{"id":7666,"date":"2010-01-04T09:07:22","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T14:07:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=7666"},"modified":"2010-01-04T10:35:05","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T15:35:05","slug":"government-is-our-toy-stop-playing-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=7666","title":{"rendered":"Government Is Our Toy. Stop Playing With It."},"content":{"rendered":"

Ezra Klein, former “giggly fratboy” at the old Pandagon <\/em>blog, exhibits what is becoming an increasingly concerous conceit among the left today; he seems to believe that everything about American democracy started from scratch last January<\/a>, including that pesky need to limit government’s reach and scope.<\/p>\n

And he’s been toking from the same bong Lori Sturdevant and Nick Coleman have been bogarting regionally:<\/p>\n

The modern Senate is a radically different institution from the Senate of the 1960s, and the dysfunction exhibited in its debate over health care — the absence of bipartisanship, the use of the filibuster to obstruct progress rather than protect debate, the ability of any given senator to hold the bill hostage to his or her demands — has convinced many, both inside and outside the chamber, that it needs to be fixed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Again with the curious definition of “bipartisanship” – “doing what the Democrats want” – which is technically “monopartisanship”.<\/p>\n

This might seem an odd moment to argue that the Senate is fundamentally broken and repairs should top our list of priorities.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, Ezra Klein, it’s exactly <\/em>the moment I expect Democrat propagandists to argue that the Senate is broken – when they’re not getting their way.\u00a0 When they’re putting a bill before the American people and their hired board of directors that most of the American people don’t want, and they want it jammed down the collective throat for the peasants’ own good.<\/p>\n

It’s not an “odd moment” at all.<\/p>\n

After all, the Senate passed a $900 billion health-care bill last month. But consider the context: Arlen Specter’s defection from the Republican Party earlier this year gave Democrats 60 votes in the Senate — a larger majority than either party has had since the ’70s. Democrats also controlled the House and the presidency, and were working in the aftermath of a financial crisis that occurred on a Republican president’s watch. This was a test of whether a party could govern when everything was stacked in its favor.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And in response, the Democrats have floated a bill that, if I were Ezra Klein, I’d whinge “isn’t bipartisan”, but was rather drafted by the most extremely left-of-center Congress of my lifetime.<\/p>\n

But I’m not Ezra Klein.\u00a0 I’m not under the convenient, circumstantial delusion that government’s primary purpose is to enact a vision (mine, as it happens), even to the point where it must be changed to accomplish exactly that.<\/p>\n

Government – especially its legislature – isn’t supposed to be an assembly line.\u00a0 If things are working correctly<\/em>, it’s more of a tropical rain forest.\u00a0 Only the absolutely strongest animals, or bills, survive.\u00a0 That’s how it’s supposed <\/em>to work.<\/p>\n

Sorry, Ezra.\u00a0 Just because your agenda is dying on its merits doesn’t mean you get to change the rules.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ezra Klein, former “giggly fratboy” at the old Pandagon blog, exhibits what is becoming an increasingly concerous conceit among the left today; he seems to believe that everything about American democracy started from scratch last January, including that pesky need to limit government’s reach and scope. And he’s been toking from the same bong Lori […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberal-tyranny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7666"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7671,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7666\/revisions\/7671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}