What I Learned from the Crazy Shutdown

1. They (Tea Party "Conservatives") Learned Nothing.



Listen to them, praising Boehner, going after "Moderate" Republicans, obsessing about how they didn't get any "bright, shiny objects."  Investigating the park service.  They didn't learn a thing.  They seem to have no clue how the rest of the country and the world view them.  They seem to think the only thing wrong was that they lost.



2. The Press Needs More Wonks, Especially on TV.

The thing I like best about this article is how it underlines that when the press cover politics as a horse race, rather than as a political contest that has underlying actual policy and fact ramifications, the easier it is to ignore things that are bats*** crazy.

• False equivalence, 

• Failure to correct inaccuracies in real time, 

• Failure to follow-up on questions that go unanswered or wrongly answered, 

• Shallow reporting on process and policy 

- these things are really bad for our democracy, because they fail to elucidate the important news.  Hire more wonks TV news and Political press/blogs.  Now.



3. The Tea Party Needs Its Credibility Yanked.

By the Republicans.  Now.