Item No. 1: The fiscal cliff was a political ploy stupidly invented by the Republicans. . . the same ones currently running the party. When they passed the Bush tax cuts, they agreed to make them temporary because they assumed it would make them look good (and the Democrats bad) if they got to vote for these twice and the Democrats voted against them twice. They never thought that the Democrats might find a way to spin this to their own advantage. This was political incompetence. Anyone who assumes the other side will never be able to spin something to their advantage is an idiot and should not be given responsibility for strategy.
Item No. 2: The Democrats found a politically powerful tool to flip the Bush tax cuts to their advantage – they carved them up into two parts, rich and middle class, and they agreed to support the middle class parts while claiming the Republicans only wanted the rich parts. Rather than recognize the danger and find a counter-strategy, the Republicans embraced the idea of protecting the rich. This was political incompetence.
Item No. 3: This was the most softball election ever for the Republicans and they lost because, among other things, they made themselves into the party of the rich – you can whine all you want about the MSM, but the fact is that conservatives and Republicans have been screaming about protecting “the rich.” Hence, change is needed, and that change is to either expose Obama’s policies or change their image. . . or both.
Exposing Obama entails putting his policies into place and letting them hurt people. We’ve discussed this before and this was the best choice. The Republicans, however, chose not to do this. The alternative strategy was to reboot the party and, if they could find a principle that would actually win over the public, to stand on that principle in the fiscal cliff debate. The Republicans, however, chose not to do that either. What they chose, instead, was to double down on the same policies that cost them six of the last seven elections including the most recent debacle and the fall on their swords to protect the rich from a 3% tax hike. That was beyond political incompetence.
Item No. 4: Having chosen the completely wrong strategy, they then compounded their mistakes with an incompetent negotiation strategy. There was only one goal of the fiscal cliff talks – make sure the other guy got the blame. Obama did this by blaming Republican policies for getting us to the fiscal cliff. The Republicans failed to counter this. He then accused them of being obstructionist. The Republicans failed to counter this. He then added that they were being obstructionist to protect the rich from a tiny tax increase. The Republicans failed to counter this.... actually, that’s not entirely accurate, not only did they not counter this claim, they embraced it: “That’s right, we’re not going to let Obama raises taxes on the rich, even if that means taxes will go up on the rest of you suckers.” That was political incompetence.
Then it got worse.
Item No. 5: The Republicans next demanded that Obama impose serious cuts in entitlements before they agreed to let him tax the rich. In other words, they wanted old people and poor people to be hurt in exchange for letting Obama tax the rich an additional 3%. Do you see the problem with this? They handed Obama an UNBELIEVABLE victory here. He looks like a great guy because he only wants to tax the rich and he only wants to tax them a tiny bit... few people consider a 3% hike to be excessive. He is also the defender of the middle class and the poor, because he’s trying to stop those mean Republicans from raising taxes on them. He is also the defender of the old and the helpless, despite the fact he wants to rape Medicare for $750 million, because he alone is stopping the Republicans from cutting those programs.
F*ck. This was far beyond incompetence.
And it got worse.
Item No. 6: See, Obama did the natural thing when your opponent is an idiot. . . he let the Republicans blow themselves apart. He said, “you give me a proposal.” And the Republicans failed to spot the obvious trap and throw this right back at him. Instead, they started floating ideas. Obama cynically slammed them for each. This shifted the nature of the negotiations. Instead of this being Obama’s mess to fix, it became the Republicans’ mess to fix because they made themselves responsible for coming up with a solution. And in so doing, they now own everything. They own the fiscal cliff. They own the failure of the cliff so far. They will own the spending cuts and the tax hikes that will come out of it. Obama and the Democrats will point to the Republicans as the people who proposed those. They will also own the bad economy that follows because it will be their proposal which will be linked to the bad economic times to follow. (Good economic times will be despite the fiscal cliff, so don’t expect credit if things go right... you don’t get credit for people dodging your bullet.)
