This installation of please think is focused on how exceptional the modern republican party has become. The party that values exceptionalism has truly become exceptional, exceptionally hypocritical.
In the midst of the deficit and supercommittee debate, Paul Ryan, the GOP and Newt Gingrich attack the Congressional Budget Office as a “reactionary socialist institution.” When words begin to lose meaning, when we smile at the “naive” notion of truth in politics, we have begun to lose ourselves. The mere suggestion of honesty in politics is so naive a notion that discussing it here may seem as if it borders on being pointless.
Yesterday Eric Cantor when speaking about the Payroll Tax Cut Extension said "People across America are scratching their heads, wondering what Washington is doing." This is just the latest example of what is arguably the historically greatest do nothing congress we have ever seen. In the middle of the greatest economic downturn since the great depression the GOP / Tea Party response has been to do nothing. Their response time and again has simply been "no".
If you hadn't heard, our Congressman, Michael Grimm had yet another scandal break this weekend. The allegations are many but can be summarized into illegally raising money for his 2010 campaign. Yes, it's what you might expect, or at the very least what you might fear.
Current Energy Policy Strengthens Others While Weakening Us.
If the need for a national energy policy is so vital to our nation’s future, then yet again the right has failed to deliver a meaningful or beneficial strategy. Any responsible energy policy would look at responsible uses of today’s energy while developing a comprehensive strategy to move to the energies of tomorrow.
The voices on the right want you to believe that government is always evil, and business is always good. Neither of these is true, nor is the opposite. This stark unyielding mythology of government and business has done much to harm our nation and push people out of the process.
The idea that religion, being religious, being a good person of high moral character is the explicit domain of one party is as corrupt, confused and cynical an idea as anyone could have. Exploiting religion for personal gain, for political gain, to distort truth itself is as fundamental a misunderstanding of the word as there could possibly be.
America was and should be the land of opportunity. Yet increasingly we are becoming a nation of cynical opportunists.The cynical use of these kinds of opportunities can’t sit well with true conservatives. They wreak of fiscal irresponsibility. This kind of behavior grows the influence of government while reducing the rights and freedoms of our citizens. These kinds of policies weaken the nation now and unless reversed, cripple the nation in the future.
