The Real Reason Republicans Have Been Sabotaging America

[gulliver]

Last edited Sat Aug 11, 2012, 01:10 PM - Edit history (1)

It's not so much that Obama is black. That is a factor, of course, but that's not the biggest issue.

The real reason Republicans have been trying to sabotage Obama and the country is humiliation, personal humiliation. Their man, George W. Bush, was president for eight years, and their party also held majorities in Congress for most of that time. And the result? Well, to put it mildly, they basically peed their pants on live TV with the world watching. Republicans cheered Bush as he cut taxes. They whistled and applauded when he strutted around on the deck of that aircraft carrier in the full flight suit. They were riding high.

And then everything went horribly, horribly wrong. All on their watch. All in broad daylight. Afghanistan fell apart as Bush's unnecessary, ill-conceived, and falsely motivated war in Iraq dragged on. Osama was on the loose. Bush made a complete ass of himself in every news conference. And the whole country came apart at the seams in 2008. Republicans were wrong, and it was obvious. The whole Republican ideology was caught like a bug in a skillet, and they had nowhere to turn to avoid humiliation.

Now, they could have just backed off and taken a second look at their policies. Maybe tax cuts for the wealthy don't solve everything. Maybe someone should keep an eye on what the scamps in Wall Street do with the matches they seem to like to play with so much. Maybe war wasn't cheap and easy. Maybe going after Osama Bin Laden was worthwhile. In short, Republicans could have looked at revising their playbook.

Not these folks. The first thing these Republicans did was get angry. Like assholes in the wrong always do, they looked for any out they could find. Introspection? Reflection? Yeah, right.

It is important to remember that this humiliation was personal. It was not just an organizational failure. Individual Republicans across the country had been gushing and fainting over Bush since his first term began. These were real people with real families. How were they going to explain to their children and grandchildren? Their party, their president, their Congress had wrecked the country. They themselves had laughed while people at their convention wore purple band-aids, mocking duly awarded military medals. They had swooned over George W. Bush in his cowboy hat as he drove his pickup around "the ranch." Republicans, in short, had made complete asses of themselves.

Enter the Tea Party. After finally and belatedly waking up at the economic switch and discovering that they had caused a catastrophe, the Republicans lost the election in 2008. The Republican Bush Fan Club—essentially their entire party—suddenly decided that Bush wasn't a Republican after all. In fact, neither were they. No one was a Republican. You say you are looking for the Republicans who caused all of this horrible damage to the country? Well, said the Republicans, we don't know this party of which you speak. What are Republicans? We are the Tea Party. We aren't responsible for what Republicans did. Who's George W. Bush?

The Tea Party dodge helped to throw off the bloodhounds, but then the Republicans had another problem. The Republican party still existed. It was their whole infrastructure. The Tea Party didn't have a single building, no checking accounts, no donor list, no elected officials under its banner. It was just a few travel trailers and some Founding Father kitsch provided by the Koch Brothers. Sooner or later Tea Partiers were going to have to be Republicans again.

It is kind of beautiful when you think about it. The most incompetent, most blameworthy, most idiotic Republicans dodged their identity as Republicans to become Tea Partiers. Then they came back and "took over" their party again. It wasn't the old Republican Party that had done all of those bad things to the country anymore, though. All that sin was washed away by the name change and the Uncle Sam costumes. The Republican party rose phoenix-like from the ashes. And all the old, bad ideas were now new and worse.

But they needed one more thing. They needed Obama to fail, and it was not because he was black. Republicans needed Obama to fail because Republicans had themselves failed so badly. America lost horribly under their leadership, and they were not about to let America win under someone else. It is as ugly and simple as that.

Rush Limbaugh said it clearly. He wanted Obama to fail. Mitch McConnell said it only slightly less clearly. Job number one for the Republicans was to make sure Obama was a one-term president.

Now would good Americans fail their country and then deliberately try to make sure no one else could succeed? Would good Americans take the country's economy hostage and play chicken with our national creditworthiness? Would good Americans put down American economic gains and business environment at every opportunity? I don't think so. Good Americans wouldn't do that.

Republican politicians would though. And, by the way, they want to run the country again.

[A HERETIC I AM]

1. Very well written

I kept looking for the link to some blogger or another, but alas, none to be found!

Nicely put, eloquent and lucid.

Good job.

