TAMPA, Fla. — There are a lot of pundits here in Tampa with no real politics to report on. So I thought now would be a good idea to do some explaining about the odd natives (well, natives for only a few days), whom the punditocracy has ventured out to poke and prod and report back, as if they are 21st-century Margaret Meads. Much of what the observers know is wrong, so simply dispelling 10 misconceptions that they have about Republicans should be useful:
1. The GOP has been taken over by tea party.
In 2012 the Republicans chose the least conservative candidate. If anything, the tea party has been absorbed into the GOP and accepted direction from party leaders. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, got majorities ( including the vast majority of freshmen) to pass a continuing resolution and then the debt-ceiling deal. The GOP continues to support budgets that spend more money every year (they slow the rate of increase) and extol Medicare and Social Security.
2. The GOP is obsessed with social issues.
Mitt Romney barely talks about social issues. It is the Democrats who have latched onto Todd Akin and reportedly set out to emphasize abortion at their convention. The gubernatorial race in Virginia in 2009 is typical of races these days. The Republican Bob McDonnell talked bread-and-butter economic issues issues while his opponent and the media raised social issues as a wedge to try to turn off independent voters. (McDonnell won by 17 points.) My rule of thumb these days is that the party that raises social issues first is losing on everything else. Right now that is not the Republicans.
3. The GOP doesn’t believe in community.
President Obama likes to say that Republicans want everyone to be “on his own.” In fact, conservatives, as Romney put it in a speech at Liberty University this year, believe family, communities, churches and other civil institutions are critical building blocks in society. They favor investing authority in the level of government closest to the people (locales and states), which they believe is most responsive and governs best. Republicans look upon some liberal statist schemes as both ineffective and destructive of those critical civil institutions.
4. The GOP wants to undo the New Deal.
Never has it been so clear how devoted mainstream Republicans are to Social Security and to Medicare. Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget actually does not reduce spending in absolute terms; it merely slows the rate of growth. Republicans, to the dismay of libertarians, have essentially accepted a large, vigorous federal government.
5. Republicans have a problem with women voters because of abortion.
The pro-life and abortion-rights divide is not gender-based. Moreover, Republicans tend to do fairly well with married women. (In 2004 President George W. Bush won married women by 11 points.) It is among single women that Republicans struggle. The reasons are complex, including Republicans’ unwillingness to promise “Life of Julia” cradle-to-grave support.
6. The GOP is out to hurt the poor.
Liberals tend to equate the amount the federal government spends on the poor with concern for the poor. Liberals are also suspicious of the free market. Conservatives think exactly the opposite and point to welfare reform as the greatest social program enabling people to move from the dole to self-sufficiency. When, for example, Republicans want to follow the welfare reform model (e.g. block grant Medicaid and other poverty-oriented programs) they do so in large part because they think these programs can be better managed by the states.
7. Republicans are against regulation.
GOP presidents and Republican-controlled Houses and Senates over the years have not moved to do away with the SEC, FDIC, FDA, EPA or other regulatory bodies. What they object to is burdensome and/or irrational regulation. Republicans understand there is a cost associated with regulations that affects growth, employment and innovation. Moreover, Republicans find the idea that you can eliminate all risks to be foolish.
8. The GOP’s entire agenda is about tax cuts.
Obama says this quite a bit, but he’s wrong on two counts. First, Republicans have plenty of other ideas, including domestic energy development, entitlement reform, school choice and increased trade. Moreover, Romney has explained that he wants tax reform (flattening of the rates and broadening the base), which would be revenue neutral.
9. The GOP is stuck in the past.
It is an odd charge from a Democratic Party that has reverted to a tax-and-spend pre-Bill Clinton philosophy. Republicans are the ones attacking the status quo in education, recommending innovations in Medicare and other entitlement programs and setting a goal for North American energy self-sufficiency by 2020.
