Oh, Ya Think?

(Edward Hopper)



Paul Krugman, writes a column on the economy for the New York Times, but I don't hold that against him because he calls 'em as he sees 'em, whether that means being critical of President Obama, as he was frequently during the depths of the financial crisis, or if it means looking at Republicans and what their arguments, votes and actions have added up to over the past year and calling a spade a spade.

Barney Frank is another voice I will turn up the radio dial for; I'll stop what I'm doing if I see him on T.V., because he seems unconcerned about saying things which will get him elected or which might be bent or quoted and used against him; he just says what he thinks. Either you like him or you don't. He's gay, he doesn't expect everyone to like him. And he speaks for me, sometimes better than I could, as when he was confronted by that woman who compared Obama to Hitler and the Democrats to Nazis and he said, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?" He finished her off with, "Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table."

Now that was a cathartic, vicarious thrill. If only the President would let loose a few of those.

It has been amusing to see both of these gentlemen blinking in the bright light of truth as they see it in front of them and they are fairly amazed.

For Paul Krugman, he pieces together the actions of the Republicans slowly, methodically and you can just see his mind whirling, cobbling together what has looked pretty obvious from New Hampshire, but has apparently been somewhat obscured by, I don't know what, the smog in New York City? What he saw was this: Republicans have said they don't like government. Government, according the the patron saint of modern Republicans, Ronald Reagan, is the problem, not the solution.

Of course, that was such a catchy phrase, people forgot all about Social Security and Medicare in their enthusiasm to embrace the idea that government is...bad.

So what Newt Gingrich and John Boehner and Mitch McConnell and, yes George W. Bush did was they said, well, we can't take away Medicare and Social Security--people like those-- so we'll just take away taxes--people don't like those--and that way we won't have the money to pay for those two great success stories of good government and we'll be able to say we can't fund them, and by necessity, they'll die.

Which is to say, if the Republicans can bleed government dry, they can kill it.

That's the insight from New York.

Meanwhile, in Washington, Barney Frank is looking at the Republicans voting against everything finally scratches his head and says, you know what this means? The Republicans want Obama to fail. They want government to fail. They always said they don't like government, they want to reduce government down to the size where they can drown it in a bathtub, because government is...bad. And now they are trying to do it.

Then Represensative Frank's eyes really grow wide. You know, he says, they had government, the White House, both houses for years and they were really terrible at governing and now they don't want to see the Democrats succeed. It's as simple as the old playground thing: If I couldn't kick the ball through the uprights it's not because I'm no good; it's because nobody can kick that ball through the uprights. Can't be done. The game is ...bad.

I was standing on a corner in Hampton, New Hampshire, holding up a sign for a Democratic candidate, talking to another sign holder, I mentioned I was new to the state and she set about educating me about how politics work in the granite state. Now, this is a very proper New Hampshire lady, with a down vest, LL Bean waders, a waxed cotton slicker with cordouroy collar and no make up and high cheekbones. She said, "Well, New Hampshire Republicans aren't assholes. You disagree with them, but you can still sit next to them at the PTA and go hiking with them."

Of course, part of the shock was hearing this Mayflower lady, this woman whose great great grandfather probably fought in the Revolutionary War and signed the Constitution use that word, but it was a well considered and deliberate phrase. She was saying, there is an emotional content you reserve for people you loathe. But you don't loathe Republicans around here. You just disagree.

But that was before Republicans started showing up outside the Portsmouth High School, where President Obama spoke soon after his election, showed up carrying assault rifles and other sorts of Second Amendment hardware.

And what were they saying by their show of arms? These were little white men who felt bigger when they toted their guns. These men were saying, "You may be the President, with your security detail and your Air Force One, but I am as important and potent and strong as you, because I have this gun."

Lee Harvey Oswald, after all, was just as important as JFK, because he had the power to destroy JFK in the barrel of his gun. Or something like that. Little, unimportant men, who cannot be ignored because they have guns.

So do we still not loathe Republicans?

You will say, not all Republicans. We cannot abide the smirking John Boehner and Mitch McConnell. But there are also Olympia Snow and Susan Collins. It's true these two ladies from Maine are not as unappetizing as the smug, smarmy couple, the Ohio Congressman and the Kentucky senator, but apart from their demeanor, how different are any of these Republican obstructionists from one another?

Not a one of them wants a government program which can succeed.

Either from malevolence or myopia, they vote the same way.