TBD on Ning
Where were the Republicans?
News reports I have heard today indicate that Republicans were notable for their absence at the 50 year anniversary of the big civil rights march and the Rev. Martin Luther King’s speech in DC. Obama, Clinton and Carter, but no Bush. I think that’s telling and very sad. What a commentary on the Republican Party of today.
Views: 82
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by LoveLife&Laughter on
-
-
-
Permalink Reply by Woody Woods on
-
It's a shame, but many Republicans today are cowards. All they care about are votes. And the Tea Party has held them hostage for the past several years. There was a time when many Republican elected officials would show up and speak at certain Civil Rights rallies. But today...and after the election of President Obama...the Tea Party and the far right wingers demonize Demos and the left and President Obama. Some call them anti-American, Un-American, Socialist, Communist. They even demonized Chris Christie for being seen in public with President Obama and shaking his hand. Even if an elected Republican official somewhat agrees with any of President Obama's policies, they have to keep quiet. On a day that marks the anniversary of MLKs 'I had a dream' speech, they are silent. And when they do speak up, it will be to criticize, demonize and put down the significance of this day. They will criticize Obama's speech, Clinton's speech, John Lewis' speech. Many on the right hate the idea that this president is squeaky clean, a great family man, no personal scandal in his life, a loving husband, loving father....all the things that the right says that make up an American family built on 'family values'.....they hate this. Yet.......they will emphasize all the negatives that exist in the black community.......which is no different than the white community, just magnified more because of a lot of injustice that still exist today. Politics today is divided in more ways than one. The country has always been divided politically because this is a two party country. But The Repubs, because of their cowardly rhetoric....are trying to divide the country racially also. As a Liberal who usually votes Demo, I have also voted Repub too. And when a Repub was in the White House, I was not ashamed to agree with the prez at the time on certain policies I agreed with. The Tea Party folks are destroying the Republican party...and may succeed if the true Conservatives of the part don't wake up.
-
-
-
Unfortunately they are the true conservatives.
-
-
Permalink Reply by exedir on
-
It is sad, and it is politics as we are living it today.
Not to say, the event leaders were all upset at not having the Republicans show up. As to what this event(s) was all about it was to re-energize. re-invigorate and recommitted activism to the new agenda of jobs and civil rights using that most memorable black and white film of the original march, to add color, make it real for a new generation that did not know that struggle as a reality, like many of us do.
As those that left the Mall both on Saturday and yesterday must have felt, something of what it was like in 1963, and, they must have also felt the changes that have occurred.
As to the challenges of the next few months and years, what to do and how to do it, is less of a challenge in theory as it is how to do it in practice. And that is because the country and those that vote remain divided, with no consensus on direction, unclear what the future will be and how to get there. What was proposed was to vote Democrat and support the Democrat, progressive agenda and that wasn't anything a Republican was going to support.
-
-
-
What was proposed was to vote Democrat and support the Democrat, progressive agenda and that wasn't anything a Republican was going to support.
What ever happened to supporting the country and its elected president. Who are these crazies who are going to take "their" ball and go home and ruin the game for everyone if they can't get their way?
-
-
-
Political intransigence and rancor are not new, it is much of this country's political history and to a degree the nature of the system. This is not parliamentarianism, where the majority rules, and if it can't, it isn't the majority anymore, subject to election of a new parliament.
The founding fathers gave us a democratic, representative, republic made up of a division of powers to protect the minority from the majority. So, what we have is designed to frustrate and engage, if not enrage, some sort of consensus through the process which can pass multiple hurdles to become law, be implemented and subject to reviewed.
It isn't pretty, doesn't always work and is rarely fast but it is the best we have, for now.
-
-
-
Republicans didn't know the founding fathers, they're the party of Lincoln. Lincoln must be turning over in his grave seeing how the GOP treats blacks. Hell, every other minority, and threatening secession again too. Quite a party, what are they smoking.
