TBD on Ning
Are Republicans Mean?
Last spring, I posed this question on the old TBD site. It generated a lot of debate, some of it serious, some of it ridiculous. In the course of the thread, the question was pretty much answered, if only because the Republican party kept serving up example after example to prove the point. I know that not all Republicans are mean, but good lord, talk about an image problem...
Now we have ample evidence of the pysche of the Republican party, and yes, Virginia, it's all on tape for the world to see. But, as Levar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, "You don't have to take my word for it." Check out Robert Creamer's article...
Wilson Is the Poster "Child" for the New Republican Party
When Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelled out that President Obama was a "liar" in the middle of Obama's nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, he became the poster child for the new Republican Party.
I definitely mean poster "child." Since President Obama took office, the language of the Republican Party has become more childish and irresponsible by the day.
President Obama's powerful speech to the nation last night could not have contrasted more sharply. He was the adult in the room, calling on Congress to take responsibility for our future -- for stepping up to solve the health care crisis that worsens every day, for making the changes necessary to allow America to live up to its own democratic values -- to acknowledge that no one should be denied the health care he needs because he can't afford it.
By contrast, the Republicans have careened into schoolyard name-calling; Obama the Nazi, Obama the "Joker" from Batman.
They have begun to act like a gang of juvenile delinquents, doing everything they can to frighten senior citizens -- attempting to convince them that health care reform would jeopardize their Medicare and that the Government would set up "death panels" with the power to pull the plug on Grandma, when both were patently untrue.
There has been a brazen, bullying quality to their rhetoric -- shouting down and intimidating opponents -- a willingness to break the rules and say anything that serves their purposes with a complete disregard for consistency or intellectual honesty. Take their "defense" of Medicare: Remember that the Republicans opposed Medicare from its inception. They said that Medicare would lead to "socialism" the same way they claim that health insurance reform and a public option will lead to "socialism" today. As recently as yesterday some Republicans proposed eliminating Medicare and replacing it with a privatized "voucher" system. Yet they have the gall to pretend to defend it against the Democrats who created it.
And then there has been the irresponsibility of encouraging -- and legitimating -- gun-toting, hate-filled rhetoric by the fringiest of the right wing. The Republican leadership has failed to censure people like the pastor in Arizona who says he prays the President will die. And it has encouraged delusional conspiracy theorists who believe -- contrary to all evidence -- that Obama was not born in the United States.
As children grow up, one of the measures of increasing maturity is their willingness to begin focusing on the long term -- on saving for the future -- on getting a good education -- on the long-term welfare of their family. Instead of throwing a tantrum because they want an ice cream cone now, they start savings their nickels and dimes for the bicycle they want to save up to buy in the future.
But you won't find the Republicans dealing with the affects of global warming on the next generation, or reforming the health care system so it won't devour our economy in the future, or regulating investment markets to prevent reckless investors from wrecking the economy in the years ahead. No, instead of the needs of the next generation, the Republicans want to squander our treasure on short-term tax cuts for millionaires, and short-term profits for large corporations.
Republicans used to have a reputation of staid "conservatism" like they were your stingy old rock-ribbed grandfather. Today's Republican leaders behave like a bunch of teenagers who got their inheritance too early and can't find enough ways to indulge their short-term desire for "more." They no longer reflect the values of middle class families. They reflect the values of reckless, "go go" Wall Street speculators who think anyone who isn't rich like them is a "chump" and that the purpose of our society is to let them indulge their own self-centered, jet-set fantasies.
Most childish has been their practical refusal to admit that they lost the election and that Barack Obama is actually the President of the United States. Their recent attack on the President's speech to schoolchildren that aimed to inspire them to work hard and stay in school may be the clearest example. Whether the Right likes it or not, Barack Obama is the leader of our nation. Questioning the appropriateness of his addressing the nation's children with an uplifting message is the political equivalent of a child closing his eyes, holding his ears and humming so he doesn't have to acknowledge that it's time to go to bed. Sorry, Barack Obama won the election, temper tantrums won't change it.
Last night Joe Wilson etched his political legacy into the wall of American history. He will forever be the poster "child" that symbolizes the new Republican Party.
Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and strategist, and author of the recent book: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, available on Amazon.com.
