Why is Republican Leadership Embracing Nutjobs?
Posted by Joe Rivett on 11.07.2009
Even Obama was smart enough to dump Jeremiah Wright...
"It was Thomas Jefferson who said a revolution every now and then is a good thing." That is what Michelle Bachman stated at the "Kill the Bill" rally. If Obama was really a Marxist, she would be dead for saying that. One could interpret that as inciting a riot or treason. I just think she's nuts. The problem is that John Boehner and other Republican leaders joined her on stage. You can say the Left has nutjobs too, but you'll never see Harry Reid joining Dennis Kucinich at a rally. And that my friends is the problem with the Republican Party… the leadership has embraced the nutjobs.
Virginia Foxx said that the health care bill was more fearsome than terrorism. TERRORISM! Screw Joe McCarthy, have you no decency ma'am? Again, I expect there to be nutjobs on the Right but Eric Cantor shouldn't be anywhere near her and THEY WERE ALL THERE!
One can vote Democrat and say they don't have the same values as Pelosi because there are all sorts of Democrats with many positions. However, where are the moderate Republicans? They are gone. And so if I were to vote Republican, I would be endorsing a Party that has not punished a woman for stating that I should fear health care bills more than terrorism. What the hell does Foxx know about terrorism? As a New Yorker, you are not going to get my support making stupid comments like that.
I have no problem supporting reasonable Republicans. I thought Pataki was a good governor. He increased our access to health care for working class New Yorkers. He stopped the bleeding of massive government brought forth by Mario Cuomo. But people like Pataki aren't around anymore.
Do Republicans see how awful John Boehner looks? Do they really want an orange-skinned douche who isn't aware that the Declaration and Constitution are two separate documents running their Party? Say what you want about Gingrich but the Contract with America resonated with Americans. It offered proposals, plans and most importantly a vision! Boehner and Bachman's Party released a health care bill that didn't even deal with the issue of pre-existing conditions.
While the Democrats and Obama may have taken a step back in the past year, the Republican Party has fallen off a cliff. They lost a district they held since the Civil War. I saw a poll where 19% of the people proclaimed being a Republican. That's it? Why would anyone be proud to join the Party of Bachman because let's face it, the leadership has embraced her psychotic attitude.
Memo to the Republican Party: Get new leadership that has nothing to do with the disaster of 2006-2008. In addition, recognize that the Democrats are in power because Obama is smart enough not to go anywhere near a Dennis Kucinich rally.
Democrats are going to lose their asses next year and you want the Republicans to change their tactics?
Obama has fallen twenty points in popularity, the Dems lost two Gov seats, conservativism (according to Gallop) is the largest political ideology within the country at around 39%, liberalism is last (19%), congress approval rating is something like 23 percent, less than half the people want current healthcare reform passed (and the Dems did it anyways- ensuring their defeat in 2010)...
Fuck, even pro-choice has polled out as unpopular for the first time in twenty years. Gays still can't get married in the most liberal of states (again).
And you really think that conservatives are failing?
There is a reason why the Dems never posted the Healthcare bill before the vote this weekend...they would have been destroyed publically just like last time...
Unemployment is 10.2 percent...after Obama's stimulus and bailout...and he wants another? Come on...
Face it the facts Rivett. Obama and the liberals are done...he bullshitted his way into power, and he can't make it happen.
He can strong arm, bitch, lie...whatever. But too many people can't stand him and he has only been in for a year.
What happened to Obama's promise of making bills available to the public for a week before a vote? That only counts towards bills that the majority of the people will support?
In 2010 you will be making excuses as to why the liberals got voted the fuck out of office...and in 2012 you will get laughed at for even admitting that you voted for Obama.
Obama is a carnie and you are the mark...walking right down the boardwalk with a big red balloon.
You need to recheck those polls you are cherry picking through if you really think that conservatism is failing...check Gallop, Rasmusan, Fox, or even ABC, NBC or CNN...
Obama is done, liberals are done...
They sealed thier own fate by voting 1.2 trillion in healthcare through the house with 30+ of their own standing against them...
With unempoyment at 10.2...
They are done.
Thats the truth. And you know it.
Posted By: Grant Muioc (Guest) on November 08, 2009 at 03:08 AM
I agree with the Spook. I wonder what your reaction will be next year when the right regains at least one house in Congress. Face it Rivett, it's 1994 all over again.
Posted By: Yuletide (Guest) on November 08, 2009 at 01:21 PM
This is everything that is wrong with the Republican Party today. Party leaders keep saying that they want to be a "Big Tent" party that anybody can come to, but the only people they give voice to are the ones that no one wants to be in a tent with. For every extreme liberal like Kucinich or Ted Kennedy, there are two or three Obamas or Hillarys in the Democratic Party, that can be moderate enough to where they appeal to independent voters.
