I have my charms, sure, but I have to tell you, our publisher Terry Morash is the shit. He’s skilled at concisely cutting through bullshit and separating the critical points from the less-important details.

Example: he directed me to this Washington Post article (via Daily Beast) about the proposed U.S. budget which slashes spending, as per the Republicans’/Tea Party’s (professed) small-government fetish (though of course they want more). Look at this paragraph:

The budget plan offers challenges for Democrats, as well. With voters clamoring for less spending, Obama is proposing cuts that many of his colleagues in Congress will find painful, lawmakers said. A five-year freeze on domestic programs would reduce spending in that category to the lowest level, measured against the economy, since President Dwight D. Eisenhower left office in 1961. Half of all agencies would see their budgets reduced.

Terry’s comment: “They won. They’ve completely rolled back the New Deal.”

The article has more detail and nuance and there are things in it that aren’t terrible but Terry’s right. The Republican Party has essentially managed to destroy the ability of the American government to help ordinary people. They’ve done it through years of sleaze, corruption and Orwellian demagoguery funded by corporations and billionaires and tolerated by tepid media (and completely propagandized by Fox News).

And they’ve poisoned their country against reason, compassion and idealism.

And man, it’s not like the Democrats are anything close to socialists. Not good!