Bill Moyers Essay: On the Sabotage of Democracy

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This week’s government shutdown has consequences for all of us, costing an estimated $300 million each day that the government is closed for business. Many Americans have voiced their frustrations with the fallout from the shutdown on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using the hash tag #DearCongress. Here, Bill Moyers shares his own thoughts on the shutdown, and the resulting sabotage of democracy.

“When the president refused to buckle to this extortion, they threw their tantrum,” Bill says. “Like the die-hards of the racist South a century and a half ago, who would destroy the union before giving up their slaves, so would these people burn down the place, sink the ship.” He goes on to tell us where the “reckless ambition” of the Republicans could lead us.

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44 comments
1 cinesimon  Mon, Oct 7, 2013 4:49:15pm

Moyers consistently reflects the opinions I have formed regarding the politics of the day.
It’s so fucked up that people who used to be commonly referred to as ‘social democrats’, are now communists, in the eyes of half of America’s electorate.
And, sadly, their brainless poison is spreading to other western style democracies - right wing politicians and their benefactors have seen what Putin has done, and want some of that.

2 BongCrodny  Mon, Oct 7, 2013 8:09:45pm

The problem with this country is that we have too many Chuck Todds and not enough Bill Moyerses.

3 SnowdenBaggerVance  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 9:14:35am

Enough idiocy. Any time I hear ‘they’re both at fault’ or ‘they all suck’ I speak up. Having such a lazy attitude about current events covers for the administrative terrorists.

4 Sol Berdinowitz  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:42:56am

The only thing any respectable member of Congress can do right now is to withhold comment on the matter and devote their full efforts to effecting a solution.

Anything else is pure political grandstanding.

5 Charles Johnson  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:44:11am

Welp, we had another “episode” there, as you probably know. More odd traffic patterns maxing out the http connections.

6 Kragar  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:44:32am

Marching thru Georgia should be played every time RWNJs starts making crazy demands, to remind them what happened last time they went this nuts.

7 Kragar  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:44:57am

re: #5 Charles Johnson

Welp, we had another “episode” there, as you probably know. More odd traffic patterns maxing out the http connections.

It was the fungus, wasn’t it?

8 Eclectic Cyborg  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:45:39am

re: #5 Charles Johnson

Welp, we had another “episode” there, as you probably know. More odd traffic patterns maxing out the http connections.

I need an “I survived the Great LGF Outage of 2013” t-shirt.

Do you think these are deliberate attacks against this place?

9 klys  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:45:48am

re: #7 Kragar

It was the fungus, wasn’t it?

francis threw a tantrum over his missing Create a Page button?

10 Kragar  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:47:13am

re: #9 klys

francis threw a tantrum over his missing Create a Page button?

That would explain the humongous fungus among us.

11 Eclectic Cyborg  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:49:01am

My first thought, admittedly, was: “Ok, who fed them after midnight again?”

12 wrenchwench  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:54:20am

Live feed from the immigration rally in DC. Los Tigres del Norte on now.

14 klys  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:55:38am
15 HappyWarrior  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:55:57am

re: #13 Kragar

Religious Right Leaders Hail Ted Cruz As A Modern Day George Washington

lol, because George Washington would have thrown a tantrum like Cruz did over settled law. What’s next, RR, Rand Paul is Thomas Jefferson? Mike Lee is James Madison?

16 EPR-radar  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:56:13am

re: #13 Kragar

Religious Right Leaders Hail Ted Cruz As A Modern Day George Washington

“Never get high on your own supply” would seem to apply here.

17 nines09  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:56:22am

The words “They’re all the same” make me nuts. I respond with; “No. They are not. That you cannot tell the difference is what scares me.”

18 Decatur Deb  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:56:42am

re: #14 klys

Christ on a pogo stick, really?

Poppa Cruz is a dominionist preacher.

19 nines09  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:57:06am
20 Kragar  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:57:20am

The Miracles of Ted Cruz

He cured a ham

He heeled a dog

He got the House GOP to listen to him

21 HappyWarrior  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:57:49am

re: #17 nines09

The words “They’re all the same” make me nuts. I respond with; “No. They are not. That you cannot tell the difference is what scares me.”

Yes, that.

22 dog philosopher  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:57:54am

teh ullmighty cruz has been giving his devotees in the house yelling like hell lessons

23 klys  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:57:56am

re: #20 Kragar

The Miracles of Ted Cruz

He cured a ham

He heeled a dog

He got the House GOP to listen to him

Since he told the Tea Party faction there exactly what they wanted to hear.

24 HappyWarrior  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:58:31am

OT but I guess it’s finally time for a new iPod. Have to restore my iPod yet again. First world problems I know but still annoying.

25 klys  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:58:37am

re: #17 nines09

The words “They’re all the same” make me nuts. I respond with; “No. They are not. That you cannot tell the difference is what scares me.”

I GET THIS FROM MY MOTHER AND ARGH.

/venting frustration here, because political discussions with her never end well.

26 Lidane  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:58:40am

re: #17 nines09

The words “They’re all the same” make me nuts. I respond with; “No. They are not. That you cannot tell the difference is what scares me.”

YES. THIS.

Every time I see someone say that it’s all the same, both sides do it, blah blah, I want to counter that by pointing out that the GOP are the only ones taking us headlong into default for no goddamn reason. I’d be stuck on Twitter or FB all day if I did that, though, and I’ve got a job hunt to conduct.