[PufPuf23]

45. Spot on. Good post.

The Democratic Party has the intellectual and moral high ground.

Exploit reality or explain why not now.

[Arctic Dave]

2. Spot on.

It's all about the spectrum of fucked up. They have to destroy it more so they don't look as bad in hindsight.

The problem is, the "fucked up" part, is you.

[warrior1]

3. they have

been doing it for a long long time.

[brush]

71. Doing it for a long time

You are so right, warrior1. Going back in history just confirms it. After a repug administration, because of their favor-the-corporate-rich-start-wars-for-profit-damn-the-99% policies, a recession or depression comes just as day comes after night: After W Bush came the great recession; during and after Reagan/GW Bush came the 80s stock market collapse and early 90s recession (remember the Clinton campaign slogan "It's the economy, stupid&quot ; during and after Nixon/Ford the 70s recession; even during Eisenhower there was a recession and layoffs; and of course the BIG One, the Great Depression during and after Hoover. And after all these debacles the Democrats have had to clean up the mess.

[WillyT]

4. Most Excellent Post !!! - K & R !!!

Publish this.

[Aristus]

5. Preach it!

[JoePhilly]

6. They just angrier when they are wrong.

They cling to their ideology far more than they cling to their bible or their gun.

They have been wrong about everything for the last 30 years. Nothing they do makes anything better. And its driving them insane.

And what's worse, they know their time is coming to an end.

Black man in the White House. Gays WILL be able to marry. OBL is DEAD!! Women making their own reproductive choices. Scary Mexicans everywhere. Evolution.

From where they sit ... this is the Book of Revelations coming true.

[jaysunb]

11. You forgot: more non white births than all others.

Maybe this falls under the racism umbrella.

[JoePhilly]

16. Pat Buchanan is having a heart attack over that.

So is BillO the Clown.

Of course their true goal is to get the white man to vote white.

I know ... I'm a white guy in my 40s. The right wing racist code words are like a second language for me.

Obama could cure cancer, invent a water purification system that ensured everyone on the planet had clean water, and a chunk of these right wing lunatics would stilL hate him and OPPOSE using those advances.

[jaysunb]

20. +1 n/t

[Proud Liberal Dem]

38. Nothing brings out the craziness among the right-wing than when they lose what they feel

is RIGHTfully theirs. Some people have mentioned that they think that Republicans essentially feel entitled to power and whenever they screw up and lose it they can't simply accept it as a legitimate (i.e. Democrats cheat to win elections) because- to them-they are supposed to win every single time no matter what. They are ultimate sore losers. They also have no compunctions about fighting dirty and using scorched earth tactics and if they aren't in power- as we have seen since 2009- they are determined to ensure that Democratic Presidents and Democratic-controlled Congresses can't get much done and that they get the blame for the political fallout, thus ensuring that they get their power back. Unfortunately, too many people either end up falling for it or simply fail to adequately fight against it thus ensuring that they repeatedly get back in power to create more mess. We must somehow find a way to break this cycle, as well as the stranglehold that the crazies have gotten over the country! Demographically, they can't keep it up forever but they will still try to hold on- gaming the system as much as possible- until their "base" is essentially too minute to keep winning elections at the level they are presently.

[patrice]

7. Agree completely.

[pasto76]

8. couldnt agree more; its been personal since Clinton beat BOTH their "war heroes"

Bush41 and Dole. They thought a pot smoking draft dodging hillbilly could never beat one, let alone two of their most revered veterans. Then he did. They just hate losing.

[longship]

9. Most excellent DU OP

Highly recommended and ed.

[kentuck]

10. A most honest depiction of history...

and probably closer to the truth than anything we have read thus far about the Boy King and the angry Tea Partiers.

Very well written.

[sendero]

12. Nice analysis..

... I think you are on to something.

[Grassy Knoll]

13. How very true.....

After Obama won, I lurked at foxnews.com and found a lot had agreed to become Independent
and drop republican-ism before the Teahadist party even started.

