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| Sarah Palin |
The whole country, Democrats and Republicans alike, have something in common this month -- total ambivalence about the current crop of GOP candidates.
For liberals they’re a lineup of yesterday’s men -- from the guy who lost to the last guy who lost, to the guy who was run out on a rail.
Their stances on most hot button social issues seem to run the gamut from completely out of touch to shockingly theocratic. For liberals they’re a particularly unsavory lineup of 1950s wannabes and fundamentalists.
Thankfully, it also looks like they’re an unelectable lineup.
Conservatives have different worries about the same candidates.
Firstly they worry that Mitt Romney is not conservative enough … then they fret that Rick Santorum is too governed by his militantly Catholic outlook that will not appeal to moderates … and Newt Gingrich is admired more than loved.
But the real problem, which isn’t being addressed, isn’t the opinions that the individual candidates hold – it’s the opinions that they’re allowed to hold.
When the billionaire backers of the Tea Party created a right wing noise machine to stymie the Obama administration at every turn, they little suspected that what they had unleashed would come to set the agenda for the entire party.
But that day has arrived. The Tea Party rhetoric has been so uncompromising, so ludicrous and so successful that it has set the agenda for the entire GOP.
None of the candidates dare to express themselves now without first consulting Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin and the pundits of Fox News.
But it turns out that attacking competence, longstanding expertise in your field and diplomatic authority has some unintended consequences.
Replacing career diplomats with hockey moms from Alaska isn’t always prudent politics.
Going with your gut and selecting a candidate for their looks is an emotional but not an intellectual response to politics.
Calling the establishment of your own party an out of touch elite may feel right, but that doesn’t indicate it is right.
By dumbing down and playing to the gallery the GOP have lost control of the party and given it over to a monster they created themselves.
This week a poll discovered that 52% of Mississippi GOP voters believe that President Barack Obama is a Muslim.
That’s probably an emotional response more than a rational one. It’s a way of acknowledging his otherness, which means his race.
It’s not the first time this has happened. Remember the “birther” movement, which claimed Obama isn’t even a U.S. citizen?
Establishment conservatives who claimed to know nothing about it quietly but consistently encouraged this kind of out-there insanity.
Palin, the acknowledged Tea Party queen and the symbol of the malaise afflicting the party, has never been afraid to stoke the worst kind of demagoguery in the base from notoriously accusing the president of “palling around with terrorists,” to her recent outrageous claims that he wants to drive the country back to the racial discrimination “before the Civil War.”
Palin said on Fox News last week, “Now, it has taken all these years for many Americans to understand that that gravity, that mistake, took place before the Civil War, and why the Civil War had to really start changing America. What Barack Obama seems to want to do is go back to before those days when we were in different classes based on income, based on color of skin.”
Politics ain’t beanbag, as someone said, but nor should it be a blatant call to arms against a phantom racist conflict.
It surprised me that Palin’s intemperate comments didn’t cause the immediate firestorm they were intended to. Perhaps that’s a reflection of her increasing irrelevance, or perhaps the ridiculous message couldn’t resonate beyond the base she had pitched them to.
But it’s a measure of the times we live in, and it’s a measure of the deep identity crisis the GOP is having internally right now, that this unrepentant political arsonist has a platform within the party at all.
No one minds the rough and tumble of politics, but predictions of a national race war are an astounding misuse of the national stage.
To make Republican misery even more pronounced, news that the U.S. economy is picking up steam and adding jobs again cannot fail to make the GOP worry about its chances in November.
We’re eight months away from Election Day now and it will probably be decided on the health of the economy.
But we should not forget what has happened and is happening still within the party on the long road to Election Day.
