Republicans Are The Problem

An excellent article by two (former?) Republicans. Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein write an excellent article exposing just how far gone the current Republican Party is. Preferring ideology over rationality and reality, the Republican has moved so far-right and is so flush with corporate cash that they no longer have the ability to lead the nation, but prefer to snipe from the sidelines and then blame everyone else.

It is a long article based on their book so the right-wingers here might only want to read the first paragraph and then comment because their opinion probably won't be posted on Rush Limbaugh's site over the weekend.

Kudos. It is brave for these guys to break out of the Republican sheep pen especially in the current political climate. The Right-wingers think that anyone who doesn't agree with them is a "librul" no matter how far right they are and they will not take this "besmirching" lightly - even if it is the stone-cold truth from deep within their own ranks.

<<<Mod Edit: Flamebait Removed>>>

 

Well perhaps another problem is that people are so willing to crush the otherside, while ignoring their own.

 

Why do you believe the authors are republicans?

 

The Tea Party's evolution has really done a number upon the Republican Party. The movement partially started out of supporting fervor based upon CNBC reporter Rick Santelli's comments on the Chicago Merchantile Exchange floor in pre-market hours. On that day, February 19, 2009, Santelli criticized the Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan, and called for a "Chicago Tea Party."

In addition, the movement also gained traction in 2007 and 2008 with opposition to the bailouts, the stimulus, and the Federal Reserve, supporting libertarian candidates such as Ron Paul and Rand Paul.

Therefore, the early Tea Party movement was economically oriented and very libertarian. What it has become is a bastardized ideology composed of every horrible element of neoconservativism and paleoconservativism. In other words, it is equivalent to the formation of fascism, because fascism took every horrific element of liberalism and conservatism, and everything in between.

Specifically in regards to the bailouts and the Tea Party, I wrote an interesting essay last year on such matters. During the early protests, people were outraged at Wall Street, and the lack of a main street bailout. When the establishment got hold of the grassroots effort, their special interests, namely Wall Street, exonerated their wrongdoing. Tea Party fervor was now directed towards the group that was fooled, government. From then on, instead of railing against Wall Street's strange hold upon government, protesters railed again government's strange hold on Wall Street, a completely irrational one-eighty. Once the establishment got their hand in the game, the movement was all downhill.

 

Never heard of those two so-called Republicans. But Allen West was right, there are at least 80 socialists/commies in the congress, and guess what--they're all dem liberals. And Joe McCarthy has been vindicated by the Venola(sp) Papers or Report that proved he was right in exposing those liberal commies in our congress. But I gotta laugh at these weak attempts by you socialists to label the Republican Party or the Conservatives as being weak. Republicans will sweep the Senate, the Congress and the POTUS come November. Get back to me at that time and tell me just how weak the Republican Party is.

 

"Progressives" as they like to call themselves do embrace the ideas of Marx.

But as I keep pointed out, since the embarrassing demise of their beloved Soviet Union progressives do not want to admit that they are true communists.

The whole basis of progressivism is for government to take from those who have more and give it to those who have less.

And that is as Marxist as they can be even if they are not honest enough to admit it.

 

Very true, but it's amazing how many people refuse to look at reality.

 

The core of the problem lies with both Democrats and Republicans. This one side is the problem stuff is BS. Both parties have shown complete ineptitude and ability to lead. Both parties are full of people that care more about reelection than addressing real problems. Just look at Obama, what crap has he been targeting the last 2 weeks. The buffet rule and college loan interest increase, two minuscule issues in the grand scheme of things. We have much bigger problems, like really fixing healthcare, stopping the growing debt, and rebuilding the economy.

To directly address the OP, I laughed my ass off when I saw

Obama get more money from corporate donors than republicans, but somehow that doesn't disqualify him from leading the nation? I assume you still support him. Don't believe me look...
http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/contrib.php?cycle=2012&id=N00009638
Microsoft Corp $304,690
DLA Piper $302,527
University of California $243,486
Sidley Austin LLP $234,611
Google Inc $191,719
Harvard University $177,408
Comcast Corp $164,862
Skadden, Arps et al $145,809
Morgan & Morgan $130,145
Time Warner $116,939
US Dept of State $115,757
Stanford University $103,483
US Government $101,149
Kaiser Permanente $100,100
Mayer Brown LLP $99,657
Jones Day $97,100
University of Chicago $96,152
Columbia University $95,077
Wilmerhale Llp $93,605
Debevoise & Plimpton $93,526

Should we go back to 2008? Obama got more corporate cash there.

Face it both parties suck, but when people are willing to overlook that of one party, they ironically only magnify their own stupidity.

 

They both work for the American Enterprise Institute.

 

Care to rephrase your misrepresentation?

Thomas E. Mann is the W. Averell Harriman Chair and senior fellow in Governance Studies at The Brookings Institution. Between 1987 and 1999, he was Director of Governmental Studies at Brookings. Before that, Mann was executive director of the American Political Science Association.

