Stupid is as stupid does

Politico chief political analyst Roger Simon reports that the Republican National Committee is holding a special session next week so they can vote on -- and approve -- a resolution renaming the Democratic Party. After next week, according to the RNC, it will be called the Democrat Socialist Party.

Simon doesn't talk about that, though. His article is about Michael Steele, the black guy the RNC put in charge to make it look like they aren't a bunch of racist assholes but whom they don't give a shit about and regularly kick in the teeth. Steele opposed the special session, which will include passing a couple more idiotic resolutions, and opposes the renaming resolution too, although he does agree that the Democrats “are indeed marching America toward European-style socialism.”

Referring to the Democrats officially as the Democat Socialist Party "will accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans."

Now there's an understatement. And that's really about all that needs to be said about Steele, but Simon goes on for two pages about how the Republicans don't like him and all. If you'd like to see what he said, click here. Or stick around and let's talk about the real issue.

Simon quotes an RNC member saying the Steele "has a tin ear when it comes to the building (i.e., the RNC staff), the RNC and the party,” but don't you really think it's the GOP that has the tin ear when it comes to the American people?

So, they may be winning on the torture debate, for now. But what else? Those teabaggeries went over like the proverbial lead balloons. Their nemesis, Barack Obama, is still polling unwaveringly high, meaning that folks are kinda liking the president with the funny name. They're latest Big Issue is whether Wanda Sykes went too far at the White House Correspondents dinner, about as big an issue for the average American as the price of a loaf of bread in a London food market. And if Darth Cheney running all over the place bitching about Obama wasn't enough, now his little girl Liz is out doing the same, most recently saying the president is siding with terrorists or some such nonsense.

Somehow, I'm not expecting the Other Daughter, the Lesbian One Mary, to follow Liz's footsteps. I think she's got a Cheney grandchild to be worrying about right now.

Meanwhile, the GOP's still sticking to extremist social issues and name-calling as it's big strategy. GW and John Boehner and Tom Delay and all those truly stalwart individuals have been using "Democrat party" when they should be using "Democratic Party" for some time. It's a perjorative thing, you see, that actually got started more than 100 years ago and comes and goes, depending on how little leg the Republicans have to stand on at any given point in time.

This latest swing of its use began during the 2006 midterm elections, which was just about when folks were starting to wake up to Republican bullshit and shift Congress to the Democratic side.

Saying "Democrat party" is a purposely perjorative thing, though, on account of grammar. Democratic Party, you see, is what's called a proper noun. That's the name of the party -- calling it anything else is wrong, and it's intended to be a slight, an insult.

Add that to "socialist," which the Republicans have decided resonates with people outside their base with no evidence showing that to be true, and you got yourself one humdinger of a throwdown.

So here comes the Republican National Committee with its fancy resolution to make it official -- as if one party can officially change the name of the other paraty -- that will actually serve two purposes -- it will insult the Democrats and jab at Michael Steele.

There's just one teensy weensy little problem. Nobody gives a rodent's derriere. And all it does it make the Republicans look exactly like what they've become -- petty, vindictive little dictators with no ideas and no sense of decency.

Well done, gentlemen. I look forward to your resolution next week. When you keep doing stupid things like this, you make it impossible for my colleagues to present you in any kind of decent light. It's just too much of a stretch. Kind of like reporting that the fire department responded to a call about an intoxicated group of men not only threw empty paint cans into their 55-gallon drum fire, but then added not one, but three 20-pound propane cylinders when they ran out of paint cans. There's just no way you can make that look like a good idea.

As Bertrand Russell once said, "Most people would die rather than think. In fact, they do."

Sadly, the Republicans appear headed rapidly in that direction.

But maybe that's for the best. Then we could split the Democratic Party into two and have a real opposition party, with both parties focused on what's good for the American people instead of what's good for their personal fortunes.

You know, that little thing known as "the greater good."


AWOP Political Contributing Editor
Author of Stop the Press!

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Stupid People

Stupid people annoy me. All the "stupid people" quotes you can think of -- they all apply.

Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Note to self: It is illegal to stab people for being stupid.

When you're surrounded by idiots, just remember that murder is illegal and sarcasm is much more satisfying.

It's not that I'm not a people person. I'm just not a stupid people person.

People are idiots and I hate them.

Sarcasm. It's easier than actually having to deal with stupid people.

Never attribute to malice that which can adequately be explained by stupidity.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.