[loyalsister]

14. “We will make it so that a Democrat cannot govern as a Democrat.” Grover Norquist

Sadly for us it's a brilliant strategy as it inspires criticism from all sides.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/how-grover-norquist-hypnotized-the-gop/2011/06/30/AGYOUlsH_story.html

[ancianita]

15. The GOP is the party of the politics of spite.

[newspeak]

65. I don't think it's just spite

some of these greedy cretins are only interested in their own piece of the pie. Before little boots was selected, Halliburton wasn't doing so well. Some of us already knew (because little boot's is one big ego maniac) that he had plans for war in iraq. He believed that daddy would have won if he'd only had started another war before the election. A sociopath thinks like that. No care about people being murdered, even our own soldiers, just "the mean justifies the end." But the end for whom? Halliburton, KBR made lots of moolah because of iraq and afghanistan. And instead of ALL of the people having to sacrifice because of war, he gave tax cuts to his wealthy corporate buddies and basically told the american people to go shop.

The outing of brewster-jennings is not an act of an american, increasing the deficit over 80 percent and shoveling our treasury to "loyal" corporations is not an act of an american, lying the country into war and putting our soldiers in harms way for corporate interest is not an act of an american. I remember the corporate media asking "is this the end of the repug party?" They artificially created the tea party-poured money into the effort, to recreate the repug party. Pandering to bigotry, fabricated nonsense (they're going to take away our guns), and playing the fear card (death panels, commies), has kept the party alive. But, every step of the way, they've had help from a very complicit MSM. "the media is as liberal as it's right wing owners allow it to be."

I don't consider most of the tea party repugs to be american. They'd sell out this country and our commons to the highest global corporate bidder. They'd sell out the people, especially the most vulnerable, in a heartbeat. A bunch of selfish, randian sociopaths.

I will never forget what little boot's, cheney did to this country. NEVER!!!!!

[Marie Marie]

17. Amazing piece of writing there Gulliver.

Your perspective on this is spot on. I noticed that as the Republican agenda began to seriously fail, more of my Republican acquaintances began to declare: "Well, I'm not really Republican, I'm more of a Libertarian." But that didn't quite sit right with them either.

Enter the Tea Party, hawked by the likes of Fox News and Glenn Beck and suddenly they found an umbrella under which they could duck and cover. It was an easy out - no need to do some research or examination of those failed policies. This new identity was rife with simple convenient phrases (like: "It's all the government's fault", or"I want my country back&quot to explain away their fears and frustrations at where our country was headed.

Gulliver, please, post this where ever you can. It is that good!!

[RagAss]

18. Well Done........

I no longer see them as Americans. They are a deluded, internal enemy.

[Jamaal510]

40. It's funny because they see us the exact same way.

[Larry Ogg]

63. It's the essence of divide and conquer.

And as we the peons play the blame game for sport, the big winner is the 1%.

[Old and In the Way]

102. The difference is, we understand that essence.

The other side doesn't. The other side thinks it "wins" when we lose. Problem is, we all end up losing together. We are a split nation...but it will be a cold day in hell before I join the Republican Party to foster unity.

[Larry Ogg]

104. The smallest minority on the planet are those who understand!

Whereas, the biggest majority on the planet are those who think they understand!

And one thing fore sure, the most conservative minds, are also the most clueless.

[DJ13]

19. An enthusiastic K&R

!

[Ikonoklast]

21. The Republican Party that had the genteel Country Club set as membership is dead.

It was killed by Big Oil money hiring the anti-intellectual, racist, nativist, fundamentalist, mostly suburban, rural and totally White Tea Baggers to make certain that this nation stays addicted to fossil fuels and a huge military (used mainly now to secure those fossil fuels), and therefore keeping them in economic control of this nation.

The only problem is that this business model they saw as headed for nothing but success is already in the midst of a catastrophic failure.

In spite of stupefying odds against him, in spite of a Congress full of ideologues trying to socially re-engineer the country through radical legislation taking the country backwards, in spite of obstruction in the Senate gleefully orchestrated by the minority the day of his inauguration, Barack Obama refused to be the failure they so desperately needed him to be.

The fall-back plan using their bought-and-paid-for Supreme Court in the CU ruling allowing unlimited funds to pour into elections is heading toward the rocks as a strategy, as their presumptive chosen figurehead is just beginning to implode in a rather dramatic fashion.

Not even an infinite amount of money will keep voters from voting for a guy running for president they see as creepy and weird.

They are fully committed now. It's too late to change direction.

This is their Waterloo, the Battle of the Bulge; this is the Republican Party's Little Big Horn.

[blue neen]

31. .

