehow see oligarchy here, I don't think they understand what's going on here.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

You make conclusions with the ease I boil eggs.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Some conclusions are that clear and simple.

[luvdovz.livejournal.com]

For simply working minds - yes.

[ddstory.livejournal.com]

the Tea Party was the truest grassroots movement we've had in a long time, and their power helped broaden the power base.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Oh?

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, I suppose a movement funded by billionaires and pushed to the point it was arguably created by a news organization run by a foreigner could be the "truest grassroots movement we've had in a long time." If that is so, it is the most damning verdict on the USA imaginable.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Except the Tea Party movement existed long before any billionaires got on board, and even then is so decentralized that I'm sure the individual groups would love to see some of that cash come in so they could get some work done.

Seriously, man.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, in 2008, after Bush did something intended to help people for a change. They were nowhere in 2007 or earlier when he was engaging in essentially the Wilson Administration, if a cruder and stupider version of it, complete with hypocritical and pecunarically motivated idealistic foreign policy disasters abroad and thuggery at home.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Considering the Tea Party movement is primarily about economics and government spending, your complaint about the Tea Party seems to be "it's not about what I want it to be about." Hardly a really solid criticism.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, budget deficits healed by ending gay rights, banning abortion and legalizing murder of abortionists, demanding birth certificates to register for President, and claiming still that preserving the Holy Burlington Coat Factory will all magically make the economy paradisical and shrink the budget. I'd have better luck trying gris-gris for the same result.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

The Tea Party folks aren't really driving the bus on those, as I'm sure you're aware. Even assuming that your take on them is remotely accurate.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Yes, the Tea Partiers never support what the Tea Party and Republican delegates they elect actually do, you're right. Except when they keep donating to them and re-electing them.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

You say "keep" as if they've had multiple opportunities.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

2008 and 2010 aren't multiple opportunities? Unless you mean after all that there has in fact only been one and that the Tea Party was an artificial auxiliary to the Republican Party.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

No True Scotsman

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

Not the case here. I'm not saying that the Tea Party isn't also filled with some social conservatives, but that the Tea Party is not putting social issues forward. But, given how much you don't know about the Tea Party given your laughter at the concept of it being a grassroots movement, I'm not surprised you don't know that.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Hey, if the Tea Party was in favor of cutting Defense spending, I'd be all for them.

There's a lot of them that get involved in non-economic issues, but if we're gonna play the game that real Tea Partiers are just fiscal conservatives then they've step up. They got some dudes in office, where are the proposals to cut Defense?

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

In that the Tea Party was the truest grassroots movement we've had in a long time, and their power helped broaden the power base.

ahahahahahahahahahahah

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

?