10. The GOP won’t cut defense.
Republicans accepted some $78 billion in cuts from Republican Defense Secretary Bob Gates. Virtually every Republican national security leader from Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to House Armed Service Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., has expressed willingness to look for cost-saving reforms and to tackle big drivers of defense costs, including procurement. What they are not willing to do is to enact cuts that Obama’s defense secretary said would be “devastating” or cut defense to help pay for the astronomical run-up in domestic savings. They consider national security to be the first and highest obligation of the federal government.
Readers need to know that Jennifer Rubin is the designated conservative blogger for the Washington Post who could never find it in her heart to say anything negative about her party.
Lest they be bamboozled into thinking conservatives are not the evil baby eaters the overwhelmingly liberal media portrays them as?
Read the above post, divest yourself of your paranoia about the “liberal media” and try to avoid hyperbole.
How about you don’t lecture posters about paranoia and hyperbole. I read your post. Do you even know what hyperbole is?
As someone who has taught English, I do.
Claiming that the “overwhelming liberal media” portrays conservatives as “evil baby eaters” is what any sane person would call hyperbole. That you don’t consider this hyperbole is a reflection on your own sanity.
” As someone who has taught English, I do. ”
Well, that explains a lot!
Asked whether I know what hyperbole is, I responded that I do. If you are suggesting something ungrammatical in the structure, you are in error.
If you hold a former stint as a teacher against me, you reflect the anti-intellectualism of the right. A firm grasp of English makes me a better businessman and a better communicator. Oh that Bush I or Bush II was comfortable speaking his native language.
Your grammar may be correct but your delivery is pedantic. And your assumption that proper grammar is a sign of intellectualism is laughable.
chenard is correct. I give you Bush 2!
The use of the word “pedantic” is an exercise in pedantry.
What is “intellectualism,” in your view? I think you may have meant intelligence.
So what?
‘anti-intellectualism of the right’? Well how very condescending of you!
I was merely referring to your delivery, very mater-of-fact, like that of a teacher. But now that you mention it, very condescending, like most teachers (or at least the bad ones). And like most teachers, your liberal bias shows through crystal clear!
A party that denies global warming, denies evolution, but believes the President to be a Muslim born in Kenya and still thinks Iraq had WMD is governed by beliefs, not facts.
And I suppose the party that worships their president as a God is governed by facts in your world.
Strawmen arguments don’t work. No Democrat has treated the President as a God. Firedoglake, The Nation magazine, Hillary Clinton in the primaries, and a great many Senators have had strong differences with the President. In contrast, poll after poll shows that a substantial plurality of Republicans believe the WMD, birther and Muslim nonsense and a majority of Republicans deny evolution and climate change. Show me one Democrat who has claimed divinity for Obama.
Judging by your tagline, you claim divinity for someone named Abby. Hmmm. Do beliefs trump facts for you as well?
You’ve got tp be kidding! The messiah bit came from McCain and was also hyperbolic. Only the rabid “right” assumes it to be so.
Hateful.
It’s normal for liberals to refer to conservatives as “paranoid”. “We are the Democrat Party. We are the “peoples party”. Wouldn’t it be great if the Republican party was permanently remanded to the status of ineffective so we could deliver our agenda to the people of this country. Trust us, there is nothing to fear. We will alway stand for the normal person, so why on earth would anyone that isn’t rich support those “hater” republicans? Brings up some pretty good questions, doesn’t it. Think people, think.
As a pragmatist, I’ll quote M Thatcher: “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money”.
Hyperbole helps to make a point that is usually extremely exaggerated, but is not meant to be taken literally. I’m not as well versed as an English major but I do know that who ever is caught up in the political rhetoric of 2012 will likely be in a sadden state once this election is over. Nothing will change as long as Congress is in the stupor they have demonstrated over the past couple of years. Romney or Obama will not get any cooperation from them. Sad but true.
Shortly before the President was to be inaugurated the Republican leaders were holding a meeting where they all swore to work against and to deny anything that the President proposed to insure that he would fail. That is fact and has been reported from both sides of the aisle.
I know that there has never been such a disgraceful ploy by the Democrats. There is no equivalency when it comes to the 2 parties.
The Republican House has not been in a stupor, they are lockstep in a lockdown .
