kane_magus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kane_magus) wrote2014-11-07 11:08 am
kane_magus) wrote2014-11-07 11:08 am
Entry tags:
"Mitch McConnell may be the greatest strategist in contemporary politics"
(Via Wil Wheaton's Tumblr page via Wil Wheaton's Facebook page.)
"...at a time when McConnell is likely poised to take over as Senate Majority Leader, it's worth taking a moment to acknowledge his political acumen. Not acumen in winning reelection, but acumen in masterminding the Republican comeback after the huge Democratic wave elections in 2006 and 2008. His master plan was simple — hang together and say no. And, by and large, it worked. McConnell is not the most charismatic politician of our time, but he is arguably the sharpest mind in contemporary politics on a strategic level."
This is not something that should be in any way shocking or surprising. McConnell, after all, was the guy who said it was the number one priority of the GOP to see that Obama failed. The exact quote was "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." While they thankfully failed at their goal of limiting Obama to one term, in the end it has made little difference, because they did otherwise certainly succeed in blocking almost everything that Obama wanted to do, and seriously watered down to the point of almost worse-than-uselessness the things that Obama did manage to get through (e.g. the Affordable Care Act).
The uncooperative air is, of course, only going to get even more stale now that the Republicans unfortunately have control of both the House and the Senate. While the Republican leaders in Washington now pay disingenuous lip service to the ideals of cooperation, the conservative blowhard pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and the like are pushing for full steam ahead on the obstructionism.
And, yet, a lot of people, on both sides, blame Obama and the Democrats for this shit, rather than placing the blame squarely on the Republicans, where it should actually be. That is, of course, why the Republicans now, sadly, control all of Congress. Go figure. *shrug*
(EDIT 2)
Oh, and I meant to mention this while originally writing this post, but forgot about it for some reason (guess I was just trying to block out all of the negative attack ad shit or something), but it warrants being noted that Thom Tillis, the guy who, as the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, pretty much ran North Carolina into the ground in many ways, and who now, tragically, managed to win over incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan and will be replacing her as the junior Senator from North Carolina in the US Senate in what was apparently one of the most "important" races in the country (and on which a ton of out-of-state interests spent a ton of out-of-state money), where he will be in a position to help run the country itself into the ground, explicitly campaigned on a promise to "stand up to the President" and other such bullshit. In other words, Tillis is clearly in the "let's keep on being obstructionist asshats" camp. Just wanted to get that out there. Good job getting this doofus elected, North Carolina.
(EDIT October 8, 2018) And now, despite having criticized Kay Hagan for voting with Obama most of the time (which, by the way, I saw as a good thing, despite Tillis's disingenuous, though apparently successful, attempt to paint it in a bad light), Tillis himself seems to have had his own lips surgically attached to the corpulent ass of Donald Trump ever since Trump was sworn in as President of the United States of America, in January 2017. Regardless of whatever horrific things Trump has done during his time in office, Tillis has been right there, right behind him all the way. E.g. Net neutrality and Trump's destruction of it was something Thom Tillis supported wholeheartedly, the fucking asshole. And Tillis was fully committed to supporting Trump's nomination of shitstain on the underwear of humanity Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, as well, to hell with the lot of them. (/EDIT October 8, 2018)
*eye roll + weary sigh* Though, with that said, I can't help but to wonder how many other instances of this fucking horseshit might have managed to slip through the cracks unnoticed, and how much that may have affected the election.
(/EDIT 2)
(EDIT)
Okay, I'm going to try my best to make this be the last post I make about all this political bullshit. It is what it is, and no amount of rambling from me is going to change it, and I really don't want to get back into the bad habit of making pointless, long-winded rants about it like I used to. (EDIT October 8, 2018) Ha ha ha, yeah right. (/EDIT October 8, 2018)
(/EDIT)
"...at a time when McConnell is likely poised to take over as Senate Majority Leader, it's worth taking a moment to acknowledge his political acumen. Not acumen in winning reelection, but acumen in masterminding the Republican comeback after the huge Democratic wave elections in 2006 and 2008. His master plan was simple — hang together and say no. And, by and large, it worked. McConnell is not the most charismatic politician of our time, but he is arguably the sharpest mind in contemporary politics on a strategic level."
This is not something that should be in any way shocking or surprising. McConnell, after all, was the guy who said it was the number one priority of the GOP to see that Obama failed. The exact quote was "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." While they thankfully failed at their goal of limiting Obama to one term, in the end it has made little difference, because they did otherwise certainly succeed in blocking almost everything that Obama wanted to do, and seriously watered down to the point of almost worse-than-uselessness the things that Obama did manage to get through (e.g. the Affordable Care Act).
The uncooperative air is, of course, only going to get even more stale now that the Republicans unfortunately have control of both the House and the Senate. While the Republican leaders in Washington now pay disingenuous lip service to the ideals of cooperation, the conservative blowhard pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and the like are pushing for full steam ahead on the obstructionism.
And, yet, a lot of people, on both sides, blame Obama and the Democrats for this shit, rather than placing the blame squarely on the Republicans, where it should actually be. That is, of course, why the Republicans now, sadly, control all of Congress. Go figure. *shrug*
(EDIT 2)
Oh, and I meant to mention this while originally writing this post, but forgot about it for some reason (guess I was just trying to block out all of the negative attack ad shit or something), but it warrants being noted that Thom Tillis, the guy who, as the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, pretty much ran North Carolina into the ground in many ways, and who now, tragically, managed to win over incumbent Democrat Kay Hagan and will be replacing her as the junior Senator from North Carolina in the US Senate in what was apparently one of the most "important" races in the country (and on which a ton of out-of-state interests spent a ton of out-of-state money), where he will be in a position to help run the country itself into the ground, explicitly campaigned on a promise to "stand up to the President" and other such bullshit. In other words, Tillis is clearly in the "let's keep on being obstructionist asshats" camp. Just wanted to get that out there. Good job getting this doofus elected, North Carolina.
(EDIT October 8, 2018) And now, despite having criticized Kay Hagan for voting with Obama most of the time (which, by the way, I saw as a good thing, despite Tillis's disingenuous, though apparently successful, attempt to paint it in a bad light), Tillis himself seems to have had his own lips surgically attached to the corpulent ass of Donald Trump ever since Trump was sworn in as President of the United States of America, in January 2017. Regardless of whatever horrific things Trump has done during his time in office, Tillis has been right there, right behind him all the way. E.g. Net neutrality and Trump's destruction of it was something Thom Tillis supported wholeheartedly, the fucking asshole. And Tillis was fully committed to supporting Trump's nomination of shitstain on the underwear of humanity Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, as well, to hell with the lot of them. (/EDIT October 8, 2018)
*eye roll + weary sigh* Though, with that said, I can't help but to wonder how many other instances of this fucking horseshit might have managed to slip through the cracks unnoticed, and how much that may have affected the election.
(/EDIT 2)
(EDIT)
Okay, I'm going to try my best to make this be the last post I make about all this political bullshit. It is what it is, and no amount of rambling from me is going to change it, and I really don't want to get back into the bad habit of making pointless, long-winded rants about it like I used to. (EDIT October 8, 2018) Ha ha ha, yeah right. (/EDIT October 8, 2018)
(/EDIT)