Amen.

We're pretty much at that tipping point now. More and more people are jumping ship from the Republican party, maybe not in name, but in the ballot box.

All you have to do is to continue to extend the argument. We compromise with the right and go individual mandate, still not enough.

It passes into law, and gets challenged and sent to the Supreme court and gets upheld. STILL not enough.

They then continue their temper tantrum and shut down the gov't over it. public polls swing against them and they go into full damage control mode, blame Obama of course, even though it's purely a congressional issue. Then they pretend the shutdown is a good thing, then they pretend that the shutdown had nothing to do with Obamacare.

STILL not enough so now they whine about the website which yes, does have a grain of legitimate complaint to it. But still, even though they dropped the ball on the website, it's still a non-argument, it's noise. it's distraction. Its nothing that will sway people in the polls. but still they try to pin it on Obama...I'm sure the birthers will now conjure some sort of argument. Obama isn't a Kenyan, he's an IT guy from India sent to sabotage our health care websites.

They just keep grasping at straws and coming up with more and more absurd arguments that don't have any leg to stand on.

I think they're starting to realize that they're losing the culture war. So quite honestly, I think we might be entering a phase where the right starts resorting to a Scorched Earth mentality. If they can't run the gov't then no one can. We've already seen them shutdown the gov't over a constitutionally passed and upheld law. They're willing to oppose a president even when he compromises and embraces THEIR plans.

We're past the point of reasonable opposition here. I think we're going to see more sabotage attempts. We're approaching the point where they're going to have less and less to lose

Modern day, right wing Republicanism is fueled by religion, religion that has told it's practitioners that they are being persecuted and they are the ones to save them. Calvinism, Rousas John Rushdoony, Christian Reconstructionism and an honest belief that they are in the end times, and are actively pursuing the end times...
An intersting article showing just how messed up modern day Tea Party politics is, Ted Cruz’s Father Preaches That His Son Is An “Anointed King” Who Will Bring The “End Time Transfer Of Wealth”

The church leaders, Fox News and everyone else has them all messed up to such a degree that they ignore the fact Jesus said it was impossible for a rich man to enter heaven, that they have their rewards here on Earth; that they ware to help the needy and the poor; that they are to be stewards of the Earth; blessed are the peacmakers; to heal the sick; to pray in secret, not make a big show of it as many Republican leaders do; that only God knows the appointed time of Jesus' return... and that word appointed means something... it doesn't matter if all the signs are here, if it isn't that appointed time, then it isn't time. I've heard the argument made that things like climate change doesn't matter as God is returning soon anyhow... it doesn't even enter their minds that perhaps God's appointed time is 52,584 CE/AD, to them it has to be ending soon... The election of Obama proved it to them that we are in the end times (I've heard that too, or pray for the world to end soon)... this is the fatalism that is running rampant in the minds of those who are voting for the Tea Party right wing nut cases. They are denied special privileges, they claim they are being persecuted. They truly see themselves being in the end of days and they are doing all they can to self fulfill the prophesies (even if they don't realize they are doing so, though many do know)... even if it became undeniable tomorrow that not only was climate change real, but it was man made, they would just point to the Bible and find some prophesy that the Earth would be polluted in the end of days. They hear on Fox News and Rush and in the church, people they trust saying "if you really think about it...", "anybody with half a mind could clearly see..." or "if you think critically about it..." and then tell them what to think, so that they think they have logic on their side as well as God.

As VoodooV pointed out, they are willing to sacrifice their own plans and ideas if it is adopted by those they see as the opposition in order to continue their persecution complex and continue to sabotage things.

He had me until the mechanical bunny part...no, I don't know what a mechanical bunny on a track is nor does any moron on the sift...

Remember folks, if you ever go to Memphis they have a dog track...

Okay, the end was pretty good tho

How do you not know what a mechanical bunny is? I've never been to a dog race, but I know what a mechanical bunny is and how his analogy works

Yeah, never been to those inhumane dog races, but I still know what that is. It's an age old analogy.

@shatterdrose @EvilDeathBee @RedSky @ChaosEngine and @PlayhousePals

I know what a mechanical bunny is. First saw it on the Simpsons, loved it on Family Guy. I was being factious. Now you might say, "Well hit the sarcasm button." But this wasn't sarcasm because sarcasm is on a higher level. I was annoyed by the juvenile way he went about that part but do not mean to imply a hurt of some sort.

I think the next time I will just hit the sarcasm button even if it doesn't particularly apply.