22 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.seanomelb | Mar 17, 2012, 05:46 PM EDT
Dear me!! just what we needed another mis-informed teahadist with no common sense. AS opposed to Santorum who believes a degree is for the rich only,he wants a return to the good old days of cannon and factory fodder for the poor to protect his lifestyle and the lifestyle of his mega rich backers.
mahalo84 | Mar 16, 2012, 08:35 PM EDT
Good thing all of you Dems are so willing to give YOUR money to Uncle Sugar to keep his belly filled. Since O-Bozo took over, this Federal employee has seen more waste and abuse of YOUR TAX dollars than even back to Jimmy Carter (and I was working for Uncle Sugar back then too). Good thing that you will be working FOREVER to pay for the post-graduate degrees that O-Bozo is pushing on Federal Employees on YOUR dollar. $100K salary within three years of hiring in plus a paid for post-graduate degree paid for. Good deal!!! And, since I live in Detroit, now those people are waltzing out to work at the Big 3 for even higher pay. Oh BTW, do you get hefty discounts on that GM and Chryler automotobile because those UAW 'company owners' do. Why do you thing Detroit suffers? The only ones who can buy the cars are the ones who make them and get the HUGE discounts as part of the union contracts. Keep drinking the Kool-Aid.
seanomelb | Mar 16, 2012, 07:35 PM EDT
Do you mean Olly North the murdering war criminal buying guns from the Mullahs in Iran to kill babies in Nicaragua. irishpjk seems to garner his mis-information from the GOP TV station AKA as Fox.
mayoman | Mar 16, 2012, 12:52 PM EDT
If Sarah Palin were not so good-looking would Fox Propaganda even bother to air her, or her ludicrous comments? I doubt it. She's merely eye candy. No one takes what she says seriously.
BusQueen34 | Mar 16, 2012, 09:50 AM EDT
Sarah Palin sucks.
irishpjk | Mar 16, 2012, 09:32 AM EDT
All I can say is the man in the white house now is a world follower not a world leader. He wants to make the USA into another Europe. If you have lived in any part of Europe in the past five years or know what their real problems are that will scare you. Their health care is so deep in debt that they are unable to provide basic care to many people. Hospitals are shutting down ER rooms and have no empty beds; many people are on gurneys in hallways for days waiting for a bed. Many more die in their homes waiting for a call to a hospital for procedures that most Americans expect to receive after going to the local ER with chest pain. If you only know what you read and hear from the media or picked up on a ten day vacation in a few of the cities or towns over there you are very misinformed. The sad part is we do not have any real leaders out there to vote for; the political people in our country will tear an honest man to shreds within a week. I see many people give credit for the killing of Osama Bin Laden to our president, again misinformed people who set the wheels turning that got our military in a position to do this, and why did Al Gore laugh when Colonel North warned him about Osama back in the eighties, why did President Clinton not take action to stop him and his people when he was offered to the US back in the nineties. I could go on and on but you all need to find out the real story for yourself you will find out just how scary it is, how much money do we owe China? How does our military stack up against theirs? The European country’s bail each other out by passing around a bag of money to each other, who will bail us out?
irishpjk | Mar 16, 2012, 09:32 AM EDT
We need to do it the old way, take care of your own needs stop looking for handouts.
Meanolgrouch | Mar 15, 2012, 08:23 PM EDT
As a yellow-dog Democrat, I offer this for consideration: 1) bin Laden dead, GM alive; 2) the GOP health care plan? Die quickly. End of story. Trust me, the loyal left is ROFL about the GOP shooting itself in the foot (some of us would aim higher) even while we plan to vote early and often in the upcoming elections. God Bless Barack O'Bama.
occassio | Mar 15, 2012, 08:22 PM EDT
Bravo, EphraimKibbey for mentioning NAFTA, the oft forgotten cause of some of manufacturing demise and not a good moment for President Clinton. NAFTA was the darling of those who thought that moving manufacturing to Mexico would help save their economy by providing jobs for the unemployed and create a bridge to economic, social and political differences. U.S. Companies would gain by laying off employees provided for under labor laws and switching to poorer countries that could withstand lower wages. Bad for us – but also for Mexico. The laissez-faire Reagan years didn't help. Neither did Bush II's tax cuts and expenditures in two wars. Hundreds of economists, including his own Economic Advisement Council warned him that these cuts were untenable. And where with previous administrations, politicians were willing and ready to work across the aisle, the Teaparty has created a stultifying atmosphere where their only solution to Obama's attempts at mediation is a resounding, No. Add to this muck a man-made financial crisis, another convoluted situation. These are only some of the problem that President Obama had to deal with in his first few months in office. I won't bother to address the Middle East crises – also not of his making.
