Out With The New, In With The Old

Welcome back to the blog Cleveland DL'ers!

Turns out, I just could never get used to the official DL blog site. No creative freedom, no linking ability, no blogroll, had to finish it all in one sitting within a certain time period or it would time-out on me...etc. So, I'm dusting this old baby off and taking her for another spin.

But this post's title has nothing to do with me bringing back our very own blog where ya'll can send me posts you want everyone to see, sites you want to link to and messages or anything.

No. This title relates to the Re-Gingerichization of The Republican Party. What these obtuse nostalgia-addicted yahoos have taken from their devastating electoral losses over the last two years is that they need to Newter themselves to remain politically viable. Well, at least they aren't digging up Reagan for the umpteenth time but still, this recent strategy is just as familiar and amusing.

The GOP believes what the American people want right now; while millions are out of work, under-employed, taking pay cuts, losing their homes, losing their health insurance, losing the value of their homes, telling their kids they can't pay for college, cutting back on any and every small luxury and/or necessity in life....is for their only lifeline...the government, to completely stop working for them. No Money for Jobs! More tax cuts for Madoff! Cut Social Spending! Yeah, that's the ticket!

The same Republicans who voted to give the banks 350 billion when Bush was in office a few months ago, now say giving money to programs that will employ 4 million Americans who will pay taxes back into the system and buy more goods with their income is 'wasteful spending'.

Their groundbreaking new RNC chair Michael Steele (R-NoBama) actually tried to make the case on national TV that work and jobs aren't the same thing. That's like trying to argue a flower is not a plant. Oh. My. God. So. Freaking. Stupid.

The King of Revisionist Hypocrisy, Mr. February in this month's issue of Newt Gingerich Wannabee Magazine, is Virginia House Rep Eric Can'tor (R-Conflictofinterestville). My favorite thing about this latest Republican paper-hero isn't that he shoots wolves from a helicopter, has an unmarried teenage mother for a daughter or is under investigation (yet) for abuse of power.

What I love about this young buck ready to carry the Newtian mantle is the the fact his wife was a managing director at a bank that received hundred of millions from the TARP money he railed against yet voted for. I'm sure he had no idea his wife's bank would get some of that icky bailout money...how rude of us to imply such a thing.

After 8 years of the worst president in history, a semi-former Republican Idol, sending the deficit into the stratosphere and spending our money like a shit-faced college student at Hooters with a no limit credit card...now Republicans care about the money future generations are going to shoulder? Eric Can'tor now cares about what the future holds for non-zygotian Americans who made it through the birth canal?

Well, I'd thank him for his concern if it wasn't so laughable. But the fact remains that it is incredibly laughable. So... sorry Eric The Lame....the GOP is NOT 'Back in The Saddle' but instead continue to prove who they really are...American Idiots.

Finally to tie this all whole post and theme of bringing back 'the old' together is a word to our president. A currently good and potentially great man who has brought a lot of the 'old' back into the White House for admirable yet misdirected reasons. Damn that Doris Kearns Goodwin to hell.

Dear President Obama,

Your admiration for Lincoln is understood. But, eventually even he ditched bipartisanship and did what is right for the nation, even when it meant going to war with states in the union.

He was a man that despised slavery but was more concerned with pragmatism and holding the union together than abolishing slavery. He believed back in 1858 that ending slavery in 100 years was a realistic goal. Frederick Douglass showed him and everyone else 100 years was too long and that what is right, just and the best for the nation cannot wait for those unwilling to face change. Could you imagine if the United States waited until 1958 to abolish the enslavement of African Americans? Just 50 years ago? Well, my guess is that you would not be president right now.

Real change is not a slow evolving process. It requires a catalyst to set it into motion. It does not require all parties at the table...just one or a few brave individuals to take the leap and bring others along. You've done that. You've got a mass of people ready to take that leap with you. We can't bring the GOP along when their leaders reach back for the likes of Newt Gingerich instead of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower.

We voted for change. They don't want change. It's done.

While I won't hold my breath for a response from the Obama folks, this does mean one thing, after a few weeks off from meeting and too many off from real blogging....Cleveland DL is back in the saddle again. See YOU at the next meeting kids.