Recently in Ideology Category

While the Republican/Conservative movement has relied mostly on the megaphone style of political persuasion, I see the Whisper Campaign as a more effective style of political persuasion for the Democrats/Progressives. Let the Republicans blast away with the few megaphone mouths (Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, et. el.). The Democrats can simply walk softly and whisper quietly to individuals among the masses. You know, do the grassroots thing.

Granted, the Teabagger's movement was a type of grassroots in that the corporate/conservative elites were able to tap the anger of the intellectually ignorant; feeding them misinformation and out right lies. But it only created a squeaking wheel. It did not constitute any huge majority, or even a respectable minority. Instead, it brought together a whole bunch of crazy, that left a poor impression on the general population.

From what I can see, the Republican/Conservative grassroots movements have been an abysmal failure, easily falling short of fund raising as accomplished by comparable progressive movements. And in what is no doubt the greatest irony of all; the Republican/Conservative grassroots rely on funding from individuals comparable to their rich, liberal, villain De jour, George Soros, the man supposedly funding the entire progressive infrastructure.

I just can't help but see the Republican/conservative elites losing power. Not when their efforts include the manipulation of ignorant, intellectually lazy people. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of the human race is not ignorant. If it was, we would still be Neanderthals living a stone age existence.

Sigh. Yes, I understand Rush, Hannity, and Beck might exemplify the modern Neanderthals, but they really are still a minority.

I am posting this at the Snelling Ave Dunn Bros. Coffee shop. Unfortunately, there were no available tables with outlets close by. Actually, every table was taken. So, I am sitting out back, which is great today, considering it is 60 degrees right now, but also lacks outlets. Anyway, work was quick, with only one consult. But it did require an assessment, and a DHS one at that.

DHS is Department of Human Services. In Minnesota, for publicly funded patients, we have to fill out a particular form, which is 18 pages long. Most of the Minnesota care HMOs (there are four of them that manage health care for Minnesota) require it to be completed, even if they are not going to get state funding for treatment.

See, many, many years ago, something called Rule 25 was created to help under-insured people get funding for treatment. These people could be employed, have health insurance, but not have substance abuse benefits, But, as in all things deemed welfare, the financial requirements became so strict, the original target population was restricted from receiving aid, and only the poor got the funding. Get a job, and you lose your funding.

Anyway, the funding was a combination of Federal grants with a certain level of matching state funds. From what I understand, Minnesota was better than most states at getting the money out there for treatment. Wisconsin, at least when I first sobered up in the mid 80s, was not so good at it.

As seems to be the case these days, in an effort to prove government inefficient, a re-write by the state (controlled by republicans, I deem, though can not prove) was done on Rule 25 recently, and they created a bloated assessment tool that goes above and beyond any reasonable effort at assessing for abuse or dependence. In my opinion, it was created with the mind-set that we had to discover a lifetime of issues in 40 to 60 minutes.

A psychiatrist that works for one of the county mental health services complained the assessment was a complete waste of time; that it attempted to be a tool for developing an actual treatment plan - instead of it's original function - which was simply to determine the necessary level of care for a person.

One of the biggest problems with my field is that it is very politicized, especially in the last decade, as Christian organizations attempt to insert their ideology into treatment services. I came across a little flier that was clearly written to coop the original intent of AA, and in direct opposition to one of the traditions, which clearly states attraction rather than promotion. This flier was describing the means to evangelize the 12 step concept.

In all things both conservative and Christian, it is a return to shaming the drunks and drug addicts. Considering Bill W. spent the first 8 months of his sobriety attempting that path, and failing, I suspect we will not really hear of any statistical success from this move. Prior to AA's creation, there really was not documented success at dealing with addiction.

In the end, I have to say I grow tired of my field. It seems more mired in bureaucracy then at any time in my 19 year career. All I want to do is help people find their way out of the hell that is addiction. Instead, it has turned into another battle ground for which ideology is the best.  

The Republican candidate who was running for NY-23, Scozzafav, dropped out of the race today. All the way around; this is not a good sign for either the Republican party or the conservatives. While the Democratic party has often aired it's dirty laundry in public, and rarely hid infighting, in the end a consensus was build, and the party moved forward. But the Republicans are not infighting. What we are witnessing is disintegration.