Now we have ample evidence of the pysche of the Republican party, and yes, Virginia, it's all on tape for the world to see. But, as Levar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, "You don't have to take my word for it." Check out Robert Creamer's article...
Wilson Is the Poster "Child" for the New Republican Party
When Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) yelled out that President Obama was a "liar" in the middle of Obama's nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, he became the poster child for the new Republican Party.
I definitely mean poster "child." Since President Obama took office, the language of the Republican Party has become more childish and irresponsible by the day.
President Obama's powerful speech to the nation last night could not have contrasted more sharply. He was the adult in the room, calling on Congress to take responsibility for our future -- for stepping up to solve the health care crisis that worsens every day, for making the changes necessary to allow America to live up to its own democratic values -- to acknowledge that no one should be denied the health care he needs because he can't afford it.
By contrast, the Republicans have careened into schoolyard name-calling; Obama the Nazi, Obama the "Joker" from Batman.
They have begun to act like a gang of juvenile delinquents, doing everything they can to frighten senior citizens -- attempting to convince them that health care reform would jeopardize their Medicare and that the Government would set up "death panels" with the power to pull the plug on Grandma, when both were patently untrue.
There has been a brazen, bullying quality to their rhetoric -- shouting down and intimidating opponents -- a willingness to break the rules and say anything that serves their purposes with a complete disregard for consistency or intellectual honesty. Take their "defense" of Medicare: Remember that the Republicans opposed Medicare from its inception. They said that Medicare would lead to "socialism" the same way they claim that health insurance reform and a public option will lead to "socialism" today. As recently as yesterday some Republicans proposed eliminating Medicare and replacing it with a privatized "voucher" system. Yet they have the gall to pretend to defend it against the Democrats who created it.
And then there has been the irresponsibility of encouraging -- and legitimating -- gun-toting, hate-filled rhetoric by the fringiest of the right wing. The Republican leadership has failed to censure people like the pastor in Arizona who says he prays the President will die. And it has encouraged delusional conspiracy theorists who believe -- contrary to all evidence -- that Obama was not born in the United States.
As children grow up, one of the measures of increasing maturity is their willingness to begin focusing on the long term -- on saving for the future -- on getting a good education -- on the long-term welfare of their family. Instead of throwing a tantrum because they want an ice cream cone now, they start savings their nickels and dimes for the bicycle they want to save up to buy in the future.
But you won't find the Republicans dealing with the affects of global warming on the next generation, or reforming the health care system so it won't devour our economy in the future, or regulating investment markets to prevent reckless investors from wrecking the economy in the years ahead. No, instead of the needs of the next generation, the Republicans want to squander our treasure on short-term tax cuts for millionaires, and short-term profits for large corporations.
Republicans used to have a reputation of staid "conservatism" like they were your stingy old rock-ribbed grandfather. Today's Republican leaders behave like a bunch of teenagers who got their inheritance too early and can't find enough ways to indulge their short-term desire for "more." They no longer reflect the values of middle class families. They reflect the values of reckless, "go go" Wall Street speculators who think anyone who isn't rich like them is a "chump" and that the purpose of our society is to let them indulge their own self-centered, jet-set fantasies.
Most childish has been their practical refusal to admit that they lost the election and that Barack Obama is actually the President of the United States. Their recent attack on the President's speech to schoolchildren that aimed to inspire them to work hard and stay in school may be the clearest example. Whether the Right likes it or not, Barack Obama is the leader of our nation. Questioning the appropriateness of his addressing the nation's children with an uplifting message is the political equivalent of a child closing his eyes, holding his ears and humming so he doesn't have to acknowledge that it's time to go to bed. Sorry, Barack Obama won the election, temper tantrums won't change it.
Last night Joe Wilson etched his political legacy into the wall of American history. He will forever be the poster "child" that symbolizes the new Republican Party.
Robert Creamer is a long-time political organizer and strategist, and author of the recent book: Stand Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win, available on Amazon.com.
Tags: America, Republicans, courtesy, decorum, honor, politics, race, racism
Views: 55
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vernon Windsor on
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Surprised?
Not really.
