Outrage and Exhaustion

I just realized something today as I attempted to dutifully trudge through another DailyKos Recommended diary about Health Care and betrayal and Vinegar Joe Lieberman and white privilege and capitalism and everything else: I am tired of being outraged. I have been a reader of DailyKos since I was a freshman in college. I reveled in the outrage, sure, but I also appreciated the so-called “reality based” analysis. Republicans were stupid and evil and they did stupid and evil things. But that was sort of a given. Most of the site’s writing and readers were focused on not only the many outrages of the Bush administration, but on how to fight the electoral war and get Democrats into power. “More Democrats, Better Democrats” was the unofficial motto. Put simply, any Democrat was better than any Republican, but Democrats in safe seats should be poked and prodded to act like real Democrats, or be willing to face primary challenges. This is a strategy I agree with.

During the election of ‘08, I patiently ignored the “Obama is a tool of the corporate oligarchy” diaries and articles, since the polling and writing was good. And sure enough, the Democrats won, and there was much rejoicing. But somehow, the backbiting has gotten worse. All the old jokes about the Democratic circular firing squad? All true. I didn’t realize this, but Liberals have to be perpetually outraged.

Let me be clear. I’m not happy with the way HCR has gone in Congress. I’m not excited about the pace of financial regulation reform. If I was grading the first year of the term, I’d give Obama a B* and Democrats in Congress a C-. A lot of folks would call these grades pretty generous. Some diarists on DailyKos would call me an Obamabot and and a corporatist, surely. But here’s what I don’t understand. Republicans would still be getting at best an F, and at worst a “Fat, Drunk and Stupid is no way to go through life, son.”

*Honestly, I would probably have given him an A- if not for my own personal lingering questions about his economic advisors’ heads and their spatial relationship to their buttockses. But how anyone could give him anything close to a failing grade after what he’s inherited is beyond me. That’s like giving the Rebellion a failing grade because they blew up the Death Star, but only after it destroyed Alderaan and besides, Vader got away.

So here I sit, confused at why we’ve all stopped focusing on all the good Democrats are doing as opposed to Republicans, while the entirety of the liberal blogoblag explodes in a firey rage. I was outraged for awhile. But I can’t do it anymore. I’m burned out from all the outrage. I just can’t get worked up about the minutia of a massive health care overhaul and a nearly $800 Billion financial package* anymore. I know this is not the time for complacency, but can’t we give them a chance? Lincoln didn’t win the Civil War in a year. Roosevelt didn’t end the Depression and stop Hitler in even a term. Can’t we just accept that this is not Athens? Congress is designed to be slow-moving. Obama can’t just snap his fingers and fix the economy and stop war and legalize weed and allow Gay Marriage and unify gravity and quantum mechanics. Let’s all step back, put down the outrage cannons, and step back from our ledges because Barack and Co. haven’t nationalized the insurance industry yet.

*Which has probably knocked 1.5-2% of the unemployment rate. It’s not perfect, but can we at least give a little credit where credit is do? It’s also paved the way for future stimuli.

For me, the most frustrating aspect of this whole thing? Notice you haven’t seen as many Republicans out there embarrassing themselves talking recently? Why would they? They know people hate them, and they haven’t done anything to change that. All they have to do is sit back and hope Democrats shoot off enough toes to hobble themselves for 2010. And Democrats are playing right into it, by spending all their time fighting and whining about each other. The media loves it, since Republicans Rise From Dead would be a moneymaking headline for them. And we’re all playing along. That future stimulus package I just mentioned? It ain’t happening with Mitch McConnell and Eric Cantor in charge.

I’m not saying to be complacent. We all know the problems haven’t been solved. But change doesn’t happen overnight. Legislating has been compared to sausage making for a reason. And this world, while not the Panglossian best-of-all-possibles, is a hell of lot better than the one we could be living in. So here it is: I refuse to be outraged anymore. I know the old saying “If you aren’t outraged, you aren’t paying attention,” but I’m just too tired. Maybe when Joe Lieberman and Jim DeMint cosponsor a bill to eliminate the Department of Agriculture while increasing funding for the drug war and making DRM mandatory for every piece of digital media in the country. But I’m out of outrage for 2009.

Do We Hafta Read All Those Pages?