The extremists have taken the title of conservatism and pushed out those who are truly conservative. In the process, they have divided the Republican party. The demands of lock-step unity the party pursued during the first 5 and a half years of the Bush presidency prevented the honest airing of policy differences and prevented compromise, creating a buildup of toxic animosity and vitriol.

This is a party that lost any ability to look within itself and see its mistakes and to accept the failures of their ideology. Instead, they cling harder to what they believed is the only way and now walk down a political blind alley. As such, they are not likely to adjust their stance to the prevailing political will of the people.

Instead of seeing politics as simple leadership, they have developed a mindset of their party as a way of life. And at this time in history, they see their way of life as needing to eradicate liberalism. Unfortunately, in their desire to destroy liberalism they have taken to destroying themselves.

This is what the conservatives have done for decades; they spoke their mind, regardless of it's political correctness. Hell, they did not even care if it was based on facts, or simply ignorant opinion, they said whatever they damn well pleased. Nice to see someone follow the conservative's playbook.

Novotny: John, what about this controversy over opposition to Obama's speech to school children?

Harwood: I've got to tell you Monica, I've been watching politics for a long time and this is, this one is really over the top. What it shows you is there are a lot of cynical people who try to fan controversy and let's face it, in a country of three hundred million people there are a lot of stupid people too, because if you believe that's it's somehow unhealthy for kids for the President to say work hard and stay in school, you're stupid.

Novotny: Ouch.

Harwood: In fact, I'm worried for some of those kids, I'm worried for some of those kids of those parents who are upset. I'm not sure they're smart enough to raise those kids.

More of this please. Seriously, we need more people from the progressive side of the isle speaking their mind. Honestly, no matter what, the rabid, right-wing conservatives are going to screech, whine, and basically holler, whatever the subject or issue. So, call them out on their ignorance, their stupidity, and their hypocrisy. The conservatives have shown quite some time ago that they are simply not interested in a civil, rational, educated debate. They are all about being the squeaky wheel looking to get the grease. So, let us simply squeak louder.

MN Progressive Project has a post up about Minnesota Republican infighting that has gotten ugly. It is the usual personal attacks on character that we have come to expect from today's Republican party. It is reminiscent of the attack George W. Bush's campaign made against John McCain back in 2000

Now, don't get me wrong. I have no doubt that Democrats of days gone by have engaged in the same personal attacks and will do so in the future. Currently, though, it appears to be a Republican trait. If anyone has done any reading on Karl Rove's past, you learn that he started his dirty, character assassination tricks at a young age, and at a local level.

I know, for myself, that in the past I never paid attention to these kind of low brow political attacks. I considered myself above them, or just felt it was not important enough for me to take into consideration. But I have come to learn that it is important these types of antics be exposed and brought to the attention of the electorate, and at a local level. Just imagine a world where Karl Rove's sleazy campaigning were exposed when he first started out, and had not been at the helm of George W. Bush's campaign, and by extension, his administration.

Eight years of George W. Bush in the White House has taught me that all politics is local. Any and all personal attacks, whisper campaigns, and other Lee Atwater dirty trick antics, whether by Republicans or Democrats, must be exposed early on at the local level, or else we can look forward once again to an incompetent and immoral presidency.

Then listen to the son, and co-founder, of the man who helped build the modern conservative christian movement.

I've been hearing, and reading, a lot lately on how investigating law breaking by the Bush administration would end up distracting Obama from his job of stewarding the country. How, exactly would Obama be distracted. It's not like the White House will be running any investigation. Let's remember, the Justice Department is an independent agency, not beholden to, or controlled by, the White House.

If memory serves me well (large amount of drugs and alcohol years ago make it not so much a possibility), when Nixon tried to control an investigation, he actually sealed his fate and ended up resigning.

Honestly, I think the village idiots are confused. It's they who would be distracted. We are talking about people who willingly, and easily, walked hand in hand with the Bush administration into the Greatest War Against Terror. And by hand in hand, I mean lead by the Bush administration because the villagers seem unable to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Okay, that was unfair. But it felt soooooo good to type.

