Discussion for article #227906
That really is the issue: whether (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid continues to be a one-man rules committee in the Senate…
Inside baseball, and tone-deaf. That kind of argument might appeal to some right-wing politics junkies, but the average voter has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about.
9 Likes
"They also know Orman is a liberal Democrat ’
SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!!!
…although I think the most gracious description of Orman’s political bent is that he is “versatile.”
Clearly, Roberts wants to tap the pernicious prejudice that permeates Kansas against Democrats, per se. And of course, the abiding blind prejudice against President Obama.
We may not be alone in this condition, but Kansas Dems have long been aware that the hateful vitriol leveled against them from across the aisle is no longer just political, it has become personal for so many Kansas conservatives because they believe the disparaging “commie fascist progressive liberal” propaganda that has enveloped them over the past few years, particularly back to when President Obama was elected.
Go figure.
Some people know history, and that the Civil War started in Kansas.
But most of them don’t realize, in so many ways, it never ended.
4 Likes
Roberts is recruiting from the already faithful, he isn’t appealing to anyone not already in his corner with this pure-partisan tack.
But to appeal to those moderates, he will piss off his tea base and they won’t show up to vote.
One thing I keep hearing from folks, both Dem and Republican, who have seen him at the State Fair or at one of his whistlestops, is that Roberts health and mental acuity are both very obviously failing.
He hasn’t had to run a real campaign for decades, and this one forced him into the public spotlight, which only magnifies his health and senility issues that have escaped public scrutiny over those unopposed years.
The last thing someone like Roberts needed in his failing condition was a serious campaign to run.
This thing is already over.
And clearly, Roberts and his cadre of fellow dinosau®s aren’t capable of running outside of their partisan parameters, so the likelihood of Roberts picking up any new supporters is laughable.
Anyone who thinks there’s a fence to sit on in this campaign, and that ad buys and icon blitzes might bring some of their voters back from some brink, is naive at best.
Roberts is RIGHT NOW at the peak of his potential support, and it can only go downhill from here.
6 Likes
Just read an interesting piece by Chait on this. Cliffs Notes version: Republicans in Kansas did what Republicans do, budgetary disaster ensued, people noticed, the end.
8 Likes
At this point in an election, Roberts shouldn’t be having to shore up his base.
5 Likes
It is a little more complex that that: The Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 covered more than Kansas and the same “popular sovereignty” questions existed in MO which already was a state. The Border Ruffians conflict of 1854-1861 became a proxy war for the Northern opposition to slavery and Southern support for their “peculiar institution” and the hopes of bringing KS in the Union as a slave state.
The free-soil and anti-slavery fight in KS was never about slavery or its abolishment but whether rich slaveowners would buy up the land and work it with slaves thus depriving settlers of their chance to work the land. So yes it was a proxy war over slaves and a presage to the Civil War. The winds of war were blowing well before the border conflicts. Some would point to John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry, VA in 1859 as the start of the Civil War from an abolitionist stand point.
6 Likes
Excellent history lesson there. You wont see this kind of well thought out response to anything civil war related on a red state site. Bravo!
2 Likes
“His message was distinctly partisan.”
It’s so sad that many in the Senate refuse to collaborate and compromise. I see it on both sides. More on the repub side but both do it. It’s such a shame.
1 Like
There are many posters here well versed in all sorts of areas. i have learned quite a lot while lurking around this site It’s easily my favorite place on the web to find out about political goings on. There is always elaboration on the story from the commenters and they offer much to absorb.
1 Like
Roberts is in real trouble, but so are Brownback and Kobach. The Brownback moderate purge has pushed a lot of Republicans into the Democratic party or at least they are currently allied with the Democrats.
It is a problem the far right wing faces over and over again in Kansas. Far right Kansas Republicans think compromise is a dirty word and don’t know how to play nice with other Republicans let alone the Democrats.
2 Likes
I don’t get his new strategy. If it’s a referendum on Democratic incumbents, why isn’t it a referendum in himself as an incumbent as well? As we all know, it is. That’s why he’s in so much trouble in KS of all places. That was why he was running nonpartisan before.
So why is he bringing attention again to his shutting down the government, essentially doing absolutely nothing for the country or his constituents for the past six years and picking up a paycheck in the process?
All these bob and weaves in his strategy are just bringing more attention to the bribes he’s been taking from Big Oil, Military Industrial Complex and the Koch Brothers. Roberts is looking more and more corrupt.
1 Like
They intend to go down in flames of glory. Who are we to rain on their Far Right parade into hell?
1 Like
Fiscal responsibility means not taking bribes from the rich and corporations which destroy your economy in the process…as everyone in red states are learning the hard way these days.
The GOP truly lacks any spark or ideas. They think just throw out words like liberal, Obama, Reid, Pelosi and the election is theirs. Never mind that Kansans see the disaster the GOP has done to Kansas with Brownback carrying the GOP ideology and experiment to their state destroying the economy and the education of their children. Never mind they see an absolute partisan hack as secretary of state in Kobach.
I hope they dump millions in the state to try and prop up Roberts. Change is in the air and Roberts is a goner.
1 Like
Tax cuts cannot pay for themselves. If I get a $100 tax cut and invest it in my business with a 10% return of taxable income ($10) and a 50% tax rate the government’s return in taxes is $5. So for $100 government investment in tax cuts in this example the government gets back $5. If you offered me that as a business person or a politician I would laugh. If you have government polices that increase investments in the economy that would increase growth and create jobs. If you have government polices that reduce GDP, which are most of the Republican policies, you end up with reduced economic growth and fewer jobs. If people thought about, most of the Republican polices are in fact job killers and selling the lies that it is just the opposite does not change that or the loss of jobs.
It’s all he has.
I expect any politician to take a partisan tone but it seems that Roberts is tone-deaf. Some of the comments here are great on-the-ground intelligence like the obvious physical problems that Roberts is having. I hope the good people of Kansas have pity on him and sent him into retirement in his friend’s Barcalounger (or is it a La-Z-Boy?).
The man is 78 years old, he will be 84 at the end of this term if elected. He’s to freaking old, voters of Kansas.
The plan is for Roberts to get elected, and retire shortly thereafter. Brownback will then appoint Kobach to serve the rest of his term. THAT’s the plan.
If this plan ever received a headline, that’d be the end of Brownback, Robert’s and Kobach, all at once. (Paging Rachael Maddow.)
The current headlines very visibly demonstrate the incumbent’s desperation to win re-election. To lose would mean the Koch’s will lose a whole lot of power in this state. THAT"S what at stake here in Kansas.