Hope is not a Strategy

Tuesday, August 23, 2011
One of the things I love about my job is the fact that even though I work in a presales role, the core of my work is engineering. Yes, I have to perform presales work (which I refer to as "schmoozing"), and that work sometimes makes me throw up in my mouth a little. But at the end of the day I deal in facts and figures, based on accepted theories and statistical analysis. Numbers don't lie, and while someone might be able to use smoke and mirrors to obfuscate the facts, it doesn't change the facts. "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." Just so, John Adams. Facts care not a wit if they make you look like a complete 'tard, nor do they care if they make you appear so in front of your boss. Reality sucks that way, and even though I have, on occasion, found myself on the wrong side of the facts, I'd not have my work evaluated any other way.

Which brings me to my current frustration regarding the Republican Party, and the moderates therein.

In years past, I considered the Republican party to be the adults in the room. I was a Republican for many, many years, and while my evolving sensibility eventually pushed me into self-identifying as a liberal (not a Democrat), I at least considered them to be serious. Serious about presenting the best candidate for President, serious about evaluating and championing policies that they felt would best serve our nation. I didn't always agree with them, of course, especially on matters of social policy, but they were at least honorable adversaries.

Now? Now they're a fucking joke, and I blame Republican moderates.

Yes, I am looking at you, and you, and you. This is your fault. YOU let your party get so far out of control that the candidates you intend to nominate for President are candidates for the nut farm. YOU chose to select candidates whose grasp on reality was so tenuous the rest of the nation thinks the party (and the Tea Party) is nothing but a fucking joke. YOU allowed your politicians to embrace the "values" of greed, and lust for power, and a desire to have their own way so strong that they'll burn the country to the ground if it means they WIN.

Yes, this is your fault. Embracing these assbags has allowed your party to go so far off the rails that those who hold power in your party will publicly and joyfully bring our country to the brink of ruin in order to protect their super-rich constituents from having to pay the same taxes as the middle class. Letting these greedy motherfuckers speak for you means that even while they're defending the super-rich from having to pay taxes in an equitable way, they want to raise taxes on the middle class, and they want you to like it. And you WILL like it, because they've convinced you that NOT voting in your own interests in the right thing to do.

You've let your party get so far out of control that the only moderate candidate in your field that has even a snowball's chance of actually representing the middle has no chance of getting the nomination. Jon Huntsman, a Republican who actually believes in science and reasonable discourse, is so far removed from the whackos that are Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann that I'm sure the shrill ideologues that run your show will have him eliminated FORTHWITH. After all, we can't have a candidate who's educated, erudite, has foreign policy and domestic executive experience - he's a MODERATE, and that's just crazy talk.

Yes, the state of the Republican Party is a sorry one, indeed. Why don't all you moderate Republicans do us all a big damn favor and take some control? And if the nutbags won't give up control, how about quitting that nonsense and joining us here in the middle?

Because hope is not a strategy, and hoping the screaming, theocratic, anti-American whackadoodles that currently control the dialogue will somehow become moderate and reasonable - that's crazy. Deal in FACTS, moderate Republicans. Deal in REALITY. Face the fact that your party doesn't represent you anymore. You, or anyone, other than those who help your masters stay in power.

8 comments:

Stacey said...

I thought your brain was empty today. hmmm. not so. You are full of very important facts.

Janiece said...

I think I'm full of rage. Impotent rage.

Carol Elaine said...

Not only is Huntsman a moderate, he served as Obama's ambassador to China. He hasn't got a prayer.

vince said...

The mainstream media shares the blame. They treat these people seriously in the name of presenting both sides, and fail to call them out on their bullshit. And at this point I'm not sure there are enough moderate Republican voters for moderate candidates to be able to take back the Republican party.

I'm not saying it can't be done. But you'd have to have a lot of money (to combat the likes of Murdoch and the Koch Brothers and their organizations), a plan for attracting and maintaining media focus, and a plan for mobilizing those who share their views.

I'm not optimistic.

The Mechanicky Gal said...

THIS.

John the Scientist said...

Part of the problem, Janiece, is that moderate Republicans left the fold and registered as Independents to show their ire. This is very, very similar to the left switching to the Green Party - it leaves people not really representing you in charge of the primaries where politicians are really elected. The primary election voting demographics are now dominated by the fringe. And the states we use to start the ball rolling are a joke. Iowa? Fucking Iowa? Pigs and corn? THIS is modern America? I think not. If the Republican primaries started in New York, California and Illinois, instead of Pigland USA and some little bumfuck New England states that would not even qualify as states under the current population requirements, things would look a lot different.

But here's the thing. Remember that screed I wrote for Jim on Facebook? The one about my (non-white) wife and I waking up one day and saying we know we're not Democrats, but we're also sure as hell not Republicans anymore? I have to keep biting the bullet and remaining in the party because I can't vote in the primary if I'm not in the Party. But at this point, I don't tell people what I'm registered as, because I've already left the party in spirit. Like Jim said, Republicans were the guys in horn-rimmed glasses who sent us to the moon. I like to think I am still one of those guys. But I'm not represented by Backman, Gingrich, or any of the other assclowns in power. And I can't get them out becuase I'm outnumbered in the primaries. I voted Democrat in my last Congressional election not becuase I loved the guy - in fact I find his stances repellant on most issues. But the Republican sent me a mailer showing all the pork he'd acquired for us, and I sent the bastard to Washington to STOP that shit. Apparently pork is only wrong if a Dem earmarked it. So I voted against him. He's the fucking RINO, not the guys trying to inject some sanity into the process.

Anne C. said...

The sooner this country develops a third party that represents thinking moderates, the better. Maybe the Republican party will split in two and there will be an option to vote for the moderate Conservative.

Not likely to happen, but one can dream.

Beatrice Desper said...

Anne, check this out:

http://www.americanselect.org/
I'd like to know how the website was set up and who's behind it, but it seems interesting.