Brad Ford continues his tradition of bring to Gordon Howie’s blog ramblings ranging from coded to incomprehensible. In this week’s offering, Ford says something about the Constitution and FDR’s fireside chats being Nazi/Soviet control of the masses. He also suggests that keeping the Articles of Confederation would have given us more leaders like North Carolina State Senator Bob Rucho:
Senator Bob Rucho of North Carolina gives us a glimpse of what leaders may have looked like if the Articles of Confederation, America’s first Constitutionduring its Revolutionary War years, had prevailed. He seems to remind us not to forget that the Declaration of Independence is the quintessential founding manifesto of the American nation, then composed of locally oriented citizens responsible first to their own governors, courts, and other state leaders.
This youthful vision of Revolutionary America lasted for 11 years before central control asserted federalist power once again, now via Washington rather than London. Rucho’s famous Tweet hints at how far we’ve fallen under the managerial elite: “Justice Robert’s pen & Obamacare has done more damage to the USA than the swords of the Nazis, Soviets & terrorists combined” [Brad Ford, “Is Federal Control Consistent with Freedom and Independence?” The Right Side, 2015.07.14].
Hmm… Nazis kill people, Affordable Care Act saves people (evidence here, here, here, and here)… I guess Rucho and Ford must mean something different by “damage.”
I assumed that, since Ford is bothering to blog this Rucho tweet, it’s a new, timely comment aimed at the Supreme Court’s rejection of the King v. Burwell effort to kill the Affordable Care Act. I thought maybe it was a new wrinkle in the states-rights sentiment among disgruntled conservatives, where we go beyond denying the legitimacy of the Supreme Court and declare the whole Constitution is bogus so that states-rights shouters can revert to the Articles of Confederation.
But Rucho issued the tweet in question back in December 2013, long before the King v. Burwell decision. About three weeks later, after being held accountable for his logically and factually indefensible tweet, Rucho abandoned Twitter. His blip about Roberts, Obama, and Nazis has no direct relation to this summer’s Supreme Court rulings. It just gives Ford an excuse to demonstrate his ignorance of or his disgust at (and Brad, I’ll be generous and hope it’s the former) the fact that our deservedly respected Founding Fathers adopted our current, robust Constitution in response to the clear and swift failure of the Articles of Confederation, a radical states-rights experiment, to secure our new nation.
Reading Brad Ford too often requires me to say the obvious: The Constitution works. The Articles of Confederation didn’t. The Affordable Care Act is good. Nazis, Soviets, and terrorists are bad. NOw if only Brad Ford could be as clear in his writing….
Brad Ford and Gordo, you cannot fix stupid.
Wacko.
Why is it that when I read Brad Ford, Gordon Howie, or Sibson for that matter, I hear Dueling Banjos?
Brad Ford’s problem isn’t just that he’s radical and wrong. It’s that he can’t write. He’s got all these echoes of right-wing talk-radio propaganda echoing in his head. When he translates them to paper—er, screen—he hears the echoes of previous speakers and thinks he sounds profound, but his own words by themselves don’t form a coherent essay. His sloppy compositions invariably leave us guessing as to what he’s actually trying to say. The complaints I make above are based on what it appears he is trying to say, but on almost every point, he could say, “I didn’t actually say that.” Independent of our political disagreements, I sincerely wish that Gordon would recognize that Brad Ford is a bad writer who makes The Right Side blog worse on pure literary merit. Gordon needs to review every rough draft from Brad, ask, “Brad, what’s your point here?” and then, if Brad can actually enunciate a point, tell him, “O.K., then sit back down and write that point clearly.”
we all need a good teacher