So, I finally received my hurricane-delayed MacBook Air today. Thank you all very much for your contributions. You’ve made me very happy and CabinGirl very jealous. She even waged a Facebook campaign to have this computer turned over to her for her enjoyment. It’s a really nice piece of equipment. I particularly like the backlit keyboard and faster internet loading time. It’s super lightweight and slick looking. And you can run Apps on it, which might or might not turn out to be a timesink for me. They actually gave me $100 worth of free Apps just to try to get me hooked. What’s the difference between Apple and a crack dealer?
There’s only one problem. I can’t really find anything I want to write about at the moment. Do I really want to grab at Politico’s bait and explain to them that Rick Perry doesn’t inspire panic on the left? He’s extremely radical. That’s precisely why he isn’t too awe-inspiring. The Republicans haven’t produced a plausible president. If this were 2004, it would be like Joe Lieberman was the great hope of the Washington Establishment but that he was struggling to match Maxine Waters’s level of support and trailing Dennis Kucinich badly. I don’t think the Bush/Cheney campaign would have been very worried, even with 9% unemployment.
Is it fair to compare Rick Perry to Dennis Kucinich? On one level it’s not. Perry’s experience as the chief executive of Texas probably trumps Kucinich’s experience as the Mayor of Cleveland. But if you want a candidate who holds positions that are considered out of the mainstream and on the far side of their party’s wing, Perry and Kucinich match up quite nicely. On most issues, I happen to agree with Kucinich, but I also recognize that the country isn’t very liberal and if I wanted to govern America, I’d have to moderate my platform. Rick Perry doesn’t realize that the country isn’t all that conservative and that they won’t elect some bum who thinks their Social Security check is evidence of a crime against the Constitution.
They call Social Security the Third Rail of American politics for a reason. Anyone who touches it is immediately burned to a crisp. That’s why Bush got nowhere when he tried to privatize the program in 2005. He’d destroyed any mandate he had for a second term before Hurricane Katrina put the nails in his coffin. But Rick Perry isn’t just saying he wants to change how the program is designed. He’s saying that the program should be destroyed because it is against the law. He says the same for Medicare. Serious candidates who expect to win don’t espouse views that the American people will reject out of hand and with extreme prejudice. If George McGovern was the candidate of Amnesty, Abortion, and Acid, then Perry is going to be the candidate of Abortion, Austerity, and Automatic Weapons.
A vanishingly small percentage of the public agrees with his extreme positions on religion, entitlements, or federalism. On religion, for example, a study by Profs. David Campbell and Robert Putnam recently found that the country is increasingly uneasy with the Christian Right.
So what do Tea Partiers have in common? They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do.
More important, they were disproportionately social conservatives in 2006 — opposing abortion, for example — and still are today. Next to being a Republican, the strongest predictor of being a Tea Party supporter today was a desire, back in 2006, to see religion play a prominent role in politics. And Tea Partiers continue to hold these views: they seek “deeply religious” elected officials, approve of religious leaders’ engaging in politics and want religion brought into political debates. The Tea Party’s generals may say their overriding concern is a smaller government, but not their rank and file, who are more concerned about putting God in government.
This inclination among the Tea Party faithful to mix religion and politics explains their support for Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and Gov. Rick Perry of Texas. Their appeal to Tea Partiers lies less in what they say about the budget or taxes, and more in their overt use of religious language and imagery, including Mrs. Bachmann’s lengthy prayers at campaign stops and Mr. Perry’s prayer rally in Houston.
Yet it is precisely this infusion of religion into politics that most Americans increasingly oppose. While over the last five years Americans have become slightly more conservative economically, they have swung even further in opposition to mingling religion and politics. It thus makes sense that the Tea Party ranks alongside the Christian Right in unpopularity.
Add to this the the obvious way in which Rick Perry’s speech, style, and swagger call to mind the utterly clueless and disastrous presidency of Bush, and you have the perfect candidate for Obama.
Perry’s positions and persona do unite the left in opposition, but that’s only icing on the cake.
Did I say I didn’t want to write about this? Well, with the sweet new machine, I had to write about something.
Other than Kucinich’s positions on the Federal Reserve and war, I’d say his positions are mainstream; war you’d definitely have a point, as he wouldn’t have killed Bin Laden. He’s certainly not mainstream in the Beltway, but to everyday Americans his positions really are not “out there.”
The truth is, there simply is not a left equivalent in the Congress that’s equal to the right’s extremism on political positions. As much as Huntsman is getting treated like a “moderate,” he would be the Kucinich equivalent. His positions on a lot of things are farther to the right than many conservatives…he just sounds sane, and acknowledges reality.