Party before country. God before country. No “God and Country” anymore.
Guess it’s God and Country.
More like God, then party, IMO.
but of course…
The President had a very cooperative Democratic House in 2009-2011. Let us be honest about which party has raised non-cooperation to a high art.
How about you don’t lecture posters about lecturing posters.
Now hold on! We eat good babies, too!
Yes, but only with Grey Poupon and a fine ceante!
A fine what?
Chianti Bob. I knew what the poster intended to say. I didn’t have to call them on it.
Good for you Tio. You aren’t the only one reading this.
… while in our car elevators ?
So how come the Republicans 1 % get a $80,000 deductions for their dancing horse,
but you only get $200o per child that you raise ?
I know a few democrat Hinckley owners that get a bigger deduction on the ‘toy boats’ than Mitt does on his horse!
Not all the 1% are Republicans! But I get it, you only hate the Republican ones!
The point is not who’s rich, who’s left or right, but how conservatives interest in the child’s health and well being seems to end at birth.
Who wants you have a baby no matter what, but opposes nation health care for both having it or raise it ?
No, we hate the deductions or should I say corporate welfare.
red or white
Pretty much like the liberal media en masse?
The major networks (sans Fox) are socially liberal and economically conservative. Well paid network anchors are happy to have their tax rates lowered and Social Security and Medicare gutted. Note their fawning devotion to the allegedly “adult” budget plan proposed by Ryan, despite the failure of that budget to be balanced for over ten years (and even then only with rosy scenarios) and the failure to itemize a single tax deduction that would be eliminated.
And many conservatives preach that the Washington Post is a liberal paper (and imply it shouldn’t be read)? Looks like double talk to be.
When is the last time you read, saw or heard a liberal blogger saying something negative about Obama?
Read Firedoglake.
Very good concise description of my beliefs. Leftists would rather portray conservative beliefs as extreme rather than a reasonable alternative. Demonizing and misrepresenting the opposition is so much easier than honest debate.
Then what’s your response towards the new platform?
You mean the one that says no tax dollars paying for abortion? There is no ban included.
Are you blind? It’s right there in front of you, plain as day.
It simply states that it believes in the sanctity of life and want to ban any tax money for funding abortion. Any ban on abortion is only a pipe dream they would like, but know it will never happen.
http://whitehouse12.com/republican-party-party-platform/
“Maintaining the Security and Dignity of Human Life”
Plain as day to anyone who relies on more than the papers.
“Page not found.”
Hmmmm. Just checked it and it works for me. Maybe because Disqust left off the suffix: ican-party-platform/
I see it now. See “The Sanctity and Dignity of Human Life.”
That’s what I said but with ‘Maintaining’. It clearly stated a ban on federal funding, but not a carte blanch ban on abortion itself. Besides, no candidate of either party has ever followed the platform completely once elected. It’s kinda like the etch a sketch debacle: It was a campaign operative that said that, and only in reference to Romney drifting to the center once confirmed at the convention. Misleading journalism as usual.
You think the platform is insincere, but you are going to sign onto it anyway? I don’t get that.
A platform is nothing more than a consensus of ideologists ( a wish list) that no candidate or president would explicitly follow as a leader or an individual in real life. Otherwise it would just amount to the extremism we are now experiencing in congress and this campaign (which is normal every 4 years).
Wow, sorry, when I sign onto the Democratic Platform, I sign onto it as written. And I have been a delegate. Your explanation sounds mealy-mouthed to me.
Then you live in an idealistic world, not the real one.
I live in the world that tells the truth as best as it can. I’m sorry that you do not. Americans are supposed to be truthful.
That’s your problem: “supposed to be”. I don’t believe that you could be THAT naive.
There are still some of us who believe in truthfulness.
Put that on your idealistic wish list and come back to me when you’ve spent some time in life. Cynical? no, pragmatic.
No thanks.
Oh, and I’m sorry if you are a sheep that believes everything that’s presented to you. I don’t sign onto one or the other; I just like to hear both sides and dislike any falsehood spinnings from journalists. The old line “Just the facts Ma’am, just the facts.”
