Republicans Think They’re Too Big to Fail
Paul Krugman on the GOP:
… whoever finally gets the Republican nomination will be a deeply flawed candidate. And these flaws won’t be an accident, the result of bad luck regarding who chose to make a run this time around; the fact that the party is committed to demonstrably false beliefs means that only fakers or the befuddled can get through the selection process.
Of course, given the terrible economic picture and the tendency of voters to blame whoever holds the White House for bad times, even a deeply flawed G.O.P. nominee might very well win the presidency. But then what?
… If the dog actually catches the car — the actual job of running the U.S. government — it will have no idea what to do, because the realities of government in the 21st century bear no resemblance to the mythology all ambitious Republican politicians must pretend to believe. And what will happen then?
What frightens me is that I don’t think it matters whether Romney and Gingrich and all the other pretenders are ignorant or just cynical, because I think they’ll still feel they have to pursue teabagger/Fox/Rand policies, and they won’t think it matters whether those policies fail.
I think Republicans see themselves the way Wall Streeters see themselves — as people to whom nothing really bad could possibly happen, no matter how dire America’s problems are. If they get in, push more tax cuts that increase debt, and make spending cuts that worsen unemployment and leave more infrastructure to crumble, they’ll just find some scapegoat, sexting or illegal immigrants or Dodd-Frank, to blame everything bad in America on. If that doesn’t work, they’ll start a war, and make it just controversial enough that Democrats will hesitate to support it, then treason-bait those Democrats for their hesitancy.
I think this is true for America in any state of decay short of civil war. And perhaps even that qualification doesn’t apply.
This approach will work for years. It worked for George W. Bush for six years, didn’t it? (I think that’s what Cheney meant when he said his crew had proved that deficits don’t matter — if you can gull the voters with distractions like Saddam, you can get away with anything.)
And even if, after years and years, Republicans are eventually blamed for what they’re doing, they’ll bounce back in an election cycle or two — Watergate and Vietnam combined spoiled the GOP brand for only a few years after Nixon resigned (hell, Ford almost won, and Proposition 13 passed in California in 1978), while the debacle of the Bush presidency discredited the GOP for an eyeblink. (Democrats, by contrast, are still paying for being the Hippie Party forty years ago.)
What will the Republicans do if they actually win? Be as reckless as they are now. They assume that, at worst, we’ll suffer but they won’t, and they can get us to punish anyone but them if we do suffer.
This was a direct pick-up from Steve M. at The Booman Tribune
Do Republicans still pivot to the left after being nominated, or is that a thing of the past? I guess I know the answer – there will be no pivot.
Republicans have always gone and promised some crazy bullshit to primary voters in somebody’s living room in Iowa or New Hampshire. But now with YouTube, a promise to wingnuts in Podunk becomes a promise to all of Wingnut Nation.
So when the rabble of the GOP base pushes Newt or Romney to the right, they stay to the right. And then the press launders and normalizes the new right.
It could happen again.
“And then the press launders and normalizes the new right.”
If I suddenly awoke from a twenty year coma, or was somehow returning from a trip to Mars, I’d assume that ‘the Onion’ had taken over all media.
Repubs led by Paul Ryan are are trying to freep this PolitiFact poll to name “Repubs tried to end Medicare” as the PolitiFact Lie of the Year.
Everybody should go there and vote for something else; there are several good choices. Voting closes tomorrow, so vote once tonight from home, and once tomorrow from work.
Voting link here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/3V2DVHZ
To big to fail because they bought up our law makers, rigg the game with lobbyist and use politicians like DeLuca and McDowell.
Is it possible? Yes. Is it probable? Perhaps but I lean towards no. There is a hard core group of far righties in America as we saw in Delaware in 2010. And our politicians are almost universally corrupt, like Tom The Bankster Carper.But theres also signs of a modest rebellion and perhaps full fledged revolt in this country.The GOP has played with fire and are running out of the angry old white men to put it out. It will not happen over night but happen it will.
Paul krugman is almost right except for a few small things that he said
When romney is president in 2013, he will push more tax cuts, decrease government spending, which will decrease debt, which will decrease unemployment, which will grow gdp, which will bring in more money for infastructure work. The buck will stop at mitt’s desk.
Uh yeah, Because…if the past 20 years prove anything, it is that tax cuts are just great at decreasing unemployment. What an idiot.