As Obama Pushes Change, GOP Bets on Restoration
It's jarring how disconnected Republicans have been from reality these past several weeks. Giddy at the prospect of President Obama failing, they've let lunatics run roughshod over civil American discourse, trying to kneecap health care reform. They're so high on themselves that one thought nothing of screaming, "Lie!" at the President of the United States as he was, ironically, in the middle of dispelling their lies.
But something else happened during President Obama's speech that shows just how out of touch Republicans are with what Americans really want.
Tonight, Andy Card acknowledged he may run for Ted Kennedy's Senate seat.
Let me repeat that: Andy Card, Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush for almost five and a half years, is plotting a Senate run... from Massachusetts.
Yes, the Republican Kool-Aid is really that strong.
If the 'Party of No' is cocky enough to believe that a key aide to George W. Bush can be competitive in one of the most liberal states in the country, then they are way too full of themselves. Amazingly, one of the GOP candidates preparing to enter the race appears to have already endorsed Card. This is really happening.
In all, this is probably good news for Democrats. Give the Republicans one good month and they whip themselves into such a fervor that they think Americans want Bush-Cheney ideas back in control of Congress and the White House. This is just further proof that the GOP has not advanced a single step from the policies of George W. Bush, has not learned a single lessons from the huge deficits, incompetence and mismanagement Bush and a Republican-controlled Congress left in their wake.
They do not want change. They want a restoration. Andy Card's candidacy is just another indicator of that.
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I find it hard to believe that people find it strange, or weird, or shocking that these people are doing this.
You have confused and ignorant americans marching in the streets still carrying signs decrying obama as some sort of monster. You have Politicians feeding this ignorance fest with lies, topped with heaping piles of Fox filtered mistruths...
These people are why we are a laughing stock in ALL the world. Not just part of the world, not just some of the world, but ALL the world.
These people are happy we are #37 in healthcare, and in the Upper 40's in Infant mortality rates. They are happy that hatred and racism is crawling out of the "Heart of america" or "Real america" and taking to the streets.
This is why they think they can bank on the restoration. They have never gotten the clue that "The south will rise again" is am empty promise.
Hate and lies is all they have, all they will have until they turn their party around. Intelligent people will strive tirelessly to drum these people out of political positions, an expose them for the snake oil selling charlatans that they are.
Last I heard, Card has decided not to run. The usual family reasons were given.
Perhaps. But politics IS the art of lying taken to (sometime) high art. Of course the Republicans lie. And Obama was lying too, because the Dem authors of the reform bill explicitly left the enforcement provisions against illegal alien access out of the bill. The same mechanism that is used by other programs (welfare for example) was omitted. Hmmm. Wonder why? Most Americans aren't eager to supply Cadillac health benefits to the population of Mexico. They are so selfish.
For the past few years, the single largest ethnic group of illegal aliens in New York State have been the Italians, who come here with working visa then stay after their term expires.
Look, sweeping generalizations do not form any arguments, and anybody allowing themselves to be persuaded by such deserve what they get - including a loss of interest on the part of listeners to whom they repeat such generalizations.
Republicans are selfish...the poor are just needy...mostly because Republicans are selfish.
Ironic.
In fact, it seems that you, and your "most Americans" would rather let catastrophic medical costs drive them into bankruptcy than think that perhaps a sick person who is here illegally might get medical treatment. Let'em die in the streets, I say! After all, Hipocrates was a well-known socialist.
This goes hand in hand with the theme that they lost the 2008 election because McCain just wasn't conservative enough. The Republicans have always thought that the "truth" of their ideas are so apparent that it is only a matter of time before the rest of the country comes around to their way of thinking. And ignoring their failures is a very big part of that delusion. Andy Card is the perfect Republican candidate --- for the Democrats to run against.
Mike Burns
http://www.disorderlyreport.com/
The same can be said for Democrats. The general public does not like going to either extreme. That is why we power sways back and forth and that is why the President will serve only one term.
This president has gone nowwhere near either extreme and, in the sense of his fundamental national security policies and economic policies, is not as different from George W. Bush or John McCain as Glenn Beck would like you to think. The financial bail-out for which everyone appears to want to blame him was the Bush Administration's baby, the Detroit bail-out would have been a lot more money given up with a lot less control over how it was spent under President McCain, and ObamaCare is to the right of Nixon's proposed health care reform package. Yes, on health care President Obama is more conservative than President Nixon. Something to think about.
The last time the country could have been argued, on any level, to have gone to the 'extreme left' was under President Nixon. There we saw Title 9, the Civil Rights Act as it stands today, SALT, and significant expansion of welfare. Helping Democrats pass much of this legislation was future President Gerald Ford.