The word “debacle” is insufficient, but we’ll use it.
Item No. 7: At this point in the debacle, Boehner finally hit upon a decent idea (though at the wrong time) of proposing the same millionaire tax Pelosi had proposed in the past. On the one hand, this was a smart move because it shows the Republicans aren’t solely concerned with trying to save the ultra rich. BUT the timing is atrocious. Had this proposal been made day one, then it would have been brilliant. Now it’s just one more way for the Republicans to own the crisis.
What’s more, rather than grasp what Boehner was doing, conservatives went insane: “You traitor! You must protect millionaires from a three percent tax hikes! That is our only principle!” Then the Republicans voted down Plan B because they just can’t stand to see a tiny tax hike on millionaires. That is political suicide.
Now, it’s not Boehner’s fault that conservatives are lost. BUT what was his fault was how he handled this. He should have taken this moment to reboot the party. He should have taken this moment to tell the public that the Republicans are no longer beholden to this increasingly fringy conservative sect. He should have brought in people like Christie and Jed Bush and Bobby Jindal to stand beside him and then used Rush Limbaugh as a strawman contrast to redefine the party in a way that is acceptable to the public: “we are not the party of Rush Limbaugh, we care about all Americans.” Dirty, yes? Effective? Hell yes. It’s called “triangulation” and Clinton completely changed the image of the Democratic party doing it - he made them appear moderate in image even as they’ve drifted further and further left.
This was Boehner’s chance to correct all of his prior mistakes and to launch the party into the rhetorical middle-class center for a clean slate fresh start. But he didn’t. He just announced he didn’t have the votes to tax millionaires and he sent everybody home.
Boehner and the rest of the leadership have demonstrated more than a decade of total incompetence – 100% across the board. It is time for them to leave and to be replaced by people who actually understand politics.
FYI, The House passed the fiscal cliff package. I congratulate them on blowing this from every conceivable angle.
ReplyDeleteThe sad truth is that the Republicans lack significant leadership and simply removing Boehner won't solve the problem. Gaining the initiative requires (a) a plan that works and (b) a leader who can espouse that plan to America.
ReplyDeleteLL, I agree. I see no one anywhere near the top who has a clue. And I mean that literally. I think the Republican leadership, top to bottom, simple does not have the ability to grasp how politics works or to understand the country. They could not have played this fiscal cliff thing more wrongly... and it's not the first time, it's par for the course.
ReplyDeleteIf they were a corporation, I would declare bankruptcy so I could purge the entire management and the board.
The only one who even suggests competence at this point is Jindal and I only have suggestions of competence there -- no solid proof.
Keep in mind, at least some of this was fueled by intra-party politics, specifically who's going to be elected Speaker when the new Congress convenes on Thursday. Cantor, for example, may or may not have taken up an oppositional stance on today's bill to win the support of conservatives in the party for that vote, and there's other shenanigans going on as well. Not that that excuses any of it, but it does put things in some context.
ReplyDeleteWho would you want as Speaker of the House?
ReplyDeleteNote: Must be a sitting House member :)
T-Rav, That's true, but honestly, I think they're all incompetent. They blew this from day one several years ago and kept blowing it at every turn. In fact, they went so wrong, so consistently that I am at a loss for understanding how they can't see how incompetent they are... this is ritual-suicide-level failure.
ReplyDeleteWhat's more, it was all of them. Even when they criticized Boehner and the leadership, the criticism offered was generally even more wrong than the wrong approach already being taken. It is honestly shocking the level of sheer idiocy and incompetence on display here. Making decisions using a roll of the dice would have resulted in a better approach.
