I was drafting a post about the Republicans’ continuing counterattacks on the health bill when I came across this column by Gene Lyons. There’s not much I can add.
One of the points that stood out for me had to do with the GOP’s constant citing of public opinion polls purporting to be against the bill, even though a portion of that percentage thought it didn’t go far enough. Lyons asks, “where was all this solicitude for the randomly selected will of the people back when Republicans impeached Bill Clinton while polls showed that two-thirds of Americans opposed it?” I flinched a bit at the mention of that episode, because it had marked my re-politicization.
I was a conservative kid, Youth for Goldwater in high school, then made a left turn when I got to college. Slapped a McCarthy bumper sticker on my car in ’68, voted McGovern in ’72 (unless it was for Benjamin Spock, I really don’t remember). Then somehow I lost interest and declared myself apolitical. Maybe I couldn’t muster enough amusement to overcome my disgust, but I even slept through the Reagan years and didn’t vote again until ’92. It’s not that I was gung-ho for Clinton, I just couldn’t bear the thought of a doofus like Dan Quayle being a heartbeat away from the presidency. Even so, I still hadn’t been re-politicized.
But boy, did that impeachment ever get to me. The audacity of those sanctimonious sons of bitches was hard to believe. It seemed like the old white male establishment really resented having somebody from my generation in charge. Bubba may have been a sleaze, but by god he was OUR sleaze.
And now they have to cope with a black guy as President – and a woman as Speaker. O tempora, o mores!
People like David Frum are pointing out that the Republicans brought this legislative defeat on themselves by making wrong-headed choices since Obama’s election, but I think it started more than ten years ago when they decided to crucify Bill Clinton. They just don’t want to share their power toys with kids who aren’t from their neighborhood. And they’ll throw a fit if anybody tries to take them away. Looks like the Daddy party needs to be sent to bed without its supper if it can’t learn to behave.
One of the points that stood out for me had to do with the GOP’s constant citing of public opinion polls purporting to be against the bill, even though a portion of that percentage thought it didn’t go far enough. Lyons asks, “where was all this solicitude for the randomly selected will of the people back when Republicans impeached Bill Clinton while polls showed that two-thirds of Americans opposed it?” I flinched a bit at the mention of that episode, because it had marked my re-politicization.
I was a conservative kid, Youth for Goldwater in high school, then made a left turn when I got to college. Slapped a McCarthy bumper sticker on my car in ’68, voted McGovern in ’72 (unless it was for Benjamin Spock, I really don’t remember). Then somehow I lost interest and declared myself apolitical. Maybe I couldn’t muster enough amusement to overcome my disgust, but I even slept through the Reagan years and didn’t vote again until ’92. It’s not that I was gung-ho for Clinton, I just couldn’t bear the thought of a doofus like Dan Quayle being a heartbeat away from the presidency. Even so, I still hadn’t been re-politicized.
But boy, did that impeachment ever get to me. The audacity of those sanctimonious sons of bitches was hard to believe. It seemed like the old white male establishment really resented having somebody from my generation in charge. Bubba may have been a sleaze, but by god he was OUR sleaze.
And now they have to cope with a black guy as President – and a woman as Speaker. O tempora, o mores!People like David Frum are pointing out that the Republicans brought this legislative defeat on themselves by making wrong-headed choices since Obama’s election, but I think it started more than ten years ago when they decided to crucify Bill Clinton. They just don’t want to share their power toys with kids who aren’t from their neighborhood. And they’ll throw a fit if anybody tries to take them away. Looks like the Daddy party needs to be sent to bed without its supper if it can’t learn to behave.
No comments:
Post a Comment