Heroes And Cowards

At The Daily Felltoon, our standing rule on both credit and blame is simple, and hasn't changed since we began five years ago: We'll give credit when it's due, and allot blame when it's been earned.

Lately, many of our colleagues in the media - specifically, the sports media - have been focused on fallen heroes. From Lance Armstrong to Manti Te'o to pretty much all of Major League Baseball - including every media organization and baseball fan [For the record, that's our entire staff too] - the list of so-called heroes that have become an embarrassment has placed a pall over much of the media, with many rhetorically wondering where all the heroes have gone.

The heroes never left. They're just not wearing sports uniforms - and they're surrounded by cowards, unfortunately.

One of our personal heroes this week was in full display yesterday, in both houses of Congress, taking no grief, arrogance, stupidity, or harassment from anyone. That hero is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who not only smacked down preening Republicans looking to grandstand in front of the TV cameras. She even smacked down those right-wing media propagandists who weren't even at the hearings, who've been lying about the attacks in Bengahzi since they happened last September.

We also have to note the heroism today of our American women who serve in combat roles around the world, many of whom have been doing so without official recognition for years. Today, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta will remedy that, as he makes official a change in Pentagon policy that will officially open up combat roles to women.

It's not that women haven't already been serving in combat roles in warzones over most of the last twenty years. It's that American women haven't been able to capitalize on their bravery and sometimes heroic service, by climbing some of the military's highest ranks, or by being recognized for their service in certain roles in all branches of the U.S. Armed Services.

After today, those heroes will finally be equal in every legal way, to every other U.S. service member.

The heroism of both Sect. Clinton and our female service members stand out in stark contrast to the cowardice of Republicans in the U.S. House. After months of threatening to effectively tell the creditors of the United States to go to hell unless Congressional Democrats gave in to the demands of Republicans, House Republicans were the ones to run away from their responsibilities on the Federal budget, by caving and pushing off the deadline on the debt ceiling until mid-May.

Not surprisingly, the Republican cowards in the House claimed their caving in was a win. Too bad they weren't courageous enough to stand in front of the media to take questions about their surrender.

Maybe the Republicans in the House were attempting to act like other so-called heroes, hiding from the cameras until they could get their own moments with Oprah or Katie Couric - though we don't think that kind of confessional would have helped the Republicans any more than it did other so-called heroes.

Over The Cliff

It should come as no surprise to anyone to hear that the latest barely legal, totally unethical con-job from the Republican Party happened on Monday, during the Presidential inauguration festivities in Washington, DC. That the traitorous actions didn't happen at the Federal level also should be no surprise, as we warned you at the beginning of this year, that much of the swindling and chicanery of the modern GOP would happen at the state level this year.

What may surprise some people is that the extremists in the Republican Party are driving the rest of the party off a political cliff - and the rest of the non-nuts in the GOP don't want to go on these political suicide missions.

In case you missed it, the Virginia state Senate, a body divided evenly between Democratic and Republican lawmakers, had one member missing on Monday, state Senator Henry Marsh. Sen. Marsh, a longtime civil rights activist had gone to see the inauguration in Washington, DC in possibly one of his last opportunities to ever do so.

While he was out, the Republicans in the Virginia state Senate rammed through a plan to redistrict the entire commonwealth of Virginia. Their gerrymandered map would effectively make it impossible for Democrats to ever gain control of the state Senate again.

While the far-right Republicans were busy raping the spirit of democracy in the Virginia Senate, they also put forward a plan to permanently change how presidential electoral votes would also be allocated in Virginia. Just like their state redistricting hoax, this second GOP proposed bill would effectively render the voices of the overwhelming number of Virginia voters - who live in the urban and suburban areas of Virginia's cities - permanently silent. Sadly, this is a trick the GOP is trying all over the nation.

There's a phrase for these kinds of actions. It's called cheating, and in politics, it's the last tool of both gutless cowards and shortsighted fools - especially in Virginia.

In Virginia, 2013 is an election year, for both the Virginia House and Governorship. The GOP's leading candidate for this fall happens to be their controversial Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, a man well-known for problematic comments and ideas, including Virginia's invasive and unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound bill. Further complicating political matters, Virginia Republicans currently hold 67 House seats, and they'll need every bit of legitimate political muscle not to lose significant numbers of those seats this fall.

Extreme actions like this are also likely to sink any serious efforts by the current term-limited governor, Republican Bob McDonnell, to get any serious legislation passed this year - a fact McDonnell seemed painfully aware of last week, and a fact that he desperately wants to go away now.

Even with this year's elections hanging precariously in the balance, the far-right nuts in the Virginia state Republican Party quite obviously couldn't care less about trust, ethics, or good governance, as evidenced by their reckless and selfish actions.

If you think this kind of nutbaggery is limited to Virginia, think again. Virginia is just one example of this kind of insanity - and only sane Republicans can stop their extremist members from driving the rest of the party right off the political cliff.

Setting A New Course

While many of our media colleagues are groggy this morning, heads still abuzz with the drinks and festivities of Monday's inaugural events, we write today's commentary with clear eyes and hearts, knowing that we have seen the end of one era in American politics, and the beginning of another.

If you missed it Monday, you should watch the second inaugural address of President Obama before reading the rest of today's commentary. If you pay attention to the words of the President, you will see very clearly a change in the way progress will now be addressed in America.

For most of the last twenty years, our nation has been at war - not just in the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan or with al-Qaeda, but ideologically, with one another, in ways our nation hasn't faced since the Civil War. On issues ranging from climate change and immigration, to LGBT equality and economic inequality, there have been two competing sets of ideas, fought under the dominant ideological labels from the last century, liberal and conservative.

The so-called conservative ideas have increasingly been wielded by media and political bullies over the last twenty years. Their bullying has become a form of political terrorism against anyone who disagrees with their ideology that has involved everything from holding our nation's full faith and credit hostage, to monopolistic media practices, to cheating our electoral system through severe gerrymandering.

During that same twenty year span where conservatives have become abusive jerks, those people who have supported liberal and progressive ideas have often been expected to be gentle, easygoing, and conflict averse, trying to win in more intellectual and indirect ways so as not to have to fight more direct battles.

As President Obama's unapologetic address reminded us on Monday, "We [Americans] have always understood that when times change, so must we." Times have indeed changed, and the days of soft progressivism are over.

In a speech that was more progressive than any he's ever made in his current role, President Obama drew from the founding documents of our nation to call for immediate action on climate change, to insist on investing in our nation collectively through government, and to attack our own severe economic inequalities.

The President also made it clear that our commitment to programs like Medicare, and Medicaid, and Social Security will not waver. Further, he also clearly stated the fact that equality for ALL Americans - men and women, gay and straight, Americans of all ethnic backgrounds - does not make us weaker, but actually has strengthened our nation.

His language directly reflected the kind of strong, centrist, sensible progressivism we have advocated here for years - the kind of real world proven certainty that terrifies bullies.

It's no surprise, then, that the NRA - a textbook example of the kind of bully politics of the right for the last twenty years - has been effectively emasculated by President Obama over the last month. This is evidenced by states around the country following the President's lead in quickly enacting sound gun safety laws. As surely as if a whip-smart woman defanged a misogynistic man with the kind of one-liner a bully doesn't recover from, the 2012 elections showed the NRA to be the nearly impotent lobbying force their lack of electoral wins showed them to be.

In short, America's course has changed from what it's been the last twenty years. Monday, that change was made clear to the world.