Here is an interesting tidbit from Breitbart.com:
ReplyDeleteLINK
Kit, At this point, I'm honestly not sure any of them have the brains or skill to be politicians. That's the real problem here. They think wrong as a group, and I can't think of a single one who isn't just part of the groupthink bubble.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to pick one, it would be Paul Ryan simply because he has street cred with conservatives, and thus can change the direction of the groupthink bubble, and because I suspect he's capable of being de-retarded. On the downside, I think he lacks the cynical nature to do the job the way it needs to be done, but maybe that can be beaten into him.
Honestly, I think the entire party in DC simply has been raised the wrong way with a totally false understanding of America and of politics.
Kit, On getting rid of Boehner, the problems really do run deeper than that. There is a fundamental problem within the party and the conservative movement. Both are blind to why they are despised in America today and they think the solution is to just do what they did to become hated... only harder.
ReplyDeleteSo. . . Jindal 2016?
ReplyDeleteKit, Sadly, no, I can't say that. Jindal said some of the right things initially, but I need to see a lot more follow through before I can believe that he really understands the kind of fundamental change that is needed to revive the party and the ideology.
ReplyDeleteI haven't yet seem him take on conservatives and slap them back to reality. I haven't seen him propose new ideas which would appeal to the majority of Americans. And I haven't seen him demonstrate the level of cynicism that is needed to win the ideology war in the media age.
He's taken baby steps in the right direction, but I need to see more.
He's done good work in reforming Louisiana, from what I hear.
ReplyDeleteI hear that too. And I was impressed with what he said right after the election. He seemed to "get it." So I am hopeful. BUT I need to see more before I am ready to say that he's the man.
ReplyDeleteTo really turn this ship around will require someone who can basically (1) come up with new ideas, (2) slap down two decades of truly wrong "ideology" that has taken on KoolAid levels of lunacy, and (3) be ultra cynical in how they are prepared to present the party and in throwing people under the bus who stand in their way, i.e. a genuine politician.
I'm not sure yet that he can do any of those things. I think he's made the right first steps on No. 2, but that's about it.
P.S. Kit, to give you a sense of the problem, at the same time Boehner was making these mistakes above, talk radio, the pundits, and various conservative politicians were out there screaming like idiots that Boehner wasn't making these mistakes strongly enough. Basically, they want his head for not making a stand to the death to defend the rich or for not demanding enough cuts in unemployment insurance and medicare.
ReplyDeleteIf I were a liberal trying to destroy conservatism, I could not imagine a more ideal scenario than this. I would be giddy right now if I was in charge of the Democratic Party.
Andrew, if I may respond to what you said to Kit, cynical is not enough. I think the current GOP is handsomely divided between cynics and ingénues. What is lacking is shrewdness. Maybe I'm being nitpicky about the language, but I think the distinction is important. Plus, one cannot be shrewd without being cynical, but in a positive manner.
ReplyDeleteYour point is well taken, though, that there is a woeful lack of political imagination in the Republican party. Right-wing political development goes straight from naïveté to jaded. When speaking to people directly involved in Republican politics, I hear a lot of what can't be done and very little about what can.
LOL! I should have followed Kit's LINK sooner! The lead on the story says it all:
ReplyDeleteHouse Republicans have banded together in an effort to unseat House Speaker John Boehner from his position--they just need a leader to take up the mantle.
That's the issue: the GOP keeps identifying problems without offering solutions. If the article is accurate, Boehner's position is safe simply due to lack of organized opposition.
Actually, Kit, you don't have to be a sitting House member to be Speaker. That's an interesting quirk of the rules. That's also why there have been people recently talking about replacing Boehner with Newt Gingrich or--er, Jon Huntsman.
ReplyDeleteSorry I'm late guys, I seem to have encountered food poisoning.
ReplyDeleteNewt Gingrich or Jon Huntsman? So they're basically looking to reenact the 2012 primaries now?
ReplyDeletetryanmax, I think you're right that shrewd is a key word here. They need someone who is shrewd enough to see the opportunities that present themselves and cynical enough to seize those opportunities even when other conservatives are whining like children that they see the plan as a betrayal.