[Shankapotomus]

22. Great post (nt)

[SalviaBlue]

23. +1000

[Yavin4]

24. Yep. They Re-Branded Like Phillip Morris Became Altria

Altria "absolved" Phillip Morris from their horrible past.

[L. Coyote]

25. Fifty percent of the USA is public land. Break up the USA and you can steal all that land and the

minerals under it.

[alfredo]

66. They don't like the concept of the commons. National parks should be turned

over to the states, knowing full well that states can't afford to maintain the parks, or fight fires on those lands. They know, sooner or later the states will have to sell off the land and the resources on the land to the extraction industries.

[eaglesfanintn]

70. Ironic

that the parks came into being under a Republican president. One that, like pretty much every other GOP president, wouldn't be elected today because he's too liberal. Even the sainted Ronald Reagan would be tea-partied out for not signing Grover's pledge.

[alfredo]

76. TR was a Republican, what we have now is the Reactionary Party.

[Art_from_Ark]

99. The first national park came into being under US Grant

whose administration is today known mainly for its corruption and revving up of the Indian wars. So the Grant administration would probably fit in with today's GOP.

[Stargazer09]

26. Very well written.

I like the way you think.

I just wish you weren't so damn accurate. It's sad that politicians are acting like spoiled children.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

27. Is it that complicated? How about the fact that there are no adverse consequenses to them?

[dennis4868]

59. exactly...

does not seem like the voters and the media are going to hold those assholes accountable...if they did, there would hardly be a Republican party anymore. As long as the Repubs get away with total obstruction, they will continue to do it.

[Skittles]

28. WELL SAID!!!!!!!

[chknltl]

29. interesting take.

KnR and bookmarked. I would like to add a 'pet' notion of mine to this.

My notion is to treat democracy and capitalism as living breathing creatures. I think of democracy as a drunken sailor and capitalism as the sailor's big mean dog. As the sailor wanders to and fro through history, he sometimes loosens his grip on his dog. When the sailor loosens his grip on that dog the dog makes the decision to bite whoever it wants to bite. At this point it would be wise for the sailor to reign in his dog and make reparations to those who got bit but in our case, just like a drunken sailor we remain oblivious. If the sailor doesn't regain control over his dog it will turn around and begin biting the sailor. If then the sailor is too damn drunk to realize what is going on the dog will destroy the sailor and those around it. Eventually someone will have to put down that dog.

Sadly We The People, just like a drunk sailor, have yet to come to understand, that what is truly killing us is capitalism BARELY restricted. It is eating us and much of the world. Worse, thanks to our military industrial complex, this dog, capitalism is now bigger and meaner than any dog ever! A very real monster indeed!

In a very real way our democracy is a living breathing thing. I believe it was designed that way to begin with. Capitalism is also alive in that it has actual goals: to grow and to provide for its masters. Left to its own designs, aka 'the free market' capitalism will destroy our democracy. We see it doing so now with bought and paid for representatives and Citizens United.

I am in no way disagreeing with the OP, instead I am adding a further reason for the republicans actions. They do as their corporate masters bid them, or in my analogy, the dog is in control over the drunken sailor and he better do what the dog wants or he will get bit too!

Either we regain control over our dog or....well I am no psychic but imo things will get a whole lot worse for life on this planet.
Well that's my two cents worth.

[blue neen]

30. Excellent post.

It's about control and power. The Republicans had that "power high" for eight years. When you ride as high as they did, it's really hard to put down the crack pipe.

[brush]

78. Repugs in power

When you think about it, they've been in power for most of the last 30 years before President Obama, only interrupted by the Clinton years when we had a huge budget surplus and everyone was working. W and Cheney of course, quickly squandered the surplus and drove the economy to the brink from where the President is trying to pull us back. It's not easy though with all the obstructionists blocking him at every turn. And then there are the teabaggers and birthers trying their best to sabotage him.

[pnwmom]

32. I think you've hit the nail on the head. n/t

[Paka]

33. Thank you for that spot on post!

[ffr]

34. Damn it! Now Fox will need to spend more time reinventing history.

Because in their world, none of this ever happened. And they have big dollar ad [read, brain wash] campaigns to prove it.

NO MORE REPUBLICANS!

[Populist_Prole]

35. Brutally plausible

Your post reads exactly like what is probably the inner mind of one of my Republican friends.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

36. Well written screed!

Can't recommend this one enough!!!

