Why the GOP is Terrified of Obama by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

[Joanne98]

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com 2.24.09
February 25, 2009

The GOP is indeed terrified of Obama; it is now becoming patently obvious. In the debate over the (first) stimulus package and especially in the aftermath of its passage, they could barely talk about the real issues themselves. (And there surely were some real ones, about stimulus, not tax cuts, to talk about. This was evidenced by some-to-much unhappiness about in various progressive to left-wing quarters.) All GOPers could do was moan and groan about “the failure of bipartisanship” that was, of course, all the President’s fault.

McCain’s crocodile tears, for example, were so voluminous that one became concerned that the poor old guy might be biting them. Once again, as is their wont, Republicans cried about process, while leaving the substance, what their policies of the last eight years have done to the country, and what needs to be differently to fix the mess, virtually unmentioned by them. Unfortunately for the nation, their wailing not only predictably was echoed evermore loudly in the Republican Scream Machine, but also dominated the discussion in the mainstream media. They discussed the supposed “failure of bipartisanship,” Obama’s fault of course, much more than they did the real problems, and how we are going to solve them in ways that can work.

So Cantor and Boehner and McConnell and Rove (!) and (Joe) Scarborough and Buchanan (to say nothing of O’RHannibaugh and their clones) moan and groan about “the failure of bipartisanship.” But underneath all that is the fear that if Obama is even somewhat successful, the GOP will disappear politically for quite some time. (If they don’t recognize that possibility off the record, then these folks are truly whistling past their potential graveyard.) But why are they so fearful? Is it simply the outcome of elections? No. That too, but there are two other much more fundamental factors that have the GOP terrified. Concerns what Obama stands for in terms of the functions of the Federal government and, second, is what his success would do to the major interests of the three major sectors of the power elite whom the GOP serves: extractive industries, prison-industrial complex, and the military-industrial complex.

President Obama taught Constitutional law for, I believe, about 12 years. Not only did he read the Preamble, the Statement of Purpose for the Federal government, many times, for sure, but also, unlike all the raft of “small government” people, Republican and Democratic (think Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council) alike up with which we have had to put for the past 35 years, it is apparent that he takes what it says seriously. And here it is: “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” No Rx for “small government” there.

The most important speech that the President has given since his Inaugural Address was his Lincoln Day address in Springfield, IL. He clearly declared that there is a lengthy list of problems that our nation faces that the “free market” and private enterprise on their own simply cannot deal with. So the President clearly wants to restore the activist role of the Federal government that dominated national policy from the time of FDR through the days of Lyndon Johnson before he drowned in the Big Muddy of Vietnam. The GOP has been winning elections on its “small government/cut taxes” mantra since the success of the tax-cutting/education system destroying Proposition 13 in California in 1977.

Reagan’s famous “government isn’t the solution to our problems, government is the problem” was actually echoed by Bill Clinton in his first State of the Union Address in 1993. Given the problems in, for example, education, health care, infrastructure, environmental preservation, global warming/climate change, transportation policy, energy policy, and deregulation, it has always been a false message. But because for many years, there has been no effective Democratic opposition, it has worked wonders for the GOP in elections. But if President Obama can make the Federal government work again, despite the best efforts of Bush/Cheney to destroy it along with Constitutional government as a whole, and by doing so he manages to pull the U.S. back from the brink of a Great Depression II that some economists think could be even worse than the previous one, that could cook the GOP’s electoral goose for many a moon.

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/why-the-gop-is-terrified-of-obama-by-steven-jonas-md-mph/

[47of74]

1. I hope that Obama is so sucessful

That the next time a Republican is elected as President I'm six feet under. I'm 33, and I hope to live at least as long as my grandma (she left us at 91). So 50 years of no Republican Presidents sounds pretty damn good to me.

[roguevalley]

4. at this rate, it is assured. :)

[grantcart]

2. good editorial but I have a simplier explanation

Forget the 68% approval rating - that will go up and go down.


Focus on the 'hard core support', people who are fanatically in favor of him and will support him enthusiastically.


Once that number hits 30% it is almost impossible to defeat him because the opposition would then have to win more than 70% of the remaining 70%. Not going to happen.


They don't know much but they can figure this out and they know they are in for a long 8 years.


They are simply trying to hold on to being relevent.

[acmavm]

3. Investigate the bush** admin and expose the republican party for the

dispicable thugs that they are. Wipe the republican party off the map.

[pacalo]

5. Obama is nearest in perfection as president as I've ever seen in my lifetime.

That includes JFK, only because of his extra-curricular activities with the ladies.

Obama is clearly showing to the people that he is trying to work with the 'thugs, negating their efforts to spin the opposite, & he is making every effort to provide transparency in government spending. He's intelligent, has great ideas, is fair, has a grown-up demeanor, he's good-looking with a great delivery, & he's likeable.

I think we are witnessing the makings of one of our greatest & most revered presidents.

[babylonsister]

6. Rec'd. I hope at least bloggers keep pointing this out! nt