IN A PIECE titled “Charlotte-area residents join thousands to take to the streets of Raleigh for massive march” in The Charlotte Observer back on February 8, 2014, local reporter Joe DePriest wrote of the backlash to continued regressive conservative policy-making by Tea Party-oriented officials. He noted that these “Moral Mondays” had begun last spring in response to legislation passed by the state’s Rep*blican-led General Assembly.
“The protests are designed to keep a spotlight on what organizers view as regressive policies, particularly on Medicaid, unemployment benefits, abortion, voting, and education.”
Two days late, an article titled “National Media Blackout Of Saturday’s Huge Moral March In Raleigh” by davej for the Daily Kos (February 10, 2014) addressed the near complete lack of coverage by the corporate media in America of that rather large rally:
“A crowd estimated [to] exceed 80,000 showed up to protest Republican policies in Raleigh, NC. But you wouldn’t know it if you live outside the area. Saturday’s big march, organized by the North Carolina NAACP along with more than 160 partner organizations, was called the Historic Thousands on Jones Street People’s Coalition. There were few reports in any national news outlets. USAToday did carry a report saying there was a crowd of between 80,000 and 100,000 people.”
I received this article among my daily mailings of liberal/progressive newsletters: “Democrats Methodically Stripping Republicans Of Immigration Excuses.” The ‘teaser’ introductory paragraph on the newsletter’s first page stated:
“Throughout the immigration debate, Republicans have run phony excuses for delay, Democrats keep stripping them away, and the process keeps moving forward . . . The only question is: How many more excuses do Republicans have to cycle through before this kabuki dance ends?”
Needless to say, there has really been very little coverage of this and, when there is, it’s always discussed as a bi-partisan issue, not yet another Republican obstacle to progress and the will of the people. [And nothing has changed in the intervening months since I wrote this piece but you can check out their Facebook page . . .]
Which is why a December 2011 poll found that 67% of Hispanic voters in the US said they were Democrats, and 20% said they were Republicans. (Wikipedia)
It is literally one of hundreds of such issues where one party is willing to negotiate while the other has no such intentions. Yet that is NOT how it is presented in that damn liberal media of ours.
Also, I hope to Wholly Grommet that the “only question” is meant to be rhetorical, because of these folks don’t know the answer yet, I am not certain that I need their newsletter.
All meaningless! Here is what I want to read in my email: “Democrats Unilaterally Strip Republicans Of Filibuster.” Until then, I am as tired of the Dems’ “kabuki dance” as I have been of the Republican dance for a long long time.
An appearance of conflict
We read the term kabuki dance with less and less frequency as time goes by, but it does appear now and again and it does have a specific meaning stemming from actual events in American history:
“In common English usage, a kabuki dance is an activity carried out in real life in a predictable or stylized fashion, reminiscent of the Kabuki style of Japanese stage play. It refers to an event that is designed to create the appearance of conflict or of an uncertain outcome, when in fact the actors have worked together to determine the outcome beforehand.
It used by American political pundits as a synonym for political posturing. It acquired this derogatory meaning after drawn out peace-time treaty negotiations between the US and Japan which had extended to 1960, and because Japan, in an effort to shed its image as a global marauder, sent Kabuki theater tours to the US after World War II to sow the seeds of goodwill.” (Wikipedia)
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
