MOVED BY PRINCIPLE AND IDEALISM

PJ O'Rourke is completely, thouroughly, and unforgivingly disgusted with the behavior of Republicans, and clearly details all the reasons why. He goes on to say:

I am so moved by principle and idealism, so indignantly high-minded, that I'm changing sides. At least the Democrats aren't hypocritical about being scum. After Gerry Studds was censured for molesting an underaged congressional page, he was reelected six times. Therefore, in the mid term elections, I'm working to get Demo crats into office.

And work it is. There's the problem of putative speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, whose very name summons images of children coming home from day care madly scratching their scalps. Then, when you see Pelosi speak, it's impossible not to think of Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown (ed. note: I guess this image in one's brain is inevitable these days!). I hope her campaign slogan isn't "A New Kick-Off for America."

There is also the problem of issues for the Democrats to run on. You're going to elect Democrats to control government spending? And you're going to marry Angelina Jolie for her brains. The privacy issue--government spying on U.S. citizens--isn't going to work. True, NSA has been collecting all our telephone information, but anyone who's answered the phone during dinner knows that every telemarketer on earth has that information already. Illegal immigration? When the Democrats were in charge, the illegal immigrants were from al Qaeda. And as for Iraq, the best the Democrats have been able to do is make the high school sex promise: "I'll pull out in time, honest."
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No price is too high to pay for principled idealism. And as soon as high-minded indignation has defeated the Republicans, there will be the impoverishment from protectionism, the horror of nuke-wielding petty dictators, and the increased killings by terrorists to prove it. Deep-thinking people will be relieved that Dennis Hastert can no longer cover up misbehavior in the congressional page program.

Gee, I wonder if PJ is being sarcastic or something?

I made much the same arguments in my last two posts. But I wasn't being particularly sarcastic in those posts, and I'm not anywhere near as funny as PJ.

However, like PJ--and most other adults in this country--I generally try to anchor my own principles and idealism (such as they are) to some sort of objective reality.

Hysteria and appeals to emotion are sooooo unbecoming. Just think of Nancy Pelosi.