By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
But then I remember the old saying, “Behind every great woman there’s a man. . . trying to force an ultrasound while cutting her pay.”
–Lizz Winstead, comedian and co-creator of The Daily Show
Here in the Pea Patch, most everything has come to a full halt. Below zero wind chill and temperatures in the single digits surely have a dampening effect on any but the most necessary activities. This is Missouri’s second pass at arctic temps this season. A third is due next week, and I worry about the locals. There’s usually just enough in the rural bare-bones budget to handle food and meds, but not extraordinary costs like doubled heating bills or — now that corporate America has discovered heady profits exporting fracked natural gas overseas — overpriced propane. Adding to the angst, this extreme weather doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to move along.
And that’s not all that’s not moving along. It seems to me that politically, we’ve come to rest — briefly, I trust — in a place I’m titling “rock and hard spot, part deux.” A lot has changed in our national consciousness these last months, but, all too typically, a clear way forward remains as calcified as long buried brontosaurus bones. Meanwhile, important movement toward civil liberties and social investments is falling back to another round of budget wars, an ambitious new infusion of Koch money and doubled-down Republican strategy.
Those of us that have been trying to change the conversation from same-old, same-old for over a decade have finally settled into a populist demographic, thanks to massive failure of the conservative party — for, lo, these many years — to serve any but the most elite on the social/financial spectrum. Still, the 20-odd percent of those still claiming loyalty to the GOP remain as tone deaf and resistant to the evidence around them as they were when they declared pre-election triumph in 2012.