Three Rethugs That Would Undermine The Constitution

With the Supreme Court expected to rule this month in the same-sex marriage case of Obergfell v. Hodges, three hitchhikers in the Republican / New Confederate / Stupid Party's 2016 clown car are vowing to ignore a ruling that would sanction same-sex marriage nationally.  Those three Rethugs have no chance of becoming President in 2016 (or any other year):  reactionary secessionist Sen. Ted "Tailgunner Ted" Cruz, nutzoid Ben "On Meds?" Carson, and holy roller Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum.  But let's imagine them in the position of the Chief Executive, having taken an oath "to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," and then defying a ruling of the Supreme Court. The cornerstone of the Constitution is three co-equal branches of Government, a check and balance system on absolute power. If you're sworn to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution," and then undermine the Constitutional authority of one of the branches, isn't that a violation of your oath of office, and thus an impeachable offense?  Sure it is, but again, these three extremists will never be required to take that oath in the first place.

Media Duplicity And Myopia

Paul Farhi, writing in the once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle, takes fellow reporters to task for whining about political figures =cough= Hillary Clinton =cough= not willing "to play ball" with them (i.e., candidates not wishing to let the media define the usually puerile terms and conditions of a campaign). He notes that, no surprise to us, those centurions of the public's right to know "can be as thin-skinned, controlling and paranoid as the people they cover":

Last week, I spoke with seven reporters for a story about the formation of a press pool — effectively, an information-sharing cooperative — to cover Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. Two of the seven reporters were initially reluctant to speak at all and had to be coaxed into doing so with the usual promises of anonymity. Five of the seven eventually spoke only “on background,” meaning their names would not be used in the story. In this, they were no more accommodating than a representative from the campaign, who also would only agree to speak on background.

That the news media has an overblown sense of its own importance and ethical purity should come as no news to anyone who has watched or read media in the last, oh, 40 years.  We've cataloged a tiny sample of the corporate media's unwarranted egoism, sensationalism and self-serving hypocrisy in our short time in the blogosphere:  the focus on the trivial, the "both- sides- do- it" lack of integrity, the feeding frenzies (recall the 24/ 7 Ebola coverage?  Malaysian Flight mh370? Benghazi!!!?,  etc.) and, most egregious of all, ignoring the biggest American political story of the last half-century - the radicalization of the Republican Party.

Well, at least one traditional media outlet is finally getting around to noticing the disturbing trend that its brethren are blissfully ignoring.  Nina Burleigh in Newsweek.com writes in "How Timothy McVeigh's Ideals Entered the Mainstream":

Tarso Ramos, executive director of Political Research Associates, which tracks right-wing extremism, says these and other formerly fringe ideas mainstreamed after McVeigh’s assault—just not right away. “The Oklahoma City bombing had a sobering effect for a while,” he says. “Then, with the election of Obama, you get a whole new wave of Patriot activity and a new variant of conspiracy-ism, including the birther stuff and the idea that Obama is an agent of powerful elites.”

The surge in fringe activism was so dramatic after Obama’s election that the Department of Homeland Security issued a warning in 2009 predicting that right-wing extremists would multiply and “the consequences of their violence [could be] more severe.” The report was withdrawn after a conservative outcry.

She goes through all the manifestations of the current right-wing Republican lunacy, from Agenda 21 conspiracy theories, to nullification, to gun proliferation, and more.   This is the swamp that the Republican base lives in and that Republican politicians live in and/ or pander to. If that swamp's ever to be drained, we need a media that is willing to face up to hard realities and, more often than not, bite the corporate hand that's feeding it.  Obsessing and whining about how they're not being treated as "players" or lapping up Reince "Prepuce" Priebus' talking points on the Clinton Foundation and Hillary's e-mails isn't ever going to get that job done.

Fear, Rethug Style

It's certain that demographic trends don't favor the Rethuglican / New Confederate Party.  The minority population is growing more rapidly than the white population, and they are voting overwhelmingly Democratic, thanks to hostile policies and attitudes promoted by Rethug wingnuts, the most prominent example of which is uber-hater Rep. Steve "Not Martin Luther" King.