[stevedeshazer]

37. Thanks for the uncommonly good and well thought post. +1 n/t

[JDPriestly]

39. Absolutely right!

Best explanation I've heard.

[FogerRox]

41. KNR for original writing, KnR for being spot on, Knr for readability

KnR for a minimum of hyperbole.

Did i miss something?

[DLine]

42. Great Post nt

[pacalo]

43. I loved reading this.

You've completely pegged it for me, gulliver. Nice writing style.

[Kalidurga]

44. I think they might have a bigger problem...

sooner or later people are going to notice where ever Republicans hold power, wages are low, women have fewer rights, infant mortality is high (with the exception of Texas for some reason), education is a joke, and the economy is in the crapper.

[madokie]

46. Every living person in America should have to read this as it explains it about as good

as it's going to be explained.
What a most excellent post, Gulliver. Kudo's to you.
I hope you don't mind that I sent this on to my friends to read.

[Scurrilous]

47. K & R

[nxylas]

48. Great post

It's posts like this that keep me reading DU.

[kentuck]

49. Sometimes the truth is right in front of us...

But it is clouded by the media and cloudy explanations. This is closer to the truth than anything the media has reported, in my opinion.

[JNelson6563]

50. Great post, so right!

Well done!

[TroglodyteScholar]

51. Best OP I've read in awhile...

[lunatica]

52. The very definition of insanity

Double down on what doesn't work because this time, if you try harder, it'll work for sure.

They just didn't hate enough the last time.

[quaker bill]

53. It is also face saving.

Once Bush* failed, it could only be blamed on his being "not conservative enough". The conservative ideas had to the held as "good" and the person "flawed". McCain also lost because he was "not conservative enough". It could not be that the ideas are flawed, only that the humans were not perfect enough in carrying them forward.

To keep the meme intact, since President Obama is "not conservative enough", he must also fail.

The larger party has bought into a "system of notions" related to how our system and the world works. One might call it a "system of thought", but I think that would give it far too much credit, because systems of thought are internally consistent and based somehow on observations of reality. In such systems, new observations result in new thinking, there is no evidence for new thinking on the right in the face of a reality that has provided sufficient clues that new thinking is needed.

The RW system of notions is cobbled together from convenient bits and pieces of historic writings extracted and robbed of context. Adam Smith did favor free markets and we hear this, but he also strongly favored progressive taxation and inheritance taxes as a counterbalance, we don't hear that. They substitute other snippets of writings out-of-context for that, Ayn Rand for example. While they like Ayn Rand, they don't adopt the atheism that she held as an essential component.

This cobbled together system of notions must fail because it is not whole in the sense that the component ideas are balanced as a complete "system of thought". However, they have determined to to cover the logic flaws through denial rather than correct them. Therefore the ideas must be good, and the messengers flawed. Obama, not buying any of it, must be the most flawed.

[xtraxritical]

90. Get the rat bastard republiCONs out of Congress, it's simple.

[butterfly77]

54. Exactly!

[GTurck]

55. We all...

seem to be coming together on the same theme. This explanation is one of the best and resonates with me. Bravo!

[Mc Mike]

56. What they can't own, they try to destroy. +1, NT.

[randr]

57. Democrats have been handed the gauntlet

and the sooner we pick it up the better.
The American pride in accomplishment and doing the right thing has suffered a blow and it is time to rally around the flag.
Obama has saved the day and the Calvary is on its way.
Democrats can become the Party of Americas future if they play this right and hold the Republican feet to the fire.

[dennis4868]

58. And the media...

does not hold the Republicans accountable for blocking any possible economic progress that can be made (even policies they were for before Obama was president).

[Evasporque]

60. YES! I love Republican bashing posts on DU!!!

More More MORE...!

This one is spot on...Republicans are selfish small minded people....and the behavior describes them to a tea...

[cutroot]

61. Kryptonite

Often while discussing politics on various sites, I have discovered that posting anything pertaining to the bush legacy seems to make the right-wingers queasy and sheepish. They usually will try to drag everything over to president Obama, but when you point out the exact dates, they either ignorantly try to dispute them or they simply vanish. They are intent upon making Obama their scapegoat. If they can make him fail it will somewhat exonerate them. Why if their hero bush could not do it, no one can. In their minds, of course some uppity negro can not possibly make things work. They do not like it that he is not making it easy for them.

