Jon Huntsman Criticizes Republican Party, Compares Actions To Communist China

[Tax Man]

Source: Huffington Post

Posted: 04/22/2012 10:22 pm Updated: 04/22/2012 10:34 pm

Jon Huntsman leveled harsh criticism at his party on Sunday evening, BuzzFeed's Zeke Miller reported, comparing the Republican Party to communist China and questioning the strength of this year's presidential field.

During an event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City, Huntsman spoke candidly about his party's flaws, lamenting the Republican National Committee's decision to rescind an invitation to a major fundraising event after Huntsman called for a third-party candidate to enter the race.

"This is what they do in China on party matters if you talk off script," Huntsman said.

\snip/

He also criticized the Republican candidates' foreign policy stances, particularly in regard to China. "I don’t know what world these people are living in," Huntsman said.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/22/jon-huntsman-gop_n_1444529.html

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this is just silly; chinese communists have way more freedom to criticize their party than today's republicans do.

[Scuba]

1. Yeah, but what would he know about China? What? He was? He does?

Ambassador to China... speaks Chinese.

[trusty elf]

2. Why don't you defect then, Jon?

[liberal N proud]

3. He is just now figuring out this is how the GOP operates?

How did he get as far as he did?

[Laura PourMeADrink]

4. easy solution John....we take new members! nt

[zipplewrath]

19. That's the problem

The moderate republicans have been leaving the GOP for years and joining the DNC. The result is the whole new democrat/DLC/Third Way crap. Democrats need them to go back and take over their own party so this country can have rational debates about health care reform, and government regulation, as well as foreign policy. Right now we have the sane arguing with the insane. When we try to have rational debates, it ends up being a case of "arguing with ourselves". Then you get the whole "what, do you want Palin to win" response and we get nowhere. We need a real, functional, second party in this country. We need the GOP to throw out the idiots, just as the democrats had to throw out the segregationists.

[Wind Dancer]

27. Great post!

Wish I could recommend!

[Laura PourMeADrink]

30. good point. If I was in a moderates shoes, though, I would think that moderating their side

would be impossible. Like it's a monster now. Isn't that what Snow said?

Maybe when they lose a couple more elections they might actually decide to
change? But, if they keep on gaining seats in Congress, it will make our Presidents
inept and they will eventually win the WH because of that. And, if they
keep on pushing their crazy ideas through state houses by paying off
local legislators with donations...

Oh shit, thoroughly depressed myself. "Obama will win, we will retain the Senate
and take back the House."

[alp227]

35. How about a Centrist Party for those who can't fit within D or R?

[zipplewrath]

37. Most people aren't centrists

30% in the "middle" the other 60% are split on either side. Elections are won by co-opting one half or the other of the 60% and combining it with as much of the 30% as you can. Said another way, you win elections by finding the middle and getting your half, plus "one more". A centrist party can be too easily divided from either the left or right.

The DLC/Third way group is basically doing what you are suggesting. They are runnning "on the middle" from the democratic party. Which is why they often sound like moderate republicans.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

5. he is on MoJo right now nt

[mwooldri]

6. He's obviously a closet moderate Republican.

One of those individuals who you can barely find in the Republican Party any more.

2012 is Obama's to lose. Play it right, he wins just fine. Come 2016 the only way I figure the Republicans can win the White House is if a) the Democratic Party put up a lousy candidate, or b) a more reasonable Republican runs.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

11. No closet - Huntsman knows he's a moderate

He would steer the Republican party back to the Eisenhower era, before teabaggers and Christian Coalition hijacked that bus.

Now, if only a new FDR would take the Democratic party back ... make a new run at single-payer health care.

[AverageJoe90]

29. Don't forget the f***ing Dixiecrats my friend.

Remember, they were the biggest contributors to the downfall and ruination of the GOP(some were just downright horrid men. James O. Eastland, anyone?).
Without them, I don't think the Republicans would quite have had as many problems with hardcore bigotry as they do now.

[Daniel537]

15. Lets not overdue the "moderate" thing too much.

Huntsman's fiscal record was as conservative, if not more, as any of the other candidates in the Primary. Remember he was one of those who refused to support raising taxes on the rich, even if it meant twice the amount of spending cuts. And take a look at what he said when Pres. Obama withdrew the troops from Iraq.

"President Obama’s decision, however, to not leave a small, focused presence in Iraq is a mistake and the product of his administration’s failures. The president's inability to reach a security agreement leaves Iraq vulnerable to backsliding, thus putting our interests in the region at risk. An ideal arrangement would have left a small troop presence that could have assisted with the training of Iraqi security forces and vital counter-terror efforts." http://www.nhinsider.com/press-releases/2011/10/22/jon-huntsman-statement-on-iraq-troop-withdrawal.html

[NewJeffCT]

20. I think he's a closet sane conservative

The moderate Republicans now make up the DLC.

