Rant alert.

I was listening to Al Franken today. He interviewed John Danforth, the former Senator and current minister who has written a new book chastising American's for being "polarized". Al did a reasonably good job trying to nail Danforth down about some of the differences between what Republicans call bipartisanship and what Democrats call it. Danforth continually tried to walk the middle line with the "a pox on both their houses meme".

I'm sick of this theme. We're hearing it from Boltin' Joe, John McCain, Danforth and other who claim that the "middle" has been abandoned for partisanship .... by both sides.

This is utter nonsense.

For there to be bipartisanship, there has to be mutual respect and trust. For there to be compromise in the middle, there has to be flexibility in the negotiating parties. Whenever you ask these middlers about Republican abuses, they say "both sides" have done it. Can they please point out specifics of how liberals have contributed to this atmosphere of unlaterialism? And how in god's name can Democrats be equally responsible for the lack of bipartisanship WHEN THEY HAVE NO POWER!

Democrats have, since Clinton, been running campaigns based on wooing the middle. Since using this strategy, we've lost the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. And we lost the Presidency to what is generally considered to be one of the stupidest shitheads on the planet! Hell, we only won during Clinton because of Clinton. We've lost while all along, the Republicans have succeeded based on unilateralism and extremist religious policies. The scales of abuse are far from even and I for one and totally sick to death of those who say it.

The "spirit of compromise" cannot return until there are two mature negotiating parties. In psychotherapy offices, we used to joke that you could always tell when a borderline was around. A borderline is a distinct personality type, very very closely related to a narcissist (can you say GW Bush?), that is characterized essentially by a chronic lack of maturity combined with tremendous seductive powers. How could you tell when there was a borderline in the mix? Because everyone else would begin fighting. The whole office. The therapists, the office staff. Everyone. This very fact is an important reason why training non-professional office staff who deal with more than their fair share of these disordered individuals is essential. They're informally labeled "therapist killers" for a reason.

The skills of divide and conquer in the Republican party are precisely the skills of an immature manipulator ... aka a borderline. Note the characteristics of the personality and apply them to Rovian politics:

Relationships with others are intense but stormy and unstable with marked shifts of feelings and difficulties in maintaining intimate, close connections.

Check.

The person may manipulate others and often has difficulty with trusting others.

Check

There is also emotional instability with marked and frequent shifts to an empty lonely depression or to irritability and anxiety.

Check

There may be unpredictable and impulsive behavior which might include excessive spending, promiscuity, gambling, drug or alcohol abuse, shoplifting, overeating or physically self-damaging actions such as suicide gestures.

Double check

The person [party] may show inappropriate and intense anger or rage with temper tantrums, constant brooding and resentment, feelings of deprivation, and a loss of control or fear of loss of control over angry feelings.

Check, particularly the chronic whining over being victimized by everyone else.

There are also identity disturbances with confusion and uncertainty about self-identity, sexuality, life goals and values, career choices, friendships. There is a deep-seated feeling that one is flawed, defective, damaged or bad in some way, with a tendency to go to extremes in thinking, feeling or behavior.

They display no insight, so who knows. But behavior certainly reflects extremes in thinking, feeling and/or behavior.

Under extreme stress or in severe cases there can be brief psychotic episodes with loss of contact with reality or bizarre behavior or symptoms. Even in less severe instances, there is often significant disruption of relationships and work performance.

Check. Nuke Iran anyone? How about that Katrina response?

The depression which accompanies this disorder can cause much suffering and can lead to serious suicide attempts.

Often by those around them. Seriously, aren't Bush, and the Republicans in general, self-destructive?

Sure looks to me like an effective organizational description for the Rovian Republican party. If so, it's important to understand one thing. They can't be reasoned with, they can't be persuaded, they can't be trusted, and they'll never negotiate in good faith. The best you can ever hope for is to contain them so they can do no damage.

As far as I'm concerned, until the Republican party shows signs of purging those who have set up this "personality dynamic" in their party, bipartisanship is simply self-destruction, and national destruction. Democrats would be wise to recognize that they have to stand for something, displaying a mature leadership which will do nothing but highlight the immaturity of the Republicans (rather than competing with Republicans in a childish game of triangulating).

I suspect I'll be referencing this rant in the future as numbskulls like John McCain gain traction in the media, representing the "bipartisanship movement".

Plaaaaaeeeese.

Thank you for reading. Now we return to our regularly scheduled blogging.....