Skip to main content

Scott Walker v. the World

"If I can take on 1000 protesters, I can do the same across the world." -- Scott Walker, CPAC 2015




Scott Walker just may end up with one of the shortest presidential campaigns ever.  Mark Salter called Walker "kind of a dumb ass" for equating his anti-union crusade in Wisconsin with his approach to ISIS.  Even Rick Perry thought Walker had crossed the line, noting that the union workers "are Americans."  This was criticism from within his ranks, imagine how well such sentiments will play across the nation.

The governor of Wisconsin was one of many presidential wannabes trying to light a fire at what has become the Republican super event of the season, the Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC for short.  It brings out the best and the worst in the Grand Old Party, vying for corporate sponsorship as well as the hearts and minds of the conservative electorate.

Sean Hannity vowed to give every presidential hopeful access to his show, but apparently Chris Christie said no thanks. This befuddled Sean Boy, who went on The Five to tell everyone in the Fox viewing audience what a poor sport Governor Christie is.  It seems everyone wants to be a "king maker" these days, and Sean likes to gloat over how much influence his show has on the conservative electorate.  Even Jeb Bush agreed to sit down with him for a worthless Q&A segment.  Poor Jeb was booed for the most part by the deeply conservative crowd that had no time for immigration reform or the common core curriculum, both of which Jeb stands behind.

Meanwhile, the Republicans were forced to eat crow as their attempt to attach riders to the Homeland Security funding bill failed miserably, with John Boehner looking more ineffectual than ever.  Boehner has a week to gather the remains of his party and join with the Democrats to pass full funding after narrowly avoiding a last minute shutdown of government.

One of the reasons the Republicans get into these messes is because Ted Cruz enjoys nothing more than torpedoing any spending bill with a filibuster.  His attempts to thwart Congress have ended in failure each time, but no matter, the conservative electorate loves him.  He's "a fighter, not a talker."   However, Teddie had to answer some questions about his citizenship, raised by none other than Donald Trump, who wondered out loud how a guy born in Canada to a Cuban father can be a "natural born" American.

This early campaigning might all go for not as Dr. Ben Carson thinks the Obama administration may very well call off the 2016 election.  I found this gem posted by one of my conservative friends on facebook.  Wouldn't that be a hoot.  Four more years of Obama by executive decree!

Yep, when all else fails raise the spectre of an Obama dictatorship.  This will no doubt mobilize the right wing conservative base, who long ago abandoned reason for fear.  This is why Walker brings up ISIS, and tries to equate his anti-union policies with that of fighting radical Islam.  For him, like many conservatives, it has become a matter of us vs. them, and them has become an ever broader group that includes everyone outside their conservative "bubble."

The only problem is that there are a lot more of "them" than there is of "us" in this scenario and this kind of talk only further pushes the GOP to the fringe of the political spectrum.

Comments

  1. For that Repukeblican nitwit to equate peaceful protesters exercising their Constitutional rights with terrorists in one of the dumbest things I have ever heard of in my life.

    How anyone can vote for a clown like that is beyond me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I guess we have a lot of clowns with voting rights in this country.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

O Pioneers!

It is hard not to think of Nebraska without thinking of its greatest writer.  Here is a marvelous piece by Capote, Remembering Willa Cather . I remember seeing a stage production of O Pioneers! and being deeply moved by its raw emotions.  I had read My Antonia before, and soon found myself hooked, like Capote was by the simple elegance of her prose and the way she was able to evoke so many feelings through her characters.  Much of it came from the fact that she had lived those experiences herself. Her father dragged the family from Virginia to Nebraska in 1883, when it was still a young state, settling in the town of Red Cloud. named after one of the great Oglala chiefs.  Red Cloud was still alive at the time, living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, in the aftermath of the "Great Sioux Wars" of 1876-77.  I don't know whether Cather took any interest in the famous chief, although it is hard to imagine not.  Upon his death in 1909, he was eulogi

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

  Welcome to this month's reading group selection.  David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908.  At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades.  Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society.  I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran.  Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, noting the gro

Colonel

Now with Colonel Roosevelt , the magnum opus is complete. And it deserves to stand as the definitive study of its restless, mutable, ever-boyish, erudite and tirelessly energetic subject. Mr. Morris has addressed the toughest and most frustrating part of Roosevelt’s life with the same care and precision that he brought to the two earlier installments. And if this story of a lifetime is his own life’s work, he has reason to be immensely proud.  -- Janet Maslin -- NY Times . Let the discussion begin!