One of those wishy washy independents, eh? :)
Let’s just say that I don’t toe the line with either party…
Hey Cheesecakes 1955… so YOUR medicare will be run by the insurance corporations that really do have death panels, and you are cheer-leading for that ?
I’m sure glad I was born a year earlier than you.
But that aside, I’m just checking on real local grassroots support for the GOP Platform, its war on women, and want you to be to perfectly clear that as a loyal conservative GOP woman that you oppose abortion in all cases including rape, incest, or even at the expense of both the lives of the mother and child, right ?
There is where an honest, but short, debate on the GOP Platform begins, isn’t it ?
So be honest,starting right now, please.
Sorry , but it is the extremist GOP Platform, that makes it a big government , one size fits all, decision not an individual or even a family choice.
Bye-bye, Mama, Sissy and I will really miss you when you die because the GOP more
Big Government Platform says you and your new baby just must, period.
The GOP wants women out of the labor market.
GOP to women:
“get back in the kitchen and make me a damn samich!”
yehhh… I don’t see “end female participation in the labor market” in their platform.
If a woman cannot control her fertility – and the R’s are hoping to make it difficult for women to access/use birth control (several methods of contraception would be banned by the ‘fertilized egg’ platform status) – then she has more difficulty in staying in the labor market.
Thank you! The GOP wants no competition in the labor market. It keeps wages down, and shackles workers to dead-end jobs because they have to keep their health insurance. I hope one day we will all wake up and realize what an unsustainable tax this is on all of us and this country.
Thank you for making my point so well.
You have to take Jennifer Rubin’s article with a grain of salt. She is a conservative American columnist and a blogger. One of the right’s most prolific online political writers. So I’m thinking that this is purely and opinion of a political hack machine. Everyone is due their opinion, after all this is america and freedom of speech is a right that we all are free to express.
Honestly, what a stupid article. Look no further than their approved GOP platform. It affirms all these things that are supposed to be “myths.”
“1. The GOP has been taken over by tea party.
In 2012 the Republicans chose the least conservative candidate. If anything, the tea party has been absorbed into the GOP …
2. The GOP is obsessed with social issues.
Mitt Romney barely talks about social issues … ”
BECAUSE HE IS ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THEM RELATIVE TO THE GOTEA PARTY LEADERSHIP, SO NOT REALLY A LEADER THEY WILL LISTEN TO.
I’ve read enough of this crap.
If there were a Red Revolution, sweeping the Congress and the WH, we would still have deadlocked government in Washington not compromising with its own Party members because some are not real conservative nor politically pure, real American, in eyes of their own more extreme “no compromise” Party members.
What a pack of lies all the propaganda coming out this pre-programed GOP convention is.
Why aren’t you talking and/or complaining about the far left progressive take over of the democratic party? HMMM? Today’s democratic party bears no resemblence to the one JFK, Lyndon Johnson, Harry Truman or even Bill Clinton represented.
JFK would be closer to today’s Republicans for sure as would Lyndon.
And Abraham Lincoln would go out of his way to shoot himself if he could see what the Republicans have done to his party.
Really?
And which of his beliefs do you think we do not stand for anymore?
ALL OF THEM!
So you got nothing huh?
Not even one you can talk about?
If I agreed with you then we’d both be wrong.
Wiki has a fairly balanced piece on him and I don’t see us as that far off his stance.