27 Dr. Matt  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:59:05am

re: #9 klys

francis threw a tantrum over his missing Create a Page button?

Is that what happens when >20 of your pages get dumped due to downdings?

28 HappyWarrior  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 10:59:49am

The people who do the both sides do it usually have an agenda of their own. It’s like the conservatives who say I’m not a Republican/conservative, I’m a libertarian!

29 GOPHostage#25698724  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:00:15am

I have been voting since Reagans first run. Been an indy most of the time. Always personally and fiscally conservative. Watched this kind of thing escalate all my adult life. I just sadly shake my head.

Now it’s come to this, much as Bill describes. Honestly I lost my patience for excessive anti presidential insults and rhetoric in Clintons day. When “my” side of the aisle was more interested in Whitewater than the accounting scandal. More about Lewinsky than the law. Blind loyalty is demeaning & damaging to Democracy.

30 HappyWarrior  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:00:28am

re: #27 Dr. Matt

Is that what happens when >20 of your pages get dumped due to downdings?

It would be one thing if he stopped writing Obama as if there aren’t people in Congress who should be written over this mess.

31 klys  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:00:32am

re: #27 Dr. Matt

Is that what happens when >20 of your pages get dumped due to downdings?

There’s no official statement but I’m sort of hoping.

I mean, there’s a chance he’ll go all FREE SPEECH over the main thread then, but given his tendency towards personal attacks when people are trying to make corrections I don’t think he’d last long at that point.

32 Lidane  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:00:54am

re: #13 Kragar

Religious Right Leaders Hail Ted Cruz As A Modern Day George Washington

More proof that we’re going to default for no goddamn reason. Enough Republicans buy into this kind of shit and into total denial that a default would have any consequences at all. It’s maddening.

33 Romantic Heretic  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:01:00am
I met a Traveler from an antique land,
Who said, “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is OZYMANDIAS, King of Kings.”
Look on my works ye Mighty, and despair!
No thing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

Sigh. It’s sad to watch a great nation commit suicide.

34 klys  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:01:44am

re: #28 HappyWarrior

The people who do the both sides do it usually have an agenda of their own. It’s like the conservatives who say I’m not a Republican/conservative, I’m a libertarian!

I think it’s my mother’s way of pretending to herself that she’s not aligned with the worst of the Republicans, because supposedly she is socially liberal.

35 nines09  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:02:13am

re: #21 HappyWarrior

re: #25 klys

re: #26 Lidane

BECAUSE. THAT’S WHY. YOU KNOW. YOU NEED TO EDUCATE YOURSELF. Ad infinitum. Like talking to a brick wall.

36 HappyWarrior  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:02:40am

re: #34 klys

I think it’s my mother’s way of pretending to herself that she’s not aligned with the worst of the Republicans, because supposedly she is socially liberal.

Right, they claim they’re independent yet they enable the GOP by voting for them because they believe their bullshit about taxes, the deficit, and spending.

37 klys  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:04:29am

re: #35 nines09

BECAUSE. THAT’S WHY. YOU KNOW. YOU NEED TO EDUCATE YOURSELF. Ad infinitum. Like talking to a brick wall.

The last time we talked politics she ended the conversation.

Politely, but it’s pretty clear we have very different political beliefs.

I comfort myself with the fact that both my sisters have their heads screwed on right and since there are three of us we more than cancel out my parents.

38 nines09  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:06:56am

re: #37 klys
More friends of mine than I’m willing to admit to are in that ballpark. Somewhere they just went Full Metal Wingnut. They have all the answers, talk about shit they don’t have a clue about and just parrot things that make sense to them. Sense? Who am I kidding?

39 nines09  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:08:31am

I must venture into the world. BBL.

40 klys  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:09:08am

re: #38 nines09

I pointed out to my mother that I vote Democrat because their position is consistent with the principles she taught me when I was growing up.

She didn’t really have a response for that, which is probably why the conversation ended there.

41 goddamnedfrank  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 11:41:03am

re: #34 klys

I think it’s my mother’s way of pretending to herself that she’s not aligned with the worst of the Republicans, because supposedly she is socially liberal.

Funny though how libertarians’ supposed social liberalness never seems to prevent them from voting for bigots out of so called “rational self interest.” What good is having socially liberal ideals if one keeps sacrificing them in the name of a marginally lower personal tax rate.

My stepdad does this. He’s richer than hell and the fairly minor +/-5% top bracket differences between Republican and Democratic tax policies couldn’t possibly impact his standard of living. Yet, every single time he donates, campaigns for and votes for the bigots. Another in a long line of single issue voters who do nothing but talk about civil rights.

42 sunnygal  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 12:21:47pm

re: #13 Kragar

Religious Right Leaders Hail Ted Cruz As A Modern Day George Washington

They have to destroy this country in order to save it.

43 Lawrence Schmerel  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 12:45:33pm

I have never really had much doubt that the Republicans will just cave before any default occurs, but Bill Moyers has made me wonder how this might end.

He’s made me wonder, but I really still believe the big cave-in is just around the corner.

44 roberta g  Tue, Oct 8, 2013 3:34:43pm

Thanks Bill Moyers, truth to power.


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