Foolish consistency: the hobgoblin of little minds

If elected Democrats in DC had any spine or principles, or if they had a leader in the White House -- and given the evidence, I'm not optimistic that they have any of those things -- they would take a cue from this Rachel Maddow segment (thanks for the link, Gaius Publius) and ban forever from their lexicon the term 'tax cuts' when discussing Republican tax proposals. Instead, the Dems should refer only to 'tax shifts' from the working and middle classes to the rich. Make Republicans defend 'tax shifts' from working people to the wealthy, then sit back and watch the fun!

In a similar vein, after reading this post from ThinkProgress today, I wondered: Republicans rail against government intervention in the marketplace (requiring people to buy health insurance or mandating more fuel-efficient cars, for example), but they have no qualms about taking taxpayers' money and handing it over to businesses that have not otherwise earned it. If a business cannot provide quality goods or services that attract customers, then why should government force those same consumer-taxpayers to subsidize such businesses? If Dems would persistently pose the question, it would be fun to watch Republicans make a case FOR government intervention in business.

These are just two more examples of many messages that the Dems might use to good result if they could just maintain more discipline than a herd of cats.

But recall what Ralph Waldo Emerson said: 'A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.'

In our current political climate, the quote applies to both parties, but for different reasons. Republicans maintain the foolish consistency -- or better, the fraudulent one -- that they favor small government, low taxes and free enterprise. But the only reason the GOPers succeed in this delusion is because most Dems maintain a foolishly consistent faith in bipartisanship and a similar unwillingness to play hardball. And finally, the mainstream media contributes its own foolish consistency to the train wreck this nation has become: it enables the little minds of both parties by fawning over and identifying with the establishment even as it fails utterly to pursue its principle mission: to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.