I get that the "sarcasm" button can be a pretty heavy handed device to convey nuance (especially in a post where maybe only part of it is sarcastic), but I'd have to say you pretty much failed to convey the tone of that in your first post.

I actually did pick up on his nuance, but was wondering why Lawdeedaw was so annoyed.

He didn't so much explain it because he honestly thought people don't know what a mechanical bunny does, but to better describe in what way it fits into his analogy. I've seen (or well, heard) this done many times.

I forgive you. :-p

See, I just use smiley's a lot.

The word that jumped out at me is "appease." How we need to stop "appeasing" the right.

And who gets their panties in a bunch about "appeasing", like -- all the time? "We can't appease our enemies!!!" on and on they blat.

This time, I agree with them. Stop with the appeasement already. Gather folks together at the ballot box, and get us single payer.

But, the concessions in the Affordable Care Act weren't concessions with Republicans. Zero republicans in the house and the senate voted for it, they basically weren't involved. Which is why they're so furious it passed.

It was pro-business Democrats that wouldn't go along with the public option. Yeah, "individual mandate" was once a Republican idea, but it wasn't put in to somehow meet Republicans half way, it was put in to make insurance companies happy.

Van Jones is kinda kooky in my opinion. I digress.

To imply that Obamacare is a Republican plan is ludicrous. Why can politicians not take responsibility for their own legislation? Republicans and Democrats are all the same. I see little difference between the two parties. They are all reactive, knee-jerk legislators that believe there needs to be a law for every situation known to mankind.

Leave the American People alone. Me and my neighbors can take care of ourselves.

Van Jones should read Dr. Covey's book:

“Proactive is a word you won’t find in most dictionaries. It means more than merely taking initiative. It means that as human beings, we are responsible for our own lives. Our behavior is a function of our decisions, not our conditions. We can subordinate feelings to values. We have the initiative and the responsibility to make things happen.

Look at the word responsibility- “response-ability”- the ability to respond. Highly proactive people recognize that responsibility. They do not blame circumstances, conditions or conditioning for their behavior. Their behavior is a product of their own conscious choice, based on values, rather than a product of their conditions, based on feeling.

Because we are, by nature, proactive, if our lives are a function of conditioning and conditions, it is because we have, by conscious decision or by default, chosen to empower those things to control us.

In making such a choice, we become reactive. Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn’t, it affects their attitude and their performance. Proactive people can carry their own weather with them. Whether it rains or shines makes no difference to them. They are value driven; and if their value is to produce good quality work, it isn’t a function of whether the weather is conducive to it or not.

Reactive people are also affected by the social environment, by the “social weather.” When people treat them well, they feel well, when people don’t, they become defensive or protective. Reactive people build their emotional lives around the behavior of others, empowering the weaknesses of other people to control them.

The ability to subordinate an impulse to a value is the essence of the proactive person. Reactive people are driven by feelings, by circumstances, by conditions, by their environment. Proactive people are driven by values-carefully thought about, selected and internalized values.

Proactive people are still influenced by external stimuli, whether physical, social, or psychological. But their response to the stimuli, conscious or unconscious, is a value-based choice or response.

As Eleanor Roosevelt observed, “No one can hurt you without your consent.” In the word of Gandhi , “They cannot take away our self respect if we do not give it to them” It is our willing permission, our consent to what happens to us, that hurts us far more than what happens to us in the first place.

I admit this is very hard to accept emotionally, especially if we have had years and years of explaining our misery in the name of circumstance or someone else’s behavior. But until a person can say deeply and honestly, “I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday,” that person cannot say, “I choose otherwise.”

Really? Is your neighbour an oncologist?

And as much as self-help gurus would like to tell you otherwise, you are not the sum of your choices.

Bad shit happens to people. Things that are beyond their control. And *that* is the hard lesson that most people can't accept.

Despite the apparent floundering of the GOP, the "conservatives" have won.

They have successfully baited the so-called left in this country into moving to the right while the traditional right wing party has moved into the wingnut zone.

If you have a left/right scale of 1-10, 30 years ago we had a party at 6 and a party at 8. Today we have a party at 8 and a party at 12.

What I wouldn't give for real conservative and progressive options.

Is it the same thing as a vibrating rabbit? Because that's what came to my mind first....

I started out Republican and slowly have become... I can't even define it. Everything is gamed and information is so fickle. We're in the goddamn matrix or a prison system for sentient offenders of the universal good. The patterns for reaching self actualization are increasingly amoral.