What Republican have to realize is that, at best, 25% of the country actively pay attention to politics and stay informed, and most of those have already picked a party anyway. A large chunk of the remaining 75% don't vote at all, so it doesn't matter, but the ones that do decide elections, and vote based on the little information they glean from conversations, occasionally watching the news, or Dancing with the Stars. If Foxx saying that health care was worse than terrorism or anything Bachmann has said for 2 years was the only thing I knew about the Republican Party, you can bet your ass I'm voting Democrat.
If they have any hope of surviving as a party and ever being in power again, the Republicans need to shut up the Bachmanns and move to the center. The problem though, is that the nutjobs have too much power and don't let the moderates win the primaries. Guess the Republicans are stuck in a rut they won't get out of anytime soon.
Posted By: General Sandoval (Guest) on November 08, 2009 at 01:59 PM
im a left leaning independent a resonable centrist republican who was a social libral would be great (haha like that would ever happen )
Bachman is bat shit crazy the left has crazyes two but your right you wouldnt see obama or pelosi or reid there at there side
all the tea partiers are doing is being used by dick army who is just useing corporate money to kill a needed reform
Posted By: MaZZacare (Guest) on November 08, 2009 at 02:52 PM
"Virginia Foxx said that the health care bill was more fearsome than terrorism. TERRORISM!"
What are your thoughts on Grayson saying that not passing the health care bill is equivalent to the Holocaust?
Posted By: BKS (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 12:07 AM
Michael Moore. Jimmy Carter. 2004 Democratic Convention.
Posted By: C (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 08:34 AM
Spook.. you can do better than that.
Obama has fallen 20 points... to 54%, roughly the same percentage of people that voted him in office.
Conservativism is the self-identified political ideology of 39% of people... which is roughly where it has been for the last TWENTY YEARS or so. In fact, it may have DROPPED a few percentage points.
Less than half of people (48% according to CNN (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2009/10/22/crowley.health.c are.poll.cnn) support health care reform (as of 10/22)... but a smaller percentage (42%) oppose it. There are some people that are on the fence, ya know...
Finally, gay marriage has NEVER survived a referendum. Of course, I would still be picking cotton in a field if they left slavery to popular vote too.
Here's the biggest thing that is missed: It is NOVEMBER of 2009, not 2010. There is a LOT of time between now and then. If unemployment is over 10% come July of next year... THEN there are things to worry about.
I agree with the argument that bills and the like should have been made public. I also agree with arguing the specific things that are wrong with stuff like the health care reform package that include reasonable arguments (such as CNN contributor David Frum's observation that the reform package will discourage caps on medical malpractice suits and how much the lawyers can make off of them (http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/09/frum.trial.lawyers.victory/inde x.html)).
However, what you are presenting here is, at the very least, disingenuous.
Posted By: J. Alexander Mitchell (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 10:42 AM
THANK YOU, J. Alexander Mitchell...
It seems like whenever someone posts a column here that is even remotely negative towards the Republican party (and this one's definitely negative, I admit), the Spook shows up and turns it into an anti-Obama rant.
Spook, if you're going to post a comment, could you AT LEAST put in something about the column's main point, i.e. the comments about health care being more fearsome than terrorism, or getting the Constitution and Declaration of Independence confused? Or how about why certain Republicans shouldn't be there?
BKS at least brought up Grayson's idiotic comment, which is a good counter-argument. No one type of person defines a party. I weep when I see some of the people we elected, and how either ignorant or crazy they are. It's getting hard to back either party at this rate.
Posted By: Peyton (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 03:14 PM
Jam,
Your correcting someones comments, thats comical.
Obama has fallen 20 points... to 54%, roughly the same percentage of people that voted him in office.
Rasmussen has Obams approval at 49%
Congress approval at 23% Democrats dominate congress.
Less than half of people (48% according to CNN (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2009/10/22/crowley.health.c
are.poll.cnn) support health care reform (as of 10/22)... but a smaller percentage (42%) oppose it. There are some people that are on the fence, ya know...
Well people will change their mind when they see that if they willfully do no participate they can be charged with a felony, punishible with up to 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Sounds unconstitutional to me.
Quoting from the bill,“Criminal penalties" Prosecution is authorized under the Code for a variety of offenses. Depending on the level of the noncompliance, the following penalties could apply to an individual: • Section 7203 – misdemeanor willful failure to pay is punishable by a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment of up to one year. • Section 7201 – felony willful evasion is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or imprisonment of up to five years.”
Here's the biggest thing that is missed: It is NOVEMBER of 2009, not 2010. There is a LOT of time between now and then. If unemployment is over 10% come July of next year... THEN there are things to worry about.
Wrong
Obama said if we passed the stimulus, unemployment would not go above 8%. Epic Fail. His policy sucked, according to his own projection.
