The Republican To-Do List

Cognitive dissonance to the max: Republicans claim there’s a “war” on the season of giving, and yet it is they who do most of the fighting themselves.

6 Reasons Why Compassionate Conservatism Doesn’t Exist

The Article: 6 reasons there’s no such thing as compassionate conservatism by Dave Johnson in Salon.

The Text: The word is out that Republicans are attempting to rebrand themselves as compassionate conservatives (again). “Compassionate conservatism” is a term that typically comes up after Republicans have taken things to such an extreme that the country is revolted and tries to push them and their nasty ideology of greed and hate aside. George W. Bush famously resorted to using this term to campaign for president after Republicans disgraced themselves with anti-Clinton conspiracy theories, witch hunts and the unpopular impeachment. Of course, Bush is best known for Iraq and Katrina. And now we have a budget “deal,” courtesy of Paul Ryan, that drops unemployment benefits for 1.3 million long-term unemployed. Earlier in the week, Senator Rand Paul said helping the unemployed does them a “disservice” because it keeps them from getting jobs.

Yet Paul Ryan still had the gall to claim the mantle of “compassionate conservatism.” Paul Ryan? That Paul Ryan? Compassionate?

Last month, a Washington Post fluff piece titled, “Paul Ryan, GOP’s budget architect, sets his sights on fighting poverty and winning minds,” portrays Ryan as trying to steer Republicans away from the angry Tea Party and toward a “more inclusive vision.” Yes, the Paul Ryan of the infamous “Ryan Budget,” also called the “Path to Prosperity” and passed by House Republicans, that privatizes Medicare, repeals Wall Street regulation, wipes out student loans, repeals Obamacare, guts Social Security and dramatically reduces taxes for the wealthy and corporations. That Paul Ryan.

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Diane Ravitch On Education Reform

In case you were unaware, Diane Ravitch is an education policy big leaguer who worked to advance the cause of both charter schools and No Child Left Behind. She’s experienced a major turnaround as of late, saying that she “no longer [believes] that either approach will produce the quantum improvement in American education that we all hope for”, and that at the end of the day, it’s poverty–not teachers–that’s the biggest indicator of low academic performance. Kudos to Ravitch for having the strength of character to admit when she’s wrong; plenty of others in DC could benefit from her example.

Don’t Get Your Hopes Up On Pope Francis

The Article: Pope Francis Is Person of the Year. Fans Still Shouldn’t Get Their Hopes Up by Damon Linker in The New Republic.

The Text: It is natural to judge a man by the car he drives, or is driven in, especially when the man happens to be the Pope. On the evening of March 13, 2013, a short time after the College of Cardinals elected him the two hundred sixty-fifth successor to St. Peter and leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, Jorge Mario Bergoglio surprised Church authorities and the international press corps by eschewing the papal limousine provided for his use and instead riding back to his hotel by bus. Since then, he has swapped out the armored Mercedes SUV that ferried his predecessor to events in favor of a far less fancy make and model. Pope Francis’s Pope-mobile is sometimes a Ford Focus.

The gestures have continued. The Pope who took his papal name from Saint Francis of Assisi, an apostle to the downtrodden, has urged admirers from his native Argentina to donate money to the poor instead of spending it on a trip to pay their tributes in Rome. He has chosen to reside in the Vatican’s modest guesthouse rather than the comparatively lavish Apostolic Palace and makes it clear that he prefers to carry his own bags. On Holy Thursday, Pope Francis washed the feet of two women in juvenile detention, one of whom was a Muslim, breaking from the tradition that restricts the ritual to men and mostly to priests in the Vatican entourage.

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Who Do We Blame For Our Broken Society?

Blaming the disenfranchised for ruining society is like blaming a hearse for the death of your aunt. The disenfranchised and poor are an effect of a broken society, not the cause.