Recently, I've been back on a punk rock kick. My dedication to the genre waxes and wanes over time. I'm 28 now, which may not be exactly old, but in many ways, punk rock is the province of 15 year olds. It was for me. But occassionally, more complicated and respectable music loses its luster, and much like Joey Ramone & the gang, I have to take it back to basics.
Why do I introduce this diary with that tangent? The Ramones 4th album--in the estimation of some, their last "real" one--was entitled Road to Ruin.
After coming across Texas 1st District Republican Congressman Louis Gohmert's contribution to our national discourse, I can't help but feel that 1978 album title saw it all coming.
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I ran across this on http://andrewsullivan.com. Now, suffice it to say, I do not share much of Mr. Sullivan's political philosophy, but I find him to be an interesting read and an articulate advocate of his position that mixes aspects of classic conservatism and Catholic liberalism, regardless of what he wants to call it.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.co...
To sum it up, here is H.R. 6615, in all its glory. This is a United States Congressman. This is how he spends his time.
Summary:
To provide for the transport of the enemy combatants detained in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Washington, D.C., where the United States Supreme Court will be able to more effectively micromanage the detainees by holding them on the Supreme Court grounds, and for other purposes.
And from the text:
If either the Secretary of Defense or any justice of the Supreme Court refuses to carry out their duties under this Act, then their respective department or court shall receive funding for the next fiscal year at half the level of funding appropriated for the current fiscal year, or until such time as the Supreme Court no longer desires to micromanage the prisoners who have sworn to destroy our way of life.
I have a graduate degree in history, and am currently in my second year of law school. This offends me. It doesn't offend me because it's a potential political reality--this Congressman is a clown, and has chosen to treat his office like a barnyard. This is joke legislation that, theoretically, embarrasses the position of his opponents.
No, it doesn't. It embarrasses the United States House of Representatives. It embarrasses the very idea of peoples' legislators. It doesn't embarrass Mr. Gohmert, I'd imagine, because he's clearly too stupid to feel shame.
It offends me as someone who has read the thoughts and accomplishments of some of our political thinkers, past and present--not only those with whom I sympathized and agreed, but those whom I reviled and who may have, for short or long periods, made our country worse. But at least--from James Madison to John C. Calhoun, from Robert M. LaFollette, Sr. to Robert Taft, from Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Antonin Scalia, it is at least possible to gleen something about the different political philosophies of different people in different periods, even those ideas that make me ill and seem so intellectually porous (you can guess who falls into which categories in the list above).
But what is someone to make of this? What sort of person, elected to represent his district, uses his office for something so...so...SILLY. Designating the 3rd week of October National Lactaid Week would be less silly.
Forget political philosophy for one moment. On "our" side, this would be the equivalent of a congressperson introducing legislation to force Dick Cheney to eat banana splits until he had a tummy ache.
Congressman Gohmert should be ashamed of himself. For his political ideas? Sure, I guess, but that's not what I'm talking about. He should be ashamed for using his office to express to the world what a massive dolt he is. The 1st District of Texas should be ashamed for electing him. His legislative staff should tear up whatever pocket Constitution they keep to remind themselves how much they love this country.
And by the way, he's running essentially unopposed in 2008.
Things like this may not be new. We've had everything from McCarthyism to Freedom Fries. But sometimes, you see a story like this...a small, silly, pointless waste of an elected office...and, well, Road to Ruin indeed.