The third motivation isn't operative in this case because the Publicans can confidently expect the Democrats to move legislation to the right without the need of Publican participation. That's why we have Blue Curs.

It needs a three-fifths majority...

Where does it say that in the Constitution?

Prisoner's dilemma, no?

Governance by the lowest common denominator.

In the olden days, which some of us can still remember, government actually governed, ie. did the people's business for the benefit of the people. Because corporate money has now so distorted our political system, governing is done primarily for the benefit of corporations, usually the ones that can provide the largest "campaign donations," ie. bribes, to government officials. Republicans and Blue Dog Democrats are obstructing health care reform because they've been bribed by the health care industry and the insurance companies to do so. Only when such bribes are outlawed will our government be returned to the people and become a real democracy again. Right now, we're an oligarchy, where the rich rule and the poor pay.

Actually, I do think a number of Republicans hate the United States, in the sense that 'the United States' implies a federal government with a responsibility to take action for public goods. I think there are quite a few who believe in the Norquistian fallacy, who would prefer a system far closer to the Articles of Confederation than the modern understanding of our Constitution. So, to the extent that "the United States" means "the system of politics and policy decisions that were established in the 20th Century", they're against it.

The media insistence on treating the modern GOP like a legitimate party is also a problem, as you note. This morning on NPR, Cokie Roberts was reporting on the challenge faced in GOP charges about terrorism, and never hinted that any of those charges might be inflated, overwrought, or purely bogus. Nope. They apparently are supposed to be taken seriously.

It's a mess.

* Publicly funded elections.
* Regulated political TV ads.

Problem solved. You're welcome.

dalloway, the Supremes seem ready with their right wing majority to allow even more and unregulated corporate money as 'free speech' in elections, with Citizen's United VS. The Federal Election Commission. All the five rightys seem to have supported removal of limits on corporate/'outside group' spending in elections. The Democrats seem to have no plan for this, other than getting their own floods of corporate cash.
This one really gives me the willies, not the least for the scads of ads that will be funded by an avalanche of cash.

It all makes sense if you accept the premise that no Democratic administration is a legitimate administration.

The Congressional GOP's present position is analogous to the royalists and Bonapartists in the French assemblies of the 19th century.

A royalist party in a parliament has no real interest in increasing its share of votes in that body, or having influence on what emerges from parliament by cooperating with the small-r republican parties in governing. Their purpose for being is to shut it down, or at least neuter it, so that there can be a restoration.

They have no interest in the smooth functioning -- any functioning -- of a body whose legitimacy they fundamentally do not accept. They seek only a rapid transition back to the monarchy. The sooner the monarch returns to his proper role of handing out places and granting monopolies to his courtiers, the better.

The weirdest transformation of political terminology hasn't been what happened to the word 'liberal' since John Stuart Mill -- it's what happened to the word 'republican' -- they're monarchists.

"Country first!"

The super-majority is a corporation-owned weapon

The situation is actually far worse than Steve's pundits realize. The super-majority requirement isn't an equal opportunity weapon. It is now used almost exclusively by republicans to stop social legislation that would disrupt corporate profits.

Of course media companies are now all super-corporations. That's why their newspapers, bloggers, and teevee shows don't make an issue of the super-majority while republicans are in power. They need the weapon's defusing power.

Those of you that think the Dems will be able to wield the super-majority weapon with as much alacrity as Republicans do, are asking to be pinched very hard. If the Dems willfully obfuscated the republican agenda with this much effectiveness the corporate media hounds would bring them to ground.

The system is totally gamed...

@ koreyel on January 4, 2010 at 11:18 AM,

True enough, but the game can be changed. It takes longer than we want/need, but we can change this game.

This is why the Congressional Democrats missed a HUGE opportunity with the healthcare legislation. They should have first brought up, individually, each piece of the healthcare legislation that is WILDLY popular with the American people.

