Scared Monkeys:
McRINO gets blasted by “We the People” …
Senator John McCain took time from his video poker to hold a town meeting and got an earful from his constituents and by an overwhelming majority was told not to take military action against Syria. Many in the crowd echoed the sentiment that getting more involved in the civil war would lead to unintended consequences. Something that appears to be completely lost on President Obama, McCain, Kerry and the rest. One individual stated, “Why are you not listening to the people and staying out of Syria? It’s not our fight.”
Sen. John McCain, whose endorsement of President Barack Obama’s plan to launch military strikes against Syria provided the president a key Republican backer, faced vocal opponents of military action during a town hall in Arizona Thursday.
McCain has long advocated a more muscular American approach toward Syria, calling for a plan to oust President Bashar al-Assad from power. But on Thursday many people who showed up to a town hall in Phoenix said that getting more involved in the civil war would lead to unintended consequences.
“We didn’t send you to make war for us. We sent you to stop the war,” one man said to applause.
At one point during the meeting McCain was interrupted causing the senator to stop and address the individual, “What you’re doing is not just disrespectful to me, but disrespectful to others who want their opinions and views heard.” Really? I actually think it is more disrecptful to completely ignore the will of the people and do whatever you damn well please. You were elected to represent the People, not go off on your tangents where this fossil actually believes the so-called freedom fighters are not Al-Qaeda.
In this day’s governance (or lack of) of the GOP, that’s a pretty profound statement. I’d say if they actually tried to practice that, they’d be more lost than they are now.
@Ronald J. Ward:
So you are saying we should simply gratefully accept our new political overlords, and thank them for allowing us to serve them?
@Pete: No. How you construed that is beyond me.
Everyone seems to miss the fact that the Obama administration and a number of republicans are advocating what they believe to be the responsible course of action, fully aware of its enormous unpopularity.
If we want to talk about whores or pandering, maybe we should look more closely at those who quickly shift their position on serious matters based on which way the latest poll suggests the wind is blowing.
@Greg:
This is still (in theory) a representative republic. If our representatives want to take action that is enormously unpopular, they need to convince us of its necessity.
One of the largest problems that we, the citizens, have, is that politicians believe that they are the adults in the room and we citizens need to just sit at their feet and let them make the decisions.
Pretty amazing arrogance coming from someone who gained their current position merely by winning a popularity contest.
Another problem is the ignorant citizens who don’t trust congress (most of us, apparently) yet will continue reelecting their congressman.
Speaking of ignorance, I just read where Sandra Day O’Connor decries the ignorance of the US public, yet repeatedly refers to our system of government as a democracy. *facepalm*
If even a Supreme Court Justice (ret) is that ignorant, we are so screwed.
But then, most of us already knew that.
@Petercat:
And why do you think that we have the exact situation you describe? It is because most Americans are not interested in the machinations of their government unless it is to discuss how much free stuff they can reap from the “common man.” Then their little ears perk up.
We are also not designed to have career politicians. But we do. Men like John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Charlie Rangel, and that doddering old fool, Harry Reid, were never meant to be able to hold their jobs for time immortal. The job was also designed to be that of only a civil servant (as in serving the citizens they represent) not some vehicle for increasing their personal wealth, yet time after time, we see Congress critters who barely have two nickels rubbing together in their pocket leave Congress worth multi-million bucks.
Term limits, which I fully support, would end all of that.
@retire05: #7
You are exactly right. The doctors, farmers and businessmen were supposed to travel to Washington, take care of the things that only a federal government could take care of, then return home and earn their living. We have come so far in the wrong direction.
The people in power want to remain in power, and that is the ultimate purpose of their every action.
They don’t control education to insure that it is done correctly, they control it to influence the next generation of voters.
They don’t provide welfare so that children will not go hungry, they provide it to buy the votes of children. Of all ages.
They don’t decry voter ID laws out of any concern for voting rights, but out of concern for their own reelection.
Enough.
@Greg: Responsible and Obama are two words never used in the same sentence or even the same page.
When I saw that McLame got ‘hammered’ I though he 1. got drunk or 2. somebody used a hammer to put him out of our misery. That said, if McLame keeps on pushing for involvement in Syria, I hope he does get hammered he’s becoming dangerous.
@UpChuck.Liberals, #9:
Apparently you consider it more responsible to simply ignore the presence of chemical weapons less than 100 miles from Israel’s most populace areas, which are presently in the hands of an unstable dictatorship that has recently used them, and are in danger of falling into the hands of Islamist extremists who would use them in a heartbeat.