What has happened to the Republican Party?
Posted on Tuesday, September 06, 2011 at 10:01 AM
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I admit it, there are some things about the modern Republican party (and its increasingly loony Tea Party wing) that still surprise me.
Why for example do conservatives loudly claim to revere the Constitution, yet spend so much time discussing how they'd like to dismantle every aspect of the federal government that is the very expression of the principles embodied in that document?
Another thing that surprises me: instead of targeting the predatory bankers who almost destroyed our economy, why do conservative politicians instead target government programs that actually help people like Medicaid and Social Security?
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READ MORE:
Sarah Palin leaves it too late as Michele Bachmann has stolen her show
Here comes a religious hurricane - the 9/11 Memorial
Michele Bachmann attacks US jobs going overseas to Ireland
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Why do they fight tooth and nail to protect elite billionaires like the Koch brothers from paying a one tenth of one percent increase on their tax rates?
After all US corporations have just had their most profitable quarters in American history - so where are all the jobs these 'wealth creators' were supposed to create? I'm serious, where's all this wealth these wealth creators have brought us?
And why has religious fundamentalism taken over the Republican party as obviously as it now has? Perry and Bachman openly admit they do not believe in evolution (making creationism mainstream for the first time) but they do believe in angels and demons, they say. They would have felt right at home in the 15 century. These are two candidates who apparently don't care care what happens to the country or indeed the planet, since God's going to destroy it all anyway. So why are they even being considered?
If elected, which I doubt she will ever be, Bachmann's first act would be to get rid of the Department of Education, she said yesterday. No nation ever needed it less, apparently.
I wonder about this too: why Republicans, having stripped the private-sector of their pensions and health benefits thanks to outsourcing and union busting and shareholder pressure, are now targeting public-sector workers give up their pensions and benefits too?
Why should these workers do so? Why particularly when you contrast their hard working lives with the endless gravy train that our richest citizens enjoy without fear of reproach from the party they have bought and paid for?
And why should we give up our own social security? These are benefits for which we worked.
And why does the Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell think his greatest legislative priority - instead of jobs for out of work Americans - is ensuring that Obama is a one-term president?
How is that a patriotic action? How did it come to this? If you can answer any of these questions directly I'd like to read it below.
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READ MORE:
Sarah Palin leaves it too late as Michele Bachmann has stolen her show
Here comes a religious hurricane - the 9/11 Memorial
Michele Bachmann attacks US jobs going overseas to Ireland
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35 comments
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peterson | Sep 09, 2011, 02:09 PM EDT
You sound like a liberal ----enough said !!
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jamieLM | Sep 07, 2011, 10:23 AM EDT
I would like to be a member of a new party that would be called the "SANITY Party." People in this party would have economic and commonsense. People would be rational and cooperative in their approach to the issues. The party would elect people who would set term limits on Congress and cut out their pricey healthcare and pensions. The party would elect people who would quit talking about it and actually reform Wall Street. The agenda would include redoing the tax code and eliminating fraud in Medicare & Medicade, and cutting govt. waste in every area, including the military. Healthcare would be reformed in a step-by-step process. No 4,000 page bills, filled with pork, could be passed that no one has read. Yeah, like that party is ever going to happen. Right now, the choice is dumb and dumber. That's why I'm a registered Independent who doesn't like many of the choices on either side.
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rgray222 | Sep 07, 2011, 10:16 AM EDT
It seems that Cahir is not up on current events. It was Obama that bailed out the bankers without condition. Lets include the insurance companies and the car companies. It was Obama that passed heath care on the premise of cutting $450 Billion in medicare cuts.
Bush did help the bankers in the way of TARP but that was a loan and it has been paid back. Obama offered stimulus and many banks still have not paid back the government and are not expected to! The Constitution tells government what it "cannot do" not what it can, Obama has come out (its on video) and says he does not like the Constitution for that exact reason. Once someone gets caught up in their party politics (like Cahir) no amount of reasoning or the truth ever seems to make a difference with them! What a shame!
