Political Discussions
The GOP's "alternate universe"
Posted by clioandme • 10/10/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: gop, obama
I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds GOP rhetoric of the past two weeks strange. Senator McCaskill writes,
"I feel that I’m in an alternative universe. For eight years some people called anyone who disagreed with the President’s foreign policy or war in Iraq unpatriotic. Then in the course of two weeks, those same people cheer when the United States does not get selected for the Olympics and boo when our President is the unanimous choice for the Nobel Peace Prize. Go figure."
Source: www.politico.com/blogs/glennthrush/1009/McCaskill_GOP_living_in_alternative...
But I've had this feeling long before the events of the last two weeks. Anyone else?
User Comments
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Here's a particularly crass example: "KBR Gets the ACORN Treatment"
gripernews.blogspot.com/2009/10/kbr-gets-acorn-treatment.html
You've got KBR forcing employees to wave rights to obtain justice for rape. And you've got 30 Republican senators voting to stop language that would stop such waivers. I imagine they didn't even think much about the issue. It's just a reflex now. If the one side is for it, they must have to be against it, even if that means denying rape victims justice.-
That is very disturbing. Surely these waivers will not stand up to scrutiny in the courts, they are a rapists charter.
Can't see how these waivers can be defended at all. -
I don't think that Retroublicans are pro-rape so much as anit-corporate-responsibility -
I had thought of that, but I really see this as more a gut reflex against the Democrats who want to stop an injustice, no matter how the 30 Republican senators might have otherwise felt about the issue in another, less partisan context.
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I don't read Politico routinely but this is just par for the course. That they don't know what they are talking about is clear to those who do , but to no others.
This is a prime example from digby from conservative mouthpiece Zuckerman
"Mort Zuckerman was on McLaughlin this week and said that the stimulus was a big fat failure because there was so much pork and they had given way too much money to the states. He mentioned in particular a high speed rail line between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, which he characterized as a boondoggle for Harry Reid. When asked what the money should have been spent on, he replied: "infrastructure."
lol-
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wow
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In a similar vane. speaking of alternate universes, Lawrence Mishel, who testified before Congress on the 8th of this month -
www.epi.org/page/-/pdf/100810-misheltestimony.pdf -
says this...
"I consider President Obama to be in the situation of having inherited a burning apartment building. He proceeded to gather all the available fire trucks and douse the fires in half the floors. Yet his critics complain that the other floors are still on fire. Even worse, those critics are the ones who started the fire. And they want to withdraw the fire trucks."
"It should be pointed out that unemployment is certainly higher than was expected at the time of the (presidential) election. This is not due to any policy failure. Rather, this is due to an embarrassing failure of my profession, economists, to assess the future" -
Someone made the analogy on the Diane Rehm Show today that if Obama had discovered a cure for cancer, the right would be all over him for not having cured cerebral palsy. They were talking about the Nobel Prize, but that comment fits better in this alternate reality thread.
And in what universe does he get criticized for not being the international darling and therefore not getting the Olympics, but being the international darling and therefore getting the Nobel Prize?-
To play devils advocate, maybe it's because the Olympics would've brought a lot more jobs and prestiege to an actual American city rather then just an ever-expanding man. Still, this wingnut doesn't personally believe it was Obamas' fault - Brazil was going to win no matter what, Americas' held so many Olympics already. Maybe you need to generalize a little bit less. -
but a "messiah" should cure cerebral palsy... (O_O)
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Hey, maybe you've got a new GOP talking point?
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heard it here first
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Send Michael Steele a bill for your consulting fee.
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The rhetoric coming out of the most extreme conservatives has been a little...strange. I mean listening to Michelle Bachmann, Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck speak makes me question their intelligence.
I was once told, in another discussion, that I live in a different reality because I said that President Bush lied about the reasons for going to the Iraq war (i.e. not supporting the war and thus being patriotic) and yet now politicizing every word that the President says to use it as a weapon against him is the cool thing to do.
No matter if those words are meant to bring something wonderful to America like the Olympics (which I understand we did not have a chance in winning). Perhaps everyone just needs to utilize the rhetoric of their extremities to actually remain within the norm. In other words, there is no room left for the moderate liberal or conservative anymore.-
Rene- What about the brilliance of Bill Maher calling all Americans stupid because they disagree with the health care overhaul? Or what about a recent Huffington Post video that depicts Rush as a KKK member? Clearly the extreme polarization of rhetoric is only coming from the right. -
But that demagoguery has been consistent. This thread isn't about demagogic behavior per se. It's about the amazing lack of consistency on the right, as it has had to squirm and reconfigure itself to oppose Obama, in the process saying things at odds with its past statements and stances as well as its own value system.
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@Newblogger2008 Well being that most Americans are stupid (as in the cannot tell the difference between extreme political talking points and fact based arguments), I do not find that statement to be that extreme. As for Rush Limbaugh, he is a closet racist so that comparison is not that extreme anyways. This quote sums it up the best:
"slavery built the South. I'm not saying we should bring it back, I'm just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark." ~ Rush Limbaugh
Sounds pretty racist to me.
@clioandme Well said. I agree completely. -
Since when is Limbaugh a *closet* racist? He's pretty upfront about his disdain for minorities, speaking a code that is easy to understand, if one wants to understand it.
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I refer to him as a "closet racist" because he continually denies that he is a racist when accused of it. So while we all know that he is a racist (though some of us are unwilling to admit it publicly), Rush believes that he isn't because he is delusional, insane, and every single other adjective that could be applied to his forehead.