By the 1970s Lincoln had become a hero to political conservatives[268] for his intense nationalism, support for business, his insistence on stopping the spread of un-freedom (slavery), his acting in terms of Lockean and Burkean principles on behalf of both liberty and tradition, and his devotion to the principles of the Founding Fathers.[269][270][271] As a Whig activist, Lincoln was a spokesman for business interests, favoring high tariffs, banks, internal improvements, and railroads in opposition to the agrarian Democrats.[272] William C. Harris found that Lincoln’s “reverence for the Founding Fathers, the Constitution, the laws under it, and the preservation of the Republic and its institutions undergirded and strengthened his conservatism.”.[273] James G. Randall emphasizes his tolerance and especially his moderation “in his preference for orderly progress, his distrust of dangerous agitation, and his reluctance toward ill digested schemes of reform.” Randall concludes that, “he was conservative in his complete avoidance of that type of so-called ‘radicalism’ which involved abuse of the South, hatred for the slaveholder, thirst for vengeance, partisan plotting, and ungenerous demands that Southern institutions be transformed overnight by outsiders.”[274]
Anti-slavery for starters. The GOP wants to enslave America for their own profit. The GOP wants a workforce who works for nothing, gets no benefits for their labor, and it wants them to die when they get ill rather than be a burden on their limitless greed. The laughter you hear behind closed GOP doors is them chuckling about how they’ve convinced the ignorant to support them.
Agree.
The fact that you can even spout such crap shows just how warped you are. There isn’t any sense talking to you about anything if you believe I am pro slavery.
If you support the GOP agenda then yes, you are pro-slavery. Even if you are not aware of it.
You and Biden make quite the pair of propaganda pushers. Why not say we are bringing back the third reich!
I dunno abraham lincoln loved a strong federal government and trampling on states rights and constitutional jurisprudence.
Not true.
Where is that article ?
Do you mean that tax cutting JFK?
The Republican primary slate was so lame because sane Republicans chose to NOT run because they did not want to deal with the tea party zealots.
I waited for the so called myths to be presented and instead read the Republican platform. Go ahead and ask the Ron Paul delegates how well they have gotten along with the establishment.
Are the myths in the next installment?
Ron Paul supporters do not represent the Tea Party.
I consider myself a firm believer in what the Tea Party stands for and I consider Ron Paul to be a Racist Senile Nutcase.
Please don’t pretend that you know who we are or who all of us are voting for.
The GOP platform is public knowledge. There is no pretending. We know.
You spin you mean.
needs no spin…. the platform is a blight on the country….
please enlighten us to what the tea party stands for? Then I will fill you in on what Ron paul stands for, we compare notes and I think you will see a few similarities.
Claims of racisim against paul have been straw grasping attempts at slander by the establishment left and right collectives. As far as senility goes… he is versed on current economic statistics and doesn’t make irrelevant remarks in his speeches and debates. Old maybe, senile not a chance.
ron paul has been touted as a major contributor to the tea party which is fine he has very great ideas and has had them for nearly 30 years but… I have also heard him called the intellectual leader of tea party and that offends me as a libertarian and a constitutionalist because the tea party is the neocon perversion of the modern libertarian movement filtered and vetted by the mainstream establishment.
I did not say the man did not have a few good ideas, I also did not say that no one from the tea party supported him nor did I say that there were not some similarities between what he believes and what I believe so comparing notes attempting to find the areas where our beliefs converge and diverge would do little to help as this guy is concerned. Judging by your facebook page you and I share many of the same beliefs and values but that doesn’t mean we will agree on this guy either.
The man is a racist as proven by quotes from his own past newsletter. I know you have probably swallowed that very poor spin job his people did about how it was in his name but he never read it but get real. If he really is dumb enough to write that sort of blank check how can you possibly believe the things he claims now are actually his ideas?
I have yet to see anything factual concerning him and even one tea party meeting, donations, or speeches on behalf of the tea part so I wouldn’t let that little bit of spin from his people concern you either.
The man is a fabrication as much as Obama is.
Gee, I was looking to learn from you your take on what the tea party stands for as the above poster asked.
My take on the whole of what the teaparty stands for or just what is important to me.
I’ll give you what I want out of it and hope that is enough for you. If not there are probably one hundred or so websites out there with the gist of it.
Taxed Enough Already breaks it down just fine for me. We do not need to generate more revenue in this country we need to reduce spending and waste in a big way. This article is just one example.
I see. Thank you for your response. I wonder if you have done any research into exactly where your tax dollars are going and how they support the top .01 % of the country. That includes individuals as well as large corporations. It might interest you to know that the Koch brothers are actually the ones who began and funded the tea party . There is a fine expose on this in the New Yorker magazine from last year that I believe is still available online for you to see.
