The United States of Abuse

[arendt]

Politics in America has now been reduced to the level of a soap opera about a very dysfunctional family. And, to the serious detriment of the Democratic Party, its the kind of soap opera that anyone who has ever lived with (or near) a mean drunk gets instantly at a subconscious level.

The Bush/Cheney faction of the GOP is the husband. The husband is a mean drunk and an irresponsible bum. He spends the family income and inheritance on booze, gambling, and whores. He slaps his family around. He mumbles incoherently except when he is threatening mayhem against anyone he dislikes at the moment. He has zero impulse control; and like most serious drunks, he seems to have a death wish.

The Democratic leadership (Pelosi, Reid, et al.) is the wife. She used to be a decent person until she started hanging around with the husband; but now she is totally cowed by him. She's the enabler half of your basic alcoholic/enabler relationship, and the dynamic plays true. When the chips are down, mom goes along with dad - for the sake of the marriage.

Now, this family has children. It has bright, honest children (Progressive Democrats) that the wife brought from an earlier marriage. But, no matter how much mom tries to convince the kids that their new dad is really a good person, every once in a while, the kids return the abuse that dad is dishing out in spades. That's when mom springs into action. A coward when it comes to facing down dad, she becomes a lion when attacking her own child who has dared to tell the truth - that dad is a nasty, stupid man who cares only about numero uno.

The progressives are the "designated scapegoat" for this dysfunctional family - the person everyone agrees to beat up and ostracize, and thereby hold the family together. If you have lived this role, you felt an electric shock at what Pelosi just did to Stark and, earlier, what the Senate did to MoveOn, but not to Limbaugh.

The family also has one of dad's kids (Joe Lieberman and the rest of the DLC). In fact, they got that kid when mom and dad were fooling around without any protection before they had got married. Dad loves little Joey because he reminds him of himself, a whining puffed-up nobody with big money behind him. Dad often invites Joey to come to the Iraq Bar and have a drink with him. He thinks Petey is a faggot just because he refuses to come to the bar and get blind drunk.

The most recent episode of this soap had dad taking away the children's allowance because he needed the money for the floating crap game (the Iraq/Afganistan/Iran mess) that he has been losing big time. Pete called dad out, but mommy betrayed him.

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So, welcome to "family values" America, where the biggest value is abuse, and the second biggest is blatant hypocrisy. Its a big, scary, dysfunctional family; and we are all part of it. The GOP voting base, who love country music, have just had this laid out for them in a prime time soap opera. They get it. The Dems are "mom". The Dems are spineless, enabling cowards who won't even stand up for their own children. Add Hillary as their candidate, and it is not at all apparent that the Dems will win in 2008. (Assuming, as always, that martial law is not declared before then.)

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George Lakoff is busy having an aneurism, or he could have done a much better job of writing this than I have done.

[arendt]

1. Wow. This sunk like a rock. I guess no one disputes this meme at all. n/t

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[cali]

3. let me give this

another swift kick for you.

[nashville_brook]

4. this country is drunk with hubris -- drunkards always attack when their bottle is threatened.

progressives or anyone not playing along in this sick family is going to become a target for abuse.

kids in abusive/alcoholic families often have to take the role of parent -- becoming the parent to the "parents" who are acting like children. it's a hard position to be in, b/c you get all the responsibility of being a parent and none of the power.

i think that's operative in the progressive struggle. the people at the progressive end of the party are saying, "look, we have tools to deal with this, lets use them." everyone's too stoned to be bothered.