One of the most ridiculous aspect of the anti-HCR moran parade is the focus on the size of the bill. Not the size of the outlays, the size of the pork in the bill, or the amount of money being spent. No, they actually make a big deal about the actual length of the bill, like, in words. For the average Glenn Beck viewer, this is understandable. They haven’t read anything longer than “Lemmy Goes to the Zoo,” so they just assume no one else has either. The sinister ploy Liberals are enacting is boring everyone for 150 pages about insurance exchanges and anti-trust exemptions. Then bam! Straight in with the mandatory Gay Marriages and forced conversions to Judaism. So I can understand the frustration from the teabaggers.

I’m more interested in the parroting of this meme by actual legislators. John Cornyn threatened to have the entire bill read on the floor. Presumably because he was too busy talking to Sean Hannity to read it himself. I’m pretty sure Michele Bachmann got in on the action as well. Honestly, I don’t think anyone can say they are actually concerned about the length of a bill which will fundamentally change the landscape of a major part of the American Economy. I think it comes down to two things:

1. A pointless diversion to appeal to the dumbest of their dumb supporters. I mean, duh. No one is really expecting Michele Bachmann to present a cogent analysis of industry regulation and the effect of a Public Option on market forces.
2. Republicans are like middle-schoolers. They don’t like getting so much homework. I mean, it’s not like it might be part of their job to analyze the cornerstone bill of the term. And it’s not like they have a team of staff members and aides whose jobs are simply to read and analyze every single dumbass thing* John Cornyn puts in front of them.

*Do you think congressional aides have to read even the really stupid bills? Like, does a Representative give the new guy all the resolutions congratulating the Buttsniff, MO Girls Curling Club for placing 4th in the Middle School Curling Competition? I bet Ron Paul does. His interns and aides probably have to go through those with a fine tooth comb to make sure they don’t affect the national debt.

Maybe the bill does suck. But let’s be grownups and complain about something even moderately less stupid than this.

Idiots and Democrats

Sigh. I suppose all good things have to come to an end. All of my bluster and bravado about “realigning elections” and “permanent Democratic majorities” and “Karl Rove’s worst nightmare” seem to be slipping away. A barrage of bad news, from Afghanistan to the foundering health care bill to footdragging on DADT repeal to Democratic pantswetting on bold global warming initiatives, it seems like the Dems have fumbled under a year into their agenda. Harry Reid has bungled everything in the Senate, letting Joe Lieberman, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieux, and the rest of the competitors in the “most annoying person in Congress” competition run the show. Obama’s administration has been reluctant to embrace much by way of a progressive agenda. They haven’t even really put their weight into the health care debate, which is odd because it seems like failing health care will destroy any momentum he could have. Things look bleak.

Sure I suppose it’s all going on behind the scenes and the finished product is going to come out a lot better than anyone expects. But Democrats have outflanked themselves on the Stupak anti-choice amendment and alienated their base by being played as corporate schills for the Health Insurance lobby. Smart people like Nate Silver and others have already gone off and predicted anything from Democrats losing control of Congress in 2010 to the entire Obama administration being replaced by almost human-looking teabaggers.

And somehow, I can’t seem to get too worked up about it. In fact, I don’t think Democrats are really in thaty bad a position. Here are some reasons why:

• There’s only one other party voters can choose, and it’s the rotting corpse of the GOP. One thing commentators never seems to mention is that people still absolutely hate the Republicans. This isn’t about George Bush anymore.* As long as people like Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, and Mitt “Gorlax” Romney are the face of the party, moderate people aren’t going to be really excited about voting for them. People still like Obama a lot, and no matter what happens in 2010, he’s going to win in 2012. Mark it down.

*Of course, if people like the fuckwits at Politico (a.k.a The Drudge Report) keep letting Dick Cheney prattle on like a 91 year old on a bender, we may still be talking about GW in 2010. And that would be good for Democrats.

• Related to point 1 is that the Democrats still have the upper hand in demographics, and nothing the Republicans are doing is going to change that. Republicans can squeak by in base elections, which 2010 could very well be, but Democrats only have to inspire part of their base for a short period of time and they can fight off Republican advances. The fact is, the idiot Democrats are still the only serious game in town. Republicans have not benefited from all this. And though politics with 2 parties seems like a zero-sum game, it really isn’t. A loss for Dems isn’t really a win Republicans, no matter what the beltway says.
• The Democrats are still the only party committed to doing anything. When it comes time for the elections, even the most minor Democratic victories are going to look Rooseveltian compared to the GOP.

