Saturday, January 24, 2009
PETULANT AND PUSILLANIMOUS
This writer was seventeen, going on eighteen, years of age when he first heard the word “pusillanimous.” This was as an apprentice seaman in a sea of white uniforms, thirty thousand strong, standing at parade rest on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Training Station in San Diego. It was in the midst of World War II.
We were marched onto the parade ground in units and lined up in precision fashion in front of a reviewing stand, and allowed to assume the formal position called “parade rest” while a program ensued. During a part of this ceremony and many others like it later, an officer would step to the microphone of a public address system and read to us the Articles of the Code of Conduct for the U.S. Navy. One of those to which we pledged was that as long as we were still able to fight we would “never surrender nor pusillanimously cry for quarter.”
I did not know the meaning of that term “pusillanimous,” but I knew it was bad. I suspected that it meant cowardly.
I find now that it does indeed mean that. It also means “dastardly” or “mean-spirited.” This is why the adjective seems to apply to the conduct of hard-shell republicans in Congress now. Since “pusillanimous” is one of the worst words I know, I believe it applies to the worst people I know -- those republicans who choose to obstruct, delay, and otherwise hinder the conduct of the business of the nation in crisis.
Another word which has been high on this writer’s list of bad words is “petulant.” He believes that this word also applies to the obstructionist republicans who criticize everything being proposed.
We find that “petulant” means “cranky, puckish, ill-tempered, peevish, fretful, and contemptuous.” Obviously then, “petulant” is a good term to apply to that group of republicans who are against everything any democrat proposes.
This group defies its own more moderate leaders who are willing to move toward the middle and try to make the government work to get something good done for the country. Senator McCain pleaded with his party to stop blocking and delaying tactics on cabinet confirmations. He has asked party members to look seriously at the stimulus proposals before rejecting them.
Unfortunately there are a number of republicans in congress who will not follow more moderate party leaders, as chosen by their own voters, but choose to follow the most cantankerous right wingers in their party. It is sad that these petulant senators and congressmen behave so in expectation of greater political popularity within their own party base.
It is quite clear that the new president has been reaching across the aisle, trying to create bridges for discussion and an exchange of views. If his bi-partisanship efforts fail, then it is equally clear who has chosen the path of dissension, disruption, and obstruction that the American people have rejected. .
If the republican party expects to stay within the mainstream of national politics, rather than be permanently sidelined as a group of cynical fanatics, then they really need to reject that petulant element within their party and move toward a more cooperative, participative, middle stance.
This nation desperately needs some quick, thoughtful, and logical actions taken to pull it away from the abyss -- away from the brink of economic disaster. The new president has gathered the best economic minds in the world, including Nobel prize-winners, to make recommendations. A plan has been put together from that base.
No one knows for sure what will work. But the plan is the best that the brightest can derive. We have to try.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
We were marched onto the parade ground in units and lined up in precision fashion in front of a reviewing stand, and allowed to assume the formal position called “parade rest” while a program ensued. During a part of this ceremony and many others like it later, an officer would step to the microphone of a public address system and read to us the Articles of the Code of Conduct for the U.S. Navy. One of those to which we pledged was that as long as we were still able to fight we would “never surrender nor pusillanimously cry for quarter.”
I did not know the meaning of that term “pusillanimous,” but I knew it was bad. I suspected that it meant cowardly.
I find now that it does indeed mean that. It also means “dastardly” or “mean-spirited.” This is why the adjective seems to apply to the conduct of hard-shell republicans in Congress now. Since “pusillanimous” is one of the worst words I know, I believe it applies to the worst people I know -- those republicans who choose to obstruct, delay, and otherwise hinder the conduct of the business of the nation in crisis.
Another word which has been high on this writer’s list of bad words is “petulant.” He believes that this word also applies to the obstructionist republicans who criticize everything being proposed.
We find that “petulant” means “cranky, puckish, ill-tempered, peevish, fretful, and contemptuous.” Obviously then, “petulant” is a good term to apply to that group of republicans who are against everything any democrat proposes.
This group defies its own more moderate leaders who are willing to move toward the middle and try to make the government work to get something good done for the country. Senator McCain pleaded with his party to stop blocking and delaying tactics on cabinet confirmations. He has asked party members to look seriously at the stimulus proposals before rejecting them.
Unfortunately there are a number of republicans in congress who will not follow more moderate party leaders, as chosen by their own voters, but choose to follow the most cantankerous right wingers in their party. It is sad that these petulant senators and congressmen behave so in expectation of greater political popularity within their own party base.
It is quite clear that the new president has been reaching across the aisle, trying to create bridges for discussion and an exchange of views. If his bi-partisanship efforts fail, then it is equally clear who has chosen the path of dissension, disruption, and obstruction that the American people have rejected. .
If the republican party expects to stay within the mainstream of national politics, rather than be permanently sidelined as a group of cynical fanatics, then they really need to reject that petulant element within their party and move toward a more cooperative, participative, middle stance.
This nation desperately needs some quick, thoughtful, and logical actions taken to pull it away from the abyss -- away from the brink of economic disaster. The new president has gathered the best economic minds in the world, including Nobel prize-winners, to make recommendations. A plan has been put together from that base.
No one knows for sure what will work. But the plan is the best that the brightest can derive. We have to try.
Dr. Edwin E. Vineyard, AKA The Militant Moderate
