The Opposition

[DemocratsForProgress]

Walther Rhett: The Opposition

We have become a country of opposition. Not opposites, but opposition: the difference is subtle yet important. Opposites stand on different sides of the same process. Sight reading or phonetics, the goal is to teach reading. Opposites have different strategies but share the same goals; they have a common commitment. It is how the Republican-led senate under Bob Dole passed the King Holiday bill. How Hillary ended up voting for Halliburton’s war fund. Opposites, surprisingly, are often eager to accommodate and make their differences less important, to claim the high ground.

Opposition, on the other hand, creates two distinctively different processes. Opposition fundamentally changes the nature of politics. Opposition places its emphasis on winning, gaining greater power, protecting its position, and accumulating wealth. More importantly, opposition can exist even when there is only one player. It can undertake its mission even if the other political players refused to engage. Republicans have turned opposition into a one-sided game.

Opposition (not opposites!) reigns on health care, budgets, women’s issues, foreign policy, military budgets, education, income, media, guns, crime, race, voting, the environment, regional conflicts, food and speech. That’s the short list.

In opposition states, powerful economic forces are quietly establishing shadow governments. Their first opposition task is to reshape public opinion in these key states. Here, in South Carolina, well before the March 30 deadline for candidate filings, a massive barrage of ads began with the intent of shaping voters attitudes and politics. Daily, voters are asked to reject the expansion of Medicaid in a state at the bottom of every health matrix. The opposition treasure chest is so huge it can conduct guerrilla operations in plain sight within states without the rest of the country knowing what is going on. The opposition is tireless in its efforts to win applause for appalling lies...

More at: http://www.democratsforprogress.com/2014/04/24/the-opposition/