Discussion for article #226933
I keep a file I titled “Governing”. Filled with stories about Republican conservatives who have a one-world view they want to see reflected in its entirety. Losing on any issue is enough to rouse their anger. The Reich wing of the Republican Party is simply ideologically incapable of accepting the kind of compromises that must be made because of the transactional nature of our government. Since they reject compromise, they fail in the broader national interest.
Given the quotes below from this article, this one is going into the file!
“a textbook case of mass psychology…They basically worked themselves up into a frenzy … they convinced themselves that this was so awful, that they denied any objective reality…they’ve created an internal situation where they can’t do that.”
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Remember when the failure of the Healthcare.gov web site was gonna mean the end of Liberalism itself?
Good times.
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I only wish this were true in Colorado! Cory Gardner and his Rove-funded friends are constantly hammering Senator Udall over “Obamacare.” The ads are filled with lies that have been exposed by local TV.
E.g., one with a young woman named Rielle claims she had to go back to work because of “Obamacare.” Turns out she went back to work in 2008 before Obama was even elected. Her husband couldn’t get insurance because of his pre-existing condition. Now she works for an energy company that is a major funder of Gardner ads! Yet the ads continue.
Fortunately, Udall and his supporters have a great series of ads hammering Gardner for his support of “personhood” and constitutional amendments to ban abortion, no exceptions. But the Gardner ads must be working, as they keep running them and they are tied in the polls.
It’s all about turn-out! Let’s hope the people who are benefitting from the ACA and women turn out to support Senator Udall!
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Now, if only we could get Democrats to start talking about Obamacare.
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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: before this is over, they will be talking with a perfectly straight face about how that great Republican creation, Gippercare, is the only thing that got us through the Obama Depression.
Vote Republican in 20XX to save Gippercare from those terrible Democrats who want to destroy it!
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Perhaps, if the republicans had just bothered to come up with their own and much better plan! They’ve had several years to do so, haven’t they?
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When I taught Intro to Sociology, I would have to occasionally touch upon scholars who would talk about the progression of people as they move through life.
Without directly using the term “wisdom”, there were always inferences of the difference in those who had attained that state by experience, mentorship and perspective. Some of the best conversations I have ever had as a Professor have been with bright young men and women, as I have listened to their youthful expressions of THEIR perspectives and attempted to add what I could (often remaining silent in the face of things totally unexpected).
Just as the great Jewish author, Herman Wouk indentified National Socialism Death Hunts as something new and terrifying in human history, so I believe that the TeaBagg movement in the United States represents a negative mutation of the thoughts of older Americans.
Instead of perspective, mentorship and concern for others (which is what, supposedly, grandparents would stress more than parents), TeaBaggers are unconcerned with anything besides their racism, fear and hatred, even to the detriment of the nation and the world.
Instead of healthcare for those younger than themselves, Baggers champion Medicare (Govt. supported) for Old Baggers, but vouchers for their children and grandchildren.
Instead of affordable college (like they had when young) for those younger than themselves, Baggers support politicians who would wish to saddle college students with hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt.
Even allowing for the breathtaking idiocy of supposing that the 2% minority of scientists refuting Climate Change means we should do nothing, Baggers are perfectly willing to destroy the earth as we know it, for their ideology.
Baggers are willing to risk a collapsing infrastructure that their children and grandchildren must use.
I could go on…
Max Weber posited that human society becomes more RATIONAL over time. This does not mean that it “makes sense” more. What it does mean is that organizations and associations become more and more “rationally” systematized, coordinated and institutionalized. This means, for example, that the Fossil Fuels Industry RATIONALLY (meaning it has stockholders) can no more stop destroying the planet than a dope addict can go cold turkey. The Media, banking and a host of other industries RATIONALLY report to stockholders and pledge to mazimize their efforts to continue whatever is profitable. If FOX is more profitable as a result of a Bill O’Reilly racist rant then…guess what?
Right now, the smart money is on Fossil Fuels, Republicans and their stooges, the high-voting age-segments of Baggers. There is also smart money of doing everything possible to keep the political veil over Millennials, single women, minorities and anyone else capable of outvoting Gramps and Granny.
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The biggest problem now is Democrat fear. If anyone wanted to run IN FAVOR of Obamacare, it would not only be good for their campaign, it would be good for the law. A little courage would go a long way…
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“In their glee over the law’s disastrous debut in October, the GOP also failed to accurately gauge how much Obamacare would animate voters more than a year later.”
That’s because the GOP are only listening to the RWNJs in the party. They ignored what voters across the country wanted.
“Again, they should have seen this coming. Back in Match. more than half of Americans said that they were tired of debating Obamacare and wanted to move on to other issues.”
The GOP cannot be allowed to govetn, not in it’s present state. When a party refused to do what over half the country is saying, something is wrong.
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…and you did! Bless your heart. lol
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Why the surprise! We all have known for a long time that the right wing modus operandi is absolute denial of objective reality in the service of trying to realize their right wing wet dream fantasies.
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Can we get an Obamacare death panel to call it?
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I think that, even assuming the nutjobs would have allowed it, “Fix Obamacare” would never have been a winning tactic for the GOP because most democrats wouldn’t have been defending the status quo. They would have been right in there with proposals to fix some of the things that are messed up with the original legislation and make it better.
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They have given up for the most part on disparaging Obamacare because they are enjoying the benefits of Obamacare for the most part.
Obama likes basketball but you don’t see Kentuckians or any Repubs claiming that is the dearth of America because they love basketball as much as they do their good health.
The GOP is going to bitch and moan about something without doing anything on their own to help their own cause, that is a given. The secret is to let it pass, just like the Obamacare whining because it isn’t real. They move on, or backwards to gun running or some such other failed attack then slide back again to unforgotten timewasting failure # 9 and that is supposedly their importance. Yechh!
It’s best to just let them toil as we do what must be done without them, which is what they want anyways. That way they can bitch and moan about what Obama is doing. OMG, circle jerk anyone?
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This is all part of the larger GOP strategy to re-focus the attention of the public. Everyone knows that Obama made Obamacare successful to distract us from Benghazi.
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“It really is extraordinary in a lot of ways. Republicans were absolutely convinced that the antipathy toward the ACA would be the ticket to victory,” Norm Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, told TPM.
Did they feel it was a “ticket to victory,” or did they feel that, victorious in the short term or not, if they did not repeal the ACA, Americans would recognize that the caricature of the federal government as 100% impotent and disinterested in their problems was poorly sketched?
Remember The Kristol Memo
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Sure causes one to shake one’s head in disbelief, doesn’t it
“a textbook case of mass psychology.”
The pretty much sums up the Republican party since 1992.
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Bingo! Obama and the demonRAts wanted Socialismcare, but the rEAL GOTea patriots forced them to accept wholesome, 'Murican, free-market healthcare. And the individual mandate will suddenly be about individual responsibility (again).
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