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News & ArtsWednesday, January 20, 2010
Animals What rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Washington to be born?
Posted by Dan Savage on Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 12:07 PM
At first I found these pictures from the new National Geographic documentary Extraordinary Animals In The Womb to be beautiful and somehow comforting in the wake of yesterday's bad news. Until I scrolled all the way down and saw this one...
...which, in the wake of yesterday's news, just seems ominous and threatening. No donkeys in the doc. More pics here.
1
Matt Bai's suggesting the Massachusetts Anti-Miracle is far from a sign of Republican resurgence. He believes it reflects a mounting voter "de-alignment" from both parties. Which the parties better get wise to right quick.
It's in the Times Magazine preview on the front page.
It's in the Times Magazine preview on the front page.
6
i've always been irritated that the Republicans have the elephant for their avatar...it's ridiculous! Elephants are smart, loyal and noble creatures; they would NEVER vote Republican.
7
The Democrats didn't win in 2008. "Change" won. Americans have been busily hitting the "reset" button for a while now. When "none of the above" is the most popular answer to every question then there is a problem with the terms of debate.
The Democrats face a real problem reconciling the desire of their base for real substantive reform with the financial demands of modern campaigns, which require the deep pockets of corporate donors to be viable. Unlike the Republican evangelical base, the Democrat progressive base won't be placated with being thrown a bone every once in a while. The Health Care debate is a perfect illustration of this, with the Democratically controlled Congress trying so hard to triangulate a bill that will please both the majority of the public (who want a public option and strong regulation of the market) and the insurance industry that the final product ends up pleasing nobody.
The Democrats face a real problem reconciling the desire of their base for real substantive reform with the financial demands of modern campaigns, which require the deep pockets of corporate donors to be viable. Unlike the Republican evangelical base, the Democrat progressive base won't be placated with being thrown a bone every once in a while. The Health Care debate is a perfect illustration of this, with the Democratically controlled Congress trying so hard to triangulate a bill that will please both the majority of the public (who want a public option and strong regulation of the market) and the insurance industry that the final product ends up pleasing nobody.
8
@7 - I love your "none of the above" analogy and plan to plagiarize it often. And as for your point in the second paragraph, I have long wondered why no one seems to be talking about campaign spending caps. I've never quite understood why the amount of money some has (access to) should have any influence whatsoever on whether or not they are elected to office.
Oh, right. Capitalism. ...yay.
Oh, right. Capitalism. ...yay.
10
Gotta agree with you, Terry, those images are beautiful. And #6 is right. Elephants kick ass. They'd never vote Republican!
11
We can all thank Andrew Jackson for giving us the donkey as the party emblem. A newspaper cartoon portrayed Jackson as a jackass and the party picked it up.
So it really isn't a donkey, we really are the party of the jackass.
So it really isn't a donkey, we really are the party of the jackass.
12
@12: Am I really the first to dig your Yeats reference and to note that your Irish morbidness is showing again (a la Skipping Towards Gomorrah)?
13
Actually this image reminds me that the gory pictures the abortion-access obstructionists so love to parade around (including to living children) aren't really of the aborted feti they claim.
Proteus nailed it, Democrat reps are often tugged by multiple masters including their constituencies and their financing patrons, hence those of us whose agendas are in conflict with those of corporations become ultimately disenfranchised.
What are we going to do, when ultimately we can only vote for Kang or Kodos? Probably what the Soviets did, and take the whole economy underground.
Proteus nailed it, Democrat reps are often tugged by multiple masters including their constituencies and their financing patrons, hence those of us whose agendas are in conflict with those of corporations become ultimately disenfranchised.
What are we going to do, when ultimately we can only vote for Kang or Kodos? Probably what the Soviets did, and take the whole economy underground.
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