A Yale Assoc Prof of history just postulated that this is the worst Congress since the Civil War.

[Stinky The Clown]

She had many reasons to make that claim. She observed that "the most conservative Democrat is left of the most liberal repubican" which might sound logical, but really is not and simply points up how deeply partisan is the divide. She also said it might suggest that the movement is to the elft, but that would be wrong. The movement is heavily to the right.

She closed with the observation that the teabaggers are so far right they are no longer even interested in governing at all.




edit to add: no link. I heard it on MSNBC and didn't catch her name

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. She is singing my song

my calendar is readying 1859 at this moment

[hatrack]

2. Just waiting for a Brooks/Sumner moment . . .

Then we'll know we're there.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. Oh we are so damn close I can smell the cordite

[HereSince1628]

5. Yes, well it's time for the progressives to once again carry a big stick.

If only to fend off attacks from the radical right.

[Pacifist Patriot]

6. It wouldn't surprise me.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Actually we already had it... sort off... that ahem event between

West and the Democratic congresswoman, who's name escapes me right now,

[CTyankee]

8. David McCullough's new book "The Greater Journey" discusses Sumner

who was one of the illustrious Americans to go to Paris mid 19th century and he retells the story of Brooks attacking Sumner. Sumner was pretty badly hurt.

I wouldn't be surprised if some rabid tea party Rep. went nuts on a liberal Rep., but we sure don't have many for them to go nuts on!

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. IMO, if walking sticks were still fashionable, it would have already happened. nt

[HereSince1628]

3. The tea-pardee is the reductio ad absurdum

that follows from +15 years of Gingrich style of partisan opposition within the Republican Party.

They only cause that they can rally around IS rebellion against the federal government.

[sofa king]

10. There isn't going to be a civil war anytime toon.

Yes, it's true that now just as then the conservatives of this country are manipulated by the wealthy, who in turn are deeply invested in stodgy, evil institutions that cannot be easily changed.

Yes, the geographic lines of division are still similar, too, and will instantly become still more similar the moment the conflict arises.

But what was impossible back then, deploying an enormous and well-trained army against a mob of redneck amateurs, is exactly what's going to happen now. (The majority of our standing infantry army just before the Civil War fit into exactly one division, Sykes' Regulars, and it comprised only about five percent of the total troop strength of just one of the armies deployed against the Confederacy).

What that effectively means is that any armed conflict will 1) consume virtually the whole of any armed force the rednecks attempt to deploy in the first major battle; 2) immediately thereafter devolve into guerrilla warfare and terrorism; which in turn will 3) invite the government to fall back on its favorite anti-guerrilla trick of the past fifty years, which is to deploy assassination teams to kidnap, torture and murder the family and friends of anyone important in the resistance.

So keep that in mind. If they buck up, most of them will die on the first real day of fighting, the rest will quickly burn off their credit with the locals, and the social network (which will already be known thanks to Facebook) which holds the remnants together will be systematically murdered, their assets seized, and their ability to project any power or policy at all will be crushed. It's even easier than that because this time any revolution or civil war would be fomented and directed by the wealthiest Americans, who can be rounded up and killed in one night.

As easy as it would be, it would be tragic beyond description, and the nation as a whole would not profit from the venture even if every vocal conservative is stood against the wall in the first three days.

I think the real answer is that we're going to have to actively dismantle the disinformation network that keeps those poor, frightened, stupid people all those things. They are not bad people; they have bad ideas because they're being played like marionettes by a vanishingly small sector of the population. Cut off the hand that plays the puppet, and it's over before it has a chance to begin.