Well…I’ve been kind of following the whole fiscal curb/debt ceiling nonsense with my peripheral vision over the past few days and a couple of things have begun to strike me…the first is that the right has lost one of their loyal commentators today with an article from David Brooks stating in no uncertain terms that it is the repubs who are wholly responsible for the mess we are in…even though it’s not a mess really…it just our country being held hostage by a bunch of right wing terrorists who put Grover Norquist and the rich first…and everyone else can go to hell. Then, you have Lindsey Graham coming out yesterday saying that he will crash the economy if the tax cuts for the rich are not protected by raising the retirement age and cutting SS benefits…just like ole Snyder did here in Michigan, this idiot would make retirees go hungry just so his rich donors and corporations can suck more and more out of the economy….how much is enough? Do we just have to kill everyone that is out of a job or living on the SS they paid for their whole working life? That appears to be what they want and the only thing that will satisfy them….and they won’t stop until there is the 1% with all the money and everyone else broke and starving….geez…
Tag Archives: David Brooks
Maybe a little light in the darkness?
Well…have been thinking about how we can get out of the mess that the hyper-charged politics of the day have put us in and a couple of articles I read today might be the start of this climb. Normally, I like to read conservative columnists to try to understand where they are coming from, since I truly believe that good ideas are good ideas no matter if they come from the right or left…and I don’t want to be one of those people that just automatically dismiss anyone’s ideas. In David Brooks column today (I should add that Brooks is a well known conservative commentator) he walked across the aisle and with an unbiased eye, looked at Obama’s agenda and could admit that some of what has been done was necessary and will be effective in addressing many of the problems that face us today. But what was also refreshing was his making objective, well thought out suggestions on how to do better and improve the legislative agenda. So, to David Brooks I say thank you…can you transplant your brain into the rest of the right?
The second column I read today was by Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post and it was not about politics at all; but about what it is like living in the neighborhood she lived in in DC. Again, Parker is a staunch conservative columnist who I rarely ever agree with but today she made a point that I think needed to be made…that is that the American values of friendship, community, and love are not just embodied in the folks that Palin and her Ilk call the “real Americans”; from small towns and rural areas…but can be found all across America; no matter where you live. One of the things I found so striking about the article was her oh so kind words about the neighbors who were the rocks of the neighborhood; who were such a stabilizing influence…but who also happen to be gay men who have lived in a committed relationship for 25 years. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one of these men is a columnist that I read in USA Today…Craig Wilson. I don’t know Kathleen Parker at all, but for a committed conservative to finally speak out against the bigotry that is an integral part of the Repubs, and in such an elegant way, gives me some hope that the principled people that I know still reside in the conservative movement are getting their voice back and will be heard more often. But, then I read some of the comments to this heartfelt piece of writing and it made me sick…the haters were out in force and my tiny little spark of hope that I have been nurturing was buffeted almost to it’s end. But not all the way…I refuse to let the haters stomp on the flowers that have grown up through the cracks in the hate of the world….so, thank you Kathleen for you wonderful column.