MAKE BELIEVE RULES IN AMERICAN POLITICS

From MSNBC courtesy of Eschaton:

Chief justice: Obama criticism 'troubling'

Speaking to a law school class today in Alabama, Roberts said while anyone is free to criticize the court, the sight of a president dressing down the justices in front of Congress was "very troubling."

A bit more here.

Very troubling, I suppose, because President Obama violated a rule, of which I've never heard, probably because it doesn't really exist, that the President should never publicly criticize Supreme Court decisions.

Is this as troubling to Roberts as President Roosevelt pushing to get five new justices added to the Court because the nine justices already there opposed many of his New Deal programs? I mean, back then, it really was troubling: in the face of such a threat, the Supreme Court caved and started to rule in FDR's favor. That was some hardcore politics. Compared to FDR's standoff with the Supremes, Obama's mild criticism of the Citizens United decision is a walk through the daisies.

But then, I shouldn't be surprised. I should never be surprised. This has been a popular move in the conservative playbook for some years now: invent a political "rule" that has no real standing or enforceability, and freak the fuck out about its "violation" until the opposition backs down. The biggest manifestation of this gambit in recent years took place around the time of the Iraq invasion. The fictional "rule" then was something along the lines of "Americans should never criticize the President during a time of war." Never mind that conservatives were all over President Clinton only a few years earlier about the US intervention in the former Yugoslavia; never mind that as soon as Bush was out of office, right-wingers leveled attack after attack at Obama over his policies in Iraq and Afghanistan. I guess these fictional political "rules" only apply to people who disagree with conservatives.

On the other hand, the left, or what passes for it these days, likes to play the same game. The only twist is that they direct it against themselves rather than against conservatives, which, I must say, is fairly typical. For over a decade, their imagined "rule" has been something to the effect of "If you're a liberal, you must support the Democrats, and absolutely no one else." If you've ever voted for Ralph Nader, and are foolish enough to let that slip out in casual conversation with Democrats, you'll often see a level of freaking out that would make Bill O'Reilly blush. Indeed, just today, the great Kos, who I hardly ever read anymore because of this kind of bullshit, referred to Dennis Kucinich as "a little prick" simply because the Democratic Representative from Ohio will probably vote against health care reform legislation for progressive reasons.

Here are some real rules. The President can criticize whatever and whoever the fuck he wants. Legislators can support whatever fucking piece of legislation they want. And I can vote for whoever the fuck I want. I mean, it's cool, necessary even, to be critical of votes and political positions on their merits. But this bullshit that equates reasonable political speech and action with some kind of rule or law violation is nothing short of anti-American. That is, it's way bad for our democracy. It doesn't do anything to improve knowledge and understanding of important issues for average ordinary citizens; actually, it confuses knowledge and understanding.

Why are the loudest voices in our public discourse so fucking stupid?

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