The Nature of the Problem

I am about to go somewhere, but in the meantime do feel free to discuss the “Republicans are the problem” article that is getting so much attention. See also Doghouse Riley, who says “It took you thirty years to notice this?

Re Doghouse: In the Republican Party’s defense, it wasn’t all Joe McCarthy back in the 1950s. Eisenhower was a Republican, too, and behind the scenes Eisenhower and some of his close advisers — including Nixon, for pity’s sake — arranged to maneuver McCarthy into the Army-McCarthy hearings, which were his undoing. It’s not true that the Republican Party was always twisted and crazy. What happened is that the twisted and crazy parts of it metastasized and killed the rest of it. And the current crew makes Reagan seem benign.

13 thoughts on “The Nature of the Problem

  1. I am tempted to re-post this on Facebook, as posts disappear so fast. Yes, I noticed this years and years ago, but it has taken Republicans quite a while to begin to admit the direction they are going is the wrong one – for the survival of the party – which is all most movers and shakers appear to care about. And most would rather take the ship down with them.

  2. Reading that Ornstein and Mann article, I had a sensation somewhat akin to the feeling I got after the Iraq invasion, when it suddenly became OK to publish articles about how there never really HAD been WMD there, and those aluminum tubes weren’t parts for a centrifuge, etc., etc., and all those things I’d known for a long time and been ranting about at high volume to anyone who would listen suddenly was on its way to being ‘common knowledge’.

    It’s simultaneously “well, yeah, duh!” and “FINALLY!” mixed together.

  3. Where I work, all of my co workers identify themselves as conservative Republicans.
    Since we are not unionized, the rate of pay for each of us varies greatly, and the guys that have a longer “history” with the boss, get the favors.
    They all have distain for “government workers”, except those in the military.
    One, whom I’ll call Sam, said he is a conservative Christian, so he carries his gun and his Bible where ever he goes. He is currently going through bankrupsy court due to his wife’s health issues, and is trying to get his wife on disability.(These programs are in place to help white Christians, but everybody knows blacks and hispanics game the system.)
    When I mentioned this to another guy I work with, he said “who is gonna pay for this?”
    This is the thing I hear over and over again; “who will pay for this?”
    Well, we ALL do; not more than a couple of bucks per year, one HELL of a lot less than, let’s see, the war on Iraq, or lifetime medical care for those maimed in the war.
    It boils down to what I mentioned in a comment yesterday, the right doesn’t understand cause and effect. On top of that, they dismiss science as propaganda, and critical thinking as dissent.
    It seem to me that we are following the same path as the British empire.
    Go to a conservative blog such as “The Fellowship of The Minds”, and you will read enough nonsense to curl your hair; they are lunatics who feed each other on fear and hatred.
    On top of all that, Biggerbox is right, and there is no penalty for the Neocons who lied us into that situation.

  4. I must have collided with the filter for mentioning a political party and/or a popular social website. Sheesh.

  5. Don’t forget to give honorable mention to John McCain. His cheap ploy of putting Sarah Palin on the Presidential ballot inflicted a grievous wound on our political process. He’s done more to promote our current political circus than John Ringling ever did to promote the American Circus.

  6. erinyes,
    Here’s my fave:
    “One, whom I’ll call Sam, said he is a conservative Christian, so he carries his gun and his Bible where ever he goes.”

    Yes, just like “The Saviour!”

    Because Jesus never went anywhere without a sling and a rock, a bow and arrow, a trident and a net, a javelin, a sword and a spear, and a shield and a helmet.

    I guess there weren’t no Nigra’s and Sp*c’s in the Middle East during Roman times – or at least, certainly no Hispanic’s. And at least the African Nigra’s were all slaves.
    YEEEEESH!!!

  7. Why does every one pick on Federal Government workers. We are just like any one else. The majority of us do our jobs and do them well. My Dad was one of the blue collar workers who kept the main heating plant at McChord AFB in Tacoma, WA, running for 35 years. The plant in those days ran on coal. So, he stoked coal and later suffered from respiratory ailments people get from working with coal. All the guys he worked with worked very hard. They got very dirty and earned every penny of their tax payer dollars, while at the same time paying taxes themselves (I really wanted to put this last part in all caps). They also had to work shifts. Each employee changed shifts every three months in order to keep the plant running. I believe shift work is the very hardest of work possible because our bodies are not built to have our body clocks constantly changed every three months. The worst shift was the relief shift where the other three shifts were worked in a week–two days swing shift, two days graveyard, and one day on the day shift. It wreaked havoc on our family life.

    I worked for 34 years as a white collar worker spending 24 years in the Washington Metropolitan area. I lived in Maryland then. I did my job and did it very well; and, like my Dad paid taxes on all moneys earned while working for Uncle Sam. In Maryland, I paid state, county, city, and sales taxes. I worked with lots of people who worked every bit as hard as I did, giving the government its money’s worth of effective and efficient work.

    I believe the only Government workers who seem to not earn the money they are paid with our precious tax dollars are the Members of Congress, especially the Republicans. Also, when they pick on Government workers please remember that also includes their staff. Because the Republicans in the past 10 years have done nothing but spend the tax dollars lavishly and foolishly, taking a surplus and creating an extraordinary deficit. They have started two illegal and immoral wars without paying for them. And, they have done nothing but purposely–this needs to be repeated, purposely–obstruct and prevent any progress to get our country out of the mess they put it in. Now, tell me again why Republicans deserve any respect or kind consideration by any of the rest of us who live in the real world and the United States of America. My only goal this election is to see as many Republicans voted out of office as possible, whether they are Christian or not. Besides ruining the Republican party, they have destroyed any good that conservatives have done in the past and could do in the future. Sorry, about the length of my comment.

  8. Bonnie,
    Great comment.

    One comment on this question”
    “Now, tell me again why Republicans deserve any respect or kind consideration by any of the rest of us who live in the real world…”

    Because the MSM now frames every disagreement as equivalence – ‘Sure, the Republicans are hypocrites! But Al Gore is fat. Drives an SuV. Lives in a large, heated and air-conditioned home. And is divorced.’

  9. Great article, thanks for the link. The fact that the wing-nuts can’t even pronounce the name of the opposition party (democrat party?) without an insult is proof positive; they are no longer a party just an “apocalyptic cult” as the article points out. Having Obama as president has inflamed the ignorance that the cult feeds on. This was predictable and will only intensify once he is re-elected. They will be in the wilderness for many years to come.

  10. Lynne and any one else feel free to use any of my comment above. Thank you for the kind comments.

  11. Got to this late because I was out of town, but the line that made me laugh bitterly:

    “No one with eyes and ears could possibly have missed this, apart, somehow, from the DLC and today’s tiny island leper colony of sadder-but-wiser centrists.”

    Gosh, what a truth stiletto!

    And if you were not in Wilkesboro, NC for the last 4 days, you missed some great music and friendliness!

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