Born on September 10, 1944, in Milwaukee, he earned his B.A. in political science at the University of Florida and his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. He first came to Washington in 1969 as a Congressional Fellow in the offices of Senator Philip A. Hart and Representative James G. O'Hara.

Mann has taught at Princeton University, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, the University of Virginia and American University; conducted polls for congressional candidates; worked as a consultant to IBM and the Public Broadcasting Service; chaired the Board of Overseers of the National Election Studies; and served as an expert witness in the constitutional defense of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. He lectures frequently in the United States and abroad on American politics and public policy and is also a regular contributor to newspaper stories and television and radio programs on politics and governance.

Mann is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He is a recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Frank J. Goodnow and Charles E. Merriam Awards.

Mann's published works include Unsafe at Any Margin: Interpreting Congressional Elections; Vital Statistics on Congress; The New Congress; A Question of Balance: The President, the Congress and Foreign Policy; Media Polls in American Politics; Renewing Congress; Congress, the Press, and the Public; Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy; Campaign Finance Reform: A Sourcebook; The Permanent Campaign and Its Future; Inside the Campaign Finance Battle: Court Testimony on the New Reforms; The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook; and Party Lines: Competition, Partisanship and Congressional Redistricting. He has also written numerous scholarly articles and opinion pieces on various aspects of American politics, including elections, political parties, Congress, the presidency and public policymaking.

He and Norman Ornstein in 2008 published an updated edition of The Broken Branch: How Congress is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Oxford University Press). Their new book, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, will be published by Basic Books on May 1, 2012.

Mann resides in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife Sheilah, who is also a political scientist. They have two children, Ted, an assistant curator at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and a Ph.D. student in the NYU Institute of Fine Arts, and Stephanie, a marketing manager at Clorox in Oakland, California.

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Norman J. Ornstein is a political scientist and resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative-leaning Washington D.C. think tank. Ornstein was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota[1] in 1948 and received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1974. He is married to Judith L. Harris, a litigation attorney specializing in regulatory matters.
Ornstein studies American politics and is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post and many magazines. He has written a weekly column for Roll Call since 1993, and is currently co-director, along with Thomas E. Mann, of the AEI-Brookings Election Reform Project.
Ornstein helped draft key parts of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002, also known as the McCain-Feingold Act.[2]
Ornstein is a long-time friend of current U. S. Senator and former comedian Al Franken. Despite working at the conservative-leaning AEI, Ornstein considers himself a centrist.[3]

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Nothing like another blatent misrepresentation on this forum, with the leftist followers blindly chirping in with quips (without knowing the facts).

 

and the Democrat party has moved so far left and is so dominated by Government Bureaucrat Union Cash that they no longer have the ability to lead the nation.

Obama has a 10-1 cash advantage over Romney, you have absolutely zero right to complain. At least Romney didn't create a bull (*)(*)(*)(*) stimulus and then launder taxpayer money through the bureacuracy and right back into his own pockets! That's worse than anything Corporations are doing.

Private cash is morally superior to taxpayer money laundered through the bureaucracy and their unions.

 

Thomas E. Mann worked in the offices of Senator Philip Hart (D) as a political fellow and the same for Rep James G. O'Hara (D).

Where are you getting they are Republicans from I'll never know. Can you produce evidence of them actually being Republicans?

 

I tell them I won't be voting for President Obama unless I die before the election. They just walk off threatening to call George Soros.

 

I wouldnt trust a word uttered by CFR trash but thats just me.

 

And this is supposed to what? Make him less credible or more?

 

I am sick and tired of the GOP andn their holier than thou attitude about liberty, freedom, family etc etc

More and more people realize that the Democrat party knows how our lives should be run and conducted and that we are incapable of making decisions ourselves. It's high time that the unfairness of a successful person being able to keep their earnings gets exposed. What did they do to deserve the trappings when a person on govt assitance also deserves the big house and fancy car. Democrats understand fairness and that one should not have to be burdened with employment to enjoy a decent lifestyle. Rich people do not need as much as they have so it should be taken and given to those who choose not to chase the golden ring.

if you want to risk your home, savings and more to start a business that's fine. Just because another person chooses to be idle and have more leisure time does not mean both should not share equally.

 

Obama has seriously damaged the democratic party for a very long time to come. When people view democrats now they associate them with Nancy Pelosi, Solyndra, fast and furious, Michelle's vacations, unemployment, lousy economy, BP Oil favoritism, the list goes on.

Of course liberals will explain each of these away but the perception remains among much of the nation. People are "hoping" for "change" this november and 2010 is a strong indicator of what's happening.

Just look at the amount of money the DNC had to spend to keep Harry Reid in power. They are really in serious trouble and may need to focus on 2016 and just wash their hands of this election.

 

What is really going on in America is a cultural war between the sexs.

