Rhetoric Won't Save You

[phantom power]

At the most basic level, the Republicans' problem is that there are logical consequences to the lies they've been telling themselves for the last thirty years. If health and retirement entitlements are so bad, then they ought to be eliminated. If the government can't do anything right, then it shouldn't actually do anything. If abortion is wrong, then it should be criminalized. If climate change isn't happening then we shouldn't do anything about it. And, most importantly, if the real objective is to keep America as white and as Christian and as socially conservative as it was in the 1950's, then there is no room for women, blacks, Latinos, Muslims, or gays in the Republican Party.

Conservatives have done a great job of organizing to take over the Republican Party, but they seem like the dog that caught the car. The dog doesn't know how to drive. The dog doesn't even think a car should drive. That's why they chased it in the first place. In the first issue of the National Review, William F. Buckley said "It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it." I think he launched a movement that succeeded in slowing the government to a stop. But where do the Republicans go from here?

In other words, conservatives have basically arrived at their destination and now they are in a position to actually act on their rhetoric. And people want no part of their actual agenda, which has been fueled on lies and bullshit and fear and paranoia.

It's been all about "articulating" a bunch of crap. Bush the Younger was smart enough to blow most of that rhetoric off once he became president. He didn't eliminate the Department of Education; he increased its power over local schools. He didn't eliminate Medicare; he added a prescription drug benefit. And when he tried to destroy Social Security, he had his head handed to him and his party lost control of Congress.

You can articulate a bunch of bullshit very effectively, but you can't enact policies that people hate without being punished. The Republicans' problem boils down to this: they've come this far, and now they're telling people where they really want to go. Or, to be more precise, they've come this far, and now they've discovered that their voters actually believed the bullshit and actually want them to act on it.

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2012/2/23/95946/3732

[zbdent]

1. I always love when they say "there is a simple solution to X".

Especially when you listen to "callers" ...

Suddenly, you have people coming up with "worst case scenarios" or "Why is it that I have to do X while Joe can do Y?"

We did have a simple, flat tax, in the early part of the 20th century. Of course, then you had all kinds of people saying "Well, I can't have that because ..." ... and over time, you got the 70K page tax code.

[Populist_Prole]

2. K&R, worth the read. n/t