You bring up legislation that bans the health insurance corporations from rescinding your policy. Anybody votes against, Republican or RightWing Democrat, you have a ready-made TV ad to run against them.

Same with a banning denial of coverage for a preexisting condition.

Same with a ban on caps on policies, which means no American goes bankrupt from medical bills.

And on and on.

There would not have been the phoney Teabagger uprising as everything they passed would have massive support across the country.

The Congressional Republicans could have quite successfully painted as obstructionists.

THEN you quickly pass the other stuff using reconciliation requiring only 50 votes.

Why are the Democrats so bad at public relations ?

Be careful what you wish for. Progressives aren't the only "radicals" in government, as Bush-Cheney and Gingrich proved when they held sway.

I wish someone would set up a web page that lists the reasons to vote FOR or AGAINST Republicans. I haven't seen anything in the last ten yrs that would cause me to vote FOR them. I think they really only exists because the Media needs them for the news cycle. The Media never ask them for examples to justify the lies they spout or for any idea of a better way to handle our problems. No- I just can't think of any!

The media needs to put fact checking at the top of its priority list. I do not understand how people are allowed to lie on television. If statements were subject to review in a way that would be accessible to the most casual viewer, that would be a big step forward.

Could the courts help out with this?

Or is this all a problem because of the whole "facts having a liberal bias" thing.

Who's to blame? The media, for not only steadfastly failing to report the obstructionism, but treating the GOP as a group of mature adults who are actually trying to "help" Americans.

I genuinely don't recognize this country anymore. Human rights? Justice? No torture? No killing of civilians? Civil liberties?

Remember when we fought for that kind of stuff instead of actually being the ones who did the opposite? I keep waiting for someone to let me in on the joke...

I'm with biggerbox: right wing conservatives really do hate this country. Oh, there is a country conservatives do love. It's called "Real America." But you won't find it on any map and it bears no resemblance to the real America where real Americans really live.

And the only reason we are confused about the difference is that conservatives employ all of the proper and familiar sacred words -- like democracy, freedom, liberty, and independence. It's just that conservatives haven't a clue about what those words really mean.

E Pluribus Unum -- from the many one -- may be our national motto. But this idea of a national community made up of many diverse and heterogeneous parts is entirely lost on your typical right wing reactionary who thinks he lives in Sarah Palin's "Real America" where everyone is white, everyone is Christian, everyone is conservative -- and liberals are those people too narrow, too intolerant and too prejudiced to respect or embrace the right wing view that everyone smust be a right winger.

Call a theocrat a bigot in response to his calling you a faggot and you are likely to be branded a Christian-hating liberal secular progressive engaged in unprovoked "attacks against people of faith." That is because, don't you see, if someone's religion tells them that homosexuality is a crime against nature and a sin against God, preventing someone from honoring their religion by persecuting you is an intolerable infringement -- by you -- upon that person's God-given, Constitutional right to practice their religion by calling you names and taking away your rights.

We need a whole new language to capture right wing dementia. Or a new 12 step program to treat this monumental level of conservative denial.

"What happens when one of the two major parties does not see a political upside in solving problems and has the power to keep those problems from being solved?"

That is exactly how many Americans like it: the government in deep gridlock, so no agenda at all can advance. Mistrust of government runs deeper than you think.

I haven't seen anything in the last ten yrs that would cause me to vote FOR them.

You and me, maybe. But it's a big country, and a party dedicated to

• making every knee bend at Jesus' name,
  
• bombing the shit out of brown foreigners who worship the wrong God,
  
• keeping your hard earned money away from Them, (and giving it to Raytheon)
• protecting your guns,
  
• pissing off liberals, gays and women -- or is that just saying the same thing twice?
  
• public ownership of wombs, and private ownership of everything else, and
  
• making all change stop NOW! Forever.

There's got to be a Sturgeons-Law corollary, along the lines of "half the people in the world are utter shits."

Thank you for sharing this great.

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