This is the proverbial Battle of the Sexes.
The war concerns Sexual Promiscuity in opposition to Christian prudence.
The fight is to sell one or the other to the young children of the next generation.


One the one side we have the feminists, the Gays, the pro-abortion people, the Hollywood people, the Sex Education advocates, the pro-free contraceptive people, and all those beneficiaries of pornography, fashion designs, cosmetology, divorce lawyers, and supporting casts for making women more irresistible than they already are.
The Welfare recipients and beneficiaries from Welfare like merchants who accept food stamps, etc support this side of the system.

On the other side are the religious people, Big Business, married people, and the hard facts of Life, that 70% of all social problems involve people raised by Single Mothers, who now number 50% of all Families.
Coupled to the project budget over the next ten years, WElfare will cost $ 10.5 TRILLION dollars, and even Obamacare pales before that sum with its big enough $1.7 Trillion dollar debt.

 

The republicans are at least trying to take on the problem of entitlements....Bush even tried to tackle Social Security. While I do not agree with all their solutions, they are at least bringing it to the table.

This is a fact: They are blocked at every turn by democrats who absolutely refuse to even discuss any entitlement bill. They, and this is so true, are going to keep it as is and run it out of money leaving much of the nation standing empty handed. Or they will simply just start printing money to pay for it.

Its no secret that these programs are going to implode, relatively shortly, and the democrats simply are ignoring it. They can't even pass a budget and when they submit something it get's 0 votes, this shows how totally inept they are in regards to economics.

 

Bingo, I also think this is the main problem. Liberals have a campaign going against Republicans that Republicans hate almost everyone. There is the war on women, Republicans hate Blacks, Hispanics, Jews and heaven only knows who else they will bring up.

Republicans will condemn Obama for everything he does and a lot he doesn't do just to try and get him out in Nov. To hell with the truth on either side.
Even if some of what one side says against the other is true, it doesn't matter. the view of both sides is, (My party, right or wrong) and I never will condemn it. This is why Congress and the Senate can do pretty much what they want. Their flock won't condemn them or the Party no matter what they do. Unlike the author, neither side is any worse than the other. They're both bad

 

So if you disagree with the other side your saying it is not good to point that out and try to remove them from power? Isn't that the actual point of our political system and well defined as within our rights as citizens?

Your saying we should just all be nice and agree all the time?

Are you living in a Disney Movie?

Contrary to your beliefs, many people criticize their own side. I'm a conservative but highly criticized Bush for his wars and other things, however I still voted for him a second time because i'd rather have him than a Gore/Edwards ticket.

Generalizations are a very bad thing.

 

As others have stated before this, both parties share responsibility for where we are at now. To me, the core of the problem is not with one party being more broke over the other--rather, it's what allows the parties to become as inept, unaccountable, and corrupt in the first place. A.K.A. the system.

What allows the same incompetent politicians to get elected year after year? What allows money to be so much of a factor in determining who wins? What allows for our leadership to take us over a financial and economic cliff time and time again? What allows for the ease with which we continue to pass laws, regulations, and entitlements yet encounter such incredible difficulty voiding any of these when they've served their purpose (assuming they ever did to begin with)

We are in a system that allows our government the power to bankrupt us, with very little set up to ensure that who gets elected are those who are best to serve and very little set up to remove those who are ineffective or corrupt in an efficient manner.

Whether we are taking ourselves over the cliff via republican spending or democratic spending is irrelevant. It's merely a distinction without a difference. Our system is broken, and until it gets fixed, nothing wil change.

So until then, I must ask myself the question: who seems to be the most inclined to reform government? The answer's pretty obvious, and that's who I'm voting for.

 

Maybe you have a reading comprehension issue, but I can spell it out for you below:

1. OP claims that the article was written by "Republicans"
2. OP provides no justification as to how he determined the authors are "Republicans"
3. When asked, OP claims the authors work for AEI (The American Enterprise Institute is a community of scholars and supporters committed to expanding liberty, increasing individual opportunity and strengthening free enterprise.), however, a place of work has nothing to do with political affiliation.
4. Fact is that only 1 author worked for AEI, and such author does not consider himself a "conservative", as he is a self described "centrist".

Therefore, the premise of the entire thread is a misrepresentation. The authors are not conservatives and therefore, why should we care about a couple of liberal authors stating that it is the conservatives that are ruining government.

This should have been self evident.

 

This has been the typical logic after Bush ... furthered to blame Obama and his Dem/Lib socialist/communist/national socialist fascist constitiuency ...

This logic suggests you were/are a neocon ... then you became an independent by late 2008 when it became clear that the Bush Great Depression was at hand so to extricate yourself from Bush neoconservatism ...

This has never fooled anybody ...

 

Verify, validate, and authenticate your sources if you wish to be taken as credible. Takes 2 minutes to investigate claims before you base an argument on an issue. I have to agree with this post.