Change doesn’t happen overnight. We all know that. We (liberals) want Obama to be FDR for a new generation, rolling out plan after plan designed to fundamentally alter the way the system works. And when you look at the steps that have been taken, they’ve actually been pretty damn impressive. In a weird way, it’s actually encouraging that he’s being thwarted by the most conservative elements of his own party. The compromises that come out will be better than they would be if he was dealing with the reactionaries. And every compromise between center-left and center moves the status quo further to the left. And looking at the pace of compromises, that status quo may move faster than we think it will.

I still honestly and truly believe we witnessed a realigning election in 2008. I think historians will look back and be stunned by how much the country changed during this period. My predictions: Democrats pass health care reform, pass some climate measures, pass another economic stimulus, or do something equally historic. It won’t be perfect, but it will be good. It will be better than people realize. And when Republicans underperform in 2010, the pundits will be baffled. The insiders don’t realize this apparently, but the ground is moving. Liberals are still energized, they’re still ready to fight for the cause, and Democrats will realize it eventually.

Won’t they?

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Election ‘09 Quickies

Just a few thoughts while waiting on the R-evol-ution to commence:

• Easiest prediction of the night: No matter what happens, the pundits will say it’s bad news for Obama.
• The race in NY-23 has been entertaining, to be sure, but I don’t think we should read too much into the likely Hoffman win. Either way, the Democrats get another pain in the ass in the House, but if Hoffman wins, they don’t have to worry about listening.
• That being said, I actually do think we can read a lot into the dynamics of the Republican party. It’s become abundantly clear the inmates are running the asylum. It’s a grassroots explosion of lunacy, and the success of the wingers will lead to more wingers eating their own. Marco Rubio knocking off Charlie Crist in FL? Not out of the realm of possibility. And if he does it with a dirty, Limbaugh-ian campaign? Maybe the Dems can grab another Senate seat after all.
• Creigh Deeds ran one of the worst campaigns in recent memory. I feel bad for Virginia. Bob McDonnell is a loony, and he’s going to do a lot of damage over the next four years.
• I am endlessly entertained by New Jersey politics. The Republican nominee being threatened with a lawsuit by Monty Python? It’s like they’re writing a script for my dreams.
• I think Corzine survives by the skin of his teeth. In any case, this race and the VA race mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. Even before Nate Silver showed mathtastically that Governor’s races mean very little in terms of national outcomes, it should have been obvious. Governors have little impact on national policy, and voters in these elections more than any state-wide elections vote based on state politics. So when you hear about how Creigh Deeds losing represents a dramatic swing to the Silly Party, don’t bend over.
• No matter what happens, Democrats will treat it as a loss and Republicans as a win. Dick Tronkus won a seat in the New Jersey House? It means the Teabaggers are winning!
• To be honest, moderate Dem losses will be good for 2010. Emboldening the lunatic fringe to further grind the Republican party into paste is step one on the way to a permanent Democratic majority.
• That said, if Maine nullifies Same-Sex Marriage, I’m going to be pretty pissed. But I think the good guys will win this one. And if the only win for the Libs is one state keeping Gay Marriage, that’s more important than all the CA-10s and NY-23s in the world.

Posting will be erratic for the coming weeks, but I’ll try my best to write a little more about Health Care and winguttery when things settle down. Happy electioneering!

Newsweek goes 2-2

In this game, of course, At-Bats = Things That Piss Me Off. And the Newsweek lineup has Ruth and Gehrig coming up. Leading off, Lisa Miller is back, schoolmarming the “New Atheists” again. I didn’t bother to write about her insipid interview with Richard Dawkins about his book. But with Jon Meacham at the helm, it was only a matter of time before the silly “faith>=science” crowd was given their chance to shine. So, after being exceedingly rude and irrelevant to Richard Dawkins, she decided it’s time to stop the fighting and share a group hug. I would not be exaggerating to say I had to choke down the second half of the column. As is par for the course, it falls to the “New Atheists” to stop being so uppity and let the religious practice in peace. She starts off by talking about how fidgety she got watching Chris Hitchens and Pastor Douglas Wilson debating about whether or not Christianity is a force for good. Honestly, watching a debate like that certainly would make people uncomfortable. It should. That’s the point. Examine your beliefs. Seems like a pretty reasonable debate to have, too. After all, didn’t Thomas Jefferson argue about this very thing?

The Word of God*

I’m sure everyone and their grandmother has seen this by now, but there’s no way I could let it go by without at least a passing mention: Conservatives are rewriting the bible. Well, that seems reasonable enough. The bible is pretty outdated insomuch as it was written a few millenia ago and there are always different interpretations of the language used and maybe it could use… What’s that? They’re doing it why?

