Joe the Plumber and the Two Party System

[Lightning Rod]

It is a sad fact of my life that I was once a Republican. I was young and naive and my family were all Republicans. We belonged to country clubs, etc. Those were back in the heady days of Barry Goldwater when extremism in the defense of liberty was no vice.

This is why I can't help but harbor a bit of nostalgic affection for the Grand Old Party, and why I grieved to see what revisionists and neo-revisionists from Reagan to Bush did to conservatism. I really get tears when I see the party of Lincloln in its present condition where the leading spokesmen are Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber.

Of course the intellectual giant of these three is Joe the Plumber. At least he could spot an opportunity when it hit him on the head. If all you need to know to be a plumber is that shit flows down and payday's Friday, then Joe's gotcha covered. I would love to hear Joe and Sarah P in a conversation about foreign policy or economics. You betcha.

At first I didn't get the Joe the Plumber thing. Then I realized that he had become the symbol of some feeble attempt by the Republicans to reconnect with the common man. How quaint. Get Mr. Clean to be your posterchild, your everyman, and pitch the product to the masses.

Maybe the Republican party will go the way of the Whigs or the Federalists or the Bullmoose Party.

The Poet's Eye has observed that the two party system is too limited. In other words, this country is too big for the both of us. This country is supposedly built on diversity. We have many tastes, ethnicities and beliefs. We need more choices than Ford or GM. (maybe that's a bad analogy right now.) Duality won't work anymore. We need plurality.

[stilltrucking]

It seems like the parliamentary system is better.

"he voted for Eisenhower because Lincoln won the war." Grandpa Was a Carpenter.

Rush called the critics of Bush traitors for not backing the president. But he wants Obama to fail.

Oh well it is an easy job being a pundit. You have no accountability because the American people have short attention spans.

I still remember Rush blaming the energy crisis in California on the tree huggers. Turns out it was Enron buying up the electricity from California and sending to Nevada and then sending it back to California at triple the price. Did he ever make any comments about that. I am too lazy to google but I think not.

[stilltrucking]

All da mothers in da house, put yo hands up!
All da plumbers in da house, pull yo pants up!
All da liars in da house, yo! the sham's up!
t's da hip-hop G-O-P,
party down wit' you and me!
It's off the hook, still on the chains,
We buy our nook, ain't got no brains.
Our flava flav is all white,
drinkin' crunk day 'n' night!
When I say "Ditto!"
you say "Head"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/2 ... 70599.html

Minority Leader Limbaugh

By David Plouffe
Wednesday, March 4, 2009; Page A15

The 2008 election sent many messages. At the top: Americans wanted to turn the page on the politics of division and partisan pettiness, and they wanted a government -- and country -- that would put the middle class first.

Watching the Republicans operate this past month, it would appear that they missed that unmistakable signal.

Instead, Rush Limbaugh has become their leader.

Limbaugh, of course, told his radio listeners that he's rooting for President Obama to fail -- and hoping the president's ideas for bolstering our economy fail with him. For many Americans, hungry for leadership and cooperation, this sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard.

When Limbaugh reiterated the sentiment this weekend, hundreds of Republican conservatives cheered him on. But instead of rebuking the radio personality or charting their own course, Republican leaders in Washington are paralyzed with fear of crossing their leader. Less than 24 hours after committing the unforgivable sin of criticizing Limbaugh, RNC Chairman Michael Steele felt compelled to publicly apologize. He was not the first and will certainly not be the last.

Limbaugh's voice could be heard in the words of new Republican quarterback Eric Cantor, who says the GOP's strategy will be to "Just Say No" -- not for substantive or philosophical reasons but to advance Limbaugh's strategy for failure. Independent voters, those who find the ways of Washington particularly toxic, could be forgiven for wondering whether the Republican minority has any clue what is happening in our country.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... v=hcmodule

What does it matter? Twenty years from now Rush Limbaugh will be as famous as Walter Winchell.