Line of the Day
What are the implications of the GOP winning this confrontation?
Steven L. Taylor
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Tuesday, October 1, 2013
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14 comments
“When I think of the Republican Party, I don’t think of principled conservative legislators who are men and women of vision strategy. I think of ideologues who are prepared to wreck things to get their way.”—noted Liberal Rod Dreher writing at the known socialist rag, The American Conservative.
(Yes, I am being sarcastic.)
The whole piece is worth a read.
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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It is my sincere hope they get their act together, we need a reasonable and loyal opposition party.
I think of ideologues who are prepared to wreck things to get their way.
More than that, I think most of them get great pleasure in doing so. We have a name for that: Terrorists.
He also said this which I quoted in another thread:
Imortant to remember…this all comes down to about 30 +/- Republican nut-jobs and a Speaker too weak to stand up to them.
The votes exist in both houses to end this right now.
This whole thing seems easy to me:
1) Almost everybody is concerned about healthcare costs.
2) Most people (even reasonable conservatives) think even poor people should be able to get basic healthcare.
3) We passed a law in an attempt to accomplish that.
4) So unless you’ve got a better idea, and can get elected on that idea, STFU and get out of the way.
Let’s look at where the blame lies for this:
1) The Koch brothers and others who took advantage of the 27% of the population who are still bigots and can’t tolerate that a black man is in the White House.
2) The Republican controlled states after 2010 gerrymandered congressional districts to empower that 27%.
3) The business community who also enabled this insanity and now regrets it.
Unfortunately there appear to be no electoral consequences for Republican bad behavior. It appears that The House is pretty much set for the next 2 to 4 years, the Senate is a place where the GOP might actually gain 3-4 seats, and it’s too early to predict the 2016 presidential food fight.
This “Red Screen of Death” seems to be hard-wired for the next 2 to 4 years.
Ultimately, I don’t believe Boener is too weak to stand up to the Teahadists. He’s too scared. He’d rather take the safe way, and his calculation is that its the best outcome for him. The word “principle” just isn’t in Boehner’s vocabulary.
That’s not a description of “ideologue”, Rod. It’s a description of “spoiled child”. And you led the charge to give them power.
@Ron Beasley: That interview with Paul Stebbins is one of the most depressing things I’ve seen lately. He seems to get it:
But instead of deciding to fund reasonable Republicans against primary attacks or, heaven forfend, supporting Democrats; he starts another BS astroturf anti-debt PAC. WTF!?!?
@gVOR08:
Both sides have to be the problem. His world view won’t accept information that contradicts that.
@mantis: More than that, I think most of them get great pleasure in doing so. We have a name for that: Terrorists.
Funny you say that, as the last few incidents of politically-motivated violence came from devoted leftists.
But keep using terms like that and calling names, cockroach. Sooner or later you and those doing the same talking will prompt someone to say “screw this, they’re going to call me a terrorist and a hostage-taker and all that bullcrap. If I’m gonna get called it, might as well do it.”
@Jenos Idanian #13:
You mean to say you haven’t noticed that that is what they are doing now? Really? You can’t tell?
I’m no longer sure that “principled” and “conservative” are not oxymoronic when placed side-by-side.