-
-
Permalink Reply by ProblemAgain on
-
funny how that works...all the rhetoric about the 'new gop' and reaching out to embrace minorities yet they are conspicuous in their failure to embrace those minorities and the changes that were needed...so it looks rather like business as usual at the local hackstand and a pretty clear case of dearly held beliefs overriding rational thought, rather like rearranging the deck chairs and polishing the chrome on the titanic
New Heritage Foundation Fight Shows Everything That's Wrong With The GOP
By Josh Barro | Business Insider – 1 hour 37 minutes agoAP
Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint
Even conservative House Republicans have finally had it with the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that has aggressively pushed Republican congressmen to the right.
National Journal reports that the Republican Study Committee, a group of conservative House members with deep ties to Heritage, has banned Heritage employees from its meetings. They're mad that Heritage tried to kill a farm subsidy bill that Republican House members very much wanted to pass back in July.
I'm no fan of Heritage. But here's what's maddening about this fight: Heritage is not only right about the farm subsidy issue, they're advocating a consensus view among policy experts all across the political spectrum.
In 2011, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation commissioned long-term federal budget proposals from six think tanks spread across the political spectrum, from Heritage on the right end to the Economic Policy Institute on the left. The proposals diverged widely in most areas, from taxes to entitlements to defense. One of the few areas of agreement among all six proposals was that farm subsidies should be reformed and reduced.
Yet the farm bill that passed the Republican-held House this summer barely changes farm subsidy programs. It cuts direct payments to farmers, but offsets much of that cut by increasing the generosity of crop insurance, another mechanism of subsidizing agriculture.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates the net effect of the House plan would be about a 6% cut in farm subsidy programs. (That's actually a slightly smaller cut than Senate Democrats want, and much smaller than President Obama has proposed.) But that estimate assumes that crop prices stay high, like they are today. As the Mercatus Center notes, if prices fall back toward their long-run averages, the House bill will actually make farm subsidies more generous.
When the House tried in July to pass a comprehensive farm bill including a reauthorization of the food stamp program, 62 House Republicans rebelled because the cuts weren't deep enough. (The Republican plan included about a 3% cut in food stamps along with the 6% cut in farm subsidies). Because most Democrats voted against the bill on the grounds that it cut too much from food stamps, it failed.
Then, House Republicans separated the bills and passed a farm subsidies-only bill with just 12 Republican defections. Heritage infuriated House Conservatives by issuing a "key vote" against the bill, arguing that it did not align with Heritage's (perfectly reasonable) principles for reforming and reducing farm subsidies.
In other words, about a third of the House GOP caucus is so committed to cutting food aid to poor people that they wouldn't vote for a bill with only modest cuts to that, even though their leadership really wanted them to. But 94% of House Republicans were willing to vote for a bill that maintains status-quo corporate welfare to farmers, and they're furious that meddling outsiders tried to stop them.
The RSC's problem with Heritage isn't that it's trying to push the GOP too far to the right to be competitive in elections. Their problem with Heritage is that they're interfering with the GOP's effort to put special-interest politics ahead of conservative principles.
House Republicans do not actually care about free markets or cutting government. They care about pleasing their electoral constituencies and getting re-elected. Old people tend to vote Republican, which is why House Republicans have built their last two campaigns around attacking President Obama with claims he was cutting Medicare. Almost all rural areas are represented by Republicans, which is why Republicans don't want to cut farm subsidies.
Internal critics of the Republican party are trying to push it in a variety of directions. Tea Partiers, like the people at Heritage, want the party to cut taxes and spending much more aggressively. Libertarian populists want to refocus around an anti-corporate welfare message. Squishy "reformists" like me want to make peace with progressive taxation and the welfare state while cutting regulation.
One thing all those camps can agree on is that farm subsidies should be slashed. If that's the issue on which the House GOP is most inclined to defend existing spending and smack down outside critics, that bodes very poorly for any effort to make the GOP more competitive and more relevant.
-
-
-
Ok, what this looks like is 2014 mid-terms are going to be pretty important, or not.
-
-
-
The GOP had better suppress the vote if they want to win anything.
-
-
-
"There are too many minorities… At my water park…"
-
© 2024 Created by Aggie.
Powered by
