Geopolitics on a Small Scale

Running errands on Friday I had occasion to drive through several parts of my Virginia county - Albemarle.

When I landed on the shores of Virginia in 1986, Albemarle was described to me as a county of primarily middle to upper class residents, with an interesting share of the fabulously wealthy and famous.

I wasn't surprised to discover that many of these were active in Republican politics. 

Since the county's largest town, Charlottesville, is home to the University of Virginia, and supposedly crammed with intellectuals, it is assumed to be more liberal....and it is.


And there are a number of artistic types - both successful and aspiring - who make the county their home and who generally are  considered to be liberal. Some, such as John Grisham and Dave Matthews, have given voice to their support of Democratic candidates. 

Despite this, much of the county has eluded the fulsome labels of wealthy, educated and artistic as testified to by the a number of Republican yard signs.

This does not necessarily signify that if you are a Conservative you are poor, ignorant or both, but it does seem to work out that way.

The odd thing is that while many of the large estates will display their preference for the GOP candidates - in line with their economic interests - the vast number of those proclaiming allegiance to Romney/Ryan/Allen/Hurt live in modest homes....some of them even little better than shacks.

Parked in front of these are trucks with pro-gun decals and the yard is littered with plastic toys and dead cars.

Or, sometimes, it's a modest but buttoned-up residence that will fly an American flag and possibly display a Christian symbol of Christ's love on the family car, right next to an anti-gay statement of some kind. 

There is some satisfying variety in this still essentially bucolic environment. But, even though I am aware of this, I am still bemused by the  devotion of the massive numbers of the least successful among us to a concept that is utterly antithetical to their own best interests.

Remarkable.

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Dingy Gingy is Ringy Dingy

A couple of minor pensées

There are two reasons I cheer on blowhard Newtie: 

One, it makes the "true" GOPers crazy to think the electorate could be so stupid to think he could beat the President if he should win the nomination, and...

....two, it would be so much fun to watch his intellectual and mnemonic gymnastics and discover how many ways he can convolute facts.

Daily checking Google and Politifact for lies, exaggerations and an assortment of insane proposals (such as the moon being our 51st state)  would be as much fun as searching out theater cartoonist Hershfeld's Ninas used to be.

Eureka! I've got seven!

Beyond that entertainment, there is further fun to be had. I keep waiting for someone to accidentally brush an arm (or rolled up newspaper) against Callista's hair to see if it will either come off or snap in two.


There may be some few who are taking this slate of candidates seriously, but I doubt it.

-30

Governmental Gobbledy Gook

TPM's morning banner reads, in part,  "GOP's Pipeline Ploy".

It is referencing the comically eponymous  Keystone Kops game of Russian roulette, played with our environment instead of with someone's  little balls or bullets. 

"Ploy" is a good word to employ when attaching a description to this congress's method of operating.

I have to admit that I understand very little of this whole scheme to make money and, purportedly, make jobs by piping stuff from one country through our country to another country to be sold to still another country. It sounds like a lot of rigamarole and maybe Occam's razor can apply here in that the simplest answer is usually the right one. In this instance: greed.

Maybe you can read Brian Beutler's story - Why the Pipeline Ploy May End up Killing Keystone - http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/the-gops-costly-keystone-conundrum.php - and keep your eyes from crossing. I couldn't. It is a report that appears to recount in exquisite detail the inanities of governmental bureaucracy.

Beyond being an obvious trap set to snare President Obama, it is the nightmarishly convoluted  stuff bureaucrats live for.  I have come to the conclusion that most legislation is written to hornswoggle the electorate into believing only people with "Representative" or "Senator" in front of their names can sort out this crap.

Hell....why not? They've created it.

But I am also of the opinion that Andrew Sullivan is right in determining that the Republicans may be dumber than even they know.Successful and unsuccessful attempts to back President Obama into corners may be the end of their game since their tactics are starting to look like they were designed by Wily Coyote.

I'm no expert on economics, and I have only the slightest concept of the mechanics of actual governing, but I do have a fair amount of common sense. And this sense tells me that building a pipeline to transport tons of filthy, oily, black shale across 1,700 miles of the United States, using as much uninhabited land as possible, is a recipe for disasters of so many descriptions as to defy imagination.

I suspect the terrorists have already started to map possible routes and are noting a variety of vantage points from which they could puncture the damned thing. And, of course, you can't ignore Murphy's Law.

This is a scheme conceived in the backrooms of hell and I hope the Republicans' heavy hands have aborted it. A nice kind of symmetry.

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The Epitome of Smarmy

Is there anyone who epitomizes "smarmy" more thoroughly than does Congressman Eric Cantor (R-Va.)?

Cantor is what the GOPers identify as an "up-and-comer." His vaunted talent for raising money is much treasured by the wingnuts.

But what impresses me is his ability to be unctious and arrogant in nearly the same second. He can sneer without moving his lips, and he can rub his hands together while they appear to be hanging at his sides.

Wouldn't it be grand if some of the old-timey types of politicians - those who knew how to be graciously principled in their interactions with the opposite party without feeling they were compromising their own principles - could appear for an encore?

Instead we have the Cantor types who are masters at being maliciously demeaning and, among other efforts at disparagement, persist in saying "Democrat Party" and "Democrat President" because they believe it removes dignity from a liberal point of view.

I believe an objective apolitical person with any insights into human nature would come to the conclusion that these conservatives need to belittle and sneer and lie in order to feel like men, and that includes the women.

We can lay a great deal of this new kind of calumny on Newtie's doorstep. I remember reading a piece he wrote for Republican Party consumption where he recommended that all things liberal and democratic (big and little "d") be referred to in only denigrating terms. It has worked like a charm. The whole of the party, and now the witless teapartiers,  have adopted his tack.

But it only works among themselves. Imagine anyone believing that Barack Obama, the coolest  president since JFK, could  be seen being "dragged, kicking and screaming" anywhere. While Cantor would like that  picture to resonate, it ain't hardly likely.