seanomelb | Mar 15, 2012, 06:48 PM EDT
The GOP and Fox unleashed the tea party attack dogs on America and they cannot bring the dogs to heel. Palin the darling of Hannity,Ingraham and the three stooges on the Fox morning show is now a GOP embarrassment and she refuses to return to her kennel.
MegK311 | Mar 15, 2012, 05:22 PM EDT
There you go again blaming George Bush. If I remember correctly the economy was going in the toilet before Bush was electd. It is also a well known fact that President Bush warned the congress in I think 06 that the Fannie and Fred housing market was going to be in trouble but some of the high ranking democrats did not listen to him. Blaming Bush for everything is getting very old. Am I better off than I was 4 years ago, the answer is NO.
EphraimKibbey | Mar 15, 2012, 03:47 PM EDT
@MegK311 - You mention an interesting fact about the end of the Clinton years. The economy was going great for most of the period because of cooperation between the parties and ended with a surplus so what happened? What changed? We can not be sure of the cause but we can compare the timing of the slump in the DQW with a concurrent major event. The DAY that it was announced that G W Bush was appointed the winner of out presidential election, the DOW tanked. Why might this have been more than just a coincidence? The DOW had previously stsrted doing better and better as our government showed its fiscal responsibility. Bush ran on promises of tax breaks that would obviously destroy the delicate balance of revenue and spending that had been forged through compromise over the years. Were some investers prescient enough to recognise the economic disaster that would become the Bush administration and get out while the getting was still good? Why didn't they warn the rest of us? Did they know that GOP sponsered and Clinton signed NAFTA would start to drain away the job base upon which the government's revenue stream was based creating a perfect storm for our economy? Only the unions spoke up at the time and, of course, no one paid them much heed. Truely interesting!!!
EphraimKibbey | Mar 15, 2012, 03:16 PM EDT
@MegK311, @RoryTrup, @immigrant1979 & @johhnyb - Please compare your comments with Eiriamach's comment. Please notice how the latter uses facts and references while your comments are emotional tirades lacking any supporting material. Your’s express your anger at Obama and the Democrates but ignore the FACTS! I am sorry that the GOP screwed up the economy, bankrupt our government, has been trying to impose its morals on the rest of the country ever since and currently can only offer the same ideas that got them in trouble as future solutions, but you are ignoring the fact that since the Democrates took over, things ARE getting better. All the statistics show this. It is a slow recovery because the repeatedly stated primary goal of the GOP is to make Obama fail and because of international conditions that are beyond our control. You need to stop believing the lies and half-truths created by the tabloid journalism of Murdock’s Fox “news.” You don’t believe in “Alien Baby” stories so don’t believe in the political equivalents from the same source. Their stated goal (Roger Ayles) is to get you fired up as ENTERTAINMENT not to present facts! Fiction is fun but it scares us when your comments show that you obviously BELIEVE it!
pndirishandprou | Mar 15, 2012, 03:09 PM EDT
Excellent summary. Couldn't have said it better.
