Eugene Robinson: Electoral Dysfunction

Electoral Dysfunction

Posted on Oct 25, 2007

By Eugene Robinson


WASHINGTON—Has America become a mean, ungenerous, cramped and crabby nation, a deeply insecure colossus—one that just might be taking all those Viagra and Cialis commercials a bit too personally? Is the country desperate to find scapegoats to blame for a perceived decline in, um, vigor? Or is America still a confident land of hope and promise, a place still potent with possibility?

It’s watching the Republicans in Congress and on the presidential campaign trail that makes me pose those sweeping questions. I’m just suggesting a context for assessing the actions and rhetoric of a party that seems to be in the throes of andropause.

That’s the popularly accepted term for “male menopause,” which medical dictionaries tend to describe as a “purported” syndrome rather than an actual clinical diagnosis. I’m not qualified to offer an opinion on whether dads go through a Y-chromosome version of what used to be euphemistically called the “change of life.” But I think the “Daddy Party” has been presenting clear symptoms.

The latest was the Senate vote Wednesday in which Republicans, supported by a handful of red-state Democrats, narrowly scuttled the Dream Act, a bill that would have provided a path to U.S. citizenship for some young undocumented immigrants—but only those who did everything this country once found worthy and admirable in pursuit of the American Dream.

Under the proposal, men and women who fulfilled several conditions—they had to be under 30, had to have been brought into the country illegally when they were younger than 16, had to have been in the United States for at least five years and had to be graduates of U.S. high schools—would have been given conditional legal status. If they went on to complete two years of college or two years of military service, they would have been eligible for permanent residency.

Let’s see. Here was a way to encourage a bunch of kids to go to college rather than melt into the shadows as off-the-books day laborers—or maybe even gang members. And here was a way to boost enlistment in our overtaxed armed forces. Aren’t education and global competitiveness supposed to be vital issues? Aren’t we fighting open-ended wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

The vote against the Dream Act was so irrational, so counterproductive, that it seemed the product of some sort of hormonal imbalance.

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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20071025_electoral_dysfunction/

votes--so not TOTALLY Dem vs. Repub--it's the mean-spiritedness of those handful of Dems who voted against it that disgusts and surprises me.

This needs to be spread all over the blogosphere. This is the meme we need to lay on the Republicans. This will stick to them like white on rice, because it hits home. It ties together all the fearful, self-loathing, gay-hating, self doubting, macho-posing fakery that is the modern Republican party. They are afraid of everything; terrorists, environmentalists, socialists, muslims, women, black people,Mexicans, gays, poor people, sex, name it and they're frightened of it. This meme is the all-purpose explanation for all things republican.