ReplyDeleteThey also need someone who can look beyond the conservative blinders and realize that the country doesn't see conservatives as heroes and doesn't just blinding accept conservative ideology... if only someone would use the magic words of truth.
Politics is about winning influence, not waiting for the public to recognize your genius.
tryanmax, That is the problem with conservatism and Republicanism in a nutshell. They no longer have a genuine ideology, and the problem is that no matter how much they try to separate themselves into purists and heretics, the truth is they all believe the same faulty ideas. In effect, all the infighting is over splitting hairs on ideas that are nonsense.
ReplyDeleteSo replacing Boehner doesn't actually get you anything because the new guy, whoever he is, will have the identical faulty thought process.
T-Rav, Shoot me now. Moon Unit Gingrich or Weasel Huntsman? Arg.
ReplyDeleteWe would be better off with a Magic 8 ball.
tryanmax, When you don't have idea what to do next... repeat what you did before and pray for a different result.
ReplyDeleteAndrew, I agree with you. Although it sounds good in theory that many taxes won't go up, there are some choice ones that the Democrats will pound Republicans into the ground on. Take for example the expiration of the payroll tax cut. It was a stupid and expensive cut in the first place and had to go, but the Democrats will easily use the media to push this as an assault on the middle class by a heartless Republican party (even though most Dems voted for this bill).
ReplyDeleteSince the amount of new taxes generated will be far less than Obama wanted ($1.6T versus $400B), the Democrats will be able to claim that the bill failed because it didn't go far enough. The media have already laid out the Republican obstructionism theme (despite Harry Reid being the chief obstructionist), so the Republicans have already lost this war. The economy won't improve until spending and debt are brought under control, and this won't happen as long as Obamacare stands, green energy cronies exist, and unions clamor for pension bailouts.
You're right, the only principled stand the Republicans could have made would have been to give the Democrats what they wanted to show the public the true disaster of their policies.
We're already in free fall over the fiscal cliff and Obama offered to rocket boost us into the ground. Republicans have approved a bill that opens a cocktail umbrella.
wahsatchmo, It's frustrating, but this is again Charlie Brown and the football... only worse. The Republicans go into these things looking to do what's right for the country, not what's right for the party. And they get slaughtered.
ReplyDeleteAnd in this case, as so often before, they adopted the worst possible strategy. They gave the Democrats all they needed to paint the Republicans as (1) defenders of the rich, (2) taxers of the middle class, and (3) Grinches who want to cut spending on old people and the unemployed.
At the same time, they let themselves be painted as obstructionists for these stunning stupid goals. So now, when the tax numbers don't come in as "expected" (of course, they won't), the Republicans will take the blame for stopping Obama from getting what he wanted. Every cut in any program will be laid at their feet as well. It's the worst possible outcome.
And when the economy continues to sour because we are repeating the Great Depression, the Republicans will be seen as the cause for causing the fiscal cliff for political reason, obstructing a solution, and ultimately standing in the way of Obama's policies.
They could not have played this more wrongly.
And yet, there are only a handful of people out there who get this and are making sense. Instead, the "in thing" to do is to berate the Republicans for giving in on these "principles." Huh?
This is all beyond the point of idiocy and almost needs to be considered parody at this point.
Hey, don't count me out of the running!
ReplyDeleteWe cannot "turn the ship around" with a split Congress and recalcitrant President Leaderless who will do nothing to work for the American people and just for his own self-absorbed agenda.
ReplyDeleteObama didn't win, nor did the Democrats, BUT none the less, Republicans will get the blame when it all goes south, but none of the credit for being right if it does go well. Same as it's been for 6 years now and will continue until end of the Obama Administration and we finally get rid of him OR something drastic happens in the meantime. All wars and bad stuff is cause by the Republicans even though they have held a nominal majority in Congress for about 14 yr of the over 70 that it has taken us to get where we are.