Also, congrats on the laptop. Weight is definitely one of my top 3 factors when picking computers. I had a tablet for engineering school — stupid school was the first in the country to require engineering students to own one — and it was heavy as hell. Never again.
Indianadem shall be along to sympathize (or administer your lashings) shortly.
I’ve heard the Tablet PC’s have gotten better since I bought mine, but I found the technology completely useless. I think auto-complete and stuff is going to be better than those. Perhaps it will get better, but the worst part was the expense. It was like an additional $1,000 for that feature, and I didn’t use it! Well, we were forced to freshmen year. We had to write our homework on the thing, then print it out (makes. no. sense.)
Heh. I used a Timex Sinclair computer briefly in business school. It had no actual keys, only membranes for typing.
I can’t off the top of my head give you a fair and detailed list of all of Kucinich’s more out-there ideas. But trust me, he’s a wacko.
Lol, don’t go there with the UFO crap. Imo that is under the area of “war,” so what I said is still true.
Either way, I still do not believe he’s the equivalent to Perry. I was also trying to get another plug in there to shut this Huntsman is a moderate crap. He’s the only nominee who scares me; he’s not moderate at all, he’s very conservative, and he’s going under the radar because of these extremists.
First of all, can we remember that Kucinich was anti-choice until the second he decided to be a presidential candidate?
Secondly, can we remember that he’s nuts?
He said this on the floor of the House in 2005 in reference to weapons in space.
Does he think Heaven is located near our orbital space? He sounds like John Calvin or Michele Bachmann. Let’s keep it real, seabe.
I’m speaking strictly on terms of left-right-libertarian-authoritarian scale. I didn’t say his head isn’t a little bit out there — if he believes in God I already see him as someone who’s out there.
But on a political spectrum, he simply isn’t Perry’s equivalent.
Also, I was pro-life for a while (and anti-death penalty, which was my first political position)…it makes sense, until you start thinking about it (heh…)
I oppose the death penalty, and I’ve thought about it plenty.
ditto. In fact, I went the other way from seabe – used to be pro, once upon a time.
Ugh lol,. I should have been clearer. I am STRICTLY anti-death penalty, and still am. Anti-death penalty was my “first” official position (I’ve had others, sure, but this was the one I first came to). This prompted me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beltway_sniper_attacks
Everyone was calling for the death penalty, and I was like, “That makes no sense.”
I meant I used to be pro-life, but only for a year. Then I researched more, and became VERY pro-choice. Like no government intrusion whatsoever pro-choice.
Also, here’s more what I mean:
“What if Bernie Sanders sat down, wrote a “Plan for Prosperity,” and in it raised the top marginal rate on everyone over 250k a year to 70%, hiked capital gains, got rid of every deduction, got rid of all the loopholes, ended farm subsidies, put in place a VAT tax and a carbon tax, called for nationalizing the health care industry, making union membership mandatory, abolished the Defense Department and consolidated all the branches into a coastal and air defense force with 100,000 men, got rid of our nukes, allowed gay marriage nationwide, put in place a rigorous regulatory regime for food, water, environmental, and financial security, shortened the work week to 30 hours and raised the minimum wage to 22 dollars an hour, and gave DC and Puerto Rico statehood?
Actually, some of that sounds pretty good. But would Andrew Sullivan call that a serious plan? Would he call it brave? Would he insist that the Republicans come up with a counter-proposal and demand that they not politicize it. Because that is what he is doing with the equally fanciful GOP/Ryan plan.”
~John Cole
What John Cole wrote is the “equivalent” to Perry.
Sometimes I think I’m a rational critic of Obama, and sometimes I read that kinda plan and find myself thinking, ‘Yeah, is that too much to ask?”
Though what I find interesting is that nobody with any degree of national prominence actually has a fire-breathing leftie plan. Rebuild the Dream comes close, I guess, but they’re still distressingly rational. No wealth tax, no mandatory union membership, no $22/hour minimum wage …
A little too tough on Dennis. I just see in that quote some benign God talk of the type often heard from Midwest liberal populists. And it recalls some of the language used by another MW liberal populist Walter Mondale in his 1984 debate against St Ronnie on his stupid Star Wars proposal.
Re Dennis and ufo’s I’m also inclined to defend him especially as we consider the number of pols by now who’ve either expressed an interest in the subject — including Bill Clinton and Barry Goldwater among many others — and various professionals, pilots, scientists, astronauts and other worthies who’ve come forward publicly in recent years to testify positively about the complex subject. Frankly I hear a bit of closed-minded Tim Russert in some of the comments here. I side with non-nuts like Clinton (Bill and Hill) and John Podesta and Gov Bill Richardson and Fife Symington who are interested in the fascinating subject and whether we’re being visited.
agree about Huntsman. seems to be a stealth Koch candidate
I think in order to get to Rick Perry’s equivalence you’d have to go to the Green Party to find it.
