On CBS‘s Face the Nation (1/9/11), host Bob Schieffer declared:
Democracy’s arguments have never been pretty, but technology has changed the American dialogue because we can now know of problems instantly. We expect answers immediately and when we don’t get them, we let everyone know in no uncertain terms. We scream and shout, hurl charges without proof. Those on the other side of the argument become not opponents but enemies. Dangerous inflammatory words are used with no thought of consequence.
Schieffer singled out one exceptional political leader: “In an eloquent statement, the new Republican House Speaker John Boehner said yesterday’s attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serve.” To which Schieffer added, “We must change the atmosphere in which this happened and we can begin by remembering that words have consequence. Like all powerful things, they must be used carefully.”
While Schieffer sings Boehner’s praises, Matt Taibbi at Rolling Stone (1/5/11) recalled a different type of Boehner moment:
Another Ohio Democrat, Steve Driehaus, clashed repeatedly with Boehner before losing his seat in the midterm elections. After Boehner suggested that by voting for Obamacare, Driehaus “may be a dead man” and “can’t go home to the west side of Cincinnati” because “the Catholics will run him out of town,” Driehaus began receiving death threats, and a right-wing website published directions to his house. Driehaus says he approached Boehner on the floor and confronted him.
“I didn’t think it was funny at all,” Driehaus says. “I’ve got three little kids and a wife. I said to him, ‘John, this is bullshit, and way out of bounds. For you to say something like that is wildly irresponsible.'”
Driehaus is quick to point out that he doesn’t think Boehner meant to urge anyone to violence. “But it’s not about what he intended â┚¬” it’s about how the least rational person in my district takes it. We run into some crazy people in this line of work.”
Driehaus says Boehner was “taken aback” when confronted on the floor, but never actually said he was sorry: “He said something along the lines of, ‘You know that’s not what I meant.’ But he didn’t apologize.”
It should be perfectly clear to Boehner, the new”weeper”of the House, and to any politician or other person who speaks publically, it is their words that are heard, not what they may have intended to say, not what the audience is expected to know that is carried away and may be acted upon.
Scientists recognize that false information from unreliable measurements or from lying, is just a waste of time.
Is it even possible for politicians today to utter a sentence without weighing its effect on the voters? Smart campaigning uses every opportunity to make an impression, and while TV ads are very costly, speaking when the cameras are rolling in the “workplace” is free.
With all the hoopla about what an interesting guy Bohner is, it seems to me the opposite. The guy has the voice, and for the most part the words, of a drunk in the back room of a sleeze bar. I cannot think of anything positive that he did in the last ten years.
John Boener is an embarassment for American politics and how in the world this guy could ever be enrolled in the free ride of American political circles?
We will never guide our speech for the sake of the least stable among us.Boener will be revered if he can dismantle the Obama insanity,and kicked to the curb if he can’t.He has been sent to do the people’s work.These cult of personality hi-jinks are a waste of thought.
If language is symbolic action, then rhetoric or prose has its consequences. What voice, speaking with conviction, does not take itself seriously? History bears witness of both truth and folly.
“We will never guide our speech for the sake of the least stable among us.”
Sounds like a self reflective moment(you do seem to be among the least stable of us). To somehow say that what a politician does in order to help make the world better is insanity, then it is irresponsible to even think of it in those terms.
Insane is not a characterization of what Obama has done to help business have $2 trillion on hand(have the financial world of Wall street be given record bonuses while being covered by the taxpayer for their great meltdown);
save the economy from a depression by stimulating the economy with a stimulus plan;
address the oil spill in the Gulf;
address the exploding costs of healthcare(which is geared to making sure that wealth is funneled upward to the rich, you know, the healthcare insurance companies, medical devices companies, pharmaceuticals)by passing the healthcare bill;
Wall street reform, even though it didn’t go as far as it should have;
remove the middleman subsidies from student loans, in effect, creating more funds for the loans and have more students enrolled;
create a Consumer Credit agency to oversee the bilking of the public by the banks and mortgage companies;
the list goes on, and as has been said it is hardly insane to do these things.
All the while, nothing but obstruction from the Republicans, now that is insane, along with the taxpayers saving the banks without requiring anything in return to address the foreclosures and the bonuses given to the very ones who led the meltdown of Wall street.
Boner’s response is to call things chicken crap, and to grandstand by saying “Hell, no, you can’t.” No real ideas from the Republicans in the 111st Congress, just oppose all that the Dems and Obama initiates, but now, since they have the House Majority, they are going to have to show what they actually can do for the American people, not just the minority of the rich.
It was very telling when Bush, at a wealthy participant fundraising dinner, said that, “Some would call you the elite, but I call you my base.” Of course if the wealthy is his and the Republicans base, then they are going to expect something in return for their donations, and they got it with the extension of the top 2% earner’s tax cut and the corporate tax cuts, not to mention the estate tax cut which helps the top .01% of the population, the very wealthy. I am not convinced that the rich have earned the money that they have accumulated without someone getting screwed in the process.
Oh, and Michael e., you are in no position to say what is or is not a waste of thought; much of what you say is a waste of thought. To that you may say I am in no position to say what is a waste of thought. To that, I say have others decide based on the validity of what you say and what I say. You may find the the merits of the argument that is presented will actually decide.
You have only your Republican talking points and all you can do is attack Obama, and what you present is hardly an argument worth having, for what you usually say is very predictable and no new thinking is done in the process. Just as when Bush is attacked, the reasons for the Bush villification is apparent and can be shown to be reasonable arguments against him. Nobody says, Obama=good, Bush=bad for that is too simplistic, but the Bush policies across the board were not good for the country, and yet the Republicans want to go back to those very failed policies with Boehner shouting the battle cry.
Raymond your defense of Obama is so weak.So Little to go on.So Little to show.And even what you have shown is simply to quote Mr B……. “chicken crap”.America had its taste of his type of government and we see how that has worked for his side in the last election.He is plain and simple the worst president in our lifetime even trumping the hapless Carter.He felt the need to remake America,and america has chosen to remake him.Back into a private citizen.
Christ Your still talking about Bush.Still trying to run against him.Same old song and dance from you lot.You are correct about one thing though….The republicans are up to bat.And as a Tea party member I will tell you we will be watching closely to see if they are just business as usual in the swamp that is Washington.If they are -they will not have our support.Period!My Lib friends always were weeping that Obama needed a longer grace period.More time …more time.Well the Republican grace period ended 1 second after they were sworn in. Smaller government. Adherence to the constitution.Less taxes.Personal freedoms over the collective.A resurgence of American exceptionalism and capitalistic free market principles.Class warfare and government interference toward the end of creating a nanny state beholden to governmant “bread lines”in every aspect of life will be thrown down.We in the Tea party ask these things of both sides.In that we are bi-partisan.We demanded it of the left.And now we do the same with the right.This is what we mean by “taking back our country”.
John Boener and Mitch McConell have conspired to deny the will of the people in the 2008 election. This is unamerican and borders on treason. The will of the electorate is to be honored, even when you do not win. America rejected the arrogant & ignorant leadership of the Republicans that lost thousands of American lives and the World Trade Towers, invaded a soveriegn country, murdered untold thousands of Iraqis & hanged its President. We will speak louder in 2012.