Sibby and Pat Powers: Republican paranoia at it's finest

In what might be two of the funniest things I read this morning, Sibby goes off on a rant titled "Obama's Marxist religion of fascism" and Pat Powers went on an anti-drug logic-free tirade about medicinal marijuana.

I won't get into any more of Sibby's post than the title - because that's about all I could stomach to read (it was rather painful and devoid of coherent, logical understanding of basic philosophy). I'ma break this down real slow:

1. Marxism and fascism are not religions.
2. Marxism and fascism are separate, opposing political ideologies.
3. Marxism holds that class struggle is the primary catalyst for social change.
4. Fascism holds that complete state control is the best course of action.
4.1 I understand how this may be confused with socialism, but in socialism (which is different than Marxism altogether, but is the base philosophy), the workers control the means of production. In a fascist state, the government controls all means of production - not the workers. Thus, fascism is effectively not socialism.
5. Fascists hate Marxists philosophically for exploiting the state.
6. Marxists hate fascists for exploiting the proletariat.

I could go on, but it just goes to show how jingoism and talking points can strip away any sense of logical, rational argumentation and allow ignorant, fact-devoid, fear-based rhetoric to become acceptable. Maybe turn off the Fox News, put Rush on mute, and go pick up a high school philosophy text book before you rant.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the conservative teeter-totter, Pat Powers goes on to lament the potential passage of new medical marijuana legislation and would simply contend that if this passes, well, all Hell will break loose. Pat must have missed the word "medical" the numerous times it was repeated and confuses "addicts" with cancer patients and "drug dealers" with doctors.

He goes on:

Grade school teachers who teach kids during the day could legally be growing and distributing pot by night - now that’s an example to set for the kiddies

Growing marijuana would still be illegal for personal use. The sheer level of paranoia and avoidance of factual argumentation is appalling. Meanwhile, in the comments of the post, Republican State Senator Lee Schoenbeck shows why serious, educated discussions on this subject escape us - one of our senior statesmen and a potential gubernatorial candidate are content to make jokes on par with a Beavis and Butthead episode while a legitimate, medically prescribed solution for cancer patients, people suffering from debilitating arthritis, glaucoma, AIDs, and many other degenerative diseases and disorders is on the table.

It's a shame to see otherwise intelligent people be so ignorant about a topic. I could go on and on about why marijuana shouldn't be classified as a level one narcotic or why the war on drugs has allowed stigmatization of a plant that's as natural as potatoes and could have serious medical implications. I could go on about the hypocrisy of a society that celebrates alcohol and tacitly condones alcoholism while simultaneously shunning a plant that's safer, less habit forming, and ultimately not as dangerous as the Ward Cleavers of our society would have you believe.

I could, but then again, I'm just a left-wing hack who doesn't know anything.

Big swing and a miss by DakotaWarCollege

Pat Powers is not a progressive. In that, he's apparently reaffirming his objection to progress with his latest scare-tactic post trying to convince us of the evils of the Obama administration's proposed cap-and-trade program.

In which he asserts:

Good gosh - are people thinking they’re getting a bargain by electing Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin? Because in this instance, it seems as if she’s doing little else but to slobber over the Democratic President at the expense of South Dakotans

Thank God we have John Thune to at least raise a voice of dissention that during tough economic times, South Dakotans really aren’t interested in our elected representatives in Washington raising our utility rates just because somebody is “committed to passing a bill.”

So my first qualm (apart from the fact that he misspelled dissension), is that Pat is heralding objection to the President. First and foremost, this smacks of hypocrisy when we champion a man's dissent against the administration who, just a few short years ago, said that dissent and "obstruction" of the President and his agenda would "embolden the enemy."

But secondly, cap-and-trade is a smart, solid plan on which to move our country away from a deadly, dangerous addiction of fossil fuels and is a brave step towards changing the way this country views energy and environmental policy. The ultimate goal of cap-and-trade is to reduce greenhouse emissions and ease us away from the dangerous precipice of the scientifically-proven, immanent climate change.

While Pat and other regressive conservatives will try to scare you into believing that your taxes will skyrocket and you'll be bankrupted if we dare to move forward, the good folks at the Center for American Progress assure us that:

"Initial estimates by the Congressional Budget Office project that an economy-wide cap-and-trade program would generate at least $50 billion per year, but could reach up to $300 billion. Approximately 10 percent of this revenue should be allocated to help offset costs to businesses and shareholders of affected industries. Of the remaining revenue, approximately half should be devoted to help offset any energy price increases for low- and middle-income Americans that may occur as a result of the transition to more efficient energy sources."

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office's research shows us that this transition to a more environmentally-friendly energy policy won't be as painful as Pat might lead you to believe. And Pat Powers? Let's just say that if this was the turn of the last century and Henry Ford was trying to sell you on this newfangled "automobile", Pat would be the one telling you that horses were the way to go. Progress isn't always easy. And I understand that it can be scary, but we ought not let fear of change dim the future of this country.

We need to take environmental policy seriously. We only have one planet. Once it's gone, it's gone.

I applaud Congresswoman Herseth Sandlin for her bold support of such a practical, progressive, and common sense policy.