Why would anyone be a member of the crazy party?
by Tom Maertens
Late in his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower told his secretary, Ann Whitman, “I don’t know why anyone should be a member of the Republican Party” (Eisenhower in War and Peace, Jean Edward Smith).
A lot of people currently share this view: an October Fox News poll showed Republicans with a 59% disapproval rating. Pew subsequently showed the unfavorable rating at 69%. The latest Gallup poll found that only 28 percent of Americans view the Republican Party favorably, the lowest number for either party since Gallup began asking the question in 1992.
It’s not hard to understand why: the Republican Party is stuck on stupid. According to various opinion polls, 53% of Republicans think that defaulting on the debt would be a good thing; 44% think that armed revolution might be necessary; 44% of Republicans think Obama is trying to stay in office after 2017; 49% of Republicans think that ACORN, an organization which has not existed since 2009, stole the 2012 election for Obama; 45% still think Obama was born outside the U.S.; almost half think Obama is a Muslim.
They get this kind of information from the right-wing media bubble but also from aggressively ignorant politicians such as Sarah Palin and tea party queen Michele Bachmann, who spread it to the court fools, like Dumb and Dumber: Bachmann was recently in Egypt with Louie Gohmert (R – TX) and Steve King (R - IA) where they proclaimed the Muslim Brotherhood was behind 9/11, prompting Jon Stewart to apologize to the Egyptian people for sending the three stupidest people in the world there.
Bachmann is the same elected representative who has determined that we are in “God’s End Times” because "The United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists."
The one indisputable fact about end-times predictions is that 100% of them have been 100% wrong 100% of the time. There are always those who use Bible babble to claim “this time is different,” of course.
As for sending arms to terrorists, it was John McCain, during his visit to Syria, who proposed giving arms to the rebels, even though Muslim extremists are now dominating the rebel movement.
This brings to mind the Dunning-Kruger effect — the truly incompetent can’t even recognize their own incompetence. Representative Ted Yoho (R-FL), for example, said that missing the debt ceiling deadline “would bring stability to world markets.”
Such arguments, by people such as Rand Paul, contend that the government could “prioritize” payments and pay bond interest in full, so that it would not technically default. That would mean, however, that the cash shortage would fall mostly on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But entitlement payments have the same force of law behind them as interest payments do. This is a classic tea party argument: utter nonsense. Wanna bet it comes up next time there is a debt ceiling increase in the works?
The modern Republican Party has had basically two policies: tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation for same.
To distract the rabble away from their real agenda, they manufacture phony campaigns about the imminent destruction of America because of a “war on religion,” a war on Christmas, ACORN, Black Panthers, the global warming “hoax,” evolution, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the End Times, and so on.
They are also threatened by the United Nations, clean air and water laws, Democrats, the liberal media, socialists, atheists, Muslims, Hollywood, gay people, black people, brown people, immigrants, the women’s movement, France, climate scientists, environmentalists, abortion rights, San Francisco, economists, college professors, labor unions, gun control, science education, urban dwellers, regulation of banks and financial institutions, campaign finance reform, community organizers, and RINOs.
With the advent of the know-nothing tea party, the GOP has added anti-tax hysteria, opposition to health care, the Federal Reserve, and voting rights.
Bloomberg Businessweek put Ted Cruz on its cover as a mad hatter who defines how “crazy is the new normal.” Congressman Peter King (R – NY) agreed: "This party is going nuts," King told HuffPost. "So many people I run into who are normal people -- and I hate to use that term -- they just can't understand what's going on."
"On this one they can't even see both sides," King said. "They just think Republicans are crazy. That's it. They see no justification for any of this."
Since taking over the House, Republicans have tried to repeal Obamacare over 40 times, but otherwise have not passed a single major piece of legislature that addresses a national problem. Oh, except the sequester bill. John Boehner said the GOP should be judged not on how many laws it passed, but how many it repealed. But it hasn’t repealed any laws, either.
Nine Republicans, led by House Majority Eric Cantor, met on the same day that Obama was inaugurated and decided they would oppose every policy he suggested – and that is what they have done. The New York Times reported that Republicans began actively planning for the current shutdown with large donors back in the spring.
In other words, one party in our two-party system is working to obstruct the government and shut down the economy. Is there any doubt why it is unpopular?
Late in his presidency, Dwight Eisenhower told his secretary, Ann Whitman, “I don’t know why anyone should be a member of the Republican Party” (Eisenhower in War and Peace, Jean Edward Smith).
A lot of people currently share this view: an October Fox News poll showed Republicans with a 59% disapproval rating. Pew subsequently showed the unfavorable rating at 69%. The latest Gallup poll found that only 28 percent of Americans view the Republican Party favorably, the lowest number for either party since Gallup began asking the question in 1992.
It’s not hard to understand why: the Republican Party is stuck on stupid. According to various opinion polls, 53% of Republicans think that defaulting on the debt would be a good thing; 44% think that armed revolution might be necessary; 44% of Republicans think Obama is trying to stay in office after 2017; 49% of Republicans think that ACORN, an organization which has not existed since 2009, stole the 2012 election for Obama; 45% still think Obama was born outside the U.S.; almost half think Obama is a Muslim.