Every bill will be a duel to the death. There are NO Statesmen in Congress OR in the WH who can lead this ship of State. So put on your life preservers and prepare to float or drown is a grand rapids of useless legislation about to speed our way.
Oh, and the 154 page bill was presented about 4 minutes before the jack asses voted for it. So I am expecting some real surprises that not even the Dems know was there...
Bev, My point is really that the Republicans need to stop playing the same game. The Lucy and the football analogy is in fact perfect. Every time an issue comes up, the Republicans look at it naively and assume that the Democrats genuinely want to come together and work things out. So they go in with open hands and get their butts handed to them by a leftist media machine and leftist Democratic party that only cares about power... not the health of the nation.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the Republicans have let themselves be presented as the scapegoats for so long that the public now despises them.
The only way to change this is to get Machiavellian. It's time to stop letting the Democrats make scapegoats out of them. In this instance, the choice was obvious: announce that Obama won so he gets what he wants. Then you pound him mercilessly about his policies not working and making things worse -- whether they do or don't. You highlight every single failure. Basically, you call his bluff and saddle him with the responsibility for implementing his ideas.
The idea is to destroy the Democrats so people stop trusting them and their ideas.
Instead, they did the usual scapegoat thing. And they did it on behalf of the rich, on behalf of taxing the middle class, and on behalf of hurting the unemployed and old people.
That's the problem.
Andrew: I agree with much of what you've written here about the Republican's litany of failure.
ReplyDeleteHow would you have handled it? Particularly given the MSM backstopping the administration all the way?
Andrew, the Democrats strategy has always been to create a heads-we-win-tails-you-lose situation for the Republicans, and the Republicans always happily comply. Republicans quite literally cannot do what needs to be done for this country while the Democrats have control of the Senate, the Presidency, the media, entertainment, and education.
ReplyDeleteAny compromise will not benefit this country as by definition it cannot right this sinking ship. Drastic spending cuts must be implemented, interest rates need to rise, and the executive branch must be massively curtailed if we are to survive. And yes, all Americans receiving income need to pay some income taxes, not because of fairness, but because there's no other way to pay for our current and future obligations.
Democrats have no plan to address these issues. They exist to impose their will on the populace and drain as much money out of the Treasury as possible. The only hope for this country is to get the public to understand the truth about the will of modern Democrats, and the way to do that is to give the public exactly what they voted for. Compromise only shares blame and delays reform, and gridlock creates the appearance of obstructionism.
Your Machiavellian proposal is really the only kindness that can be bestowed on the public. Anything else magnifies the problem and decreases the likelihood that this country will survive.
As an indication of how retarded this all has been, the big fight last night in the House was whether to give an up-or-down vote on the Senate bill or introduce amendments that would have cut $300 billion in spending over 10 years. Senate Dems said they wouldn't even consider an amended version; Boehner and Cantor were at odds over how to proceed; and so on. I mention this because the upcoming relief bill for Hurricane Sandy is coming up, and contains $30 billion in tacked-on pork projects that have nothing to do with the storm damage. If passed--and come on, you know it will be--it will single-handedly negate any spending cuts (for this year) those amendments might have accomplished. Ladies and germs, this is the epitome of the phrase "rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic."
ReplyDeleteK, To me, the obvious strategy this time was to announce that since Obama won the election, the Republicans would let him have his policies. I would point out the lunacy of taxing jobs at a time when Obama's economy is so weak and I would point out all the examples of wasteful spending I could "while real families are hurting." But I would absolutely say, "this is what America wants, we heard you, and we're going to give Mr. Obama a chance to fully implement his policies." Then I would goad him into wiping out deductions and raising rates much higher than he wanted by accusing him of favoring rich cronies and I would never propose a single cut -- make him propose those.
ReplyDeleteEven before I leave the press conference, I would be attacking his policies, and I would continue that attack day after day. And then you keep attacking as the economy slowly sinks back into recession and you blame him every single day for every bad bit of news.