2010 if going to be painful, you and Rivett can make boogeyman out of Palin, Bachman, Limbaugh, ETC. It does not change the fact that the Dems are a FAILURE!
Posted By: John (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 03:48 PM
Grant/Spook,
You've got some pretty flimsy evidence for this Republican resurgence. Conservatives keep talking about how Obama's approval rating has fallen from the 70's, but THAT IS NORMAL. Look at history, and anytime a new president takes office, they have ridiculously high approval ratings for the first six months and then they spend three and a half years around the 50's. Obama has been in the 50's for two months, the entire health care debate, so that doesn't seem to have affected him at all. In fact, check out the Gallup website for Obama (http://www.gallup.com/poll/politics.aspx). The only reason its even that low is because he only has 18% of Republicans who were never going to vote for him anyway. Having 50% of independents in a non-election year is just fine. In November of his first term, Reagan only had 52% approval and he DOMINATED 1984.
I'm not saying any of this from a liberal vs. conservative perspective, just the facts as I see them. People always start predicting election results as far ahead of time as possible, but the fact is next year and definitely in three years NO ONE is going to be talking about health care, but one of the myriad of topics that will come up between then and now.
Also, unemployment is at 10% right now, but pretty much everything I've seen about the economy (right and left) has said that the worst is over. This time next year, right around the mid-term elections, it will most likely have gone down, and Obama and the Democrats can take credit for it and say they fixed a problem they inherited (whether the stimulus actually helped or not is another story, but they can claim they did).
The Democrats will eventually implode like every party always does in the vicious cycle of American politics. The Democrats didn't get elected because Americans became more liberal, or they liked the Democrats. They were elected because the Republicans fucked up so bad and Democrats were the only alternative. That seems to be the Republican strategy right now. They're not trying to get you to vote FOR them, but just establish that they are AGAINST Democrats, since they will invariably have scandals and embarrass themselves, and then the Republicans will be the only alternative. And so on and so forth until the end of time.
That's why we need a multi-party system. It won't be good enough for a particular party to get you to vote against the other guy. They will all actually have to DO SOMETHING to get you to vote FOR them because there will actually be alternatives.
Posted By: General Sandoval (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 05:16 PM
Are we seriously throwing polls at each other? Sheesh.
The Gallup Daily shows Obama at 53% approval right now, which is what I assume is what J. Alexander Mitchell was looking at.
Rasmussen shows a 49% approval rating, and will always be lower than the Gallup, because Rasmussen rules out the young adult voters on the 'assumption' that they won't show up to vote.
Either way, Obama's around 50%. Half the people like him, half the people don't. Sound fair?
Posted By: Peyton (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 05:49 PM
You guys spend your time researching polls and statistics so you can argue your own preconceived motions of how power should be distributed?
Posted By: Guest#8787 (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Of course, I would still be picking cotton in a field if they left slavery to popular vote too.
Posted By: J. Alexander Mitchell (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 10:42 AM
I'm sure the white people that helped and died for "your" people would appreciate that statement.
Posted By: Guest#6195 (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 10:30 AM
You guys spend your time researching polls and statistics so you can argue your own preconceived motions of how power should be distributed?
Posted By: Guest#8787 (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Power should be decided by who has the most/bigger guns.
Posted By: Guest#1197 (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Obama is a Marxist.
The health care reform and environment movement is nothing more than the communist movement.
Obama is only the president for 1/4 of the country, maybe. If there was an election today, he would lose. Bad.
And Liberals are in deep denial to see it, until its too late, and nothing can be done about it.
We separated from Europe for a reason, and the teal nutjobs are the ones who want to go right back.
Posted By: Rehab (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 03:04 PM
Of course, I would still be picking cotton in a field if they left slavery to popular vote too.
Posted By: J. Alexander Mitchell (Guest) on November 09, 2009 at 10:42 AM
Your the biggest racist on this site. You make Jessie Jackson, Al Sharton and Eugene Robinson blush with your constant victim status. You are either a race baiter or a pansy.
Stud it up.....for once.
Posted By: Guest#7868 (Guest) on November 10, 2009 at 07:37 PM
You're all wrong, long term Republicans are screwed. It's all about demographics. Texas would probably be damn near blue if all those illegal Mexicans could vote.
Minorities are set to be the majority by 2042 and there's no doubt most of today's media has a liberal edge, good luck GOP!
Conservatives better enjoy these last years, I really doubt black and Hispanic people will ever vote for the idiots the GOP has given us. Oh yeah, they can bring whatever Uncle Tom they want like Michael Steele to appeal to minorities, but it's just pathetic. GOP = party of old white men.
Yeah, I'm a little late with this.
Posted By: Foolio (Guest) on November 12, 2009 at 02:36 PM
STAY CURRENT