The New Status Quo
It seems as if nearly every politician running for office at any level vows to ’shake up the status quo’, which in itself is an indictment of both political parties and their current, long-running inability to get anything done. But Barack Obama, inadvertent as it may have been, does seem to have managed the impossible. The status quo in Washington and around the countryreally and truly has changed in the past year.
Republicans have long been the overtly patriotic party. They wave their flags and hoot and hurrah at every victory, large or small, that the U.S. wins on the world stage. Economic, political, athletic – if the U.S. wins, the Republicans rejoice. If the U.S. loses, they cry fowl. At least, that was the status quo.
Now, the Republicans are laughing it up in the face of Chicago (and by extension, the U.S.) taking an embarrassing early
exit from the Olympics sweepstakes. The same GOPers who would dance in the streets if the U.S. could find somebody to outrun Usain Bolt, were utterly outraged when the Nobel Prize Committee doled out a freebie Peace Prize to the sitting U.S. President.
On the other side of the aisle, the Democrats have long been the party of civic protests and investigative journalism. The Dems love their Haldeman and Erlichmans, their Michael Moores, and their peaceful protests. That was the status quo. Now, protesters are openly mocked by the Left leaning media. The on-air opiners at MSNBC were positively giddy with their “tea bagger” jokes at the expense of the Right wing protesters. Democrats were suddenly appalled by protesters showing up at town hall meetings to express their discontentment.
Liberals love a good undercover video exposing government corruption or ineptitude, as long as the subjects of the expose are cigar-smoking, rich, white, Republican males. Send a journalist after ACORN or the House Oversight Committee, and it is no longer fun. YouTube is no longer the liberal’s friend. Freedom of speech is somebody else’s raison d’etre.
To those on both sides of the equation who claim that President Obama has yet to deliver on any of his campaign promises, I submit that the status quo has been duly shaken. Black is white, up is down, Democrats are the new establishment, and Republicans are the new radicals.
This weekend, the House of Representatives passed the much debated Health Care Bill. This historic and monumental legislation passed by a razor thin 220-215 vote. The passage of this bill brought to mind several points that I’d like to bring out here.
Ironic as it may seem, the U.S. House of Representatives actually maintains an Ethics Committee. The stated purpose of this committee is to have the Representatives police themselves to prevent or punish any unseemly behavior on the part of any members of Congress. In practice, the committee mostly has served as a vehicle for members of the majority party to antagonize troublesome members of the minority party.
The Republican party is losing ground in the arena of public perception. According to some polls, the GOPs approval rating is now at an all time low. The question that we have to ask is, what have the Republicans done to merit such low marks?
As regular readers of this column, all three of them (Hi, mom!), know I usually don’t poke too much fun at President Obama himself. I reserve most of my mocking for his slavish followers who worship him with a bizarre religious fervor and refuse to think critically about the consequences of anything he says or does. But as the President and his advisers mount an unprecedented attack on a major news network, it is time for me to turn the harsh light of reason onto Mr. Obama himself.
Camp Campaign has procured an exclusive transcript of the deliberations between Hans Dorfenshalter and Heinrich Waldendoof, two members of the Nobel Prize selection committee. This conversation, secretly recorded and painstakingly transcribed, details some of the heretofore unknown thought process that goes into selecting an individual for the prestigious Nobel Prize.
The city of Chicago lost its bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games. The President himself flew to Copenhagen to personally lobby the Olympic Committee to pick Chicago. Las Vegas odds makers had Chicago as a favorite to win the bid. And yet Chicago went down in ignoble defeat, knocked out in the first round. So, what can we learn from this debacle?
Continuing our unintended series of “Why Ex-Presidents Should Just Shut Up”, Bill Clinton has thrust himself back into the news this week by insisting that the “Vast Right Wing Conspiracy” is back in action. For those with short memories or young lives, the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (let’s call it the VRWC for short) is a non-existent organized attack on Bill Clinton that then-first lady Hillary Clinton made up as an excuse for the negative publicity her husband received for seducing and carrying on an affair with a 22 year old girl and then lying about it on live TV.
According to the standard set by our beloved 39th president, I guess I’m a racist. Funny, I never thought of myself as such. But I disagree with our current president’s socialist agenda, so Jimmy Carter has labeled me a racist. According to the worst president of the last seven or eight decades, anyone who opposes President Obama does so strictly because of the color of his skin.