That is the only way to handle this one.
I would also take the time to reposition the party in the rhetorical center. I would propose a "middle class" agenda (I'll get to that soon enough) and I would use the radio talkers who screamed bloody murder as a means to triangulate to give the party a fresh slate -- "we're not them anymore."
wahsatchmo, The only hope for this country is to get the public to understand the truth about the will of modern Democrats, and the way to do that is to give the public exactly what they voted for. Compromise only shares blame and delays reform, and gridlock creates the appearance of obstructionism.
ReplyDeleteThis is absolutely right. Right now, all the Republicans do is enable the Democrats by fake-tempering their idiocy and then taking the blame. It's time to step back and let the clowns run the circus and watch the circus fail. The public needs that because right now the only they know is that the Republicans are evil and the Democrats are busying trying "to help people."
I think the public needs to be viewed as an alcoholic here and needs to be allowed to hit bottom. Otherwise, all we are doing it supporting their condition and making ourselves into a scapegoat.
T-Rav, Yep. And in an even bigger sense, as yourself why the Republicans want to be seen as the party who destroyed the economy to save $30 billion a year? This is the problem. They are naive. They play minute by minute rather than with any sort of big picture. And they respond all the time to Democratic sucker bait rather than laying their own.
ReplyDeleteI guess all of us unwashed masses do not understand.
ReplyDeleteYea, it's very easy to understand. Obumbo bends over despots, thugs, murders and tyrants.
Boehner(or is it boner?) bends over for Obumbo.
(Perhaps Obumbo told Boehner he will be whacked at the knees, if he doesn't play along, who knows, it would make more sense).
I for one am real sick of this whole we all need to get along crap. If that was the case people wouldn't gather around to watch people fight. The Dems are bullies plane and simple, they have to be stood up to. If you don't it will never end, how they treat Bush is proof enough of that.
Max, That's the problem exactly -- the Democrats are bullies and the Republicans have no idea how to respond. Some want to cave in every chance they get, others want to fight over petty, stupid things. There is no plan at all.
ReplyDeleteI learned the hard way there is only one way to handle a bully.
ReplyDeleteThat is to "MAKE" them respect you.
When they start screaming, the last thing you do is stop.
For they will be looking for any opportunity to bully you again.
Exactly, but remember, the goal is winning and that requires creativity as well. Just punching back is counter productive -- it makes you equals and it will let the media tear you apart.
ReplyDeleteThe real goal needs to be to tar them with bad things and make them unpalatable to the public. And in this case, that means letting them do their worst to a public that voted for them and never letting the public forget whose policies are causing their pain.
This is what the Republicans need to learn, sometimes you need to let people fail so that others lose faith in them.
You know my marginal tax rate just reaches the 28% figure most years depending on bonuses. But it is more consistent to state it is 25%. I pay 15.3% in Fica and Medicare 7.65 myself and 7.65 through the extortion of my employer. I pay a 7% sales tax, $200 a year for my car and a license to drive, 3K in property tax depending on flucuating housing prices. I probably pay 70 cents or more a gallon on the gas in my car. Chart all of this out and I
ReplyDeletepay 50% of my income in taxes. Quite honestly if we are at a point that the federal government alone requires more than 1/3 of anyone's income and anyone that would argue against that is fringy then we need to give serious consideration to whether said government will ever represent our interests again. The very concept that I must treat this notion as anything but beneath my contempt fills my with despair and makes me question any reason to be loyal to this government that has never done a thing for me but take my money and order me around.
The problem I see is not the talk of tax increase or middle class or rich. All of that is nonsense and will be quickly forgotten in two to four years when we find ourselves in 50% hyperinflation or have3 to announce an end to social security.