Liberal bias has become the single biggest distortion in modern Bible translations.

Of course it has. Because when I think of distortions in the bible, I think of liberals. I can just imagine those early Christians, feverishly translating from Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic into Latin, anxiously wondering how they could twist the words of Jesus Friedman* into communism. Yes, if there’s one thing the church is known for, it’s rampaging liberalism.

*To me, the weirdest of all conservative obsessions is the drive to reconcile the Gospels with unfettered Randian objectivism. Number six on the list of objectives for the Conservabible: “Express Free Market Parables; explaining the numerous economic parables with their full free-market meaning.” Now, let’s be clear about one thing. Even if you believe in individualism and the market, and you think it’s all compatible with scripture, Jesus/Moses/Paul/whoever wrote the thing would have no idea what the hell you were talking about when you explained “free markets.” Economics did not exist. Period. Explaining how Jesus supports “the Free Market” is akin to explaining how Plato was against processed food or how Immanuel Kant supported string theory over quantum loop gravity.

In all seriousness, I see three possible resolutions: First, the ridicule and scorn, plus the outcry of the fundamentalists who believe the Bible is THE WORD is enough to stop the project in its tracks, leading to a whiny message from Andrew Schafly about how his great project was torpedoed by the liberals and the feminists and the atheists. Second, he goes through with it, 11 people sign on and go happily along believing the same thing they believed before, but with new material to post when trolling message boards. Third, a great deal of conservatives latch on to the project, and continue it by rewriting other books. Huck Finn and Jim realize that Jim was better off as a slave. The Grapes of Wrath. becomes a story about heroic bankers seizing farms from (likely Mexican) indigent farmers. Virginia Woolf is renamed “Vick Wolf” and To the Lighthouse becomes a murder mystery. The possibilities are endless! Conservatives homeschool their children with this new, non-Liberal material to protect them from the atheists and gays, and eventually a community forms. Much like Galt’s Gulch (in fact, call it “Beck’s Deck”), this community will sever all ties to the world around them, withdrawing their considerable talents from society. After 11 minutes, rampant starvation and cannibalism. In the meantime, nobody notices they’re gone, expect for the fact that Fox News is suddenly showing reruns of “Temptation Island” and Wonkette is only posting once a day. In the real world, everyone gets universal health care and a free pet.

Well, maybe not the third one. Unless the new translation is REALLY good.

Schilling to Sens?

As I’m sure you’ve already heard, Ol’ Number 38 is thinking of suiting for a run at Teddy Kennedy’s Senate seat. He becomes the first major (?) Republican to declare any interest in running. For obvious reasons, most of the interest has been on the Democratic side. The idea that any Republican could win a Senate seat in Massachusetts, especially Kennedy’s, especially one as conservative as the Fat Blowhard, is laughable.

Someone (from some place that isn’t MA) told me 4 years ago he thought Schilling would be the next senator from Massachusetts. I laughed at him and he couldn’t understand why. Schilling is a hero in Red Sox Nation! He’s a master on the stump! He’s active in charity work! He’s got instant name recognition! He’s a sure-thing! Um, yeah. He’s also somewhere between George W. Bush and Genghis Khan on the political compass. Schilling basically lost any chance he had of being a Red Sox hero when he went out on the campaign trial for Bush (against MASSACHUSETTS SENATOR JOHN KERRY) after the 2004 World Series. Instead of a God, he became just an important part of the machine. People look back and remember that team as the “Idiots.” Johnny Damon, Kevin Millar, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Orlando “Handshakin’” Cabrera. There’s just not as much love for a guy who openly espouses a political viewpoint held by about 10% of the population and abhorred by about 50%.* But honestly, he might could win a Republican Primary, since the 11 Republicans in MA could also be Baseball fans. But I’m think we could see 60-40 or worse in the general. After all, it’s hard to be a cultural conservative in the state that legalized gay marriage.

*Numbers provided by the polling firm Oute, Auve, and Myass. MoE +/- 3%.

Honestly, I was going to write a really fun and snarky post about this, but it’s actually just sort of depressing. There’s something sad about retired athletes. Schilling, in his 40s and with many years to come, has maybe seen his best days go by. And his attempts to stay in the limelight seem less funny now that so few people care about him.

Of course, I hope he runs and gets walloped. I can’t stand the guy.

Democrats: Political Prey on the Serengeti

It’s been awhile since I’ve written a purely political post, and since I can only write about health care and lunatics at town hall meetings so many times before my eyes turn around and start beating up my brain, let’s write something new: Democrats are starting to piss me off.