Everyone has a right to be stupid; some people just abuse the privilege.

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.

Oh, I sure have my moments of being stupid. We all do. But some people, as some anonymous soul pointed out, abuse the privilege. Those are the ones who annoy the crap out of me. I mean, I just don't have the time in my life to drum up the kind of energy it takes to deal with stupid people.

Like Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and Haley Barbour -- stupid governors who get their noses all up in the air because they don't want to let unemployed people have more unemployment benefits. There was a another stupid people quote -- something about when people do stupid things they declare it their duty. Just like these stupid governors. It's their little protest against the recovery bill. They, of course, want to continue the failed policies of the last 30 years, believing they'll get us out of the mess that those very policies put us in.

Stupid. People.

Like Eric Cantor, the Republican whip in the House of Representatives. He thinks Obama's decision to overturn GW's ban on federal funding for embryionic stem cell research is a "distraction" from the economy. Well, Eric, sweetie, it's only a distraction if you make it one. So shut up about it and keep your nose on the economy.

News flash: The president is a Democrat. A Democrat -- a liberal. And yes, he damn sure is a liberal.

He is not a socialist, and that brings me to the entire Republican party and all of its followers, each and every one of whom apparently do not know what socialism is. They seem to think that Obama the socialist, which he is not, is planning to strip billions of dollars from rich people and give it to the poor. Kind of an elected Robin Hood, which personally I don't think is such a bad idea, given the atrocious behavior of most rich people of late.

But that's not going to happen, and I'm not stupid enough to push for it.

But that's not socialism anyway. Socialism does call for a more equitable compensation plan, wherein John Thain does not make billions of dollars while Lily Ledbetter loses her job and can't file suit for the gender discrimination she suffered. But that's all highly theoretical. And, like capitalism, there are varying degrees of socialism.

And the argument for or against socialism and for or against capitalism isn't what I'd like to carry on here. I don't consider myself much of a socialist, but then, I don't consider myself much of a capitalist either since I let go of my business several years ago and dove wholeheartedly into journalism. Personally, I think some new type of economy is what we're going to end up with -- the best of both worlds, and probably a few others too. Provided we survive.

Oh, and socialism and communism aren't the same thing either.

Just so you know, socialism calls for state or worker ownership of the means of production and distribution. Since the rich jackasses have exported all the production the United States once had, there's not much around here to create a true socialist system with. So, you stupid people, shut the fuck up. You don't know what you're talking about.

You have all your panties in a wad because Obama's tax plan calls for people who make more than $250,000 a year to pay a little more tax than they've been paying. Here's what you don't know -- the rest of that sentence, since you start screaming the moment you year "more tax." The plan calls for people who make more than $250,000 a year to pay a little more tax than they've been paying on the part of their income that exceeds $250,000. So all your stupid friends who are trying to figure out how not to make more than $250,000, they're not doing themselves any favors at all. They're just stupid.

Listen to what distributorcap NY says about it:

Finally, you also have to laugh when people like Glenn Beck and Laura Ingraham talk about 'redistributing the wealth' and that 'people who have higher salaries are more productive and more valuable.' (Tell that to a nurse, teacher or fire fighter). Not that people shouldn’t reap the benefits (if that means having lots of money) of their hard work and great ideas, but tell me how different would Richard Fuld’s or Stan O’Neal’s or some other robber-banker’s life be if they paid a 39% marginal tax rate on the $500 million they stole earned, rather than 35%. Would it mean one less $12,000 garbage can? And if that extra 4% in marginal tax went to attaining cleaner water (which they have to drink) or retiring debt to fight the useless Iraq War or to helping kids get an decent education (who I would think they want buying products to keep corporate America busy) or by making the bridge they drive over safer – wouldn’t that be better for the Fuld family?

But that's too much thinking for stupid people. They just hear "taxes" and go all nutzoid. because for them, thinking is just regurgitating what you've been told by others, who probably heard it from some other stupid person too. Reminds me of another stupid people quote.

Lord, what fools these mortals be.

Whatever, though. What's pretty darn clear is that the stupid people and their Eville lords (not sure who they are, but stupid people can't make up all this shit by themselves) are scared. There's new ideas out there. They've been out there for a while, but they're moving now, percolating up from the dismal depths of the mess the conservatives have made of things. And Mahatma Gandhi knows what happens when new ideas get started.

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win.

I think we're at the fighting part now.

Cross-posted at Stop the Press!

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Peace Y'all