A Note of Apology

[Swing low, sweet chariot. Comin' for to carry me home.]

Dear Forum Community,

It may have gone unnoticed by most of you, but the last political post I put up on this forum was a fairly unpleasant rant.  I didn't mean to disparage anyone at all.  I'm not trying to attention-whore with this post; I just want to exit at least a little more gracefully than I managed to do last time.  The older I get, the more important it becomes to me to try to end things well, even though things must end.

That lousy post of last month was written in the immediate wake of the SCOTUS oral arguments about PPACA. and in a mood of despair that came over me during that week.  I'm certainly not a die-hard defender of that particular law and understand its numerous shortcomings.  But, to me, the pending decision is not just about the fate of that law.  I believe that it signals a more far-reaching outcome, in that we will simply never have universal access to insured basic health care in the United States.  I personally find that a grave shame, and I think it's very bad for our country in all kinds of ways, and is bound to get worse if a way to it is not found.

Despite those feelings, I didn't have warrant to leave with the min-rant that I did.  So, I'm sorry about that.

But, I'm sure to everyone's relief, my days of commenting on politics are done.  No more endless posts that you have to crawl through or skip over.  I've lost faith in our political processes, so I'm movin' on to other hobbies.  I'm finding recently that, if I pick up a guitar, practice long enough to put my fingers in the right places at the right time, the thing sounds good, and it can make people around me happy, no matter what they happen to believe.  I think that's a better use of my free time now.

I'll probably continue lurking, but won't comment on anything political.  I do think you all are a very cool group of people, and if anyone might be interested in being fb friends or something, please pm me and we'll arrange that.  If not, no worries.  Thanks for putting up with all my bs over the past few years, and best wishes to all.    

Cheers,
"anvi"

wow, every time I think I'm not part of the current mayhem....I prove myself wrong:

jmfcst,

The 2009 town hall demonstrations against the health care bill were Dick Army-land organized astroturf bs.  A significant proportion of the opposition to the health care law registering in the polls is from lefties who don't think the law went far enough, so the opposition showing up there is not uniform.  Many of the essentials of the current law are either actual or functional replicas of the '94 Senate Republican health care bill too, and several of the major GOP candidates for the presidency were supporters of individual mandates until as recently as 2009.  American politics now, on both sides of the aisle, is about little more than campaigning for power, winning, and then taking credit so one can keep power.  That's why the Dem caucus didn't negotiate with the GOP enough over the bill, and that's why opponents organized demonstrations with people carrying signs portraying the president as Hitler.  The Obama people did a crappy job shepherding this bill through its own young-eating caucus on the Hill, defending it with the public, and defending it in the courts, and that's why they're in this predicament.  I mean, seriously, I'm not a lawyer, and am probably not smart enough to be a lawyer, but I'll bet you every last dollar in my checking account that I could have done a better job than Verrilli did up there on day 2 of oral arguments.    As much as I hate it, the Obama people, and the president himself, deserve the pickle they're in.

Joementum,

SCOTUS doesn't need credibility with the public.  They have a unique form of authority that requires no credibility.  They're not elected officials. They are the ones who call the final pitch at the plate, and no matter how much they might hate this decision or that decision, the American public largely accepts that fact.  SCOTUS needs to offer no more justification than saying: "the Constitution gives us this authority, and this is how it's going to be with this law because we said so."  All they need to do is say "unconstitutional," and the GOP campaign, with that single word, will do the rest.  Really, you have not seen this play out in a campaign before, but you're going to get to see how effective it's going to be if Kennedy comes down on the side of "no dice."

You guys might not believe me, and frankly, at this point, I don't give a crap whether you do or not.  The truth is that I'm really not in the tank for anyone anymore, I literally have no candidate--anywhere--that I think is worth two shakes of a rat's ass.  All I know is that American politics has now descended into absolutely bottom-of-the-barrell bullsh**t--it has left us absolutely incapable of solving any of our most pressing problems, and as much as all of us would like to claim otherwise, the fact of the matter is that most of us are so wrapped up in the game of defending out own teams, our own versions of ideological purity, and so unthinkingly buy into political packaging that we actually don't really have any interest in supporting anyone who might have both feet on the ground, and who might tell us that some of our cherished idols are just not working anymore.  And we will continue to be that way right up until the moment that the car tips over the cliff's edge.

And, with that ugly little speech, I shall sign off, I really don't have anything to say anymore.  I'm not a fan of futility, and me sounding off like this is just that--futility.  

Farewell, enjoy and sincerely best wishes to all.
Doug  
        

I am honored to have been mentioned in your last dying Atlas breath.