I almost wish I wasn't so drawn into these issues. I don't have to rely on the media reports to know what is going on. When you are getting real time reports from Senators, their staff, or Committee staffers, you don't have to guess what is fact or fiction. And the facts, as I've seen them unfold over the last few years, are disturbing.
I will admit to being an idealist who was influenced as a youngster by Jimmy Stewart's performance in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; a film about a Montana Senator who goes to DC to point out the graft and corruption. I've always had a belief that with enough energy and commitment, the voice of the average person will prevail when it represents what is right. In my 27 years since my first trip to DC, time and reality has taken a toll on that idealism.
The last two years have shown me the darkest parts of the underbelly of political machines. Honestly, nobody gives a fuzz about the folks back home. They are so beholden to the "machines of money and influence."
On this vote, many Republicans expressed their dislike for it, the false narrative built around it, and the idea that it is going to benefit a foreign company today and Americans will pay the bill of pollution 20-30 years from now. They all knew it. Many privately expressed that they'd prefer to vote against not just the resolution, but their discomfort with how the Congressional Review Act was being used.
Yet, when the calls came in from the President, their collective flaccidity was as predictable as it was disappointing to watch. I can handle someone having a disagreement of principle or a different perspective on a topic, thus voting in a way I might oppose. What is hard to stomach is when they will quietly claim one thing and then when the party bosses call this same person goes against what they claim to stand for.
My grandmother gave birth to nine kids and she has more balls than most Republican Senators combined. Everyone of them know the chickenshit game they've played with the CRA, but they're too afraid of the President to stand up. One remarkable exception to that pattern is Senator Tillis (R-North Carolina). I can see why he is leaving and not seeking re-election. A person of his fortitude probably sits in a lonely corner among such a group of bootlickers.
The repeated use of the Congressional Review Act is a hard one to stomach. It cuts out a ton of public comment on issues that are very important to people. That concept so often claimed by these same counterfeits; "Government by the people, for the people."
Those rules and plans overturned by abuse of the CRA contained final outcomes I disagreed with, but they reflected the public input of thousands of people other than my own, so I could accept the outcomes in those instances. Now, the idea of public input is nothing more than asswipe for the establishment when they shit on the tens of thousands of people who take the time, effort, and concern to participate in their government.
Fuggers.
I will admit to being an idealist who was influenced as a youngster by Jimmy Stewart's performance in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; a film about a Montana Senator who goes to DC to point out the graft and corruption. I've always had a belief that with enough energy and commitment, the voice of the average person will prevail when it represents what is right. In my 27 years since my first trip to DC, time and reality has taken a toll on that idealism.
The last two years have shown me the darkest parts of the underbelly of political machines. Honestly, nobody gives a fuzz about the folks back home. They are so beholden to the "machines of money and influence."
On this vote, many Republicans expressed their dislike for it, the false narrative built around it, and the idea that it is going to benefit a foreign company today and Americans will pay the bill of pollution 20-30 years from now. They all knew it. Many privately expressed that they'd prefer to vote against not just the resolution, but their discomfort with how the Congressional Review Act was being used.
Yet, when the calls came in from the President, their collective flaccidity was as predictable as it was disappointing to watch. I can handle someone having a disagreement of principle or a different perspective on a topic, thus voting in a way I might oppose. What is hard to stomach is when they will quietly claim one thing and then when the party bosses call this same person goes against what they claim to stand for.
My grandmother gave birth to nine kids and she has more balls than most Republican Senators combined. Everyone of them know the chickenshit game they've played with the CRA, but they're too afraid of the President to stand up. One remarkable exception to that pattern is Senator Tillis (R-North Carolina). I can see why he is leaving and not seeking re-election. A person of his fortitude probably sits in a lonely corner among such a group of bootlickers.
The repeated use of the Congressional Review Act is a hard one to stomach. It cuts out a ton of public comment on issues that are very important to people. That concept so often claimed by these same counterfeits; "Government by the people, for the people."
Those rules and plans overturned by abuse of the CRA contained final outcomes I disagreed with, but they reflected the public input of thousands of people other than my own, so I could accept the outcomes in those instances. Now, the idea of public input is nothing more than asswipe for the establishment when they shit on the tens of thousands of people who take the time, effort, and concern to participate in their government.
Fuggers.