A lot of these so-called moderate Republicans are really very conservative - they're just not 100% batshit insane, only 80-90%.

[wilt the stilt]

7. A good friend of mine has done business

with the huntsman family for 30 years. He says they are good honest worthwhile people. He's in the wrong party.

[HughBeaumont]

12. Or . . . is he in the right party?

See, if the GOP were smart players, they'd get more Republicans like him.

The operative phrase being "IF the GOP were smart". Instead, they chose to go economically and socially batshit in the 80s and never looked back.

[sarge43]

8. Come over from the Dark Side, Jon n/t

[Tax Man]

34. yeah

hey, he'd be a better dem than ben nelson.

[edgineered]

9. To the relief of everyone, the RW decision to ridicule

Huntsman for accepting Obama's appointment to China was a well placed shot. I could not understand why they shunned their best - just because it wasn't his turn maybe?

[marble falls]

10. Huntsman is much more representitive of Republicans .....

the vast majority of whom who are ignored by the "Conservative" minority who are running the party. Like the Bolsheviks who ignored the Menshiviks.

[Daniel537]

14. I don't know about that.

If the conservatives are a minority, why didn't Huntsman ever crack the top tier in this race? It seems to me he was always the media's favorite Republican, but not the one of actual GOP voters.

[marble falls]

36. The average Republican is not happy with the choices the "Conservatives" .....

propelled into the primaries. Huntsman didn't get traction and Mitt didn't either untill each of the others fell because moderates feel ignored and didn't feel engaged enough to 'primary'. If Huntsman could have been able to hols on long enough he'd have done better as Cain, Bachmann, Paul, Santorum, Gingrich fell.

[madrchsod]

13. the republicans have the attack dogs in the tea party...

they may hate their vulgars but they are useful tools in overthrowing our republic. huntmans is one of the last moderate republicans that dares stand up against them.

[DireStrike]

16. Irresponsible of huffpo to drop the C word just for shock value

Huntsman didn't even use it.

[tanyev]

17. Pssst, Jon! You read the memo wrong.

You're supposed to say Obama's actions are like communist China. I guess he's already given up on running in 2016.

[ZM90]

18. Ah yes the only Republican in that party that I have any respect for and

the only one America could survive. He's a moderate, meaning he isn't batshit insane and has a conscience. Huntsman is a decent man despite the fact that I still disagree with many of his policies. I think America could survive a Huntsman administration not so much a Romney administration though.

[obxhead]

21. I always thought he was the best pick of the field

and in a general, likely the most dangerous to Obama's reelection. Good thing the media wouldn't give him any coverage.

[BlueDemKev]

22. How Refreshing...

The Republican Party turned into a flock of sheep during the Reagan Era, but now a new shepherd (i.e.--the tea party) is suffocating the party with a stench of poisonous, carbon monoxide gas. It has turned statesmen like Richard Lugar, John McCain, and Orrin Hatch into partisan poisonous snakes. But it is refreshing to see the rare event of a Republican whose head can just clear the barrier of poisonous sulferic gas suffocating the rest of the sheep.

[Mass]

23. It's insulting for China...

[iandhr]

24. Kind of like the article in the Onion

Huntsman Quietly Relieved To Be Polling Poorly Among GOP Voters
'These People Scare The Bejeezus Out Of Me,' Says Candidate

http://www.theonion.com/articles/huntsman-quietly-relieved-to-be-polling-poorly-amo,26506/

[grantcart]

25. And your a member of this party why?

[Daniel537]

26. Because he actually agrees with them.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/08/31/309249/huntsman-taxes-rich/?mobile=nc

2012 GOP presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is releasing an economic plan today that is as bad for the middle-class — and as nutty — as any proposed by his rivals. It would pay for a half-million-dollar tax break for the richest 0.1 percent of Americans with tax increases on the middle-class and new taxes on seniors, veterans, and poor families.

In an apparent attempt to eclipse all previous Republican giveaways, including the disastrous Bush tax cuts, Huntsman would drop the marginal rate paid by the richest Americans by more than a third to 23 percent — a lower rate than rich people paid during the Coolidge and Hoover Administrations or any time since. He would also eliminate all taxes on all capital gains and dividend income — the primary forms of income for the wealthiest Americans.

[goclark]

28. Good question grantcart

[RussBLib]

31. So much for his VP chances

I was actually worried that Huntsman might become a really attractive candidate in the Republican field, but then I remembered the circus.

[janx]

32. OMG !!!

"So I had to say I believe in science -- and people on stage look at you quizzically as though you're ... an oddball."

[DCBob]

33. hmmm... "third party candidate".

thats interesting.