Good ol' Ted Cruz

[thewayne]

"We'd be hard pressed to explain why we were opposed to a bill we were in favor of."
—Sen. Mitch McConnell on Cruz filibuster

Cruz did a couple of interesting things, including reading the Dr. Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham. He seemed to quite revel in the "I do not like" parts, but I don't know if he got to the end and realized that the main character ends up quite liking green eggs and ham. Kind of a poor metaphor to put forth the point that people don't like the Affordable Care Act when your example turns around to liking what it initially hates.

But I particularly like people calling Cruz's speech a fauxlibuster. I think another word has been added to the vocabulary.

I do wish McConnell would explain why they are opposed to the Affordable Care Act when initially it was a Republican plan put forth from the Heritage Institute think tank. Both Heritage and the RNC now violently oppose the ACA, but neither has come out with articulable, cogent reasons why they're now rejecting their own legislation and neither has come out with an alternative except 'the free market will take care of the problem', when we've yet to see the free market take care of any actual problem.

I think their big objection is that Obama is guilty of Presidenting While Black.

Comments

[silveradept]

I think you're aiming too high with that supposition. It's really that the objection is that the Affordable Care Act will give the Democrats a permanent advantage in elections. It doesn't even rise to the level of racism.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

I think Obama has demonstrated enough continuity, for various reasons, with the previous administration that he should be classed as a fairly conservative Democrat. There are a lot of reasons that the RNC and Teabagger fringe won't cooperate and try to do something to better the country, I think most of the reasons the backers/goaders of the Teabaggers are inflaming them are because the economy is kind of stagnant after eight years of Bush 2 and they resent that their people aren't in control, as if further deregulation and unfettered capitalism would help things. The backers use any lever they can to disrupt and blame Obama for everything, and now we have Congressional Representatives who still question Obama's citizenship and whether or not he's a Muslim, which has further infected the populace to the point that people on Twitter were calling the latest Miss America, a woman from India, a Muslim.

It isn't Obamacare, per se. It's anything Obama. And I think it's probably amplified because of his skin color.

Interesting side note on Obamacare: polling showed that it had almost a 10% increase among conservative voters when called by its proper name, the Affordable Care Act. My wife flips out a little when conservative pundits question people about signing up for Obamacare, which technically does not exist, it's especially amusing when they're asking people of means if they're going to sign up for it when that portion of the plan is for people without insurance.

[silveradept]

I heard about the polling difference, which makes me think of Agent K in Men In Black and his description of humans.

You're right that skin color probably has something to do with the vitriol involved in the opposition to Obama, since electing a black President just continues to show how much the Old White Guys power structure is eroding.

I'm inclined to say that Obama is more catalyst than cause, though, and is accelerating the fracturing of the conservative coalition that called itself the Republican Party. The avaricious capitalists are no longer being held in check by the religious fundamentals, because the lords no longer need the serfs in this country to go along with them. It's the breakup of a feudal system, and all the factions are trying to fill the power void left behind. Which means playing to your base and trying to amass enough followers to march on the capital and take the crown.

Practically, that means we should probably elect Democratic majorities for the next generation until the coalition rebuilds itself or someone takes over.