Further On Down The Road: Oh Those Delusional Republicans
Oct 13th, 2011 | 23 responses
Among other things, Republicans today are the party of the delusional. It’s courtship with Christianists and then the Tea Party in the quest for short-term gains took it ever further to the right — and sometimes completely out of right field — while ignoring the larger reality that mainstream voters wouldn’t by these brands of extremism.
But a funny thing is happening on the way to 2012. Jobs growth has been slow or non-existent in the year since the Bush Recession “officially” ended and this has handed the GOP a golden opportunity to take back the White House and perhaps the Senate, as well.
This, as Matt Bai writes in a forthcoming New York Times Magazine article, the continuing fallout from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression has made party leaders positively giddy.
“Given such fast-deteriorating conditions,” writes Bai, “Many Republican veterans have come around to the view that they aren’t really going to need the perfect presidential candidate, and perhaps not even a notably good one. With Chris Christie having taken himself out of the running — again — earlier this month, the field of candidates now appears to be pretty much set, and none of them are likely to inspire any reimaginings of Mount Rushmore.”
While the major issue of the forthcoming campaign will undoubtedly be about jobs and if Mitt Romney is the Republican nominee he will undoubtedly fliip-flop to a more moderate center, the Republicans are again being delusional.
This is because the jobs picture is not just about jobs. It also is about what happens when people don’t have jobs. Things like home foreclosures, motor vehicle repossessions, loss of health insurance, and not sending children to college. And here the Republicans have been unrelentingly mean spirited in their blood quest to do everything in their power to prevent Barack Obama’s re-election while trying to screw the middle class, the poor, the elderly and the infirm.
That strategy is not compatible with reality. It’s . . . surprise! delusional.
23 Responses to “Further On Down The Road: Oh Those Delusional Republicans”
““Many Republican veterans have come around to the view that they aren’t really going to need the perfect presidential candidate, and perhaps not even a notably good one.”
OK, that’s one faction that may be coming around (and I think they are represented here at TMV) but what about all the rest? What it boils down to for the more rabid elements is whether or not they can swallow their distaste for (what passes for) a right-wing moderate in order to remove the object of their passionate dislike. If they can’t manage that, then they may succeed in giving Obama a second term. I suppose they can console themselves with the knowledge they voted their conscience (what passes for a conscience in that bunch) but it won’t leave a very good taste in their mouths.
“Given such fast-deteriorating conditions,” writes Bai, “Many Republican veterans have come around to the view that they aren’t really going to need the perfect presidential candidate, and perhaps not even a notably good one.
They are wrong. By historical precedents Obama is ripe for a defeat, yet the weakness of the GOP candidates continues to give Obama a golden opportunity he will probably take advantage of.
I disagree with this article though. Focusing on jobs is a good strategy for the GOP. They can point to objective evidence that unemployment has worsened and not recovered under Obama. While Obama could try to emphasize the “mean-spiritedness” of the GOP, the crux of the issue is if people have jobs most of those other concerns go away.
Running on a platform that says “vote for me because I will protect you if you don’t have a job” is not a very strong position.
Today, Mitt Romney is the only candidate on the current Repub platform who stands a chance of being elected. While the “Christianists” and Tea Party’ers get media coverage and airtime, the majority of voters who will elect the next Repub nominee and the next President of the U.S. are silent observers. This group is made up of moderate Repub’s, blue dog Dem’s and indies.
Obama does not stand a chance of re-election, unless someone other than Romney is nominated. Objective thinking, Repub primary voters know this…fanatical, boisterous, myopic ones don’t. Fortunately, the latter doesn’t have the numbers to screw this next election up.
As usual, there’s plenty of delusion going around, yet partisans can see only their side. Delusion is self-reinforcing.
“As usual, there’s plenty of delusion going around, yet partisans can see only their side. Delusion is self-reinforcing.”
Yup, and sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
I can’t agree with calling the Republicans delusional. The Republicans have been very successful with their approach for thirty years. They set out to direct the country and the government toward the sole goal of rewarding capital instead of labor, of making the rich richer and the poor poorer. And they have succeeded, probably beyond their wildest dreams.
Their policies brought on the largest recession in 80 years and not only did they duck the blame for it they are about ready to be put back into office promising not only to continue but to expand on those very same policies that caused the crisis.