Yesterday, while I was reading and commenting on a post about Nancy Pelosi, the ignorant one line insult posts were coming in by the thousands. None of them would discuss anything. They simply wanted to leave their stinky brand and move on. It was as if they have been trained to work only in bumper sticker mode and not listen to anything else. They do not want to hear the truth because they are afraid of it. But it is not just the fear of the truth that they don't like, it is the reckoning. Facts are Kryptonite to the right-wing.

[obietiger]

62. great article....

and makes so much sense. Hope you send it to your local newspapers.

[uponit7771]

64. EXACTLY! Great post..I've said before what choice do they have!? The contrast is sooo big it's

...not even arguable.

[blm]

67. can we spread this to other sites?

,

[PatSeg]

68. I've been trying to put this in words

for a long time and you've done it so well. The behavior of the republicans over the past ten years or so reminds me of children who cannot admit they're wrong so they defend what they've done and do more of the same. Meanwhile, they attack anyone who is right.

If any of this feels familiar to us, it is because we witnessed it daily in the playground when we were kids.

[tularetom]

69. I almost didn't click on this

but I'm sure as hell glad I did.

This is the best written piece I've ever read about the denial in the mind of the typical right wing American. And how a few brazillionaires are manipulating the dumbass demographic.

I'm going to forward it to all my nutty friends and relatives although I don't expect any of them to have the intellectual honesty to see themselves in it.

[libodem]

72. Oh, the humiliation

It burns.

[KansDem]

73. Add Joe Wilson's "YOU LIE!!" moment to the GOP's state of denial...

The GOP congressman from South Carolina who shouted out during President Obama's health care address to Congress insisted Thursday that his outburst was "spontaneous."

Rep. Joe Wilson shocked many observers Wednesday night when he shouted, "You lie!" after the president denied that health care legislation would provide free coverage for illegal immigrants.

Some people using Twitter suggested that Wilson's retort was planned and pointed to a comment the lawmaker posted on Labor Day:

"Happy Labor Day! Wonderful parade at Chapin, many people called out to oppose Obamacare which I assured them would be relayed tomorrow to DC," the tweet from Wilson's account said.

http://articles.cnn.com/2009-09-10/politics/obama.heckled.speech_1_illegal-immigrants-illegal-aliens-rep-joe-wilson?_s=PM OLITICS

Your comment, "Like assholes in the wrong always do, they looked for any out they could find," illustrates the GOP's "bully strategy" so well: If Republicans are continually wrong, then no-one else could possibly be right.

[jillan]

74. And President Obama took away their Dems are weak on foreign policy bullshit after he got OBL.

They have nothing to offer but anger and tax cuts for the rich.

[drm604]

75. I'll just pile on with everyone else and say what an excellent post this is.

You've put into words what has been obvious to me for a long time.

[Old and In the Way]

77. Couldn't agree more with your observations!

The Teapublican Party is incapable of governing. They can obstruct and filibuster, but they will not allow a Democrat to prove, yet again, the philosophical underpinnings of the "conservative" social/economic/political is a failure for this country. When your only solutions are taxcuts and deregulation, you are supporting the destruction of the USA...and that is legislative treason in my book.

Succinct and to the point - so easy to understand, even the typical Republican voter ought to be able to comprehend your analysis.

[alfredo]

79. The Christian right was blamed for the loss of the moderate vote. The CR's solution: rebranding.

All the Tea Party is, is the Christian Right wrapped in old-timey clothes.

[Rex]

80. It is interesting to see who is never in these kind of threads.

Ever.

[Cali_Democrat]

81. That just about sums it up. n/t

[whathehell]

82. On points of style and intellect alone, Obama is sooo much more attractive and "presidential"

than Dubya, I can see where you're coming from.

The Euros liked him from the start, and I remember, a couple of years ago when

I was overseas, I heard an Englishman say, appreciatively, "He's more like one of ours"!

Feeling frisky, I teased back, saying "Oh no, he's one of ours; Bush is more like one of yours"!

His being so "Texas", though, makes it hard to deny ownership

[dreampunk]

83. And then when one posts

a link to a great article like this, republican friends point out how YOU have embarassed them or they don't like your "tone" or some other crap instead of looking INSIDE or more closely at what they have voted for all these years. Thanks so much for putting this into WORDS for me.

