"We've become a nation of scofflaws and political pirates"

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

PurityOfEssence posted this as a reply in a thread where it will only be seen by about ten people which is a waste so I'm posting it as an OP because it is wonderfully written. Punchier and more coherent than most newspaper Op Ed pieces.
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re: Not Seating Burris.

There's the letter of the law and then there's the spirit of the law. Here, we're pissing all over both.

It's become accepted to pick and choose which laws one wants to respect, and the tampering with the orderly election cycles and appointment standards makes our political system an underhanded free for all. Yes, I blame the Republicans for not respecting elections with their recall of Gray Davis, the redistricting of Texas and Mississippi, the attempted redistricting of Colorado and the endless attempts to impeach Bill Clinton, but that's no reason to similarly mess with the system.

One of the greatest things about this country is that, although our system is antiquated and messy, it's generally had orderly transitions of power. Elections were respected, and people got down to the work of governing, but if extreme stopgap measures (like recalls, impeachment and refusing to seat) become the norm, we become little more than gangsters.

Why are they fighting THIS, of all things? It looks suspicious. It looks like usurpation of state authority. It looks like swaggering power-madness. It looks reckless. It looks vindictive. It looks like they have no sense of priorities. This kind of willy-nilly stomping of a wounded inferior (and face it: Blagojevich's career is OVER; it's just a matter of time) looks like weakness, not strength. Thumping on a wounded straggler looks pretty fucking imperious.

There's a tiresome knee-jerk gainsaying that's become the norm in politics these days. You don't have to fight EVERYTHING your opponent says just because he/she says it. It's like Kerry criticizing George W. Bush for wanting to significantly reduce our military presence in Germany so they could be put where they're more needed: it was a good idea--one of the few Bush has EVER proposed--and the only reason to dispute it was to just pick a fight everywhere. Sure, people are infuriatingly simplistic, but it still isn't smart to pick fights with opponents on EVERYTHING just to constantly remind the facile public that your opponent is wrong on EVERYTHING and you're right on EVERYTHING. Sheesh. It's pathetic. It's bush league, and I mean it, pun intended, with the obvious implications: petty, control-freakish, bullying, suspect and just plain amateur, just like our soon to gone Fratboy in Chief.

They could very easily stop now and leave it alone; damage has been done, but we can truly count on the present world to come up with all sorts of icky news developments to make it fall off the radar quickly and having caused only passing embarrassment. That's what they should do. If, however, they have the classic blockheaded approach to power we've seen lately from the Republicans, that traditionally proto-male habit of NEVER admitting a mistake, then they'll think they have to stick it out and really get egg on their faces. Obama seems to have a need to prove how tough he is to dispel being a wimpy peacenik, but I hope it's not going to be this bad.

Can anyone explain this?

---PurityOfEssence


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