It seems like every couple of weeks we have a new leader in the Republican field. Michele Bachmann has been there, so have Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, and now Herman Cain sits atop the field. Why can't Republican voters make up their minds?
Here's why -- they don't even believe their own positions. They want someone who is massively conservative and at the same time agrees with them on policy. The problem is the voters aren't nearly as conservative as they think they are. So they love the tough talking governor from Texas until they find out he wants to get rid of Social Security. They like that Michele Bachmann doesn't believe in global warming until they realize that she doesn't believe in it because she's bat-shit crazy.
If you choose ignorance as your party ideology why should it surprise you that you have completely ignorant party leaders? But it does, every single time. Watch, it'll happen again. This time with Herman Cain.
The voters are going to wake up a week from now and realize they're not sure they want someone leading the free world who doesn't know what Ubeki-beki-beki-stan is or what his own position on abortion is. They love his ignorance when it comes to science and basic economics, but they hate it when it shows how unqualified he is.
Well, you can't have it both ways. Someone who is remotely competent or sentient recognizes that 97% of the world's scientists are right about climate change (including even Koch-funded scientists), that cutting deficits during tough economic times does not stimulate the economy and that firing state workers means we have less workers. But those are all against the stated position of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. So, what is a Republican voter to do?
The answer is to fall in love with another conservative politician this week and find out he is a blithering idiot the next. Or worse yet, find out you don't really agree with any of those positions when they affect you (get your government hands off my Medicare!). That's the schizophrenia of the Republican electorate -- they keep switching leaders because they don't even believe their own positions.
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They haven't gutted regulations.. that would actually mean that the corporations would have to compete with smaller businesses.. sad facts are.. the Republicans are perfectly fine being in bed with big business as much as the Democrats are.. both parties have strengthened regulations.. repealed 1 for every 5 they stack on and purposefully create situations that encourage debt and crisis so that people will *gasp* call for more government to protect them.. when the government has been messing it up..
If anything.. the Democrats and Republicans have the same core values.
Most of the time that's all it is.. empty words with a majority of the 'Republican' Candidates.
"and with a mixture of enthusiasm and desperation, the base embraces them, one by one, as the second coming"
Doubtful.. it's MSM that has been propping up 'opinions' of the 'people' with their support of people like.. Romney who's more of the same with Obama.. and Cain.. who was an absolute nobody until he won one straw poll.
"But the moment the candidates step out of the echo chamber, and onto the national stage, their candidacy begins to fall apart, because what works in the echo chamber, simply doesn't work in the real world of America."
That's because the people that the GOP Leadership and MSM picks for the people are so out of touch with the actual 'republican' base that no one cares what they say anymore.
"The echo chamber reality is ABO (anybody but Obama), but the reality in the real world of America is that President Obama cannot be defeated if there's no one on the other side to defeat him, and so far, there's no one on the other side "
That's not factual in the slightest.. as the national polling of 'potential' republican voters is not representative of the actual sentiment.. only one person can beat Obama in this race but everyone tries to marginalize him.
You mean they did what they've always done.. there is no 'devolving' when it comes to the republicans not being in power.. the only one on the republican side right now that is not based on any of that is Paul.
" and the tea party phenomenon merely solidified the ignorance by which they were beginning to be defined by."
That's because the movement was hijacked by Neo-cons 3 years ago.
"And now, in the greatest of ironies, with the candidates they have chosen to compete for the highest office of the land, the Republicans have come face to face with what they've become and with what they themselves have created ... and it's not a pretty picture."
Probably what the greatest Irony is that the Leadership wants their version of Obama in office and yet when there is someone that honesty cares about the well-being of everyone.. not a select few people.. everyone marginalizes Paul.. yet, he is the only one that will stand up for your rights and people continue to cheer that their freedoms are being taken away.. Anwar Al-awlaki is a perfect example of this sentiment.
Republicans have minds? I thought they just used their knee-jerk ganglion.
Hope to see more of you on Huffpost.
Really! Does it make any difference?
Only somebody who is a real slowwit could hold all the ideological positions required by GOP Primary voters. And by their nature, they suffer from a terminal incapacity to perform in public office, to conduct a debate, or to even issue a prepared statement.
Americans are funny like that, I guess. They don't look at the fine print and they like to belong to the "popular" groups, even if they don't really know what those popular groups represent. I'd say that's a very large part of the reason this country is in as much trouble as it is right now....
Now you have confused me. What is a conservative? What is a true conservative? (beware the No True Scotsman fallacy)
"They all claim to love Christ and believe everything in the Bible (which, 99 percent of the time they haven't read, but automatically think must be true), "
And you, of course, arrogate to yourself to know what 99 percent of bible believers have not done.
Perhaps you are mistaken about some of your other claims.
We LIKE to think of ourselves as conservatives, and the majority of Americans on a survey will identify as "conservative." Then specific questions arise, such as, "Do you think the government should invest more in our educational system?" or "Do you think that billionaires should pay the same percentage of taxes as do the most impoverished Americans?" Most will answer in the affirmative. This kind of "identity crisis" is evident in how Rick Perry can get up there and decry rampant government spending (met with a lot of enthusiasm) but then he goes around lambasting Social Security and Medicare, and then those very same people can become uneasy.