I've watched a couple of episodes of the first season but, frankly, the show is difficult to stomach. Casual brutal sex, illicit quids pro quo, conniving addictive behavior. It's tough.
DC's raunchy alcohol & drug soaked celebrity culture, on the contrary, is enjoying their notoriety being depicted in House of Cards.
The word is our Manchurian Candidate is obsessed with it, as he is with many other shows, and has admired Frank Underwood, the murderous Majority Whip, as a guy who "really gets things done."
Since Obama doesn't appear to have time to attend national security meetings about the Russian takeover of Ukraine, etc, and we know he's obsessed with quite a few television shows and golf, it's really no surprise that he'd think House of Cards is worthy his time as the most powerful leader in the world, a position he seeks to diminish.
Always easy to release pictures and information about himself, rom the Hollywood Reporter, we learn that he is also an avid fan of Homeland, The Wire, Game of Thrones, Downton Abbey, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men.
And then there's True Detective ("“I wish things (in Washington) were that ruthlessly efficient,” the president once joked.), Modern Family, Parks and Recreation, Sports Center, Real Housewives, Glee.
He's also golfed 163 times since he took office. That's every 11 days for at least 4 or more hours. That's hard work!
So television may be the perfect escape for him since we've been told repeatedly by even Democrats that he hasn't lifted even a limp pinkie to build relationships abroad or at home; instead he has nurtured hatred between the classes and races, which explains the increased domestic anxiety and America's lack of influence in world behaviors.
The current president surely favors certain groups of people, showering them with tax credits and taxpayer dollars, some of which are often funneled back into his campaign coffers, while punishing those with whom he disagrees, using his high office to persecute them in myriad ways, even while the Left hoots and mocks their travails.
All in all, the state of affairs in DC is pretty damn depressing; the DC political elites--the ugly Hollywood--do not scurry fearfully from the revolting debasement of the American dream and human perversion depicted in the House of Cards: they celebrate it.
This is how separated and elite they feel. They eat out our substance and harass the people, subverting liberty and equality, creating an inequality never before seen in this country through graft and theft.
I have been a critic of Peggy Noonan on occasion; she was at first seduced by the "Obama promise," craving the parties and not wishing to be left out of the new wave of hope and change washing America.
It took her a few years, but it looks like she's finally figured out just how bad this bunch is. I guess millions of ordinary Americans marching on DC wasn't enough. Now she's imagining what it's like to be us, out here; that is, those of us who pay the bills for their parties and get nothing but disrespect and more regulations in return.
But she's right about House of Cards and our corrupt politicians' shameful attraction to it.
Writing at the WSJ in "Our Decadent Elites" she says:
They’re making their videos, holding their parties and having a ball. OK. But imagine you’re a Citizen at Home just grinding through—trying to do it all, the job, the parenthood, the mowing the lawn and paying the taxes. No glamour, all responsibility and effort. And you see these little clips on the Net where the wealthy sing about how great taxpayer bailouts are and you feel like . . . they’re laughing at you.
What happens to a nation whose elites laugh at its citizens?The cost of flying Air Force One has risen to $230,000 an hour; the cost of supporting the Obamas in the style to which they have become accustomed--only racist Americans would question the amount--has risen to $1.4 billion last year, while it cost $57.8 million to support England's entire royal family.
A full time movie projectionist sleeps at the White House in case someone wants to watch a movie?
That probably makes sense, considering our Manchurian Candidate's schedule.
Again in another Noonan article, she says:
We are suffering in great part from the politicization of everything and the spread of government not in a useful way but a destructive one. Everyone wants to help the poor, the old and the sick; the safety net exists because we want it. But voters and taxpayers feel bullied, burdened and jerked around, which again is not new but feels more intense every day. Common sense and native wit tell them America is losing the most vital part of itself in the continuing shift of power from private to public. Rules, regulations, many of them stupid, from all the agencies—local, state, federal—on the building of a house, or the starting of a business. You can only employ so many before the new insurance rules kick in so don't employ too many, don't take a chance! Which means: Don't grow. It takes the utmost commitment to start a school or improve an existing one because you'll come up against the unions, which own the politicians.The incomparable American military historian and classics professor Victor Davis Hanson, who also happens to be a conservative Democrat, wrote a column at NRO that I have not been able to drive from my mind.
In it, he describes a satirical parody called Satyricon written by a Roman soldier about the degeneration of the Roman elite to lascivious corruption.