This deal had 15 billion in spending cuts that I think were eliminated by plans to spend the 620 billion increase. These "revenues" will never materialize. The Laffer curve is not some specious argument. It does not state that lowering taxes always increases income. It states that at first tax rates cause increases in revenue then at a a certain point the increases become less but still positive. At a certain point he believed to be 35 to 40 percent the gains in revenue lessen as the negative effect on the economy reduce GDP.
You can't control revenue. So what is going to happen is the budget is going to finally bust because no one can stop spending money. No one can reduce government spending. This I beleive is the GOP's sin not some nonsensical political rhetoric about taxes. They have never cut spending since Ronald Reagan and not even then. They hid the expenditure in Clinton's reign by robbing Social security but now they don't have enough workers to pay for the baby boomers and are experiencing the folly of not having funded their retirement program and instead used Carville's "pay as you go is just fine" excuse.
Should a GOP congress send a bill to the senate that actually reduces spending across the board 1% or defined to specific programs does not matter. Should the actual dollar value of spending be at least 1% less than the year before and should they fight tooth and nail for this budget there is no possible spin the Obama or the DNC could do to break the support of the public.
Why? Becuase this is the one issue everyone wants, every conservative or libertarian wants. It does not resonate because everyone beleives anyone who talks about it can't get it done or is lying about it. There has been too much crying wolf on the issue of spending and n ow we are in a postion where we can see that the failure to do this will bring forth the poisonous fruit we all wanted to avoid.
In the end you can play at lot of games to avoid and delay bankruptcy but if you have'nt the money the repo men will be at your door. Let's just hope the ones the show up at Uncle Sam's door don't speak Mandarin as a primary language.
I was only making my point in simplistic terms.
ReplyDeleteAfter all that is exactly how they have been treating us for decades. Our only problem was we didn't fight back, if we show the slightest bit of fight, they trounce on us with all they got.
Like the line, "Rich Republicans" is creative.
How about saying, "Name all of those rich republicans?"
"I'll bet I can name even richer Democrats".
Max, I follow you.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the "rich Republicans" line is that the Republicans reinforce it. What were they holding out for on this fiscal cliff? To prevent a 3% tax hike on the highest bracket. They weren't worried about the middle classes or the tax burden generally, they chose to take a life and death stand on that narrow issue and they spoke openly about protecting the rich."
And while they were doing that, the talking heads were screaming that the Republicans were going to betray us by allowing this tax hike "on the rich." There was even a petition which flat out said to stop the Democrats from raising taxes "on the rich."
This is all bad PR. And this is why the Democrats have been successful, because conservatives constantly reinforce Democratic rhetoric. You can't paint somebody as something they are not unless they give you help.
Even now, ask yourself, if the Democrats suddenly said, "we quit, you can have anything you want"... what would conservatives actually ask for except returning the tax rates for the rich to where they were in 1998. That's not a platform that will resonate with anyone.
Indi, I understand that we are overtaxed, but no one is making that argument. The Democrats falsely claim they only want to tax the rich and the Republicans talk about protecting the rich while holding higher taxes for the middle class hostage. Nobody is making the case that average people are getting killed because the Republicans have lost touch with reality... they live among rich lobbyists.
ReplyDeleteAs for hyper inflation and social security... First, those scenarios never come to pass because they are based on static thinking projected forward and the world doesn't work that way. More importantly, however... so what? How is it smart politics for the Republicans to try to prevent that and in the process take the blame for it? Let the Democrats have their way and blow things up and then let the public turn on them for causing the problems. Right now, we are just enabling the public's stupidity at the cost of making ourselves into the villains.
That needs to end.
Andrew.....This gets back to an earlier thread we had here where we discussed how the repubs needed to refine their message and go on the attack. Every day call a presser and state something to the effect of..."Another day goes by and Sandy victims continue to suffer. By this time after Katrina..etc., etc., etc." Highlight all the pork thrown in to these relief bills. Say "If the President would stop paying off his political donors with American tax increases, we would be able to fund Xhundred new teachers, Xhundred security guards, etc. We owe it to the children and families of Newtown to stop these under the table payoffs to the President's cronies while real families are suffering."