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AengusOg | Sep 07, 2011, 10:13 AM EDT
There are problems that are endemic with government programs. Is the purpose and funding of Social Security the in line with the original concept? It has become bloated by extending coverages beyond its original intent, and has been bankrupted by paying today's costs with tomorrow's dollars. Medicare, medicaid, Fanny Mae, Freddy Mac, and the USPS are all failing or failed. This example is twenty-five years old from NYC Health and Hospitals, but is apocryphal. The state oversees this institution and has 'unannounced' inspections. But six weeks before the 'unannounced' inspection takes place, additional workers from other hospitals show up to help prepare for the inspection. The state can't afford to actually remedy what needs to be addressed, so it finds everything AOK. Visit the 125th St. Ind. station and view a failure of the NYC MTA to maintain a major Manhattan subway station. Aside from the armed services, which have four academies designed to train their future leaders, government programs are unsustainable. This is true because the temptations involved are greater than the incentives for responsible management. There is no direct ownership and no increased profit with the success of the endeavor. This is why I am a participant in the only movement that recognizes the failure of government to manage programs. Government cannot even regulate effectively. For movie goers, see 'Inside Job', for researchers, see 'Friends of Angelo'. What? Some Republicans were equally guilty. Well, after all, they are not only Republicans, they are politicians.
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hwodunnavent | Sep 07, 2011, 10:01 AM EDT
To lastshovel: Strange that I have heard the same comparisons to the Third Reich applied to Obama and the Democrats with the take over of private business and the demonizing of people with money, but only those who are Republicans--never the monied Democrats. Looks like mainstream Americans are caught between the Devil and the Deep blue sea! I read and hear a lot of complaints but very few solutions to the many problems in this country. One side wants the government to handle all the country's ills and the other side wants the government out of their business so the country can move on. It comes down to who do you want to handle your money--the government or yourself? What is your definition of freedom? What is your definition of responsibility? They must go hand-in-hand!
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hwodunnavent | Sep 07, 2011, 09:05 AM EDT
To tomdoh345: I understand your viewpoint. However, your last comment about stupidity has been used by both sides of many arguments. There was a time in US politics that the two sides of an argument were able to find common ground. What happen in the 1930's and FDR's policies was what the country needed at the time and the first steps toward government intervention in the private sector which had become over-bearing. In the ensuing years both sides struggled to have their point of view heard. These are the same points of view that we struggle with today. Since I am more familiar with the Union struggle, I will address that issue only, but these points apply to many other political struggles as well. I have spent years arguing with my brother about Unions in the work place. If workers had full control over business, what would be their reason to work hard? If Management had full control, what would be their reason to treat workers fairly? If Management can't make a profit, which is their goal, why have a business? I have been affected by a company closing because the Union asked for so much the company could not operate. Do the Unions think that they must make more and have more benefits than the clerks in the front office who handle all the "behind the scenes" work? The Unions are shooting themselves in the foot by not taking into account the operating needs of the company. Yes, many executives make too much money; but many Union executives make way too much money for pushing their power to the extreme. The basic problem is greed at the top for both parties. This basic feral instinct was left unchecked when religious principles like fair play were deleted from the American culture beginning in the late 1950's. Now both sides are seen as studid by the other side. Neither side can see their effect on the whole. There was a time when a middle ground was taken for the benefit of both, a direction that did not destroy the other side or the whole.
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walleyeman | Sep 07, 2011, 09:03 AM EDT
There are millions of Americans who subscribe to the main tenet of the Tea Party, smaller government, who have never been to a Tea Party Event. It has become obvious that the Democrats have realized that their party has no counter for the Tea Party so they are doing they best to demonize it. There are many factions within the RepublicanParty unlike the democrat party that marches in lockstep. There are however marching right off a cliff following a very flawed leader who has not a clue.
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lastshovel | Sep 07, 2011, 07:18 AM EDT
How quickly it is forgotten. History, I mean. I respectfully suggest a THROUGH reading of Shirer's "The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich." The 1960 Edition is available to read online at the University of Michigan for free. After my latest (6th) reading I cannot help but see the parallels of the Republican Party to the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei. To wit: 1. SturmAbeilung = Tea Party, fit, form, purpose. 2.Reichminister Gobbels took over all forms of German life; this coincides precisely, precisely mind you, with the "7 Mountains" of the Dominionists who are so closely tied with Gov Perry. 3. Muslims "ist der neu Juden". 4.Homosexuals constitute a "grave" danger to the continuity of the state since they don't reproduce. 5.Minorities and the poor are the new "useless eaters". 6.Several prominent Republican office-holders have publicly have declared their intent to make the Democratic Party superfluous, i.e., a single party state. There are more parallels equally true, READ THEM FOR YOUR OWN ENLIGHTENMENT. And if that doesn't scare the bejeezus out'a you consider that 90% of the weapons in my country that are held by civilians, are held by registered..............Republicans.
