No Wonder

[SHRED]

This is what happens when the ruling party is an avowed hater of "government".
You do not put the Republican Party in sole power without having very negative affects on Public Service. This Republican Party uses government not to benefit the people but to pad the bank accounts of their crony, warmongering friends.

How many years have RW hate radio talkers, since Reagan uttered his anti-government nonsense, been driving home the idea that government is the enemy?

No wonder the shit hits the fan when they take over.

[hippiechick]

1. ... and oddly enough, since the GOP took control ...

... government is bigger and more intrusive than it's ever been.

How's that for hypocrisy ? :shrug:

[ClassWarrior]

2. Bush** is not incompetent.

George Lakoff says exactly that in his recent essay: http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/lakoff/incompetent

Here's the new "handbook for Progressives" from the Rockridge Institute: http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/thinkingpoints

NGU.

[MrModerate]

3. Let's focus on what "incompetence" means to voters . . .

There's little debate that the Schimpanski regime is staffed with ace politicians and political operatives. They can win and/or steal elections with the best of them.

However, they can't govern for shit. If you read the article cited above, it lists a whole litany of political successes racked up by this administration: Starting 2 wars; the Patriot Act; cramming the courts with conservatives; tax cuts; consolidating executive power, etc., etc.

If the measure of competence is successfully realizing an agenda, then yes, there is a steely core of hard competence surrounding Bush (and inspired by him, no doubt).

But that's not what the people get out of government. The cost of a narrow-minded agenda successfully implemented is degraded services from the government; fiscal disasters looming a few years out; inaction on crucial environmental issues; fanning the flames of anti-American sentiment worldwide; erosion of the basic goodness of the American character, etc., etc.

On that level, the Bush administration is the most incompetent in living memory -- and that level is what resonates (or should resonate) with the vast majority of the electorate.

Just because a weasel is an effective predator doesn't mean you want to surrender your family's security to him. THAT's the message we need to be getting out. He's a sociopath and a crackpot, not an idiot. So, without disarming ourselves by thinking Bush is a cuddly moron, we shouldn't abandon the useful political capital we garner by pointing out that he's wrecking the frakking country through gross incompetence.

[ClassWarrior]

4. Read the article.

NGU.

[MrModerate]

5. I did, and my point is . . .

Slash-and-burn political competence, which the Bush administration has demonstrated in spades, is a sinking commodity (sheer, unadulterated vote fraud notwithstanding). It's not going to play as well going forward. The 'Licans have squandered the "consent of the governed" by making political gamesmanship the *only* object of their power, and the electorate is going to spank them for it.

For me, the distinction between political competence and governing competence is more vivid than ever.

[ClassWarrior]

6. The point isn't Bush**'s incompetence, it's the incompetence of the...

...entire conservative philosophy.

NGU.

[MrModerate]

7. Agreed . . . especially as it seems predicated on the notion . . .

Of using smashmouth political strategies to remake the world in its twisted image. Wrong tools, wrong objectives.