It's been fun and interesting, these last few years, as a kind of semi-sorta-insider to the right wing of the Parties of Treason, but it's starting to turn my stomach, in much the same way that my day job's insight into the glittery media leftthink tends to put me off my feed.
Sure, the Left is bad and -- at present -- a lot more real-world (as opposed to ideologically or potentially) bothersome, but both sides want to police other people's lives and both sides claim it's for the greater good.
And the whining--! My word, the damnable whining about people, lives and parties y'all don't like; I'd almost rather the strident blame-bleatings of the Left than the whining of the Right -- and both parties can't actually stand to look the naked First Amendment in the eye. Like John Ashcroft trying to drape over the exposed boobies of poor, blind Justice, they keep pleating and folding and pinning, muffling a corporation here, swaddling a dirty book there, trying to make sure the other side's rich guys (and poor ones, too) can't get a word in while trying to make a megaphone for their own men of wealth and prestige (and a few of the huddled masses, brung in for emotional appeal).
(Oh, and aren't they always 95% men? Hey, "men's rights" whiners, I might be able to listen to you without giggling if the demographics in the Halls Of Power came anywhere near matching the ones in the hospital nursery. They don't. It's so staggeringly uncorrelated in favor of male power and male privilege that only the most self-pitying of adult children could even begin to complain about Teh Menz gettin' pushed around by Teh Wimmenz. Nope, sorry, here's the issue: you are losers. You failed as human beings and that's why you are single and still living in Mom and Dad's basement. Where you will probably reside all the rest of your days. Unlike most men -- and most women, too -- you won't face up to it. Sucks to be you. Srsly, if you're a men's-righter, go away. I don't want you around. Go, and take the strident feminists with you. The grown-ups have work to do and y'all are in the way.)
Then there's the tattling, "Senator X said so-and so! President Y smoked the dope! Mr. Justice Z is a mean ol' poopyhead!" The media does it. Opposition politicians do it. You do it. Hey, guess what? They're flawed. It's no surprise when they have a skeleton or ten in the closet. Nobody wants those jobs without being deeply flawed -- workaholics, people with so much to hide they figure they'd better help write themselves clear of the laws, attorneys with no knack for wills, contracts or litigation, weirdos who have never really felt loved or secure, philosophical whackos with an ax to grind: our government is mostly made up of people who couldn't function in a real job. Some of them are plenty bright, plenty useful when kept on task; others help keep the chairs warm. The actually functional ones only do it as a part-time job.
Nearly all of them think of the Bill of Rights as something to be read closely and weaseled around. It will not surprise you that most of them have law degrees.
The dear old Bill of Rights, a cornerstone of the republic. The First Amendment has always been my favorite. Oh, the Second is nice, too, and there's a lot to be said for the Fourth, the Ninth and even the silly old Third; but if you take away my guns, I'll just sneak up behind you and clonk you over the head with a rock or a hammer or whatever, and if you quarter soldiers in my house, their appointment with Mr. Rock will happen by and by, too. The State may seize me and search me, but they can't rummage around inside my head and come up with anything more useful than a pint or two of pinkish-gray goo -- and that's kind of what the First Amendment is about, not just freedom of the press but freedom of belief, not only books and churches and free assemblies of hoi polloi but free thoughts. The First Amendment hasn't got any real friends, just nitwits who want to climb in its lap for a photo op, then knife it in the back when they stand back up.*
In particular both parties are out to tear it down. They recognize it for the obstacle it is and want it whittled down. I haven't any use for them and I have no use for you either, if you are still waving that donkey-and-elephant flag, convinced you can only vote for the least-awful choice of dysfunctional losers and convinced the only good freedom is Party-approved freedom.
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* You'll notice that sub-screed didn't address the Ninth Amendment. There's a reason for that: it and the Tenth have become mere historical footnotes much like this one, tiny, insignificant. The rot appears to be spreading.
Update
3 days ago
15 comments:
Amen sister.
The politicians are the same ones who wanted to tell you what to do in school, the ones who think they should be in charge. They are the egomaniacs of the world. Of course they are flawed, No normal person would want the job.
I swear I will vote for anyone who says he will not vote far a single new law.
And he'll be lying.
Had to go and look up the 9th and 10th.
I have a fondness for Callenbach's Citizen Legislature where the House is filled jury duty style for single terms but that would just select those who could not avoid it. We might move the capital to Alaska and schedule the sessions for peak darkness and mosquito. That still does not deal with the root issue those who want power over others are by default those who should never be trusted with it. I'd call them weasels except that is disrespectful to even to poor domesticated specimens.
What Fuzzy said.
Charles: Then I have done at least a tiny bit of good.
Well said, RX. The greatest trick the devils in Congress ever pulled was convincing the public they weren't on the same team (with apologies to Kayser Sose).
Just today, I read a forum owner opine as to how the realists were harshing his mellow because, Gosh darn it! Le 'Pubbies really ARE going to win this year and in '16. Once that has come to pass, the 'Pubbies will click their heels three times, at which point everything bad will fall away, and joy shall be upon the land for so long as the President wears the huffalump jersey.
How IS the NOPE campaign doing these days?
Sláinte,
Drifter
Great points, and what Fuzzy said too!
A possibly apocryphal incident about Mark Twain that is roughly my own position about the two major parties -
.
Twain was asked why he, a Southerner, supported the Republicans. "Well," he said, "I believe the Democrats would steal a hot stove. Of course the Republicans would too [pause to puff cigar] but they'd have the sense to wear gloves."
Ever since I read Randy Barnett I thought the Ninth should be first, the Second second, and the rest in their present order.
From the "Snowball in Hell" files:
I'd like to see NONE OF THE ABOVE as a common ballot option. If 1/3rd of the electorate checks that box, then all the clowns are DQ'd and we get a do over... say, 90 days later.
Possible benefit: it may make the Demopublican party a bit more hesitant in running the ISO standard, next in line empty suit if he's going to just get tossed. It may also reduce the amount of baby eater/puppy kicker attack ads on primetime.
Eloquently stated. I have copied and pasted to my FB with proper credit to you. Thank you.
A link back to the post, too?
I also had to look up the ninth, I'd forgotten that one, but in my defence none of the political class remembers it either.
-Joat
This is the smartest thing I've read all month. Many thanks.
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