The upcoming Republican renaissance

[KingOrfeo]

Then along came Obama with his wild ass ideas . . .

You mean the ideas of the actual Obama, or the imaginary Obama who lives in RWs' heads?

 

[Slowlane]

You mean the ideas of the actual Obama, or the imaginary Obama who lives in RWs' heads?

The very real Obama - you know - the one who is trying to spend us into complete financial collapse. The one who was threatening to virtually stop fighting terrorism and call for immediate withdrawal of all troops. Yeah - that one. There is nothing imaginary about him or his wild ass ideas.

 

[The_Trouvere]

The very real Obama - you know - the one who is trying to spend us into complete financial collapse. The one who was threatening to virtually stop fighting terrorism and call for immediate withdrawal of all troops. Yeah - that one. There is nothing imaginary about him or his wild ass ideas.

Did you complain when GW started two wars while cutting taxes?

 

[tinylittlegnat]

Did you complain when GW started two wars while cutting taxes?

That was different he was a ........republican.

 

[The_Trouvere]

That was different he was a ........republican.

As far as Republicans are concerned, defense spending and war are good for the economy, but anything that actually helps people is wasteful by definition.

 

[KingOrfeo]

The very real Obama - you know - the one who is trying to spend us into complete financial collapse. The one who was threatening to virtually stop fighting terrorism and call for immediate withdrawal of all troops. Yeah - that one. There is nothing imaginary about him or his wild ass ideas.

But, those are not the sort of "wild ass ideas" to alarm such as the militiamen. They do not threaten any encroachment on civil rights, surrendering American sovereignty to a New World Order, bringing in the UN black helicopters and FEMA extermination camps, etc., etc. In fact, they're actually rather tame compared to those of, say, FDR or LBJ.

From "Three Anniversaries: The Fall of the Berlin Wall, 9/11 and the Collapse of Lehman Brothers: Each Ushered in a New American Era," by Michael Lind:

The Age of Paranoia came to a final end with the global economic collapse that began on Sept. 15, 2008. The subject changed from the threat of terrorists with atomic bombs to the threat of bankers with financial bombs, in the form of unexploded "toxic assets" with strange names like credit default swaps and over-the-counter derivatives. There was a brief upsurge in optimism, when a young, vigorous, mixed-race senator named Barack Obama was elected president of the United States. With Democrats in control of the White House as well as Congress, many assumed that an era of sweeping change was about to begin.

But Obama soon proved to be a cautious incrementalist, not a bold reformer. He froze out innovative thinkers and assembled an economic team dominated by center-right Democrats, including some like Larry Summers who had helped to make the crisis possible by supporting the deregulation of American and global finance in the 1990s. Obama's Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, said no to all proposals for serious restructuring of the financial industry that might upset investment banks and hedge funds. Every major idea for financial reform -- from forcing investment banks into insolvency and nationalizing them temporarily to restoring the Glass-Steagall separation of retail banking from casino finance and cracking down on offshore tax havens to imposing a "Tobin tax" on financial transactions -- was rejected as too radical by the best friends in the White House that Wall Street has ever had. By the fall of 2009, according to press reports Paul Volcker was considered too radical to be taken seriously by the Obama administration. Paul Volcker.

In other areas, Obama was just as timid and deferential toward the organized business lobbies who had helped cause the problems he claimed to be trying to solve. He appeased pharmaceutical companies as part of an effort to push a health reform plan that was too feeble to be truly "historic." In the name of combating climate change, Obama and the Democrats pushed a complicated cap-and-trade system that invited manipulation by industry lobbyists and Wall Street investors. In every area, the Democrats rejected bold, deep reforms in favor of incremental changes that would not upset Wall Street and other industries that showered Obama and Democrats in Congress with contributions.

It has gradually dawned on Americans that the dynamic leadership that the times require is not to be found -- not on the right, caught up in a cultish Ghost Dance movement that conflates center-right Democrats with Nazis and Communists and King George, as enemies of the people, and not in the incrementalist, lobby-dominated Democratic Party of Obama, Pelosi and Reid. Popular rage is surprisingly limited. The mood overall is one of disillusionment and demoralization, like that of the American people during the Hoover years rather than after Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration.

 

[unregistered]

 

[The_Trouvere]

Providing for the defense of the nation is the primary constitutional function of government.

Article I, Section 8, "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States."

 

[miles]

Article I, Section 8, "The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States."

I doubt the Founding Fathers had universal healthcare in mind. They were proponents of limited government. Remember?

 

[tinylittlegnat]

I doubt the Founding Fathers had universal healthcare in mind. They were proponents of limited government. Remember?

I doubt they had atomic bombs and a war in afganistan in mind either. And they were not as limited government minded as you would like to believe. Especially Thomas Jefferson who more than doubled the size of the country with the Louisiana purchase which at that time was unprecedented.

 

[mypoliticalalt]

Did you complain when GW started two wars while cutting taxes?

Cutting taxes works every single time it's implemented. It's a difficult concept for the liberal mind to grasp because it is a two step process.

 

[tinylittlegnat]

Cutting taxes works every single time it's implemented. It's a difficult concept for the liberal mind to grasp because it is a two step process.

Thats funny cause capital gains taxes are lower now than they were under Reagan.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Cutting taxes works every single time it's implemented.

Then why have we been in a recession for the past year? And why was a "jobless recovery" the best thing we got out of the Bush years?

It's a difficult concept for the liberal mind to grasp because it is a two step process.

What is the second step?

 

[Ishmael]

I doubt the Founding Fathers had universal healthcare in mind. They were proponents of limited government. Remember?

The constitution is a 'living' document in the mind of the insane.

Ishmael

 

[tinylittlegnat]

The constitution is a 'living' document in the mind of the insane.

Ishmael

And denied by the retarded.

 

[KingOrfeo]

The constitution is a 'living' document in the mind of the insane.

Ishmael

And a "dead" document in dead minds.

 

[mypoliticalalt]

Depends on what your definition of the word "is" is.

 

[KingOrfeo]

Depends on what your definition of the word "is" is.

Mister President! Will you please make it clear once and for all to this Committee and to the American people! Is you is, or is you ain't, my baby?!

The way you acting lately makes me doubt.

 

[Sean]

I doubt the Founding Fathers had universal healthcare in mind. They were proponents of limited government. Remember?

They were also proponents of keeping slaves, remember?

 

[Saint Peter]

They were also proponents of keeping slaves, remember?

A living document when it serves our political bend.

 

[pointless]

They were also proponents of keeping slaves, remember?

he's a lit right winger. he probably doesn't have a problem with that. in fact, judging from his compatriots, he probably looks back on those days with some twisted sense of romanticism and jealousy.

 

[unregistered]

 

[Byron In Exile]

They were also proponents of keeping slaves, remember?

Most were not, which is how Jefferson's language made it into the Declaration of Independence.

 

[Sean]

Most were not, which is how Jefferson's language made it into the Declaration of Independence.

And the 3/5 rule made it into the Constitution.

 

[pointless]

"If there be an object truly ridiculous in nature it is an American patriot, signing resolutions of independency with the one hand, and with the other brandishing a whip over his affrighted slaves."