In ancient times courts employed fools and by the Middle Ages the jester was a familiar figure. In Renaissance times, aristocratic households in Britain employed licensed fools or jesters, who sometimes dressed as other servants were dressed, but generally wore a motley (i.e. parti-coloured) coat, hood with ass’s (i.e. donkey) ears or a red-flannel coxcomb and bells. Regarded as pets or mascots, they served not simply to amuse but to criticise their master or mistress and their guests. Queen Elizabeth (reigned 1558-1603) is said to have rebuked one of her fools for being insufficiently severe with her. Excessive behaviour, however, could lead to a fool being whipped, as Lear threatens to whip his fool. (Court Jester – The Full Wiki)
American liberals think themselves very smart because they have Jon Stewart and Bill Maher on their side, not realizing that in a state-controlled media there has to pressure-release valve. Stewart takes himself very seriously (as evidenced by his idiotic “Rally for Sanity), and does not understand why he is given seeming free rein. Maher is a little more modest, which I appreciate, but his problem can be summed up with remarks from last night’s show about Obama:
Let’s not forget that $450 billion was cut in the 2010 continuing resolution. Remember the first debt ceiling fight – $200 billion. $960 billion [was taken] out of the budget control .. like that was the debt ceiling. [?] The fiscal cliff deal … $860 billion. $3.6 trillion dollars have been cut, by this president! He’s also cut public service jobs by 750,000. Way more than Bush ever did. The first thing he ever did was a tax cut. You would think the [Tea Party] – what does it stand for? “Taxed Enough Already” – you would think that when the first thing the president did was cut taxes, they would like that.
Keep in mind, Maher is defending Obama!
We have supposedly smart non-comedic punditry (i.e. Ezra Klein, Dan Froomkin) weighing in on the topics of the day. They cannot get their heads out of partisan politics, but even so, I wish they had half the impact of the comedians. Politics is show business. Realpolitik never sees the light of day, and even as the pundits never quite get it, the comedians keep the base satisfied.
The current impasse is Washington is scripted. How do I know this? Because it is Washington. Imagine, if you will, that 30 recalcitrant progressives (are there even that many in the House?) had decided in 2002 that they would block any effort to attack Iraq. Imagine they threatened to shut down the government unless Bush backed down. What would have happened? There would be private meetings. Remember, NSA knows all there is to know about them. Is someone having an affair? Is someone a closet homosexual? Is someone a pedophile? Who knows? NSA knows. Even if they are clean, FBI can easily manufacture something, plant a story, make a scandal.
The House of Representatives does not run the government! Good grief, people. Remember that period 2006 to 2008 where the Democratic-run house went crazy passing really good legislation? Remember what happened to all of that legislation? That’s correct. It all died in the Senate, courtesy of the power of filibuster given the Republicans by the Democrats. Nancy Pelosi, who herself likely has no progressive impulses, realized that she was free to please the base because nothing would come of it.
Politics is not surface phenomena. Politics is hidden. We have to think, examine, rethink, doubt everyone and everything. We have to be vigilant citizens.
So the question is: What is really going on with the current “impasse” and government shut-down? I can only consider possibilities, and stand to be corrected both by events playing out and more insightful political minds, but here’s a few possibilities:
- A distraction. LizFowlercare (aka “Obamacare”) is a bitter pill to swallow. But most media talk surrounds the shutdown, and very little about the crap being offered on the exchanges. (If I hear any talk at all, of course, it is only about premiums, and not coverage.)
- A positioning tool. Obama could have done none of the wonderful things that Maher praised him for above without having positioned himself correctly. The “Tea Party,” for example, was not a natural phenomenon, and arose at the time that LizFowlercare was being stirred into the Jello of public opinion. Such ferocious and irrational opposition was important to passage of the bill. So it might well be that the current standoff is a perception tool to allow Obama to pleasure Maher even more.
- Economic destruction: Even as party leadership knows better, fools are allowed to preach idiotic economics such as government spending being a problem. They know, true leaders do, that shutting down various agencies is a damper on activity and will eventually hurt everyone deeply. If they know this and are letting it happen, then I think it safe to assume that they want yet more suffering. To what end? I can only speculate, but it’s been apparent since Reagan took office that the New Deal was under attack. Obama is the latest weapon. If economic activity is diminished, tax collections suffer, then Obama is positioned yet again to attack Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Food Stamps and every other practical program of benefit to ordinary people.
The Tea Party made him do it, you see.
Politics should not be left to an uninformed and guileless public, especially those diddled on a higher level by the Court Jesters of the left. As Ralph Nader said so many years ago, “If you don’t do politics, politicians will do you.”
You’re being done, folks.