1

Stray Observations As An Observer of The House

Spending the summer in Washington D.C. has its advantages.  One of those advantages is getting to see the Legislature in action.  Specifically, today I chose to take a couple vists to the House in the Capitol Building to watch them go about their legislaturing ways.  As it turns out, it was a particularly good day to do so, given a couple notable happenings.

Of course, I was just an observer with a House pass I'd gotten from Senator Udall's (from Colorado) office - I'd actually originally intended to watch the Senate today, but they gave me a House pass and I'd realized that the "Cap and Trade" climate change bill vote was today.  Spectators are only allowed to sit there for so long in the interest of keeping the line outside moving.  With that said, I was able to catch some notable moments just from going in a couple times, and was able to observe some things as well.  They included:

-The House takes quite a while to agree on things like rules for the debate and later vote.  This is already (hopefully) common knowledge, but they have to vote on this before jumping into debate and then the final vote.  They had a couple votes on amendments and rules that were basically the Representatives voting electronically as they walked around and talked among themselves.  It wasn't really heated and on the face of it there didn't look like there was anything notable going on.  There was also an electronic sign up on a wall that tallied the votes, and another on a higher wall that showed the name of each Congressperson and whether they had voted.  This sign would disappear by the time I went the second time.  In any case, the rules were approved at about the time I had to leave from my first visit.

-During my first visit, the news became official that the Senate had just confirmed someone whose name I couldn't make out, but whom turned out to be Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher, a Democrat from California, to a cabinet position.  Specifically, she is now to be the Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security; as such, today was her last as a Representative.  As soon as someone came in to announce the news, the whole champer erupted in applause and everyone stood as they clapped for her.  She gave a nice little speech thanking everyone she'd worked with over the years, and got some extra applause when she noted that she and her fiance plan to get married tomorrow.  Pelosi stood nearby wearing white and gave her distinctive awkward clap.  Tauscher hugged a lot of the Congresspeople near her as well.

-Debate, in my second visit, was very very funny.  It was very heated, sometimes more so from the Republican side.  On both sides, there were a lot of mutually exclusive statements (the basic tone was Democrats saying "this will create jobs," and Republicans saying "this will destroy jobs."  Which one is it?)

-The best moment - dare I say a potential "Daily Show" moment - was when one Republican Congressman I didn't recognize decided to use a visual aid.  He took out a big yellow box with cheap-looking blue writing on it that said "To China: From Pelosi."  He asked "what's in here?" and then took out a visual aid apparently meant to represent American jobs.  Whether he was right or wrong, you gotta wonder whether the visual really helped his case much.  The whole chamber and many of my fellow spectators laughed.

All in all, not a bad day on the Hill, though I had to wait with anticipation to find out later whether the bill passed (it did).  Nothing hugely surprising, but it was certainly entertaining watching the two parties battle it out and shout at each other.

3

Stop throwing around words like 'Socialism' and 'Fascism'

Recently, in political...let's generously call it "discussion," I've seen a lot of people on the internet and various talking heads on the ol' video box throwing around words like "socialism" and "fascism" as if they have almost any relevance at all to current American politics. Usually, they are applied to our President, Mr. Obama.

Now, I am no blind supporter of the current administration. Keeping "rendition" is pretty questionable. Failing (so far) to pursue prosecution for criminal behavior in the last administration is pretty questionable. Giving tons of money to the banks instead of people is pretty questionable. Not that I suddenly hate the guy, and I think the administration has done a lot of good as well, but I think there is room for constructive - even harsh - criticism of the administration as long as it comes from an intellectually honest place, and it doesn't just have to center on those items I listed either (which I realize largely fall under the category of "he's not liberal enough").

But the whole socialism and fascism thing is just really stupid. Now, I'm no expert in political theory, but as I tend to understand the political spectrum, there are a few truths that bear stating:

-Socialism is on the "liberal" end; as such, the Democratic party is closer to socialism than the Republican party is.

-Fascism is on the "conservative" end; as such, the Republican party is closer to fascism than the Democratic party is.

-Both parties are far closer to EACH OTHER (and the middle of spectrum) than they are to either socialism or fascism, which are at far extreme ends; indeed, neither is remotely close to either true socialism or true fascism.

-For that matter, fascism and socialism are not the same thing at all, and certainly do not go hand in hand.

Even Fox News star Glenn Beck, for all his paranoia, stupidity, and probable diagnosable insanity, at least understood this when he "corrected" himself on his assertion that Obama is marching us towards socialism; he understood, as he asserted that Obama is in fact leading us towards fascism, that there is a clear difference between the two. He's also prone to random crying spells, believes Woodrow Wilson inserted secret symbols into the dime to make us all fascist, and once claimed to hate the families of 9/11 victims' families for being sooooo upset by the deaths of their loved ones. But I digress.

Unfortunately, a lot of people entering the political discourse recently aren't quite as knowledgeable as Glenny boy, and believe (if their signs at "teabagging" rallies are any indication) that both are in fact one in the same. Not to mention, they don't seem to understand the distinctions between recent government policies and either the socialist or fascist extremes.

Perhaps more troublingly, they also don't seem to understand a little thing called "strategy." We on the left have finally found our groove again recently, but don't you guys remember what we were like just a few years ago? Arguably, one of the reasons the left failed to convince those on the fence about the Iraq war to join our side is that just enough dumbasses decide to show up at otherwise peaceful rallies and burn flags, wave "Bush=Hitler" signs, and sport fashionable "Anarchy" symbols on their t-shirts. They were perfectly within their rights to do such things, but they didn't seem to understand how this would play on news outlets that would choose to zero in on them. Other movements have been just as troubled. Even many animal lovers like myself (I spend every Saturday caring for homeless pets at a shelter) don't care for PETA because they choose to hurl fake blood at people and generally act like morons. Religious groups that show bloody pictures of dead infants just revolt people (often out with their own children) who might otherwise be sympathetic.

And now, we have the people equating a slight increase in the taxation of the wealthy as a move towards totalitarianism (or, they would if they could actually spell "totalitarianism"). They've got all the requisite rage, but not the ability to articulate their positions in an intelligent way that would be worth discussing. And they (however unintentionally) discredit the more intelligent people out there who might otherwise side with them, not to mention alienate anyone else who might otherwise be willing to engage with them.

So rightists: get out there and speak your viewpoints. Debate, discuss, and maybe even protest to make your voices heard. Enjoy some delicious tea. But remember that not long ago we on the left looked like the loony, unorganized, and outright hateful group that some of your lesser members are making you look like now. We had to join together, form a real agenda, and improve the quality of our discourse to get where we are here in 2009.

And for god's sake, stop saying "fascist" and "socialist" every five seconds. It makes you look like morons.