Apr
20
2010
1

If They Could Turn Back Time, Pt. 1

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series If They Could Turn Back Time

You hear it all the time, these days. Tea baggers, militia members and various other conservatives all that to "take their country back." My usual response was to ask just how far back they want to go. I used to think I knew. It turns out, I had my time machine set all wrong.

After so long "standing athwart history yelling ‘Stop!’," at what point in our history would conservatives like to have stopped the clock? If they could "turn back time," how far back would conservatives take us? Assuming, of course, that we’d let them.

(more…)

Written by terrance in: Barack Obama,current events,politics,race | Tags:
May
24
2010
--

Rand Paul Wants It Both Ways

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series If They Could Turn Back Time

(If They Could Turn Back Time, Pt. 2)

When I heard Rand Paul’s statement about the civil rights act, I had a sense of deja vu. Not only that I’d heard them before, but that I run into the peculiar conservative phenomenon they represented: wanting have it both ways on an issue when conservative “values” are “repulsive to the mainstream,” and to most people’s sense of decency. It usually happens when they’re caught saying what they mean, and then claim to have been misunderstood, “taken out of context,” or merely speaking in a “hypothetical” sense.

Until Rand Paul though, I’d only ever heard it spoken aloud on the subject of marriage equality. At the time, it was Sen. John McCain’s response to a question about marriage equality, saying that he was fine with same-sex couples having “private ceremonies” but against marriage equality.

(more…)

Written by terrance in: current events,elections,politics,race | Tags: , , ,
Aug
06
2010
2

Going Back In Time, With Rand Paul

This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series If They Could Turn Back Time

Hey, everyone in the Rand Paul pile-on, make room for one more. I’m coming in for a landing!

I shouldn’t pick on the good doctor, though he makes it too easy. After all, his latest media train wrecks gave me a chance to resurrect a timeline of industrial disasters I started researching after the Deepwater Horizon event, in response to a lot of conservatives (Rand Paul included) defending BP and blaming everyone from unions to environmentalists for the disaster.

My aim was to illustrate what Rand Paul exemplified in his most recent remarks on mine safety: the right-wing defenders of BP, Massey, and just about every other corporate polluter or regulation-dodger don’t know much about the history of industrial disasters, the negligence that caused them, or the regulations and reforms they sparked.

(more…)

Written by terrance in: current events,environment,politics |
Aug
16
2010
--

If They Could Turn Back Time, Pt 4.

This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series If They Could Turn Back Time

Imagine, if you will, Rand Paul, Michelle Bachman, and Sharron Angle — with Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck on speakerphone — sitting down together with a copy of the constitution, and a red pen. For edits, of course.

Now, open your eyes. And, if you’re a progressive, stop screaming. That was just an exercise in imagination. Nothing to be alarmed about. Except for conservatism’s current schzoid "reverence" for and simultaneous hostility toward the constitution.

Of course, it’s nothing new. It’s just crept from the fringes of American conservative to pretty near the mainstream.

(more…)

Written by terrance in: current events |

Powered by WordPress. Theme: TheBuckmaker. Bank