Their commanding control of the media and increasing control of the electoral process from the newly won Citizens United Supreme Court decision will only further cement them in power. The increasing control all of this gives the Republican’s masters, the corporations and the wealthy, increasing influence in the Democratic Party, guaranteeing a future where it wouldn’t matter which party is nominally in power, the policies won’t change.
If there is delusion in the Republican party it is in the supporters who believe the party stands for small government and the withdrawal of government from the economy. The party stands for exactly what has happened over the last thirty years, the use of the power of the government to reward the wealthy at the cost of everyone else. This is the stated aim of the policies, this is what has happened. What could be clearer?
merkin:
An excellent analysis, especially your noting that the Republicans have excelled at screwing the common man (and woman) while rewarding the fat cats.
But I stick to my guns: If the economy was just about jobs, Mitt Romney or whomever would cakewalk to the Oval Office. But it is much more than that and the GOP is vulnerable precisely because of their screw the common man (and woman) strategy.
merkin says:
OCTOBER 13, 2011 AT 10:54 AM
The party stands for exactly what has happened over the last thirty years, the use of the power of the government to reward the wealthy at the cost of everyone else.
I would add they also stand for seducing the gullible into voting against their own economic interests.
The person and medium to most thank for this is Rush Limbaugh and right wing radio, the most powerful GOTV engine for Republicans over the last 20 years.
Taylor:
Well said, and I cannot help but add that the party has taken on on increasingly Galtian sheen.
Plenty of the delusional BS on this thread.
dduck:
Such as?
Wow…you guys feel better now? Got it all out of your system? You should because you have dealt the Big, Bad, Repub’s a mighty blow!
Keep standing over there in that pile of crap, hold your noses and report to the rest of us how good it smells where you are.
Try and get this through you heads…the far left and the far right are both stinky.
They have both sold out. They care nothing about us. They both take money from the same people. They are sell votes. They spend 75% of their time working on raising money so they can get re-elected again. The other 25%, they just say “no” to meaningful change so things remain the same. The Big’s pay them to remain at impasse. Everything is good for them right now. Record profits in insurance, oil, banking.
Pull your heads out and try truly standing in the middle. Take a look around from a truly moderate position and see if the picture clears up for you.
“Such as” Mal, said, above.
Dare we mention the delusional expectations the liberals heaped on the “one’”, as Dowd calls him. How about all those nice pow wows we were going to get with Syria and Iran and fixing all the bad stuff Bush had been doing. Now, O, the Nobel Peace winner, is praised because he is better at using more drones than the war monger B. His surge is good and the Rep surge was bad.
On and on, both parties are full of s___ ; we’re not talking delusional, I call it political obfuscation.
dduck:
An artful job of muddying the waters.
LOL Romney is going to create jobs, just at WalMart and fast food restaurants. Bain Capital created wealth by stripping jobs, not by job creation.
Here’s three links showing Bain as a bain to job creation.
http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/09/mitt-romney-bain-capital-debate
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0711/58952.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-20/romney-as-job-creator-clashes-with-bain-record-of-job-cuts.html
Thanks, rudi, for referring us to those bastions of neutrality…politico, mother jones and bloomberg.
The Bloomberg report allotted about two sentences to the success stories. Staples, Domino’s, and a steel plant. The other 90+% was about layoffs and bankruptcy.
Bain is not only into buyouts; they also are in the consulting business. A healthy company does not normally spend money on a consultant. When they were hired, Bain, often recommended tough fixes to the inherent problems…that sometimes included bankruptcy.
In a truly capitalistic system, the weak fail and the strong survive. Our government is no longer allowing this to happen, and our grandchildren are going to hate us when the are old enough to realize what we have done to them.
The GOP doesn’t have any more idea how to create a long term economic recovery than the Democrats do. Malcontent is correct, the extremes of each party stink. Both parties need to remove the proverbial logs from their eyes, and the continual partisan attacks just perpetuate the problem.
@mal
Politico and Bloomberg are centrist sites. I will give you MJ as a partisan site. But please refrain from the Lame Stream Media meme…
@rudi Is that the only retort you can come up with? I thought my most important point was explaining to you that the reports were biased and did not tell the whole story.
@mal
Why is Politico and Bloomberg biased? Please cite a few sites which back up your Romney love affair.
FWIW Bloomberg and Politico are reputable sites, but I don’t see that story as having much legs especially if Obama doesn’t have some economic successes to point to by next year.
Come on. Romney is an inconsistent sleaze. He don’t have any belief’s, he just has ambitions. Cain is the Man!