The last time we arguably went to the 'extreme left' under a Democrat was Lyndon Johnson's 'Great Society.' That's the Medicare people are protesting they don't want the government to mess with.
President Obama has far more in common with President Eisenhower, governing from the extreme left of the right wing.
This assumes there is a viable extreme left in play in the US. There is not. What you call extreme left, Europeans and perhaps Asians too, call centrist at best. Not to realize that is to have a typically American myopic view of political theory as it exists and is practiced in this world.
To those whose perceptions are molded in the W. Bush worldview, Ronald Reagan was a liberal; remarks like these are so boring.
"If the 'Party of No' is cocky enough to believe that a key aide to George W. Bush can be competitive in one of the most liberal states in the country, then they are way too full of themselves. Amazingly, one of the GOP candidates preparing to enter the race appears to have already endorsed Card. This is really happening."
Well, someone has to run. The Republicans may believe that a high profile conservative loser might be of more value to the party's national success than a moderate winner. Or they may believe that one should never abandon a fifty state strategy and write off whole portions of the country as 'unwinnable.' Honestly, it's not as stupid as it sounds from a purely political level.
If Card thinks he can win running on the Bush Administration's policies, that's a completely different ball of wax. Then he's either insane or idiotic.
On the flip side, Democrats desperately need to be willing to run liberal candidates in impossibly conservative districts. There are issues that won't ever be raised expect in a blowout loss and the more people hear about those issues the better. Time and tide melt the snowman.
While there are still a good deal of racists in the United States I believe we have come far. Despite their loud rhetoric their numbers will continue to diminish.
True.
I'd worry more about the growing population of populists.
Excellent post Mr. Bohrer. However, I wouldn't call what the GOP want 'restoration'. I call it 'regression'. Restoration sounds a little too nice a word for them.
hey it could happen, remember reagan, lot of dems swepted away then.
the economy may be the nail on the coffin... the war, healthcare failure, an alqaeda attack...
So the Grand Old Party is high on themselves. They may be able to rustle up ten thousand haters to walk the streets of Washington, which naturally attracts more press than does a similar size of well-behaved supporters listening to President Obama the very same day in Minnesota.
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/12/AR2009091200784.html)
But these people will never change the fabric of America. Our country is founded on the belief that all men are created equal and that foundation was built with the blood, sweat and tears of men and women of many races over many years. While it is true that our country has been led (or dragged) through the mud by some of its more self-serving, narrow-minded citizenry in the past , I still believe that the ranks of the better angels far exceed those of the lowly mud-rakers. And we are led by an amazingly strong though humble commander.
The truth shall set us free.
Most of the current players were on record just after the election that they would not vote for anything Obama wanted. Their publicly stated plan is to take him down any way they can do it.
So why all the befuddlement?
Obama has to play this out because it si the only way he can win. He can't stand up and be a mad black man. But he can allow the GOPers to make fools of themselves and then start using the power of public opinion to put the fear of God into some of the wayward flock.
it is normal for us bloggers to whine and moan and get jittery or downright cowardly, but this is a game that has to be played out on a field that has its own rules. The American people obviously want this plan. OK, the trick is how to win against these odds.
The GOP has neglected the biggest base of all: Independents like me.
I come from a long and proud Republican family, and we are shocked and dismayed by the wretched idiocy of the GOP. Appalling does not even seem to fit as it is so overused that the real meaning of disgust and disbelief of the GOP goes beyond words.
Never in my life would I have thought the GOP would sink to such lows.
It saddens me, I have to admit.
I cannot understand how good people will not stand up to the outright lies and manipulations of fringe groups. That dismays me; It shocks me: I hold accountable the GOP leadership who stood by and smugly let a mob try to intimidate good, honest tax-paying Americans.
I like a good debate. I do. America cannot have a debate when ugly mobs say hateful things: the whole message is lost. Anythoing good they may have wanted to express must be dismissed as they have not stood up to such raw hate.
Shame on the GOP for this. I possibly could have agreed with them if they had something adult to express, but aftyer all of this I have just had it!
I
Your party was taken over at the precinct level by xtains who have a "cultural" agenda and could care less about fiscal responsibility. The first state to fall was Texas in the 1990'ies. The traditional base was pushed out of the local offices by the influx of xtains. They also have won lots of local school board elections. The bible is now taught in public schools as is creative design.
It's up to you to take your party back, come join us in adult discussion or start a new conservative party that does not create a coalition with cr*zy people.
Thank you for your post, but the RNC has had a huge hand in this. After all, that group is made up of these same people. They are all afraid of Rush and have basically sworn an oath to the neocon takeover. And lo ok at the foo l who is the chair.