Davis draws parallels to today's American culture, both political and moral. Here is a bit regarding the stretching of the culture, but the entire brief piece is well worth reading:
Transvestitism and sexual ambiguity are likewise Petronian themes; in our day, the controversy rages over whether convicted felon Bradley Manning is now a woman because he says he is. The politically correct term “transgendered” trumps biology; and if you doubt that, you are a homophobe or worse. As in the Roman Satyricon, our popular culture also displays a sick fascination with images of teen sex. So how does one trump the now-boring sexual shamelessness of Lady Gaga — still squirming about in a skimpy thong — at an MTV awards ceremony? Bring out former Disney teenage star Miley Cyrus in a vinyl bikini, wearing some sort of huge foam finger on her hand to simulate lewd sex acts.The glitterati are bored, seeking nothing but something, trying to fill Pascal's God-shaped space with wacky stories, gods and false religions, lying about being informed, declaring that there is no truth. That morals change as easily as mores. That Christianity is mythology, the Constitution passe.
Now, here's the thing.
I think many of us have grown more than a little despondent at what the Left and Obama's hordes are doing to this country. It appears at this writing that Obama is more concerned even now with "happy hour at the DNC" than the deterioration of the world around us.
This is all part of the Left's--and particularly Obama's-- approach to demoralizing the parts of the country who disagree with him:
- He deliberately promises lies.
- He encourages his fanatical followers, while spitting venom at his "enemies," usually toffing the attack with a sneering smile for the cameras.
- As the economy has continued to struggle, he throws American tax dollars away with abandon, indulging in frequent Hollywoody parties, vacations costing $100 million, hen and his wife taking separate jets and indulging in "elite" activities while charging it to the taxpayers.
- He spends no time building relationships with world leaders, his party leaders or the opposition leaders.
- He minimizes terrorism by ignoring an event or appearing in golf clothes to first give a "shout out" to some obscure figure before acknowledging the event. He disappears, never accounting for his disappearance.
- As the world upheaves, he flies to fundraisers, joking while wallowing in undeserved adulation by addicted sycophants.
- He debases the office of the presidency by appearing on ridiculous low radio shows such as "Pimp with a Limp": he sits on a comedian's couch, goes on "The View" to gushing praise, confers closely with the likes of a criminal like Al Sharpton, occasionally feigning concern about the discomfort of those who suffer from such a poor economy or the mess he has made of health care, only to throw more dollars at ACORN type groups.
When you're a simple retired person like me, the powerlessness of these daily outrages is frustrating. How many televisions can you ruin by throwing a beer can at it? How many holes in the wall can you fix?
To my mind, there's no doubt things are changing fast.
And, to be honest, capitalism sucks too.
It's just that capitalism sucks least of all the systems on the planet.
So we may be worried that America sucks right now, but, to my mind, it sucks least of all the other places on the planet.
Do we get back to where we were?
Growing up in the peace that followed WW2 was idyllic for many of us who are now retired. We only wish the same for our grandchildren.
The purpose of this blog is to inform and, at times, we hope, to encourage. Probably this post isn't one of those encouraging messages but there is hope.
What is most remarkable to me is how asleep some people are to what is happening.
Conversely, it is more remarkable to me is how awake many people are, something I haven't seen in my lifetime.
...when you think of all the Tea Partiers who have sacrificed, who work for the cause of saving the country.
...when you think of the (few, admittedly, but soon there will be more) politicians who are willing to stand against Obama's House of Cards.
...when you think of the governors around the country who are holding the line as best they can against people like an attorney general who encourages ignoring the law.
...when you think of all those young men and women who have voluntarily offered to serve this great country in the miserable hell holes they are in.
...when you think of these things,that we seek to "fulfil the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country" and not commit "treason" against our country by keeping "back our opinions," and that "there is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations."
...when you think on these things, there's little room for compromise and discouragement.
...not when people like Scott Allegrini, successful or not, have taken the risk of running for office;
...not when the Northwest Ohio Conservative Coalition didn't exist a few years ago.
...or the Toledo Tea Party.
...or all the other Tea Parties around the country.
...not when so many people of color have chosen to take the risk of Leftist (re: Hollywood, the media, the political establishment) repudiation and mockery to state clearly their support for conservatism and smaller government.....Ben Carson, Star Parker, Mia Love, Artur Davis, Tim Scott...
There are many reasons to be hopeful about the future of this country.
Obama's House of Cards WILL come tumbling down.
Tea Partiers stand for this:
Not this
I like your panoramic view. I'm aware that politics is a reflection of our culture but I can't tie all that together in a post.
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