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jamthecat | Sep 06, 2011, 11:21 PM EDT
America's always had lunatics in positions of power here and there (read some of the vile things being spouted about Kennedy by Texans in the 60s and about FDR by Republicans in the 30s) but now the GOP has been taken over completely by maniacs and selfish fools. They honestly cannot comprehend just how totally they are destroying everything they claim to stand for and are incapable of compromise in any way, shape or form. The sooner they are all removed from office the better this country's chances are to become great, once again, instead of continuing its slide into totalitarianism.
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patrickesq | Sep 06, 2011, 11:07 PM EDT
I agree with most of the comments in the article. The current batch of Republican presidential hopefuls are a scary bunch for their unprincipled zeal to toe the extreme teaparty line to win primaries. Romney has to disclaim any credit for the Massachusetts health care reform that provided health insurance to many of its citizens. Texas under Perry has the distinction of having the highest percentage of uninsured residents. All of these candidates are against the Affordable Health Care Act, even though it is the only real hope of making health insurance affordable for millions of Americans, and make it available to people with preexisting conditions. The Republicans have no plan to help anyone obtain affordable health coverage. Instead they are champions of abstract rights not to mandate any one to invest in their health, even if that dubious freedom will result in millions of people lacking proper health care, with many ending up in emergency rooms and hospitals, to obtain necessary care at the expense of taxpayers and people who are able to obtain coverage.
Too many of your readers who do not agree with your comments are unable to articulate any serious reasons for doing so, but have to resort to meaningless labels and name calling, to express their opinions. A lack of any serious dialogue, based on facts, will only continue to contribute to a deepening polarization of our country and a failure to reach reasonable compromises.
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seanomelbourne | Sep 06, 2011, 07:04 PM EDT
The teaparty are a disillusioned lot with no soul or respect.They hide their racism behind a facade of unchristian metaphors.They are an ignorant lot who have no idea how government works and the Mitch McConnells of this world are gutless to defend constitutionalism because of the power of the Koch brothers and their cohorts in the teaparty. The U.S. is on a highway to hell led by the ignorance of people like Bachmann and co.The world needs a great and democratic America.I am not an American,I'm just on the outside looking in and I am sad at what I see.The demonisation of the POTUS seems to be the "raison d'etre" of the unchristian GOP right wing. DeMint and the rest of them fiddle whilst America burns
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tomdoh345 | Sep 06, 2011, 06:50 PM EDT
Nice job Cahir. I enjoy reading the nutcase comments of the Irish Tea Party and GOP members. I wonder if the older ones were asleep when the horrors of pre 1937 US history was taught. In the US in the early and mid 30s unemployment was higher than the 25% un or under employment that we are enjoying now. The wealth gap was as high as it is now ( making a case that a countries wealth gap causes depressions ). There was no Social Security so you starved or became homeless in old age unless some one took you in. Union had to fight continuously since 1850s for what these ignorant TP and GOP members take for granted ( I can only assume that Irish TP and GOP members have never seen the movie "Molly Maquires" or if they have a did not get the message than we know why other ethnic groups think the Irish TPs are the stupidest of the stupids ). I observe that the average TP member can only make 1 statement in 10 that may have a grain of truth in it. The average GOP member may have 1 in 7. The TP and GOP even hate Obama when he is in step with them. For example the misnamed by both Obama and his critics "Pay Roll Tax Holiday" ( which is in reality the collection to fund the Social Security )is a very bad idea which the GOP has wished for. At the same time the MAX Salary CAP has remained at $107,000 ( which means that most US workers pay (before 2011) 6.2% of their salaries to the SS Fund while people like Gates and Buffett pay .000062% ) This underfunding of the SS Fund is playing right into the hands of the TP / GOP. About the stupidest people I know on the face of the earth are older Irish Americans collecting or about to collect Social Security in the next ten years who can not connect these dots and belong to the TP even when blessed with a history of Irish American union struggles and discrimination. These rants by ignorant TP / GOP members is a showcase of Stupidity and make me remember my father's words " You can not argue with Stupidity".
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2BorNot2B | Sep 06, 2011, 06:18 PM EDT
In fact, if my posts keep disappearing I'll have to go to Da MAN hisself and ask for justice. You know, he asked me to put him on my LinkedIn roster, that ought to count for something, ya think?
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2BorNot2B | Sep 06, 2011, 06:10 PM EDT
Whatssamatta Cahir, don't you like my posts? Don't you like the fact that Maureen Dowd is finally coming to her senses? -- Don't you believe in 'free speech' unless the speech agrees with your fascist guidelines?
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