Today’s Lesson: How To Construct Overwrought Prose
You know, one thing I’ve noticed about bloggers in general, and I’m sure I’m as guilty of it as the next person, is the tendency to label melodramatic missives that contain no originality, but much confirmation of already present biases, as ‘important’. At the risk of redundancy, the only thing ‘important’ about such posts is the confirmation of the labeller’s worldview.
Thus, I feel confident that we will soon be hearing how ‘important’ this piece from georgia10 is:
Tom DeLay’s resignation cannot absolve the Republican Party of its sins. The “Hammer,” who chipped away at the integrity and effectiveness of Congress until there was nothing left, listened to his party rather than his ego and has finally acknowledged that he was one of many albatrosses hanging on the neck of the struggling GOP. His resignation does not save this party.
Notice here the wisdom of the Delay resignation – already, the Nutroots® are panicking that the ‘culture of corruption’ meme is dead. How else to explain this hysteria?
What is done cannot be undone. Not as long as this Republican Party maintains its majority status. The stench of Tom DeLay’s corruption still wafts through the halls of Congress. His political philosophy–that fair is foul and foul is fair–thrives on, as vibrant as ever in the deeds of the Majority.
That’s perhaps the worst paragraph ever committed to paper, so to speak…until this one:
That such a man will no longer serve in Congress is cause to rejoice. But the tragic truth remains. From this man and his cabal was spawned a system of corruption which survives his political demise. DeLay leaves, yet he leaves a Congress full of Tom DeLay Republicans behind. It is a Congress so steeped in corruption that it cannot, by the exodus of one man, turn back to its purpose of serving the people rather than serving itself.
Does the author of these words even believe them? Highly doubtful…
The tragedy of Tom DeLay is not then his political demise, but the demise of the American system of governance. For with or without Tom DeLay, that GOP theory that everything must be sacrificed in the quest for power lives on. Party over principle. It is the legacy of Tom DeLay, the legacy of this Republican Congress. It is a hideous stain upon our democracy that cannot be rubbed out, not with the resignation of one man, not with superficial ethics “reform”. Only a Democratic majority in November can provide the catharsis necessary to cleanse Capitol Hill of its culture of corruption.
Americans want clean government. Let’s help them get their Congress back.
The ‘tragedy’, the ‘hideous stain’…yep, this is one ‘important’ post, all right…
If Tom Delay was the one man
What were Congressional Democrats up to?
It’s just like the War on Terror- few actually question Democrats’ patriotism (it’s not like it’s much of an open question these days), but so many bring the issue up, the truth is obvious.
It’s the same with corruption. If Delay can corrupt the entire Congress, it isn’t exactly a powerful argument for Democrats to regain power.
Yeah, nothing like tarring an entire group with one brush, huh?
“…already, the Nutroots® are panicking that the ‘culture of corruption’ meme is dead.”
Oh, right.
That was smarmy, and I apologize for the smarm, but the sentiment stands. Already there are prominent Republican lawmakers (like Dreier, for one) standing up and defending Tom DeLay as a great American who brought greatness to Congress and whose legacy will live on. What does that say about Dreier’s conception of his party, then?
I’ve got no love for Delay and I’m happy he’s gone. The problem is I have no confidence there aren’t a couple hundred other versions of him, from both parties and some more palatable than others, waiting to take his place. So my problem comes when folks like georgia10 write their agonized epistles acting as if the people just vote for her preferred candidates this November, the stench of corruption and backscratching that Delay handily personifies would just go away. And when you invest all your time into creating bogeymen like Delay, you ignore the inherent corruption of a healthy chunk of Congress when the representative bogeymen get the boot.
I suspect georgia10 is quite in earnest in her views, as I’ve seen similar self-important thoughts expressed many times, from both conservatives and liberals. But I think it’s a bit of self-indulgent wishful thinking and not particularly useful to pretend vice is something only the other guys have to worry about.
Once the Abramoff probes are finished, both parties may have quite a bit of sleaziness to account for – you don’t see a whole lot of Dems rushing to condemn Delay right now, do you?
File this under the be careful what you wish for theme.
dmac, a potent observation there. I was a little surprised that I didn’t hear of Delay’s decision sooner. Tipping it to TIME? I mean it seems like it would have leaked somehow and been hyped to the skies prior to that. But no. For the georgia10s of this world, they are the dog that has caught the car. Having infused Delay’s existence with so much portent they find he is just a man in an office once he is gaffed and in the boat. That he is almost certain to be replaced by another Rep is something they had not considered, much like the impeachers don’t seem to realize that removal would leave Cheney in charge, or Rice, or Hastert or, well you have to blow a mighty hole in Pennsylvania Ave before the result will be a Democrat making the decisions. But these are the retailers. georgia10′s livelyhood does not depend on its political performance. Elected officials’ do. After all the hooha about Delay (and there is nothing in the public record that remotely indicates any illegality or other than routine practices) one would think there would at least be some endzone jitterbuggin’ unless the usuals suspected such an outburst would come back to haunt them. Whatever. But hindsight to Delay’s actions will illuminate, I think, some of what we are about to go through with Cynthia McKinney. Like Newt, he has made a present day concession with an eye on the horizon. I don’t know if either will be back on the national stage but they have at leastshown a tactical willingness to delay electoral gratification. We haven’t seen a Democrat do that in my political lifetime. Condit, Kennedy, Rostenkowski, Frank, Gore, Biden, Clinton of course and the list would grow if I consulted more than my memory; all would have benefited their party’s long term credibility by surrendering their bitter-endism but have survived to burden their party with their transgressions. Hyde, Newt and now Delay have trotted to the bench at strategic necessity.
Fargus, snark (or smarm) away, I’m sure I deserve it – but doggoneit, someone has to keep the Nutroots® term in circulation – if it doesn’t catch on, how am I supposed to get rich? If that means I must occasionally paint in broad strokes – well, do as I say, not as I do (or is that do as I do, and not as I say?)
Wait, what was my point?…
[...] 2008 : Apr 4th – 4:36pm « Today’s Lesson: How To Construct Overwrought Prose [...]
Georgia10 foams at the mouth on any subject of your choice–except dims like those at http://www.noagenda.org! required reading.