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- It's just two examples, but it's a testament to the GOP's message machine that the press overwhelmingly favors the narrative that Republicans are deeply concerned about the deficit while Democrats regularly blow money on the the nation's credit. Likewise with the belief that Democrats get bogged down in policy-making because they accede to the demands of their ideologues, which is coincidentally the precise charge made by the GOP. A better political press, please.
- On second thought, you can hardly blame reporters for parroting Republican mythology given how many Democrats have already conceded the argument to conservatives. Here's 2008 DNC keynote speaker Mark Warner claiming that the "uncertainty" in the economy is due to all those burdensome regulations repressing the spirit of entrepreneurship. I wish someone would ask Warner why he is a Democrat. What made him think, "I want to be a Democratic politician." Or better still, why he believes Democrats are the party of business.
- It's little wonder that "centrists" like Evan Bayh would share an affinity for Glenn Beck-style "9/12" unity through a horrific national disaster, given their loathing of democratic representation and predilection for the authority of plutocrats. But assuming that catastrophe does breed unity, I have to ask what the threshold is. At what point in the death tally is the critical mass of "unity" reached? Is it possible to have unity in the absence of mass murder? I only ask because millions of unemployed Americans is apparently not a disaster to these people.
- Weekend Remainders: It's nice to see there are decent people out there willing to countenance vicious hatred masquerading as righteousness; a bigger problem with making morality incumbent on religion is that it suggests the state should be endorsing a particular religion; I'd wager that the lack of female libertarians can be partially explained by things like this; and Time has an "exclusive" cover story that is indistinguishable from transcribing a Facebook page.
--Mori Dinauer
