# Say something nice about a pack of serial extortionists who are turning our gov't into a clown show **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 3, 2013, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980 "2013-01-03T17:48:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/81 "2013-01-05T00:24:18Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Who is “they”? > > I think the distinction is being obscured between conservative politicians and conservative people. I’m talking mostly about the latter, which seem, by election results, to be close to half the population. Be that as it may, what are these people doing, supporting a party that tries to accomplish through this series of extortionate moments, what they can’t accomplish through the conventional process of passing legislation? > [@](#): > > The point again, is that these people exist, however unfortunate you may think this to be. And the same way you fantasize about crushing them, they fantasize about crushing you. Whether or not they fantasize about crushing me, I fantasize about full employment so that they have good jobs, making sure they have Social Security and Medicare still waiting for them when they get old, and seeing to it that they can get affordable health insurance now. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/82 "2013-01-05T01:09:35Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > Who is “they”? > > I think the distinction is being obscured between conservative politicians and conservative people. I’m talking mostly about the latter, which seem, by election results, to be close to half the population. > > The point again, is that these people exist, however unfortunate you may think this to be. The thing is, if ordinary ‘good folks’ support monsters, at some point and to some degree, you’ve got to regard them as culpable, as enablers of evil. Not that I am the least bit interested in vengeance, because I meant what I said in my last post, not to mention that what the Lord says at the end of the book of Jonah is a deep truth. I wait for the Republican Party to have a similar degree of sympathy for the hundred twenty thousand of Nineveh who cannot tell their right hand from their left, but their attitude seems to be punitive towards anyone who ever made a bad decision in life. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2013, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/83 "2013-01-05T05:12:46Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > **Say something nice about a pack of serial extortionists who are turning our gov’t into a clown show** :dubious: Now, that’s just disrespectful! Clown shows are **intentionally** funny! ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/84 "2013-01-06T14:20:26Z")
> [@Fotheringay-Phipps](#): > > If roughly half the country supported those people, there would be reason to say nice things about them too. That might be so, if by “roughly half the country” you mean [less than half the country voted for Republicans](http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-republican-gerrymandering-makes-the-difference-in-the-house/2013/01/04/f6e9bd1e-56a4-11e2-8b9e-dd8773594efc_story.html) in Congress: > [@](#): > > The final results from the November election were completed Friday, and they show that Democratic candidates for the House outpolled Republicans nationwide by nearly 1.4 million votes and more than a full percentage point — a greater margin than the preliminary figures showed in November. And that’s just the beginning of it: A new analysis finds that even if Democratic congressional candidates won the popular vote by seven percentage points nationwide, they still would not have gained control of the House. The House of Representatives no longer represents America. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/85 "2013-01-06T18:06:48Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I don’t know how to civilly state my position, but here goes: I respectfully suggest that fear is the key defining feature of the modern American conservative movement . . . I think that is because they know they are on the decline-end of the long arc of American movement-conservative ascendancy. (The rising-end was in 1964, when they were soundly defeated, but began to realize their potential strength.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/86 "2013-01-06T18:10:19Z")
> [@Truman\_Burbank](#): > > In a democracy (or representative republic, even) there isn’t really such a thing as “settling it once and for all”, is there? Some specific issues can be settled once and for all. Slavery was. Women’s suffrage was. The clock can’t be turned back on those. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/87 "2013-01-06T18:15:55Z")
> [@Richard\_Parker](#): > > I don’t think the apathetic third tunes out because the partisans aren’t belligerent enough. Well, they don’t tune in when the partisans are making nice-nice, do they? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/88 "2013-01-06T20:49:23Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Some specific issues can be settled once and for all. Slavery was. Women’s suffrage was. The clock can’t be turned back on those. You hope. What about all the guys in prison on marijuana charges, working for $1 an hour? The justification for their servitude is smoking pot, not having a black skin, but the result is the same, and neither justification makes a lick of sense. Just because they are tucked away in prison, doesn’t mean they are not enslaved. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/89 "2013-01-08T18:51:17Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I think that is because they know they are on the decline-end of the long arc of American movement-conservative ascendancy. (The rising-end was in 1964, when they were soundly defeated, but began to realize their potential strength.) Yup, now they are just a marginalized group of well-armed religious fanatics with no respect for the rule of law. What could go wrong? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/90 "2013-01-08T19:57:58Z")
You mean, what else could go wrong that hasn’t already? ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/91 "2013-01-08T20:24:10Z")
Yeah, I think Obama’s second term is when they are going to go really nutty, it’s going to make the healthcare town hall protests look reserved by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2013, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980/92 "2013-01-09T00:21:16Z")
That’s why I really hope they mint the trillion dollar coin, for the entertainment value alone. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-something-nice-about-a-pack-of-serial-extortionists-who-are-turning-our-govt-into-a-clown-show/645980.md?page=4)