ReplyDeleteYou know, the same crap that is thrown at us day after day after day. Yet the repubs stand there and try to explain that they're really not for protecting the rich, killing kittens (sorry T-Rav) and rolling over minority babies with steamrollers. Idiots.
Yes, Boehner must go, but then so must just about all the fools on the hill.
Oh this is great! Guess who bought Current TV from Al Gore........Al-Jazeera! Why does that make me laugh? Though I am sad too because I was hoping for CommentaramaTV. Oh, well, maybe MSNBC will be up for sale one day.
ReplyDeleteAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
ReplyDeleteBev, That's very fitting somehow -- one group of America-haters sells to another.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I was kind of hoping we could pick up the channel at a fire sale. I guess there won't be a CommentaramaTV after all. :(
Patriot, That's true. And speaking of Sandy, the Republicans are at it again. They're trying to trim some money out of the bill and they don't even say what they are trying to strip out. Basically, the party line is let's be cheap with hurricane victims.
ReplyDeleteThere comes a point you just want to give up. There was no groundwork laid for this. They never took the lead to shape the bill. They never jammed in their own stuff so the Democrats could be accused of slowing the bill. They just decided to stand in the way... and no one in the public has any idea why.
Excellent post, Andrew!
ReplyDeleteI would propose to elect Lt.Col. West as speaker.
Now, I realize West probably isn't saavy enough as a politician to do many of the things that need to be done, However, he IS charismatic and a no nonsense LEADER and he wouldn't let the donks and Obama's false accusations go unchallenged.
I really can't think of anyone else in the Housae that could even come close to unifying the GOP and actually leading, proactively rather than reactively, or not at all.
Again, I think West needs to learn more to be a great statesman, but he does have that good character that most folks respect, and he's not afraid to take on the democrat propaganda machine.
I do believe he would grow into the job and get better...much better than Boehner or Cantor or even Ryan.
Hell, Gingrich would be better than Boehner. I don't like the guy but at least he understands more about politics than most republicans.
But, he doesn't have the charisma of West; that thing that gets folks to wanna get behind him because he has demonstrated he can lead.
Just my two cents. Unfortunately, I don't think the House republicans are smart enough to see this and we'll get more of the same crap until we really begin to crash n' burn.
It's all a poorly written comedy sketch. Of course the writers are all Dems(which they normally are).
ReplyDeleteSad part is, we are just jaw jacking.
We know how to win this, but the Reps in charge?
Are clueless and arrogant, the reality is if they employed our ideals. They would have more wealth and power than they could imagine.
Also, since we're talkin' about some pretty dark storms a coming and some seriousy cynical stuff, I'm not sure most American voters even care about the erosion of our liberties anymore and, in fact take them for granted, because they haven't been affected...thus far.
ReplyDeleteEventually, the stuff they care about will be taken away but will it be too late when, not if that happens?
We need to drive home how all of this irresponsible sapending will hurt our kids, grandkids and great grandkids, but folks won't listen or care until that actually happens.
Sorry, I'm in a very dark, cynical mood lately and I feel like the majority of voters have betrayed everything veterans and patriots like you guys have fought for.
Idoocracy has become reality and reality is a harsh mistress.
We need leaders who understand what the consequences will be and how to fix them and communicate them to most voters, and we need them now.
Er, Idiocracy I mean. Aye, I feel like an idiot now.
ReplyDeleteI am disgusted and *almost* speechless at the lack of spine in the party. useless skinbags.
ReplyDeletedeck chairs, we don't need no stinkin' deck chairs!!
ReplyDeleteWell, Boehner has survived.
ReplyDeleteAs a joke, the Daily Caller lists 4 possible replacements for Speaker Boehner
ReplyDeleteLINK