I think that it might be worth your knowing that the tax rates in the country are at a 50 year low.
Like you I have great concerns about how the country’s tax dollars are spent. There are many ways to ‘spend’ this money.
I will also say that simply saying no and refusing to work together is a formula for failure. It seems to me that that is what I have seen from the tea party.
I think that everyone is against waste. By the way, ACA does a good deal to begin to address waste in the healthcare system.
You mistake my point on taxes. My issue with them is not just as they concern my level of taxation but all levels.
I want the government cleaned up before they take one more red dime from anyone.
I want to tax code changed so that all pay taxes with not one exemption or exception. If the tax is 1% (just to make it easy) and you earn $100, I want $1 taken out of your pay and sent away.
No more Tax accountants finding loop holes, no more H&R Block, and no more politicians with smoke and mirrors hiding how much we all really pay.
If you are successfull you will pay your fair share the same as the person who chose to sit on his butt and do nothing to get ahead.
I was speaking about all levels. Your idea is an interesting one. I do not see it happening.
I do see that stripping the government of much needed funds in order for it to function is wrong headed and harmful to the less fortunate among us. The rich will be fine but many will be hurt. And firing public employees like IRS workers as has been done to appease the right only results in more tax scofflaws getting away with not paying the taxes that they lawfully owe.
The right has historically been against the government doing anything to help the people. They were against medicare and even the G.I. bill which did a great deal to build the middle class in our country. In fact that is but one governmental act that helped to build the middle class.
I appreciate hearing your thoughts but I believe that we are poles apart when it come to taxes and government. I do not understand what you mean by hiding how much we really pay.
I read some of the quotes from his newsletter and call me a racist but I didn’t see anything overtly offensive. I don’t give a damn about being PC, many of his comments are realistic plain and simple.
My favorite is “there is no such thing as a hate crime”. Motive doesn’t change the end result of a crime. If you kill someone because they are sleeping with your wife or because your an ignorant redneck and just hate people different from you… bottom line you have killed somebody and will stand trial for murder.
you know what would make him racist is “I hate blacks, because they are inferior to the white race, actually all races are inferior to the white race.” citing some FACTUAL statistics about crime rates doesn’t make him racist and it disappointed me his campaigned had to backtrack on it in order to maintain political correctness.
I have no idea what your talking about “If he really is dumb enough to write that sort of blank check how can
you possibly believe the things he claims now are actually his ideas?” Ron paul has been saying the same things consistently for the last 30 years before anyone even thought about the tea party. He has been warning about large intrusive overspending government since the reagan administration. I am not really sure what you are driving at when you say he is a fabrication like obama? he is a 12 term congressman he has been serving his district for over 20 years… before obama was even out of college!
This is not citing factual statistics.
“Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the criminal justice system, I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal.” “We are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, it is hardly irrational.” After the Los Angeles riots, one article in a newsletter claimed, “Order was only restored in L.A. when it came time for the blacks to pick up their welfare checks.”
ok I concede he didn’t state factual statistics in those newsletters ghostwritten 22 years ago. He merely made assumption that a reasonable individual would not dispute. Do you remember what DC was like 15 years ago? remember when they were the murder capital? 95% is a numerical representation for a statement like “most of, almost all, etc.” This hardly makes him a “racist”. At worst it makes him mildly ignorant about stereotypes and maintaining political correctness.
Actually Tom any ghetto environment is high in crime no matter what color the skin happens to be. Remember the Mafia in Italian neighborhoods? Did you know there were Irish Mafia in Irish neighborhoods. There were signs in some store windows not all that long ago saying Irish not welcome.
I know he is old and some of the old ways stick to him but he can not just continue the bad behavior and it does make him a racist. I did not say he was wrong about his assumptions, I don’t know if they were wrong or right but really neither does he. A person maybe right that most black people like Fried Chicken but that doesn’t mean most white people don’t. Itg just means the guy is focused on clor way too much.
Anyway, while I believe in a lot of the same things the man believes in I could never support him because of his past.