Anyway, Obama's concern, which does hold merit, is that the American people would be distracted by the investigations, and the Republicans in the congress would step up their obstructionist behavior (and possibly a few complicit Democrats). However, is an increase in obstruction by Republicans any more of a problem then what they are doing now? And with the Blue Dogs already complicit in obstructing Health Reform....., well, I don't think it would be much worse then what he already faces. As for the American people? For the most part they are always distracted by something. Usually with the Legacy Media's help.

That the nation has voted Democratic does not mean they voted progressive. I know, I know. It saddens me as well. After years and years of the Mighty Wurlitzer vilifying the Democrats as liberals, as if such a term in and of itself were a smear, to see the Democrats now voted into office, one would believe liberal values and goals would hold sway. Of course, you would be wrong.

Let us remember also that as the Mighty Wurlitzer labeled Democrats liberals (even those who were obviously not) it labeled Republicans as conservatives (even those who were obviously not). Because of this constant chatter of stratification, our political parties are now seen by the average, non-inquisitive American voter as ideologically split. Obviously, that's not the case.

Now, truth be told, there was a strong, almost successful, push to drive all but the most staunch conservatives from the Republican party. And when I mean almost successful, I mean totally successful, to the point where even nominally conservative members were purged, leaving mostly arc-conservatives. But, that's not really my point. What's important is that the Democratic party did not mount any type of purge of it's own to clear their ranks of conservatives. If anything, there was a concerted effort to move members more to the right.

So, let us remember, boys and girls, just because we have been told by the Mighty Wurlitzer and the Legacy Media that the Democratic party is liberal does not make it true. Indeed, it is a conservative lie. Therefore, let us not convince ourselves that the Democratic majority now seated in congress is liberal, or progressive, because that would be believing in a conservative lie.

I know, I know. Most of you already think of  the Republicans as dumb. But seriously, this statement by Palin;

(ABC) As to whether another pursuit for national office, as when she joined Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in the race for the White House less than a year ago, would result in the same political blood sport, Palin said there was a difference between the White House and what she had experienced in Alaska. If she were in the White House, she said, the "department of law" would protect her from baseless ethical allegations. [highlight by editorial, i.e., me!]

is nothing more than Nixon's statement "When the president does it, it's not illegal" dumbed down. Palin's statement boils down to the same unitary executive belief as voiced by Nixon and further advocated by Bush/Cheney. Honestly, the point is not that she's stupid, though she sure works hard at projecting stupidity, it's that she is following the same unitary executive ideology.

The ideal question to ask her would be her belief about the separation of powers inherent in the constitution. Her whole "Department of Law" gives evidence that she either doesn't believe in the separation of powers, or is just plain stupid.

Well, yes. Of course it could be both.

(TPM) Bachmann also differentiated between the 28-page American Community Survey, which only a tiny fraction of Americans will receive, and the short form that everyone gets -- and she objected to both of them. "Does the federal government really need to know our phone numbers?" she asked. "Do they really need to know, like you said, the date and time that we leave mental stability?"

I'm sure Ms. Bachmann only has the financial burden of this question in mind because it would take all the census staff from all across the nation to fully record all the dates and times that she took leave of her mental stability.

Assuming, of course, that she was ever present with her mental stability.

You know, just because a person identifies themselves as a conservative doesn't mean they are. After almost 3 or more decades of having Liberals (and progressives) vilified by not just the conservatives, but their willing co-conspirators, the corporate media, to call one self liberal was to be set up for ridicule, derision, and all around abuse. As Ed Kilgore so aptly points out, when you get passed the basic "Are you xxx?" and into the meat and potatoes policy questions, suddenly there is a different prospective.

The CAP survey also found that when you probe deeper in terms of more specific statements of values and beliefs, there's a reasonably solid progressive majority when it comes to most matters of international and domestic policy. The conservative "brand" may still be relatively strong, but it doesn't always translate into issue positions, much less voting behavior.

I honestly thought I was a moderate/centerist until I begain to pay more attention to my positions on policies. Then I learned I was liberal. Since I am late to actually following politics, I suspect many others are still going by the simple label and not really looking at their policy positions.