Keep smiling, k?

Love that you caught the reference in the title. No one else has, or at least they haven’t said anything. It makes me smile.
shoreacres´s last blog ..Raise High the Floor Beam, Islanders….

Yes, it is two worlds and has been for some time. When Reagan was prez, I subscribed to a very liberal magazine and a very conservative one. The alternate universe existed then, too, but without the (extreme) hate and fearmongering from the right (although fear is the GOP playbook) and the smarminess from the left. Punditry has done nothing for our national discourse. My problem with people who are swayed by talkmeisters to the point of puppetry is that they’re not thinking. They’re probably the same people who never know if they liked a movie until they’ve read the reviews.

I get so cranky when I’m tired. Sorry. I’m just exhausted. Thanks for your thoughts. Always insightful. (btw, I loved Raise High the Roof Beam when I was a teenager. I wonder if it still holds up? When I get to those books in my packing, I’ll have to keep it out for another read.)

I’ve been involved in a little personal experiment recently. By day, at work, I listen to Beck, Limbaugh and Hannity. Then, at night, I enjoy Matthews (if I can keep from turning his impolite self off), Olberman and Maddow.

The word that comes to mind is “whiplash”. It’s not just “like” looking at two different worlds, it is two different worlds.

It seems to me folks on both sides are heading to the fringes and hardening their positions as they see the middle disappear. The days of “politics as usual” – in the sense of negotiation, compromise, horse-trading, being committed to the common good while serving particular (not special!) interests – seem to be numbered.

I hope someone gets a grip, soon.
shoreacres´s last blog ..Raise High the Floor Beam, Islanders….

There are some fundamental problems that factor in. The GOP has let the extreme right fringe hijack the party and the genesis goes back to Reagan selling the party’s soul to get the support of the anti-abortion crowd. (And to imagine people in the 60’s thought Goldwater was nutty.) And the wingnuts are bullies, plain and simple. The GOP — and I said this last autumn — has to grow a pair and tell them they will no longer be allowed to hijack the party and if they don’t like it, form their own. And somebody in this White House has to grow a pair and stop pretending Washington can be a Kumbaya Zone if everyone is statesmanlike. Won’t happen. Not with bullies whose favorite tactic is fearmongering and with their party of no instead of maybe we can, let’s see where we can compromise.

Oh, I miss Kennedy. Really.

PS – I just love the nut with wings in the cartoon. Hee!