No, let me rephrase that: Democrats are continuing in their constant pissing off of me since 1994. For some reason, two landslide elections in a row don’t seem to be enough for Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and their minions to develop the intestinal fortitude to actually do all the things they were elected to do.  I’m not even talking about health care, which is a clusterfuck worthy of several years worth of political science papers. Even the small things, like Dawn Johnson still being unconfirmed despite going through committee months ago. It’s not even spineless. To call it spineless is to insult all the jellyfish, snails, and sponges fighting for their lives every day.

I’m not usually one to backseat psychoanalyze, but here’s what I think is going on: They honestly and truly believe that America lied in the past two elections. They have listened to the media’s manufactured memes about America being a center-right nation and tea bagging being a massive grassroots movement* and Republicans being poised to pounce as soon as the Dems actually do anything important. They are terrified of being treated badly by the Republicans. They don’t have the stomach for negative ads and mudslinging, so they try to please everyone, including the people whose one and only goal is to beat them in every way. It’s like a collective case of “please love me, daddy.”

*He said, trying hard not to snicker at the mental picture.

It’s as if they honestly expect that NEXT TIME, the Republicans really won’t filibuster a bill they don’t like. NEXT TIME the Republicans will sit down for an honest debate about health care.  NEXT TIME they will call a lie a lie when Sarah Palin opens her mouth and vomits up an opinion on something. It’s like they don’t have any power of pattern recognition. And so we end up in a situation where the Democrats need 51 votes to block something, while the Republicans can make do with 41. Constant berating from the right-wing noise machine and their colleagues has left them cowering in a stall in the Senate bathroom, afraid to go back to the prom because the bully might be waiting for them there.

Meanwhile, voters don’t care about the DC cocktail party circuit. They don’t care about hurt feelings and congeniality and what David Broder thinks about bipartisanship. They only care about results. And so the Democrats are losing support because they insist on playing by the rules of a game the Republicans stopped playing in 1964. It’s like watching someone shoot themselves in the foot over and over again, with every gun from Goldeneye, in order from the PP7 to the Rocket Launcher. It’s embarrassing. This is why I wanted Hilary Clinton to stay in the Senate. Do you think she would be taking this bullshit about health care if she were Majority Leader?

Democrats like to think of themselves as the Party of Ideas. Well, they certainly have more than Republicans. Better ones, too. But what’s the point of ideas if you don’t do anything with them? I have lots of ideas, too, and when I want to get Chipotle for lunch again, I get it! I don’t worry about people saying, “Hey, commie, why don’t you eat something else for a change!” If you really believe in your ideas, go to the mat for them! Democrats should have started the Health Care debate by saying: “We want universal, single-payer coverage, and we’re going to get it.” Let Republicans rant about Socialism. It’s not 1958. Then, when push came to shove, they could have said, “Fine, you know what? We’ll compromise with a Medicare-style public option” and gotten what they wanted. Instead, they immediately ruled out their number one choice in public, and often, because they were afraid of the backlash. When did the Republicans do that? When they won in 1994, did Newt Gingrich say, “Actually, we don’t want to cut welfare after all”? When Bush won in 2004, he actually claimed a mandate, despite winning barely 50% of the vote, and then embarked on a campaign to destroy Social Security. Democrats, instead of going hard for what they want, dither and dather, let the other side frame the debate, then spend months backpedaling and defending things they shouldn’t have had to defend in the first place.

I know these issues aren’t meant to be dealt with lightly. Health care, climate change, the stimulus, etc. are all huge issues that deserve well-reasoned, honest debate, both in Congress and in the public sphere. But the Republicans will not let that happen, because they will lose every single one of those debates. So instead of waiting for a debate that will never happen, the Democrats should be crushing the Republicans, claiming the national mandate they won two elections in a row and fighting tooth and nail to drag the country onto the path they claimed they would during the election. After the Republicans have been trounced, embarrassed, and defeated so utterly that the few left are cowed enough to accept a debate on the merits of each individual issue, we can go back to worrying about cloture. Sure it’s a race to the bottom, and it’s ugly and painful to watch. It requires you to take stances and defend them and attack everyone who disagrees with you. It may even mean pissing off a guy in your regular Sunday foursome. But that’s the reality of the situation, and that’s what needs to be done.