He would be too easy to beat.
Maybe there is hope for his son if he can stay in the game. I like Ryan quite a bit though so I will have to live with a Vanilla R candidate one more time. We will make progress in changing this party, it just isn’t happening this year.
What a breath of fresh air! Bet this will drive the Libs on here apoplectic!
Yup, I was right! Just look who chimed in first!
Are you an atheist?
Are you a Honkytonk?
A person can’t be a honkytonk, but a person can be an atheist. Just wondering about your handle.
If you knew Abby, you wouldn’t be so perplexed. Besides, from your posts, you need something to wonder about ! ;-)
Why do you think you know anything about me? You’re the one who put it out there.
You are absolutley correct. All one has to do is read the headlines on any story in the bnd and you can tell whether it will draw the comments of the loony leftists such as this article is doing. It’s usually the same 10 or 15 that are spouting their vomit, day after day. In reading their posts it’s obvious most of them are posting beyond their intelligence.
And WAY beyond their pay grade!
In stead of left and right why not try egalitarianism. Wikipedia it, a new interesting word with possibilities.
hmm sounds like a communist plot.
What would it sound like if you was Tom Brown the Fourth.
a fascist plot!
It’s a pretty old word and a good idea but it runs into problems in a Capitalist society. Remember the GOP ideology is based on meritocracy, and sneers at egalitanarianism, calling it the “redistribution of wealth.” They do it to anyone who expects a level playing field in the USA.
This is certainly the biggest pile of horse excrement I seen in quite a while. #8 was particularly entertaining.
Load of nonsense from some nonsensical right winger. The GOP is now the TeaPublican Party, and no matter how much perfume this right winger tries to spray on her pig, it is still a stinking pig.
Yes, lipstick only goes so far.
Well that would explain most of the women on the Left, then!
Here’s something that isn’t a myth about Republicans …. Listen to their convention and you will have NO doubt that they are all ready planning the next war in the hopes of winning the election. It will be Romney being led around by the nose by the Neo-Cons and us in multiple wars. I guess we’ll just have to look at the bright side of things and realize how good for business this will be selling weapons to all sides.
Yeah I do wish for conscription, I am sure if Mitt Robme’s son’s were forced to serve there would be less talk of “future” wars. Although it did not stop him from fleeing to France to AVOID service in the military during the Viet Nam conflict. The elitists will always find a way to hide behind mommies apron.
oh you mean like the obama administration selling weapons to the mexican drug cartels?
that Issa myth has been debunked..
issa myth? I am referring to the “operation fast and furious” and project gunrunner.
yes I know… Congressman Darrell Issa has completely distorted what actually happened….
sorry, do not have time now but maybe you can google the reporting on this and what actually happened… here is a link
http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/27/fast-and-furious-truth/
It’s a fact that this food stamp president sold guns to drug runners in Mexico that were used to kill americans. Why did the food stamp president invoke executive privilige?
no… it is not a fact at all… your hatred for the President is sad….
also sad that you have a problem helping out people who really need the help
the increase in people who do need the help is a direct result from the policies of the Cheney/Bush administration who caused the great recession.. do you think that Bush and Cheney would be against helping people have enough to eat..
and by the way, this gun program that you speak to but clearly do not understand was begun by Bush… another inconvenient fact
I do not expect you to believe any of this… but it is factual
Please, some one find me an airline baggie ! The GOP has gone so far right that they have all but taken the left turn signal off their car’s. The constant whining by Ryan that Medicare needs to be moved to a voucher program, and then turned back over the the State’s is nothing less than tossing everyone that’s on it, or is coming close to it, under the bus of this ‘States Right’s’ nonsense. As far as Maine goes, does anyone that’s not brain dead really expect Maine”s DHHS to be able to administer this type of program when they can’t even get their own current house in order ? And let’s not forget that under the voucher program that Ryan calls for, the Fed’s will pickup only a base percentage of the cost with the balance to be paid for by senior’s. Now, with the senior’s now stuck with the ‘cost plus’ portion of this program, guess what the Maine insurer’s are gonna do now that they don’t have to apply for a rate increase as long as their annual rate increase is under 10% here in Maine courtesy of LePage’s recent manipulation of the insurance, regulatory process’s and the literal firing of the Insurance Commissioner who kept them under control. And the GOP is actually backing this crap ! Once this version of GOP ‘new math’ is looked at and seen for what it is, namely a give away to the health insurance industry, I wouldn’t want to be anwhere near a GOP Candidate when the Medicare question comes up. Not unless I have stock in the local funeral home’s.