A crack dealer will give you the first hit free?
(sorry, I kid, I kid) [kinda]
I guess I feel like I have to say something relevant to the rest of your post, and I’ll just say this: it is a testament to the current state of our political media that any of these people are being seriously considered as ‘candidates’.
I was watching the Braves play the Nationals tonight. Sad game for Braves fans. But Livan Hernandez pitched for the Nationals, so the announcers couldn’t help but talk about how great of a hitter he was.
For a pitcher.
That’s what all these Republican candidates have in common – they’re pretty good hitters. For pitchers. Obama will destroy any of them.
Did you miss the part where I got $100 of free apps when I bought the computer. The first several hits are free.
Well yeah, but the crack dealer won’t make you buy a $1000 pipe for $100 in free crack.
yes, but the point is that the computer is paid for. If Apple wants more money from me, they need me to become an apps-addict.
I wish I would have taken a debate class at some point in my education, so I didn’t let my inner contrarian take over.
I should have been perfectly fine letting you equate Apple with crack dealers.
So yes, we agree.
I just got a Macbook pro myself; it’s a lovely machine.
Yes. They are both considered extreme. They are both caricatures of their respective extremism and neither can win a national contest. Can’t be done.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Dennis Kucinich. I really do, but I’m also a realist. Give us Rick Perry to run against Obama. Easy win. Sharron Angle in a suit.
Make that Sharron Angle in a Cowboy Hat and Boots (with spurs) and don’t forget the chaps.
Easy win.
And I have to admit I’m jealous of your new MacBook Air. Those things are so beautiful, even my dad (who doesn’t use anything computer-like) thinks the thing is sexy when he sees the ads for it. It’s just so thin and gorgeous…
We need to corner Rick Perry on the issue of Immigration. One of his claims to fame is that he has so much support from Mexican-American immigrants and their families. But we need to corner him on this issue while he’s in the primaries, trying to capture the Tea Party vote – and get him on record. That’s what killed Sharron Angle in Nevada. She SO infuriated the Latinos that they made sure to show up and vote AGAINST her, even though they didn’t love Harry Reid and would have probably stayed home.
He could even lose his home state of Texas in a general election if we reminded them of his comments to Tea Partiers about “Them Mexicans.”
Don’t forget the stories about Clarence Thomas and how dangerous he is. Myself I’ve found his legal theories bunk even in school, but of course he has plenty of crazies on his side.
Or the growing concern about Obama’s DoJ and its relation to enforcing laws and conducting regulation in regards to the banks.
that you have not shared with your kind readers the consensus formed by readers and commenters of my Facebook campaign…
Seriously, I’m just happy to have my trusty :::sniff::: 2008 :::sniff::: macbook :::sniff::: back. 🙂
That BooMan was still logged in on my computer when I made the above comment…
I loved my Apples.
totally did, so I’m feeling you, BooMan on your Mac love
The real question about Perry is whether or not the more “moderate” establishment Republicans with their corporate support can mobilize enough of the not totally insane Republican vote to prevent him from winning the nomination. I think we can feel somewhat confident that Perry will take most of the TP vote (I think Bachmann’s star is starting to fade).
And we also know the TP will get out there and vote.
There is a part of me that wants Perry to win the nomination because he should be easy pickings in the general. But, I have seen enough evidence of lunacy in this country in the past 65 years, that I also shudder to think what would happen if he did get elected, and that is a possibility.
The last time I was told I was “panicking” over a candidate because I found so many of that candidate’s positions and actions deplorable, it was Sarah Palin in 2008.
Hoo, boy, remember how terrified liberals were of Sarah Palin? You can tell, because conservatives told us we were.
Congrats Booman on the new Air. You’ve convinced me to scrap my previous plan — a little too driven by cost — and to spend a few extra C notes on a Mac Air. Probably the lighter 11-inch model.
Also congrats to Obama: it appears more and more that he’ll luck out again with an eminently beatable yahoo opponent. Not quite Alan Keyes but in the same territory. Also historian and successful election prognosticator Allan Lichtman (correctly has predicted all elections since 1984, if we count Gore as an actual winner) came out yesterday saying O had nine of his 13 keys for victory (six being sufficient for a win). And that’s irrespective of who the GOP nominee is.