They get this kind of information from the right-wing media bubble but also from aggressively ignorant politicians such as Sarah Palin and tea party queen Michele Bachmann, who spread it to the court fools, like Dumb and Dumber: Bachmann was recently in Egypt with Louie Gohmert (R – TX) and Steve King (R - IA) where they proclaimed the Muslim Brotherhood was behind 9/11, prompting Jon Stewart to apologize to the Egyptian people for sending the three stupidest people in the world there.
Bachmann is the same elected representative who has determined that we are in “God’s End Times” because "The United States is willingly, knowingly, intentionally sending arms to terrorists."
The one indisputable fact about end-times predictions is that 100% of them have been 100% wrong 100% of the time. There are always those who use Bible babble to claim “this time is different,” of course.
As for sending arms to terrorists, it was John McCain, during his visit to Syria, who proposed giving arms to the rebels, even though Muslim extremists are now dominating the rebel movement.
This brings to mind the Dunning-Kruger effect — the truly incompetent can’t even recognize their own incompetence. Representative Ted Yoho (R-FL), for example, said that missing the debt ceiling deadline “would bring stability to world markets.”
Such arguments, by people such as Rand Paul, contend that the government could “prioritize” payments and pay bond interest in full, so that it would not technically default. That would mean, however, that the cash shortage would fall mostly on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But entitlement payments have the same force of law behind them as interest payments do. This is a classic tea party argument: utter nonsense. Wanna bet it comes up next time there is a debt ceiling increase in the works?
The modern Republican Party has had basically two policies: tax cuts for the wealthy and deregulation for same.
To distract the rabble away from their real agenda, they manufacture phony campaigns about the imminent destruction of America because of a “war on religion,” a war on Christmas, ACORN, Black Panthers, the global warming “hoax,” evolution, Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the End Times, and so on.
They are also threatened by the United Nations, clean air and water laws, Democrats, the liberal media, socialists, atheists, Muslims, Hollywood, gay people, black people, brown people, immigrants, the women’s movement, France, climate scientists, environmentalists, abortion rights, San Francisco, economists, college professors, labor unions, gun control, science education, urban dwellers, regulation of banks and financial institutions, campaign finance reform, community organizers, and RINOs.
With the advent of the know-nothing tea party, the GOP has added anti-tax hysteria, opposition to health care, the Federal Reserve, and voting rights.
Bloomberg Businessweek put Ted Cruz on its cover as a mad hatter who defines how “crazy is the new normal.” Congressman Peter King (R – NY) agreed: "This party is going nuts," King told HuffPost. "So many people I run into who are normal people -- and I hate to use that term -- they just can't understand what's going on."
"On this one they can't even see both sides," King said. "They just think Republicans are crazy. That's it. They see no justification for any of this."
Since taking over the House, Republicans have tried to repeal Obamacare over 40 times, but otherwise have not passed a single major piece of legislature that addresses a national problem. Oh, except the sequester bill. John Boehner said the GOP should be judged not on how many laws it passed, but how many it repealed. But it hasn’t repealed any laws, either.
Nine Republicans, led by House Majority Eric Cantor, met on the same day that Obama was inaugurated and decided they would oppose every policy he suggested – and that is what they have done. The New York Times reported that Republicans began actively planning for the current shutdown with large donors back in the spring.
In other words, one party in our two-party system is working to obstruct the government and shut down the economy. Is there any doubt why it is unpopular?
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1 Comments:
It's all about priorities.
The Smith book should be required reading for all citizens.
What's the priority of today's House Republicans ?
Well before they shutdown the government over claims that "Washington has a spending problem" they approved a $5 million for parking lot for the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site in South Dakota.
That’s the priority … $5 million for a museum in South Dakota versus Ike's vision ... of course, we know if it wasn't for Ike's national highway investment, no one could be driving to South Dakota.
But Ike was more ... (for those that have not read the Smith book) Ike rejected Republican demands for a tax cut ... he would not cut taxes until they could balance the budget ... and the top tax rate was 90%.
But it wasn't just taxes and infrastructure that made Ike a role model for Republicans and Democrats ... he expanded social security, increased the minimum wage, advocated for fair pay regardless of sex, and praised unions.
And it wasn't just Ike, but consider the Republican Platform which Eisenhower ran on in his re-election in 1956 …
Labor
Under the Republican Administration, as our country has prospered, so have its people. This is as it should be, for as President Eisenhower said: "Labor is the United States. The men and women, who with their minds, their hearts and hands, create the wealth that is shared in this country—they are America."
Minimum wage, fair pay, unions ... and today, we have Chairman John Kline protesting that the Labor Department wants to allow healthcare aides to be paid minimum wage ... and the DOL timetable is to start in 2015.
Today's House Republicans would blame Ike for the mess that we are in ... rather he should be PRAISED for his wisdom and considered a role model for effective government.
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