The Gingrich/Rove people have systematically purged your party of moderates and intelligent people who are capable of honest debate and working across the isle since 1993. there is no wonder there is no one left for you admire. These people were taken out in primaries where voter turnout is low. That is why you have lost so many seats in Congress, and are not likely to get them back anytime soon, regardless of what some pundits say.
What is left of the GOP is exactly what we see, day in and day out. This is it, and this is what they have wanted for years and years. its not brain surgery folks, its just exactly what you think it is.
Of course their strategy is deeply flawed, just like the rest of their ideas. They may have ideology, blind obedience and money, but they have a shortage of actual brainpower and morality. They are destined to fail, in no small part because people like you are the ones who will decide future elections.
Your post is spot on. I would add that the way the economy and employment situation is, is exactly how the GOP wants it. That was the plan all along. Did anyone ever think that the billion dollar tax ciuts were going to do anything less? They indeed want to" throw the baby out with the bathwater", as Grover Norquist stated long ago. What I want to know is what about the part about supporting the president during wartime? How does Willson's outburst at Obama's address to congress square with that? Only Republicans by themselves can save their own party.
Though I come from a long and pround Democratic family, I agree with every word you say!
Too bad there's nowhere to turn, given that all your criticisms can be applied to the other side as well. Maybe just ignore politics; you'll live a happier life.
Now more than ever is not the time for cynicism. Too much is at stake. If you look deeper you'll find large differences between the two parties.
Regardless of the successes or failures of the Democratic Party next couple years, the republican'ts have ensured this ol' Independent will contribute and campaign HEAVILY against them ...for the rest of his days.
The party of 'NO' (the GOP) - has zero redeeming qualities and certainly NOTHING of benefit to OUR society.
LYING, HYPOCRISY and GREED are NOT positive attributes.
Amen.
The Restoration already happened. The 60's and 70's were a time of turmoil akin to the English Reformation.The period from 1981 until this year was the Restoration a sustained counter-revolution against liberal social programs and the progressive income tax. The bad guys nearly won. Now they're steamed over having a black guy in the White House pushing social justice. They thought they'd taken that notion out and shot it in 1981.
Reagan ended "tax and spend" government, replacing it with "borrow and spend." The hope was to use mounting debt and deficits as a weapon to block expansion of social welfare programs--and eventually as an alibi for ending the New Deal and Great Society programs. At the outset they succeeded in shifting the cost of government from progressive income taxes to regressive payroll taxes. At the same time they quadrupled the federal debt.
Bush II did Reaganomics one better. He inherited a budget surplus and a plan to pay down the federal debt. No sooner is he sworn in than he hands the surplus to his "have-more" base. On the way out the door he leves an economy in shambles and ten trillion dollars of federal debt. The amazing incompetence of the Restorationists at governing is now their excuse to thwart health care reform or any other forward looking programs.
Excellent summary.
Your posts are consistently thoughtful and well articulated. Cheers!
Excellent
Fanned!
Thank you so much for your intelligent and knowledgeable commentary!
I loved your comment!
I hope you will post often: I would enjoy your insight.
Regards,
Philip
Thanks.
RG
They are saying the exact same things that their conservative predecessors said in other reform cycles, including the 1930s and 1960s. What they are doing now is not a sign of strength, but of fear and weakness.
The pendulum will swing back in their favor, but not for a decade or so.
For the next 20-30 years the Baby Boomers will have a chance to actualize our long frustrated communitarian ideals. We must drastically change our role as the world's cop. We must redirect our resources towards infrastructure rehabilitation, green jobs, expanding education, ending the War on Drugs, and assuring universal health care. When we've had our run I hope the pendulum swings another way next time.
I would love for the Republicans to become a Libertarian Party with consistent principles and immune from the thrall of big money. Let's have legitimate (respectful) discussions about our civil liberties, defense spending, and yes the mountain of debt that the Republicans have left behind when Bush left office. Instead of being the shock troops of the plutocracy (who use the government to line ther own pockets) as free marketeers they could even articulate opposition to corporate welfare and wealth transfer to the rich. (Dream on).
I don't think they are high on themselves, very much the contrary they are freaking out. No one in their right mind would be so disrespectful. What has been going on through August and last night are examples of how out of control the republican party feels. They continue to alienate themselves and if they don't get a handle on their behaviors and the job they were sent to do they will be in oblivion for years if not decades to come.
Yeah, I tend to agree; False bravado rooted in fear, loathing and an expectation that they will always exude more than their fair share of influence is ruining whatever good the republican party has to offer. Power buys a lot of things, but it's no substitute for honesty and valid ideas.
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