And as far as their community views go, well, one only has to look at the current GOP track record on community involvement on issues such as get out the vote effort’s, community investment and job training program’s. And let’s not forget their effort’s to gut local school’s in favor of so called school choice, which is cute way of rationalizing racial and educational discrimination back to the days before Brown vs Board of Education in the mid 50’s. Yeah, we’re really progressive here in Maine, wanting to go back to the days of the 1930’s in the South aren’t we ? The GOP’s done real well recently, haven’t they ? One can’t wait to see what they’re gonna come up with next. Planned Parenthood by affordability ? Going back to the ‘food or heating vs perscription’ days that the Affordable Perscription Act got us all out of ? Given the GOP’s current platform, these are not that far from happening. Yet the GOP claims to be looking out for the American public. Fine. Someone please show me just who and where they are besides Wall St., Hollywood and the Fortune 500 bunch ’cause so far they haven’t even shown me that they know how to hold there whoozit’s in the bathroom and aim accurately.
Perhaps the GOP appears so far right to you only because you and the Dems have moved as far Left as the spectrum would allow! With obama, even a centrist would appear extreme! Heck, even a moderate Democrat is extreme compared to a pure, card-carrying socialist like obama!
Wrong.
Your dismissal proves I’m correct.
The GOP is ruining this country.
Too late, obama and his disciples beat us to it!
Lets tell it like it is, neither Republicans or Democrats can be trusted. They lie, steel, cheat and are only concerned about there own well being! They don’t care at all about the lower or middle class Americans and have screwed them every chance they get! It is time to do away with both parties and start over with honest hard working Americans in charge!!!
steel is a semi-ferrous metal which is an alloy of iron and carbon sometimes with additional elements added in.
Steal is an action of taking property of another with out permission either secretly or with force.
But yes I agree with you the two party system is a farce. It gives us the illusion of free choice when really we have none because the candidates are picked for us.
The goals are relatively similar between the two parties. The problem is in the methods used to achieve them.
And the amount of taxpayer money involved!
You do not know what you are talking about . The country’s tax rates are at a 50 year low.
The gap between the .01% and all the rest just continues to grow. Not a formula for any country’s success.
I know exactly what I am talking about, but I do wonder about you. Fear not, the success of this country will be assured once Romney wins in November. I predict you will see a turnaround like the one immediately after Reagan beat the pants off Carter.
blah, blah, blah
I do like this kind of simple explanation of specific issues. So now explain why the top 1% control the majority of wealth in this country. Please don’t insult us by saying that the other 99% is not ambitious enough to take advantage of the mythical level playing field.
Also please explain how big business will not take advantage of deregulation as it did when Glass/Stegall
was illiminated. Also please show a comparison of the cost of this mistake compared to welfare fraud.
Looking forward to these explanations befor Nov.
Good satire, contains both irony and sarcasm. Oh, what you were trying to be serious………………….better yet……….total fail.
This is precisely why we are witnessing the end of the modern liberal. They do nothing but demonize and promote fear. Every time their fear mongering turns out to be false, they lose credibility. At this point, they are not worth taking seriously. That is why Romney will win in a landslide.
so you don’t think that talking about iran as if they were the soviet union is fear mongering?
Your desciption of the modern liberal is the very definition of the defense mechanism called Projection. The GOP demonizes and promotes fear at every turn.
The biggest myth in this article is that Jennifer Rubin is not a conservative propagandist.
The alleged myths appear to be valid. For example, re absorption of the Tea party by the mainstream Rs, even Boehner has reservations about the platform.