GOP Sabotaging America, Ctd...

Sept, 12th 2011

Of course it's sabotage. Anyone who is still arguing that it's not is either lying to you or, worse, they are deceiving themselves. Yglesias shines the light:

"Marin Cogan and Jake Sherman have done the only reporting that really needs to be done on the prospects for major legislation aimed at creating jobs, or doing anything else:

"Obama is on the ropes; why do we appear ready to hand him a win?" said one senior House Republican aide who requested anonymity to discuss the matter freely.

Public policy is not a zero-sum competition between “Republican ideas” and “Democratic ideas,” but electoral competition is a zero-sum battle for office. In a paradigm where the passage of major legislation counts as a “win” for President Obama then anyone who wants to see President Obama go down to defeat, then no major legislation can pass on a bipartisan basis. This is exactly the problem the White House had in trying to overcome GOP filibusters during the 111th Congress and the main problem they face in trying to reach bipartisan accords with the Republican-led House of Representatives in the 112th Congress. This is the fundamental reality of American politics today, but far too few people put it at the center of their accounts of what’s happening."

This is the wealthiest federal legislature per capita since the late 1930s. I think that is becoming a serious issue. Let's face it, in the short term the worst that can actually happen to them is that they spend a few years slightly less rich. I think it is ironic for a party that continues to demonize the poor for not "having skin in the game" to have so little skin in the game.

On Third Parties and Primary Challenges

Aug 8th, 2011
by F. Grey Parker

Matthew Yglesias made an observation recently:

"When I speak ill of the concept of third party presidential campaigns solving anything, someone inevitably brings up the precedent of the Republican Party. 


Quite clearly, Abraham Lincoln and his administration solved quite a bit. This is, in my view, the exception that proves the rule in the true sense of the term.

The crux of the matter is that the GOP, when founded, was a movement of party-switchers from among the ranks of established politicians." EMPHASIS MINE

This could not be more timely. There is a growing whine coming from some disappointed liberals who are calling for a 2012 "alternative" to President Obama. This is not as ridiculous or as potentially self-sabotaging as calls for a primary challenge, but it is close. What's more, in conjunction with one another, these two phenomena could result in yet another third party-driven disaster for the whole country.

John Anderson

Too many people have forgotten that, although Ronald Reagan won re-election by a legitimate landslide, his first term began with a bruising squeaker. One of the nearly unanimously accepted canards of the Reagan mythology is that Carter could not have won. Everyone talks about "malaise," or the failed hostage rescue, or shadowy theories surrounding an "October Surprise."

<-- Remember him?

Nobody talks about National Unity Party candidate John Anderson. Nobody seems to remember the vicious intra-party spectacle that was the 1980 Democratic convention.