Nicomax | Mar 15, 2012, 02:32 PM EDT
What divides us is "public" vs. "private". Those with coins have little need for, and thus limited interest in funding anything public such as, education, parks, transportation, health, libraries. etc. They are able to meet their needs through private means, and can avoid even the need to share public with the ordinary folks. At one time, we were proud of what we did as a whole, such as public schools, national parks, the GI BIll, etc. but now forget about it.
eiriamach | Mar 15, 2012, 01:26 PM EDT
Forget about liking or not liking Obama; we vote for or against the Great American Divide. The Great Divide in politics is rivaled only by the Great Divide in income, with more than half of US incomes going to the top 20 percent of households and 46.2 million of us living in poverty. The poor include 22 percent of the nation's children (US Census 2010). In their complaints about Obama making the economy worse, the GOP candidates advocate only deepening the divide between 'haves' and 'have nots,' as in the Ryan Plan. If you're 10 years or more from retirement, you'll need to save $million$-- figure out how much. If you earn less than $106,000, you will have paid your share of Social Security, but won't have that when you need it, while those above $106,000 are ahead by under-paying it. Are you female? You earn, on average, 77 percent of the average male income and will have proportionally less retirement income. Medicare? Sure you've been paying for it, but you won't have it. Instead, you'll have vouchers that increase at the inflation rate while your health care costs increase at more than double that rate. Top earners and corporations will enjoy a 10 percent tax cut, but you, living on your savings because your company no longer funds pensions, will pick up their tab. So let's figure it out before November: which side of the Great American Divide are we on?
FastEddy | Mar 15, 2012, 01:23 PM EDT
BTW: Governor Palin is not running. BTW: The Tea Party has yet to endorse anyone. BTW: Neither is The Fat Man or Beck or ... Anyway, "It's the economy, stupid" - Slick Willy
MegK311 | Mar 15, 2012, 01:23 PM EDT
Cahir, Typical load of left wing trash not worth reading, Look at who the liberals elected to lead the country in the last Presidental election. The worst President in memory and you dare to criticize the GOP canditates. Liberals keep blaming Bush for the financial situation and what Obama inherited. Well let me remind you that during the last year of the Clinton administration the economy was in a slump when George Bush took office. When Obama took office he had control of the Congress and Senate for 2 years. He didn't lower the debt but increased it by many millions/ trillions. You can't blame George Bush for that. Obama does not have a record that he can run on so has to resort to bashing GOP candidates. By the way Sarah Palin isn't running for office so why is he hitting out at her. Anyone of the Republican Presidental candidates would be better than Obama.
immigrant1979 | Mar 15, 2012, 10:49 AM EDT
McNamara,don't know where you are from but you are uninformed. Obama is the worst President ever in USA history. He is a dictator and wants to take over every aspect of our lives. I live in Texas, born in Ireland, lived in London, lived in Saudi and if you can't see our liberties disappearing here by this admin. then you have your head in the sand. This report above is so liberal and part of the Obama minons. They disgust meand hate America just like Obama does. We will take any one over Obama.
McNamara31 | Mar 15, 2012, 10:38 AM EDT
johhnyb Maybe you should compare job growth during Bush's term vs Obama and how about the two wars Obama is bringing to a close; or that it was his administration that actually took out Bin Laden. And maybe ask workers in America's car manufacturing how they feel about their job's. And about gas prices.... Isn't it time we made speculation in oil illegal? Finally yes my friend our economic woe's are Bush's fault.
johhnyb | Mar 15, 2012, 10:19 AM EDT
Maybe you hadn't noticed, but Mrs Palin was replying to an advert that President Obama launched against her. Isn't she free to do that? By the way, what do you think of President Obama's record on jobs, the price of gasoline, the national debt and bringing peace to the Middle East? Or is all that that still Bush's fault?
McNamara31 | Mar 15, 2012, 09:41 AM EDT
America is in a very dangerous time. Many of the fringe who also are the most motivated voters in primaries and major elections no longer care about truth or facts, they merely tune into a station that is going to reinforce their biases. Murdoch, Roger Ailes and Karl Rove have created a “machine” that has taken control; with one purpose, to distort the facts so severely that the American voter truly believes they are under threat by the present administration. While all the manufactures deflections and sideshows grab attention, our country falls deeper into debt, with infrastructure crumbling while GOP “Cheerleader” like the very ignorant Mrs. Palin continue to feed the nation propaganda. Haven’t we had enough of this?