This clip begins with Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Where Do we go From Here?” (“Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”), winds its way through mush needed snark about the recent Newt Gingrich quote about passage of health care reform (“They will have destroyed their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years”) (Newt’s clarification is a doozie too), and lands on the question that has starred in some of our country’s most historic (and violent) moments and is once again at the forefront of every public policy and political discussion: Do we want a government that does something, or don‘t we?
Rachel Maddow: “Actually, doing health reform is a demonstration that government is not just for show. Government is for fixing problems. We have a government, not just to give people shiny political celebrity high-profile jobs so they can win popularity contests against other people who want shiny political high-profile jobs. We have a government to work on problems that we have as a people, as a country, problems that aren‘t working themselves out intrapersonally or in the marketplace. Government is for something. We have one for a reason.”
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[...] People – Tennessee’s Most Precious Resource The argument at the center of almost every debate in the Tennessee legislature right now is the same argument happening all over America – do we want a government that does something or don’t we? [...]
[...] The argument at the center of almost every debate in the Tennessee legislature right now is the same argument happening all over America – do we want a government that does something or don’t we? [...]
[...] Corker is one of the guys in a “shiny political celebrity high-profile” job that wants to actually get something done. Too bad he picked the wrong party to [...]
Beth – If you can’t watch it here, the link to the video is http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/35994731%2335994731.
Don’t be obtuse, Slarti. The quote above (which by the way, Amy, is only one small part of the video – as is the Gingrich quote) and the focus of the piece is about fixing the problems of the country that haven’t been able to be fixed before. Fixing problems – not exploration nor persecution.
The Rachel Maddow video is about some garbage spewed from Newt Gingrich’s mouth the other day.
He doesn’t represent many people, he is a political has-been. If people still thought well of him then he’d be in office and not teaching. He will never make it to a leadership office in the GOP as an elected official.
But if that’s all Maddow has to hold up then big woop, Newt was off in ‘94 and he’s still off in ‘10.
Is there a video attached to this, Mary? I can’t seem to launch it.
[...] Bios Do We Want a Government That Does Something, or Don‘t We? [...]
I think the question is really “Do we want a government that does EVERYTHING, or don’t we?:
“All bad precedents began as justifiable measures” — Sallust
It was true before the fall of Rome and it will be true 2,000 years from now.
Well, technically, a government putting people on the moon and a government putting people into gulags are both “doing something”.