But is there no mechanism whatsoever -- a prime-time interview, a prime-time speech -- whereby the president of the United States might explain the filibuster to peple, as if he were teaching Civics 101? Explain it, and explain the specific way in which this undemocratic relic of a procedure is being used to block these benefits and thwart majority rule? Why couldn't a president reach out to the public to educate us on how our government works, in the interests of his agenda? Would Ronald Reagan have hesitated to do so? Would FDR? Wouldn't they have found a way?Seems like a damn good idea to me. After all, aren't Republicans complaining that Obama isn't doing enough to show his leadership?
I know that Obama, while not a professor, taught for a while. Unfortunately, he taught elite law students. I don't think he quite understands how to educate people who really need a basic education in government.
He should imagine what he would say if Malia or Sasha were to ask him to explain why, if he has a majority, he can't get the law passed. And then he should explain it to us exactly the way he'd explain it to one of them.
If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed. -- Benjamin Franklin
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Last Call
Parting thoughts tonight from Steve M.:
i decided to actually visit the reason site last night. wafflez seems to believe that hacky predictable thinking is the hallmark of everybody (especially libs) who isn't a libertarian. yet the articles on the site are remarkably predictable. and so are the comments sections, which feature the same kind of obama-bashing (i didn't have to go too far into a thread before somebody made a joke about chimpanzees) you'd expect to find on any conservative site. with loads of the same kind of circle-jerking that wafflez decries here. it's so strange to me how willfully stupid people are. how so much thinking boils down to bizarre, almost nonsensical attempts to differentiate between entirely similar mindsets and thought processes just to create a dividing line between oneself and others.
ReplyDeletefavorite moment in the comments thread is where a liberal poster conclusively debunks a point and the response is something along the lines of "who cares?" oh, yeah. we liberals/partisan losers have cornered the market on that sort of thing. NOT!
http://reason.com/archives/2010/06/23/oil-gushes-and-power-rushes#commentcontainer
fail t-man is fail
ReplyDelete