The Values Voters summit sure is giving us an unfiltered look inside the conservative mind, and thus far, it shows pure hatred for this thing we have called "democracy".
Perkins & Levin at #VVS13 now say we should get rid of the 17th Amendment: direct election of Senators
— @RightWingWatch
Mark Levin is upset that John McCain, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine answer to voters and not their state legislatures #VVS13
— @RightWingWatch
With 20 of the GOP's 46 senators (soon to be 45 courtesy of New Jersey) packed in just 12 southern states, the party's national appeal withers by the day. Remember the Rule to Rule all Rules: if Democrats vote, they win. So the only way Republicans win is if we don't turn out, or if Republicans increase barriers to voter participation. And what better way to disenfranchise voters than to eliminate popular election for an entire chamber of Congress?
This is about as unmitigated an expression of disdain for democracy as you can get. They know their country is trending away from them. They know they are outnumbered. So now they want to change the rules of our democracy.
Levin: "the left knows they run the country" and use a "top-down, authoritarian, centralized method" #VVS13
— @RightWingWatch
Not sure "the left" runs anything, but yes, Democrats have most of the government, and they
should have the House if we were a truly representative democracy. But even though the GOP has stacked the game against us in the House, even their aggressive gerrymandering might not save them in 2014.
And that's what democracy is. Conservatives are suddenly fond of bleating about how this is a Republic blah blah blah minority rights blah blah blah. Yet in the House today, a majority supporting a clean continuing budget resolution can't get a vote.
But in any case, "minority rights" doesn't mean what they think it means: an equal voice in making decisions. Or even more accurately, "the right to have everything go my way otherwise the world economy GETS IT!"
Cruz: House GOPers shut down the government because they are "listening to the people"
— @RightWingWatch
If we've learned one thing the past week, it's that what Ted Cruz and his allies are fighting for is
the exact opposite of what the American people want. A truly democratic (small "d") party would take into consideration the deep antipathy for defunding Obamacare and shutting down the government and risking default. But Republicans aren't listening to "what the American people want". They are listening to the histrionics of their dwindling, hysterical base—the discredited fringe of the minority.
All that in just a single morning. Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised, as the Christian Right is inherently undemocratic—there is, after all, nothing more autocratic than the "word of God". And religious fundamentalists have no interest in compromising on their theology, whether their method of destruction is an AK-47 or a government shutdown.
In any case, one last bit of hilarity, from a suddenly self-aware conservative:
I remember when Value Voters was "Road to Victory" #mortalitycheck #VVS13
— @kathrynlopez