[Hubert Flottz]

84. Poppy Bush told you the answer years ago, but I'd already heard about it.

&feature=related

[FiveGoodMen]

85. "New World Order" was a big clue, wasn't it?

[newspeak]

105. As I've read, poppy mentioning the NWO was actually a slap in the face to the third world countries

after they coined it in the economic summit. However, it's more than a slap, it's the "too big to fail" global corporations swinging their little peckers around. The WTO, being influenced primarily by big global corporations, have caused some devastating economic conditions; like for small banana plantations in the caribbean suffering because chiquita goes crying to the WTO.

Living in utah, some of the extreme right think that the UN is going to invade america with their black helicopters-so, they're against the UN. And yet, they'll shout to the heavens about free unregulated capitalism being the messianic message. And yet, when poppy and kissenger mentioned NWO, I think it's more about global domination of global corporations and the greedy, sociopaths behind those corporations. Because, if you loosen regulation in every country for corporate benefit and have the capacity to buy off every politician, then every country's citizenry is in jeopardy. And, with that much power, who finally rules?

We've been fed the "rugged individualism" bullshite in this country. But, the reality is when we help our fellow citizens and our communities, everyone does better. But, some of the elite want you to believe the shite because when they've conned you, like the mortgage swindle, it is all your fault, while they're reaping in the dough and assets. They're the scorpion hoping to con some fool frog to take them across the water.

[Doc Holliday]

86. Every so often

I read something-- here, in my local newspaper, in a magazine-- that I wish I had written, because it articulates so clearly what I feel.

Today is one of those times.

Thank you, gulliver.

[mac56]

87. Not sure who came up with this line

but I recall during the Clinton presidency, someone said the GOP had two things they wanted to have before the end of the 20th century. A Republican FDR, and a Democratic Nixon.

They tried to reframe Reagan as the Republican FDR. EPIC FAIL.

They tried to paint Clinton as the Democratic Nixon. EPIC FAIL.

Hope was reborn, and then crashed, with Dubya. As you eloquently stated here.

Nicely written.

[ProSense]

88. Well, that's

The real reason Republicans have been trying to sabotage Obama and the country is humiliation, personal humiliation. Their man, George W. Bush, was president for eight years, and their party also held majorities in Congress for most that time. And the result? Well, to put it mildly, they basically peed their pants on live TV with the world watching. Republicans cheered Bush as he cut taxes. They whistled and applauded when he strutted around on the deck of that aircraft carrier in the full flight suit. They were riding high...And then everything went horribly, horribly wrong. All on their watch. All in broad daylight...

...a great summation, and the very reason it's disgusting to hear anyone state: At least Bush...

Thanks for a great read.

Bush F'd the country up royally.

Worse. President. Ever.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002578237

[lumberjack_jeff]

89. Exactly. Well said. n/t

[Brigid]

91. Wow.

Most excellent.

[Uben]

92. You expect me to rec this stuff?

Why hell yeah I'm gonna rec it! It's all true!

[LiberalLovinLug]

93. Very well said!

"The first thing these Republicans did was get angry. Like assholes in the wrong always do, they looked for any out they could find."

I'm sure we've all met this type. The Russel Hanzes of the world (of Survivor). They simply CANNOT be wrong, even if they ARE wrong. The most dangerous thing you can do, for your own personal safety, is to point out where they are wrong, and provide facts to back it up. If you keep pushing your point it will end up with you on the ground with a bloody nose, because to these assholes, if they can't win by debate, physical violence is another legitimate way to win the argument. They will walk away with their hands in the air proclaiming victory.

If they were the only ones deluding themselves of a victory then no harm done. The problem is with the MSM, who if were there at that fight, would say "well both sides claim to have won that debate.....who knows?.....we only report"

[stupidicus]

94. I completely disagree

while of course they want vindication and validation to ameliorate the shame for having been wrong about everything of significance for many decades now -- including the Bush reign of error and terror -- they don't want BHO to fail for that reason so much as to bury the notion that this country should be all about community and the lifting of all boats, as opposed to their greed-based, "rugged individualism."

It's mostly if not all about the furtherance of their agenda http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=711144 which can only occur if their "rugged individual" BS is bought and paid for by the little guy.

