dagblog - Comments for "Ye Auld New America: Didn't We Go Down This Road Before?"

Krugman has already pointed

trkingmomoe — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 05:17:49 +0000

In reply to Ye Auld New America: Didn't We Go Down This Road Before?

Krugman has already pointed out all the Nate Silver's data driven only analysis is not the complete picture. Nate also predicted the GOP would win the Senate in 2012 in March of 2012. In the same spirit of the late Jack Germain, the analysis this early in the election don't mean much.

We are in a period of transition where we are moving out of the southern backlash to civil rights to a more liberal period. The glue that holds the GOP together is racism. Their anti ACA campaign in this election is all code for we can't let the AA president get any credit. Vote for us and we will make sure he don't succeed in anything. They all want health insurance and need health insurance. The GOP voter knows ACA isn't going to go away.

There is going to be a strong ground game in the states that are in play for the Senate. The national Democrats know that they have to focus on that and have taken steps to get the network set up with paid personnel. They are already on the ground here in Florida and they want Rick Scott's head. The law firm that hired Charley Crist put up the $5 million that it took to get the medical marijuana on the ballot. This will bring out the young and old hippies to vote. SYG and Medicaid are huge issues in this state that will bring out minorities. I have my boots polished and ready to go. I was going to hang them up this year but Bennet decided to close all the polling places in my part of town. He is the one who said that voting should be hard like in Africa where people have to walk 200 miles to vote. He can kiss my white butt.

http://freakoutnation.com/2014/02/11/blocking-the-vote-florida-county-eliminates-minority-heavy-polling-places/

Right. But wait. . the

Ramona — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 01:59:46 +0000

In reply to There is a bright side to the

Right. But wait. . the winners don't have to struggle. There's nothing to give up.

There is a bright side to the

moat — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 01:55:55 +0000

In reply to Well, that's depressing. .

There is a bright side to the observation. On an important level of competition, the right has given up on the struggle for a cohesive undertaking.

Well, that's depressing. .

Ramona — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 01:29:33 +0000

In reply to So what is it they're seeing

Well, that's depressing. . .

And right before bedtime, too.

So what is it they're seeing

moat — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:56:10 +0000

In reply to Ye Auld New America: Didn't We Go Down This Road Before?

So what is it they're seeing in this new, same-old plan--the plan that caused the stock market crash in 1929 and led us into a devastating long-term depression--that makes them think it's going to work this time?

The way your question is framed recognizes that to not have a plan is also a plan, or at least a decision about the future. But there are many people who are not looking at the growing inequality of income as a problem that can be solved by public policy and legislation.

While the luster of Reagan's promise of a chicken in every two car garage has faded to dull pewter, the legacy of cancelling the utility of the public as such is alive and well. As Margaret Thatcher said: "There is no such thing as society."

The cancelation says this: We are not failing in our tasks and obligations as citizens when we stop designing the future; Our withdrawal into our private lives counterbalances the efforts made by those who would remodel our conditions. We will know the next thing to be opposed when it is proposed. The waters crashing around us are like waves of doubt crashing against a rock of certainty about what is right.

So, the whole right wing thing revolves around the satisfaction that one has done enough, the best that can be done, to address conditions that everyone who isn't a complete idiot sees pressing in upon them. After one has reached that point of certainty, the game of musical chairs can be played with abandon:

Like children with no care of tomorrow.

The whole phony "repeal

Ramona — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 21:08:24 +0000

In reply to Fact is the GOP aims to make

The whole phony "repeal Obamacare" campaign was designed to convince people not to sign up, thereby effectively killing a program where the success is based on the numbers of members. They voted to repeal it more than 50 times, not because they thought they could get it to pass but because each time they did it they could announce to the public that it was a terrible plan.

It's not a good plan but it's not a terrible plan, either. It's the only plan we could get, considering the pushback from Republicans who saw no plan at all as the best plan.

The Republicans take pride in their obstructionism and it plays well to the voters who have been led to believe our government is out to harm them and their only salvation is in privatization.

But I go back to my original question: Why does this work?

Fact is the GOP aims to make

NCD — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 20:51:57 +0000

In reply to Core Republican strategy has

Fact is the GOP aims to make most problems worse.

Look at Iraq. UN inspectors and sealed sites weren't good enough. Poverty - cut food stamps and unemployment. Poor families and kids, cut women's access to health care and family planning. A room of K-schoolers wiped out with an assault weapon - loosen gun laws. Make it easier for anyone with the $ to buy one, and take it anywhere (except Congress).

Or the 'death from a thousand cuts' never ending assault on choice.

The endless state law diarrhea to gin up the 'pro-lifers'. Fetal pain laws, fetal person laws, to religious objection to 'the pill'. Which they never complained about until O-Care came along. Why solve a problem when you can fracture it into ten or a hundred?

Core Republican strategy has

Ramona — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:53:51 +0000

In reply to More like "Republicans

Core Republican strategy has never sought to solve any social, economic or foreign policy issues, but to keep the pot boiling to game them forever.

And damn them, it works. Why? How can they go on for decades doing the same destructive things and still have so great a following they're guaranteed power? That question haunts me and always will.

More like "Republicans

NCD — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 16:27:43 +0000

In reply to A number of people have

More like "Republicans exploit social issues to rile up their base, as they have no plan for government beyond using it to serve the rich, who then fund their campaigns using the same issues again to get re-elected".

Core Republican strategy has never sought to solve any social, economic or foreign policy issues, but to keep the pot boiling to game them forever.

If that is true, wouldn't

rmrd0000 — Wed, 26 Mar 2014 12:36:03 +0000

In reply to A number of people have

If that is true, wouldn't those voters see a difference between the economic policies of the two parties now?

I think the truth is that people set up a core belief and will hold to that belief even with solid evidence that opposes that core belief. Climate change deniers and anti-vaxxers are two examples. It doesn't matter that people are voting against their economic interest, they will convince themselves that they are being rational. Even when you show that their taxes have decreased they will swear that they are paying more.