Arizona's First Political Blog

E-mail Anonymous Mike at zonitics4-at-yahoo.com

By Anonymous Mike, pseudonymously.

 
No Country for (Those Who Say No) Men

Saw this link from Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion that goes on to equate passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (with "card check" and all) as consistent with the "... big theme within the Hebrew and Christian scriptures."

So the secret ballot is the tool of Satan? Who would have thunk it.

Turning to the New York Times, I see this article entitled "Senators Reach Deal on Stimulus as Jobs Vanish" where the sense of urgency and fear just ooze through every sentence and paragraph. Substitute "stimulus" with "Patriot Act" and "jobs vanish" with "fears of terrorism mount" and you can start to see the gist.

Oh you think I'm tossing around the fear angle in a haphazard way? Look at one of the more responsible Democrats had to say:

“Our country can’t wait another day for another approach,” said Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat who is a leader of the bipartisan coalition that worked out the agreement.

So those elected representatives who actually want to read the bill, have serious concerns about it, and want to discuss its merits- you know what we elect representatives to do in a great democracy- are putting the country at risk by not hurriedly passing a bill that wouldn't put most of the money on the street before the next World Series.

The country cannot wait... another day.... for another approach. Or maybe it's President Obama.

So let's add the patriotism angle to pushing a partisan agenda, oh you think I'm going overboard?

Mr. Obama called Ms. Collins and Mr. Specter, as well as Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, another Republican expected to support the deal, to acknowledge they were acting against pressure from their party and, one official said, to thank them for their patriotism in helping advance the bill at a critical time.

Notice the explicit use of the word "patriotism." If you are patriotic for supporting the bill then everyone understands that the the speaker in question implies that those who oppose the bill are not patriotic.

Calls to religion, calls to patriotism, calls to forego democratic debate and oversight in order to come to agreement on what basically amounts to a downpayment on the Democrats' next version of the Great Society (the down payment part was taken from the President himself.)

Now I find all of those calls foolish and somewhat laughable and will file them away as part of my ongoing political education under "political tactics, bare knuckled." However we just spent the past 8 years having the Republicans lambasted for supposedly issuing these types of calls- for God, for patriotism, shutting down the deliberative process in the name of national emergency- and whether you thought they did it or not in order to prosecute the War on Terror or national security. However it only took the Democrats less than 3 weeks to make the same calls in order to pass David Obey's pork-laden Christmas tree of a bill.

So tell me, if you were one of those people who thought that George W. Bush was going to usher in the dark fascist night for America by using God and the threat of national catstrophe to shut down debate, what do you have to say about this? Or does the end justify the means?
posted by Anonymous Mike at 2:21 PM