Sunday, June 24, 2012

The Lion and The Ram ~ Gillespie & Maddow ~ Partisan?

It was fun to see "the lion" and "the ram" go head to head a couple of times, or more, on Friday evening's Real Time.

The Lion with Sun and Venus in Leo: Nick Gillespie of Reason.com and Reason TV (an "independent" libertarian). The Ram with Sun and Venus in Aries: Rachel Maddow, MSNBC talking head with a nightly show supporting just about anything the president and Democrats say or do.

I no longer watch MSNBC (bad for my BP!) In the days when I did watch, when Rachel Maddow's show first aired, in 2008, I wrote a post about her and her natal chart. That was before the political scales dropped from my eyes. I still enjoy hearing Rachel speak when interviewed outside of her show, but feel now much as Nick Gillespie indicated. He accused Maddow and Maher of being partisan. Well DUH!! They are. Maher gave President Obama's campaign fund $1 million cheque recently. In Maddow's professional eyes Democrats and President Obama can do no wrong. We have no means of knowing how she really feels.

Nick Gillespie asked Rachel Maddow to name a Republican she likes or would choose over a Democrat. Rachel didn't answer. Bill Maher said that it was an unfair question. Had it been 20 years ago, he could name one. But Republicans of today are so far gone that there is a lack of options, he said.

Gillespie went on thoughout the show to try to dominate the conversation, talking over everyone else - all the time. I rolled back my initial positive reaction.

(NOTE: The matter under debate on Friday when the "spat" began was the recent refusal of Attorney General Eric Holder to hand over certain documents related to Fast and Furious - a federal operation allowing weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers so the arms could be traced to the higher echelons of Mexican drug cartels. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which ran the operation, lost track of hundreds of firearms, many of which have been linked to crimes, including the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010 and some 200 Mexicans.)

Partisan in political context = a committed member of a political party. The term often carries negative connotation, referring to people who wholly support their party's policies and remain reluctant to acknowledge correctness on the part of their political opponents in almost any situation.

Talking heads - all of them, including Bill Maher, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert as well as the MSNBC and Fox crowd are there to serve a single purpose - support for the two political establishments in the USA, to keep the controversy going, keep the country divided. They are, have to be, partisan. They never, never criticise their own or acknowledge anything or anyone who might be saying or doing anything halfway decent from the other "team".

If the people of USA, or most of them, would simply stop with the partisanship it could be the start of something interesting. If they'd only be willing to see through what's really going on, throw away their team shirts, stop labelling themselves and others.

Am I partisan? Not with regard to Republican/Democrat - I'm neither. But could I name someone from the right who I admire (bearing in mind that I'm about as left as you can go without falling off the edge of the USA)? Well.... I 'd name Jon Huntsman, Republican, as a guy I'd have felt quite comfortable voting for in the presidential election, had he been given the support he should have received to obtain the nomination.

On a lighter(?) note - we came across this sign outside a gas station, just across the Red River in Texas, on Friday ~~


My immediate comment: Will someone please tell both of 'em that they ought to be doing a better job?!

4 comments:

R J Adams said...

Hear, hear! Of course, Huntsman never made it (or came close) because his appeal to the left disqualified him in the eyes of the right. Definitely not corporate enough. Like you, I gave up MSNBC a long time ago.
I wonder if the gas station sign will stay, with a changed name, if Obama loses? 'No Ethanol' sounds like a bonus to me. What on earth does 'THUNDER UP' signify?

Twilight said...

RJ Adams ~~ If Obama loses I'm sure they'll have some other message ready and waiting with which to enlighten us. ;-)

I wondered about "Thunder Up" too - don't know -it's probably "code" for some peculiar Texan doings.

Anonymous said...

Thunder up! is a reference to the Oklahoma City Thunder of the NBA

Twilight said...

Anonymous ~ Ah - I see. Thank you!