Yeah, the NHS Sucks Bad

First, the IBD embarrasses themselves even more than they usually do by claiming Stephen Hawking, lifelong UK resident, would never have been allowed to exist in the UK. He would have been summarily destroyed by the English National Health Service. After Hawking actually called them out on it, and praised the NHS, everyone looked a lot stupider. I know the singular of data is not anecdote, but this account of a father’s story of dealing with a severly ill newborn in the NHS sort of makes you wonder how many of the “cutting edge treatments” available here really would disappear under single-payer insurance or care. No matter what you believe, it’s a really great story. I heartily recommend it.

Becked Out

A lot of the simultaneously hilarious and scary violence taking place at health care townhalls held by Democrats has been placed at the feet of the lunatic fringe of the rightwing chattering class. You know, the Limbaughs, the Hannitys, the Coulters, and the other members of the echo chamber. But no rightwing talker* has drawn quite as much attention as Fox News’ Glenn Beck.

*For brevity’s sake, one can refer to this class of people as “Loud Idiots.”

Since the health care debate has sort of taken a toll on my patience and sanity, I decided to relax by reading a short compilation of stories about the Beckman. Here are the titles:

Glenn Beck is an Idiot

Idiot Box: How Glenn Beck is Destroying America

What Glenn Beck Can Teach Us about Franco

Glenn Beck: America’s National Idiot

Glenn Beck is an Idiot, part II

Things Glenn Beck has been Totally Wrong About; Volumes1-3

Glenn Beck and the Cancellation of Arrested Development

What Can Glenn Beck Teach us about Herpes?

In Defense of the Pharmaceutical Industry: Glenn Beck, Cialis, and Why Overweight White Guys Don’t want the Government Poking around their Prescription History

As you can see, I am not exactly a fan of Beck, who has made a living exactly the same way other loud idiots have: writing books loaded with wrong and misleading information targeted at people who already believe the premise, then supporting it by going on friendly TV news outlets. Lather, rinse, repeat. Michelle Malkin, Bernie Goldberg, Bill Kristol, and of course, Ann Coulter. It’s hard to blame them for this. They make a lot more money than most of us do. In fact, they may have hit the perfect gravy train. They pass around the same idiot readers to each other by repeating the same lies until a solid 23% of the population is on board. Then they sell them memorabilia. Thinking about it, if I had no morals and wanted to make easy money, I could write a book called Anti-Obama: Defending America from the Scary Brown Guy who Wants to Destroy Our Values and make easy money. Frankly, there aren’t that many books out there specifically aimed at intellectually incurious cretins with a racist streak and a high level of paranoia about the government, so any disposable income they don’t spend on Bill O’Reilly Christmas ornaments and ammo has to go somewhere.

Beck is often accused of rabble rousing and ginning up his crazy fans with dog whistles and inciting them to violence. To be sure, a lot of the people arrested for shooting up gyms, casing National Guard bases, and shouting ethnic slurs and threats at Democratic Congressmen and women have freely admitted to watching the Becktard. And also to be sure, he spends a lot of time ranting about paranoid conspiracy theories about how ACORN is going to take over the government and take everyone’s guns and use them to kill the elderly and force Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity underground, like some sort of Logan’s Run for fat guys. If you’re already looking for proof or support in your delusions, Beck and his ilk provide a comfy, safe, warm spot to let the absolute craziest of the crazy out.

But to blame him for causing this massive upswell of dangerous paranoia is to overstate his abilities. Sure, he’s got a national forum and a cabal of devoted followers, but does that really make him a dangerous demagogue? I mean, most of the people he’s getting riled up are people who were riled up anyways. And it’s not like there are that many of them. Enough to shout down a speaker in a rural area for a few minutes before getting kicked out maybe. Glenn Beck doesn’t deserve fear or anger. He’s not Emperor Palpatine, driving the Galactic Empire into place on force of fear and charisma. He’s a paunchy, loud, obnoxious lout with no more sense than your average shut-in. He deserves ridicule. So I propose, rather than blame him and his ilk for the despicable astroturf shouting match* the health care debate has become, we meet his ramblings with a combination of derision and pity befitting them.

*It’s funny. Health care was floundering, sort of. The lobbyists were winning. The bills were getting watered down. Then the Republicans unleashed Operation Idiot Ball while trying to contend they were actually taking things seriously. Between the tacit encouragement of the birthers, and the bald faced encouragement of this astroturf tomfoolery, they have once again ceded the field of intelligent debate. It’s like they can’t help themselves. I’m so sick of the media and Democrats giving these people chance after chance to prove they want to be part of the process. They’ve forfeited that chance over and over. Let’s not be stupid enough to pretend the last 51 times have been an accident.