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Well, I truly think there is bi-polar on both sides of the fence. Find and read the facts, stand up for what you believe. Treat the other side with respect.-
i can see what you are saying to a point. The "left" establishment* can be rather authoritarian for my taste.
*oops "left establishment is sorta an oxymoron... -
Maybe just reverse your word order to "establishment left"?
Not quite right either. -
At least we agree there.. No matter what you call them, the left aren't "quite right"..
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I've come to the conclusion that the time for bipartisanship has passed and the administration needs to continue forward regardless of the mindless rhetoric coming from the far right. It's simply a waste of time to try and reason with many conservatives. They're either misinformed on the issues, ignoring reality or putting politics above all else. The latter group is intent on damaging this president and will continue with their falsehoods and distortions while offering little in the way of solutions.
Republicans snipe instead of offering solutions
- Republicans have opposed Obama's work on health care, economy, war
- GOP arguments against president are way to avoid taking responsibility
- Only 20 percent of Americans now consider themselves Republicans - the lowest number in 26 years
www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/10/20/borger.obama/index.html
The Politics of Spite
www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/opinion/05krugman.html?_r=1-
LOL, still the same old stale lies.
Conservatives” Are Single-Largest Ideological Group
"Thus far in 2009, 40% of Americans interviewed in national Gallup Poll surveys describe their political views as conservative, 35% as moderate, and 21% as liberal."
www.gallup.com/poll/120857/conservatives-single-largest-ideological-group.a...
GOP Health Care Reform Proposals:
www.cnsnews.com/news/article/52896
www.gop.gov/solutions/healthcare
online.wsj.com/article/SB124277551107536875.html
Seems to me that the far left element that has taken over the Democratic Party are the ones that are "sniping."
Even his own party is not happy with him:
www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/23828.html
LOL - nice try. -
Continued - ran out of time because I was AFK.
Obama has a very hard balancing act. He needs to keep his far left base happy, yet reach out to the moderate Dems as well. In the end, he will go with his base and leave the so-called Blue Dog Democrats and the Moderates twisting in the wind. There are a lot smarter ways to have gone about this than the one Obama chose. But all one has to do is to look to his Chicago political upbringing to realize why he chose this path. It is all he knows. Politics of the here and now with little regard to long range goals. That is why the leaders of the countries affected by the cancellation of the missile defense shield were notified with a late night phone call. That is why he, at the last minute chose to fly to Copenhagen to lobby for Chicago to get the Olympics, rather than have a team on the project from the day he took office. Last minute governing is not the answer.
Obama squandered his chance to be the candidate he ran as - that is the candidate of "Hope and Change." It is politics as usual and worse than that, Chicago style politics on a national basis.
Oh, and ruin, you should have checked your sources a bit more carefully. Borger, the CNN source you cite was one of the liberal media that had a 2 1/2 hour sit down with El Presidente this week at the White House. The topic? Why he was instructing them to get the message out and also to demonize his "arch rivals" at Fox. This is so laughable and you fell for it... -
Oh, and I found this article for you too, ruin.
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091022/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_obama_s_challenge
Seems to be a tough time to be a Democrat. -
None of this speaks to the OP, antics. It simply offers the same refrain you've been offering these past several months.
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Data on both "view self as republican" and "view self as conservative" on the same poll. Time series available. Questions 901 and 908a
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/polls/postpoll_101909.html?sid=ST200...
As many conservatives proudly point out, conservatism does not equal republican. -
And yet many Republican politicians are struggling to make the same point: www.politico.com/news/stories/1009/28589.html
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Which is the point I was making.
And the points I offered did speak not only to the OP, but to ruin's pathetic attempts to agree with the OP.
The GOP HAS been offering alternatives. They have written letter after letter to the WH, but to no avail. Try listening to the House Republican Conference Podcasts some time. They explain how their attempts to offer solutions and alternatives are rebuffed time and time again by a WH that has no interest in bipartisanship. Despite what Obama said on the campaign trail. -
And you believe they are doing what they say they are doing? That hasn't been my experience with politicians on either side of the aisle.
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It is pretty easy to verify whether they have made amendment proposals, whether they have written letters to the WH. No, I do not blindly believe politicians, but when it is something that is easily verifiable, then yes, I take them at their word. Just like I gave Obama the benefit of the doubt when he campaigned on the idea of reforming Washington politics as usual. It wasn't long before his lies caught up with him.
Lobbyists
Bills online 5 days before signing them
All health care negotiations to be broadcast on Cspan
etc, etc, etc...
- Republicans have opposed Obama's work on health care, economy, war
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The republican party has become fractured. As stated by Dick Armey, "The GOP has lost its way." In New Yorks 23rd district, (which, in some areas of the district) hasn't voted for a democrat since pre-civil war times and yet it is about to elect a democrat. Why? The answer is because of republican infighting. The social conservatives have practically left the republican party and are now the "conservative" party.
This is illustrated by the support that has been given to the republican candidate in this 23rd district. Newt Gingrich gave his support and conservative groups attacked him.
The RNC gave their support and Michelle Malkin attacked them for "not upholding conservative values". So yes, while there may be many conservatives in this country, those who align themselves republicans haven't found that one message that isn't no, nor have they themselves agreed what their own political platform is going to be.
www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/10/dick_armey_tells_central_new_y.html
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33371453/ns/politics-more_politics/
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