a double dose of political frustration

Yes, I fall on the left side of politics. I'm comfortable with the label of progressive, though I wouldn't be surprised if someone referred to me as liberal or Democrat (though I am not registered to any party). I'll give you two reasons why I am fine with that:

First is Citizens United. I really don't consider it hyperbolic to say that it was the worst Supreme Court decision since Plessy vs. Ferguson. And as we reach the one-year anniversary of the decision, the Washington Post points out that it would likely take a Constitutional amendment in order to reverse this decision, and that is a long and difficult process (which of course would be railed against by special interests funding their campaigning with money now allowed by the Citizens United ruling). And while Republicans love to drum up the talking point about liberal activist judges legislating from the bench, there has been no discernible push-back on Citizens United, a decision that reversed over 100 years of precedent. Seems that legislating from the bench is acceptable as long as the decisions favor your party's interests.

The second item is something that I knew was only a matter of time. The healthcare debate is getting its second go-round in the House right now, though debate is a very loose term here, since it is ultimately proving to be a chance for Republicans to throw out some sound bites, rather than any actual back and forth about effective policy and ideological differences. And it will ultimately prove pointless since enough votes for repeal don't exist in the Senate and Obama would obviously never sign the bill in any case. So for a group of politicians that campaigned on the idea of getting back to the business of helping America recover, the Republican-controlled House has spent all of time since taking office on two items - reading the Constitution aloud and reopening the debate on a bill that they know will ultimately end up with a vote they will lose. I fail to see how either of these actions help Americans recover and move forward, but this is not the worst part of the new debate.

What concerns me most (and what I alluded to before as inevitable, before I went off into a bit of a tangential rant) are the attacks directed at the Congressional Budget Office. The CBO exists specifically to offer non-partisan information to legislative members so that any debate can have specific information to fall back on. Ezra Klein does a great job of showing how Republicans are now beginning to look to discredit the CBO, basically because the CBO did not tell them what they wanted to hear. It's a rather childish approach to having a civilized debate, especially when, as Klein mentions, Republicans "regularly mention the CBO results that they think help their case."

It's things like these that let me feel so comfortable with my political identity.