The GOP's empty chair problem
Posted on Saturday, September 01, 2012 at 09:56 AM
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The truth is neither Eastwood or the GOP gave any thought to the millions of people people who would see something else in that disembodied chair: themselves.
If you're Black, Hispanic, an Immigrant, a Woman or Gay you weren't welcome to sit in that chair or come to that party, even to be lectured to by a contemptuous octogenarian.
The GOP's big tent has contracted to the point where it has simply become a latter day Christian Brotherhood, but conservatives who dismiss this claim point to the participation of Governor Nikki Haley the daughter of Indian immigrants, Condoleezza Rice, the Former Secretary of State and Governor Susana Martinez, who the Reagan-era throwback Peggy Noonan likes to call Susan.
But every political party worth its salt can round up a few quislings; there are even apparently masochistic gay Republican groups like Go Proud, after all. That does not mean they represent their communities or are indicative of widespread support within their party, on the contrary.
I say to those people who talk about Republican diversity have your read your own party platform?
Only two percent of African-American voters polled currently support the Romney/Ryan ticket.
Mitt Romney claims that this is a country of immigrants but he wants them all to self-deport and he would veto the DREAM Act. At the convention Ann Romney claimed it was Hispanic voters who had the real problem though, and she asked them to 'get past' their biases.
Romney does not support relationship recognition for LGBT people, making him even more conservative on LGBT issues than former President George W. Bush. Paul Ryan does not support LGBT families, he has voted against allowing gay and lesbian couples to adopt, he voted against hate crime protections. He opposed repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and he does not support marriage equality.
Romney and Ryan want to turn Medicare into a boon for the Insurance industry and a bust for American seniors. The new party platform reflects a Republican Party more hostile to organized labor than ever before in its history.
And as we learned last week, Romney and Ryan were quick to write off Todd Akin and to separate themselves from his extremism, but in fact they share his anti-abortion position.
So they paint themselves into a corner and they look out at the godless nation and they reject it. That's what this week was all about. That explains all those empty chairs.
And what will happen to us, the uninvited people in that disembodied chair, has already become obvious.
It seems our conservative political classes will not rest until they have turned the United States economy and the American century into a South American nation like Brazil.
New York and other noteworthy US cities already feature growing contrasts between rich and poor, so why not use Rio de Janeiro as the model of our future, complete with gated mansions with armed guards to hold off armies of scary-looking pre-teen homeless kids carrying zipguns.
Each time you step out you'll have to worry if there'll be another Ak-47 attack at the supermarket or the movie theater. Hopefully you won't need medical attention because you won't be able to afford any.
But hey at least the rich guys pay low taxes!
50 comments
hollabackgurl | Sep 05, 2012, 04:27 PM EDT
It's nauseating and objectionable to hear a Republican accuse the Democratic party of divisiveness rather than inclusion. Who wants a constitutional amendment to make gay people permanent second class citizens? Who wants our immigrants to 'self-deport?' Who wants to give historic tax cuts to billionaires while they gut Medicaid, Social Security, Obamacare, Education grants, Planned Parenthood and the New Deal? Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, that's who.
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BrianO | Sep 05, 2012, 10:45 AM EDT
warren used as proof of her viability for affirmative action, ie native american,the publication of a cherokee cook book, entitled POW WOW CHOW, even in this attempt she lied as two of the recipes were plagiarized ,according to the Pow Wow Chow cookbook to have been passed down through generations of Oklahoma Native American members of the Cherokee tribe, are described in a New York Times News Service story as originating at Le Pavilion, a fabulously expensive French restaurant in Manhattan. Her false claims to affirmative action for personal gain show two short comings. the first is basic honesty, the second is stepping all over the down drodden who the affirmative action is designed to help. The Cherokee nation has specific requirements which one must adhere to to be part of the tribe. So Ephraim, Seano, can I now get affirmative action by saying I'm of Indian blood as Ms. Warren did?
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BrianO | Sep 05, 2012, 08:46 AM EDT
Ah Ephraim, occasionally I put stats on my comments but they do not get posted. Obama was given a golden opportunity to unite the country if that is what he wanted to do. Instead he has used our differences to further drive a wedge between races, incomes, sexes to further his ideology. It's very sad, and your propaganda to further this dis honest regime only makes it more pitiful.
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seanomelb | Sep 04, 2012, 07:36 PM EDT
Briano if you spend your time believing political adds as true and correct, I fear for your political choices.
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EphraimKibbey | Sep 04, 2012, 05:30 PM EDT
@BrianO - You keep doing hit and runs. You chastise us for what we have written without backing up your attack with facts and then slide off into some other point. The point that you mention below about Obama's majorities during his first two terms is only partially correct. Obama got through much of his desired plans during that time. Sadly, he compromised with the GOP on the size of the stimulus and it ran out before its full potential was realized.
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EphraimKibbey | Sep 04, 2012, 05:12 PM EDT
@SherryKay - As a fellow former republican, I share your view of the current GOP ticket. It is sad to see the demise of a once great party. I hold the Dixiecrats responsible. Your news of the Bain/Romney investigation is very interesting. Please keep us informed as I have not seen any reporting on it.