Josh Marshall has a piece on the fear being felt by the 20% to 25% of the population which sees their "America" slipping away, and becoming more diverse.   The Rethuglican / New Confederate Party is in the grip of that segment, which represents the majority of their voters.  Here's the situation:

"Yes, [Rep. Steve] King is more intemperate and perhaps more hateful than most. But he speaks for the relatively small slice of the electorate which makes up a pretty big slice of the GOP electorate and keeps the GOP anchored in opposition to immigration reform and to policies which put most of the non-white population off-limits to the party indefinitely. That’s why the whole plan to ‘double down’ on the ‘whites only’ strategy now increasingly favored by Republicans isn’t so much of a strategy as a recognition that it can’t break free or discipline that mammoth part of its voter base."

(emphasis added)

The Demagoguery Continues

Joe McCarthy and Ted Cruz

Gun control legislation is being debated in the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, and yesterday there was a sharp confrontation between Chairman Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and the radical new demagogue Sen. Ted "Joe McCarthy, Jr." Cruz (Wacko Bird-TX) over whether the Second Amendment was absolute or not.  After Joe Jr. smugly tried to insist that, unlike other Amendments to the Constitution, somehow the Second Amendment couldn't be limited, Feinstein and Sens. Schumer (D-NY) and Whitehouse (D-RI) jumped on Joe Jr.'s idiotic position.

Joe Jr. isn't stupid;  he's an Ivy League-educated graduate of Harvard Law School.  He is craven and very ambitious, and very comfortably panders to the most reactionary, ignorant elements of his party.  Recently, though, he's even drawn criticism from other right-wingers like Arizona's Sen. John McNasty and South Carolina's Sen. Huckleberry Graham for smearing Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel during his nomination hearings.  He's even to the right of Rep. Paul "Lyin'" Ryan, whom he criticized for not going far enough in his reverse-Robin Hood budget.

Joe Jr. isn't your everyday Rethuglican politician, he's a different, far more disturbing type.  A demagogue who won't hesitate to smear, lie, insinuate in order to advance his career....like another Rethug from decades past.

(image:  Separated at birth?)

Sunday Reading

Writing in today's Kaplan Daily, E.J. Dionne and blind squirrel Dana Milbank have complementary opinion pieces about how radical "modern" conservatism has become. A few samples:

E.J. Dionne: "The more he [Obama] emphasized a better balance between the individual and the community, the less interested conservatives became in anything that smacked of such equilibrium.

"That’s why today’s conservatives can’t do business with liberals or even moderates who are still working within the American tradition defined by balance. It’s why they can’t agree even to budget deals that tilt heavily, but not entirely, toward spending cuts; only sharp reductions in taxes and government will do. It’s why they cannot accept (as Romney and the Heritage Foundation once did) energetic efforts by the government to expand access to health insurance. It’s why, even after a catastrophic financial crisis, they continue to resist new rules aimed not at overturning capitalism but at making it more stable."

Dana Milbank: "When news broke that a vial of Ronald Reagan’s blood was being auctioned online, the price quickly jumped to $30,000 as Web sites and blogs explored a tantalizing possibility: Did this mean the late president could be cloned? [snip]

"But before they go filling that mold by mapping the Reagan genome, Republicans may wish to consider some genetic flaws that party scientists should repair in the cloning process. To make the Reagan clone more compatible with today’s Republican Party, a bit of genetic engineering may be in order..."

Both pieces are worth reading in their entirety. While it's early and the campaigns have just gotten underway, it appears from polling to date that a large percentage of voters are looking to reward these Rethuglican crackpots in November for their mindless radicalism. Sic transit gloria.

What Would St. Ronnie Do?

With the Rethuglican Presidential debate being held at St. Ronnie of Hollywood's Presidential Library, expect each of the winger candidates to pay homage to the late President ad nauseum. But would St. Ronnie pass muster in today's radical far right Rethug Party? The Washington Monthly's Steve Benen thinks not:

"The GOP agenda of 2011 — most notably the 'Cut, Cap, and Balance' plan — would have made Reagan’s entire agenda impossible, including the military buildup that conservatives credit with winning the Cold War. The disconnect between Republicans’ principles and their understanding of history seems important. On the one hand, Republicans have a religious-like reverence for 'Ronaldus Magnus'; on the other, they have no use for his approach to governance. It is, in other words, time for the mainstream to realize that this is no longer the Party of Reagan."

Would St. Ronnie have advocated the State of California secede if they didn't agree with Federal regulations, as Hair Perry has done vis-a-vis Texas? No, he was more careful than that. Hopefully, the Rethug candidates at tonight's debate will try to outdo each other in more and more radical, out of the mainstream jabber. Bring the popcorn.