[dtom67]

95. If you could be a fly on the wall.....

Not sure I agree 100%.
Because I think that the GOP is pleased with their accomplishments during the W.Bush years; They got tax cuts for their owners( the 1% ), they gave gozillions of taxpayer-dollars to God-Only-Knows-Who during the iraq war,and They bankrupt the government so they could justify the fact that they did not meet their financial obligations to the states, which helped put state budgets in the red. In other words, they learned that the way to push their agenda was to destroy the American economy, regardless of who is in the White House.
Think of all the Republican goals that can be achieved by an unsustainable Debt! The destruction of:
Social security
welfare
unemployment insurance
universal healthcare
collective bargaining
tax cuts for the 99%
taxation on the 1% ( and the businesses the run )
regulations on business ( environmental and financial )
the list goes on...........
And guess what? Its working.
the worst part is that they don't need to have the Presidency to do it.Just as long as they have either the House or the Senate.
I think this means that our system is broken......

[ProgressiveEconomist]

96. IMO wd make a great DCCC campaign ad

nattative over visuals of deficit sources, filibuster timeline since 1950, infrastructure spending timeline, timeline of revenue sharing with the States, headlines of the US credit rating downgrade, video of Romney and nine other Rs raising their hands to oppose 10-for-one spending cuts and tax revenue increases to cut the deficit, etc.

IMO voters need to be led to putting two and two together to decide whether they want Republican economic sabotage to continue past 2012.

[rury]

97. Spot on...K&R!!

They tore the house down and now they don't want to see their opponents (especially a black man!!) succeed at rebuilding it and drawing a stark contrast with their destructiveness.
This election IS very much about choices!!

OBAMA AND A PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS IN 2012!!!!!!!!

[ensemble]

98. good post by the OP but...

too many R's believe their own BS. If they get power, they will run the country into the ground, and have to start a bigger war (Iran) to keep people distracted.

[GETPLANING]

100. Way too complicated

The real reason Republicans are sabotaging the economy is so they can blame it on Obama and win the next election.

Their primary motivation for this is to finish the job they started under Bush, which is to strip the nation of all her assets, and create a new class of working poor whose taxes pay for corporate welfare.

That's it, in a nutshell.

[Arugula Latte]

106. I agree.

Everything they do is to serve the one percent of the one percent and strip as much money from the bottom as possible so they can stuff their own coffers.

[Beartracks]

101. Spot on. I also don't think it's because Obama is black.

Naturally, his skin color has motivated a certain percentage of conservatives, but the overall one-term strategy is dictated by Obama's party, not his race. To the conservative establishment, he's been a godless socialist baby-killing librul nazi from day one, and ANY Democrat president would have been the focus of that pile of steaming, deluded rage. Obama's multi-racial-ness has only added an extra dimension to the attack, one that is certainly important, but is not the one on which the vast quantity of anti-Obama sentiment hinges.

======================

[malaise]

103. Good post but remember that the Tea Party was made by

ReTHUGs

[vsamuels]

107. Lest we forget the complicit corporate media!!

The GOP, after having elected Cheney and Bush were indeed to come to be humiliated by their failures---the Dems however did not always push back or challenge the corporate media to challenge the critics, who were responsible for causing such disaster. In my humble opinion, the GOP yes failed to acknowledge and admit their republican policies failed---in fact they failed to even call themselves republicans. But, the Dems were not vocal enough in their opposition to the GOP not taking responsibility for the damage----the GOP gave its base an out to hid under Libertarian and Teabagger covers, rather than require them to come in the light and revise their adherence to tax cuts-----here, I believe the Dems own allegiance to picking money from the same bag of funders makes and made the Dems less inclined to attack and equate the failure directly to tax cuts and deregulations, two major things that some donations were being received to silence.

And, when we saw the same GOP gather second wind and come back on MTP, ABC, CBS and other outlets and unabashedly and unapologetically twist facts, while the Dems sat there quietly, we saw how rigged the system is geared to spew information from the rights view, as well as how they can control the dialog---yet, push the notion that a liberal bias exist.

What we do know is that the GOP represents the ruling party in America: who continue to be primarily, white and primarily male. Their view point although soiled by Cheney and Bush is going to be always wholly pushed and embraced in the corporate media. Many of the strategies used by this bloc to external enemies---we have today come to see, turned upon its citizens---whether it be the failings in the mortgage industry, Wall Street, Iraq War or Ferguson---we are now being manipulated by our own folks.