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BrianO | Sep 04, 2012, 12:47 PM EDT
Obama's words "I wouldn't want to penalize my daughter with a baby" ******as to Warren -I live in Massachusetts so I see the ads. I still can't believe affirmative action believers are giving her a break about being an American indian, She took the place at harvard that a real American indian should have had. Right now there is a qualified American indian back in oklahoma that should be teaching at harvard but Warren lied and committed fraud to get ahead, and now since she is a radical leftist she faces little vetting, maybe even in the bluest of blue states warren has lied a little too much to get elected.
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seanomelb | Sep 04, 2012, 05:42 AM EDT
You are overstating my positions Briano. Ideologies giving succour to those less fortunate and tolerance are not anti wealth.I do not believe babies are a "penalty" in fact in most cases I do not believe in abortion but do I have the right to make that decision for someone else?NO. Why do you misquote Warren? is it because hannity or bull O'Reilly said so? You see Brian it's not about me it's about the general good and the wealth of a nation and how one measures the wealth of a nation.
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BrianO | Sep 04, 2012, 01:44 AM EDT
Ephraim, you should join your brethren on comedy central as you material below is hilarious. The GOP never gave the Big O a chance, especially when he had a super majority in the house and senate, and its nice to know if a person doesn't agree with your view they are EVIL destroyers. Very tolerant, very progressive. Why did Obama's proposed budgets garner 0 votes from his democratic allies that controlled the house and senate, were they evil also. Keep on spreading your paid propaganda.
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BrianO | Sep 04, 2012, 01:35 AM EDT
Seano you're an enigma. You say you are a self made millionaire but support ideologies that are anti wealth. You are a proponent of large families but support the side that believes babies are a penalty. As to your China only believes in the limit by abortion, that is the goal of the left, Elizabeth Warren advertises that she wants us to be more like china, but her word doesn't mean much so maybe I don't need to worry about my grandchildren being destroyed in the womb.
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SherryKay | Sep 03, 2012, 07:54 AM EDT
So,take it from this former Republican now a Registered Independent Voter in Arizona,Mitt Romney and Mini_Mitt Paul Ryan have much much bigger problems then
that goofy Clint Eastwood Empty Chair GIG! Since,both Willard Mittens Romney &
Mini_Mitt Paul Ryan are the two most phony lying empty suits to have been nominated for President & Vice President.
Oh by the way did you hear the Feds are
investigating Romney's Bain Capital Vulture Equity Funds along with some others. So,it would not surprise to see
Mitt Romney behind jail bars very soon.
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EphraimKibbey | Sep 02, 2012, 12:50 AM EDT
@irishpjk - The GOP met and decided that to give him any success would weaken their chances of future election. They made that decision knowing full well that to do so would mean allowing the recession to get worse and would harm innocent Americans. He has tried compromise and had his hand slapped away by the GOP. In spite of those challenges President Obama has had more new jobs created in his 3 and 1/2 years in office than were created under 8 years of Cheney/Bush "Voodoo Economics" with Democrats compromising regularly. Have you been paying attention to the hatred that has been spewed against him by the right since he took office? I personally have NO desire to be united with EVIL! Those who REALLY love the United States of America and want to see its promise of equality for all continue ARE united - WITH the President. We are ALL united in our opposition to those who would destroy our country.
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irishpjk | Sep 01, 2012, 11:37 PM EDT
wtf You seem to think we should put the man who promised to unite the country, create jobs and bring transparence to Washington back in, do that and our children and grandchildren will be super poor. The super-rich will still be around but their money will be in other places. So far he has pitted poor against rich, blacks against whites, religious groups against each other, male against female, who or what is united except him and his cronies in DC. He pushed a healthcare bill through behind the locked doors of the white house (except to his party) which has not yet been read by most of the people who voted on it. We have over 23 million people still out of work; we have the biggest debt ever and wait until the tax programs hit in 2013 and 14. Clint should have brought an empty skull with a mouth on both sides to put on the chair. Ozero is glib and in the old west he could have sold snake oil, he is not fooling many all of us with his line that Bush left him with all the problems. I will put it simply the man is clueless but glib.
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Eschetic | Sep 01, 2012, 11:02 PM EDT
"Bravo" to "rpmschevy" for at least trying to respond substantively to ONE direct attack on the Romney/Ryan failure to lead - but in this case it's rpmschevy who, again, needs to check his/her facts. I fully agree that the recent health care reform did not go nearly far enough, but the reform which the President and his party passed with Republican help - essentially the Romney reforms from Massachusetts - is/are mainly aimed at making sure most Americans have access to affordable health care and is as limited as it is, and centered on more equitable insurance rules because of necessary concessions to conservatives. Nothing in it limits rpmschevy's control over his own health care. One really wonders what rpmschevy would want from REAL health care reform - they certainly won't find it in the Republican Platform which merely wants to go back to the old rules - the greatest possible victory for insurance companies over their policy holders! Rpmschevy tries to perpetuate another distortion the radical right are trying to sell this year: the actual reform legislation WAS a little long for "lay" reading, but not substantially longer than any other piece of major legislation. I do wonder if he has ever read a piece of legislation. If he had, he might not be so quick to drink the Romney/Ryan Cool-Aid.
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