I am interested in seeing that they pay a hefty price for their shenanigans. How did they get to be this way? Were they all abused as children or something? Dropped on their heads, perhaps? -
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Permalink Reply by ZenDog on
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Vernon, in utter seriousness, and with complete respect, these are not shenanigans at all. They deliberately engage in division of the populace as they cling to power, they do so to our harm as they sell out the various principles on which the nation was founded, at a time when the entire human race faces the most significant threats to civilization, and even survival ever posed.
~ Global Warming
~ An Economy Predicated on Both: Conflict and Growth
~ Weapons Proliferation, Including WMD
~ International Terrorism -
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Permalink Reply by Daniel Blattenbauer on
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I think the Republicans are not necessarily mean, just living in the stone age in their ways of thinking!
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Dems United, Republicans Split, By Bunning Benefits Blockade
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) has caused no shortage of problems for unemployed Americans, federal workers, and Medicare doctors. The list goes on and on. But he's also put the Republican party in a tricky position--upsetting members of his own caucus who want the benefits restored, but who haven't been able to rein him in--and he's unified Democrats, who are using his filibuster to put a human face on the victims of Republican obstruction.
Republican leadership doesn't have a great deal of leverage over Bunning, who is retiring at the end of the year. But they also don't particularly oppose what he's doing. Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) has risen to Bunning's defense, as has NRSC chairman John Cornyn (R-TX), whose job it is to get Republicans elected to the Senate.
But within the Republican caucus, members as liberal as Susan Collins (R-ME) and as conservative as James Inhofe (R-OK) have publicly criticized the Bunning blockade. Collins even pleaded with her colleague to end his filibuster on the floor this morning, to no avail.
One Republican strategist says the division extends outside the Senate, into the conservative movement, where activists are rallying to Bunning's side while consultants--people paid to get Republicans elected--are advising their candidates to dissociate themselves from the Kentucky senator if and when the issue comes up.
"I know activists who like this," the strategist said. "Consultants have told their candidates that if this comes up, be against Bunning."
And, indeed, you can find an outpouring of support for Bunning on any number of high-profile conservative websites.
Democrats, for the most part, are charging hard at Bunning, and pinning this on the Republican leadership as well.
Noting that a number of Republicans have risen to Bunning's defense, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) told reporters at a press conference today that "the Republican party and the Republican leadership have set the tone for a year of 'let's find as many possible ways to obstruct as we can.'"
They say Republicans hope that the fallout from the Bunning filibuster--disappearing benefits, diminishing doctors fees--will be pinned on Democrats, who are supposed to be running the show. "Any victory for Obama is something the Republicans take personally as a defeat for them," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) told reporters today.
At the same time, in a sign that they're playing hardball, they find themselves confronted by a simple irony. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could force an end to debate on this temporary unemployment package, and bring it to a vote--a process that would take several days. Reid isn't doing that. Instead, he's pushing Bunning to end his filibuster, while pressing ahead with a separate bill that would extend these benefits for a full year. But in the meantime, people are being cut from the roles, and losing their COBRA subsidies and some wonder whether the Democrats should say "enough's enough," and take the time-consuming steps needed to end the filibuster.
Soon, perhaps. But not yet.
"I think that the Majority Leader is wise not to immediately collapse to a strategy of giving up all that cloture time, when there is at this point, there is a single person in the front of the Republican objection, to try to work his way through it and try to make sure that there's a price for it, rather than just letting them just burn the time of the nation and the Senate," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) told reporters today.
Likewise, in response to a question from TPMDC, Brown acknowledged that this can't be allowed to go on much longer. "We urge Senator Reid to move on it as legislation if it drags on much longer," Brown said. "But then the Republican leaders got their way."
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/03/dems-united-republicans-... -
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The real world people are pawns in Bunning's grandstanding...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22887392#35679567 -
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Someone asked me recently if I knew a good joke. Chuck Grassley was the first thing that came to mind.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22887392#35679836 -
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Permalink Reply by Lawrence Bates on
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I believe that both the Republican and Democratic parties have severe image problems, Vernon. The Democrats no less than the Republicans. It is a self righting problem though, that will start to right itself in November's elections nationwide.
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Using "skills" honed in corporate-sponsored town hall mob violence, protesters heap mean-spirited abuse on a quietly protesting man with Parkinsons disease. Mike Pence tries to put the face on the incident.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/22887392#35918426 -
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Fox News and Sean Hannity asked if there was any evidence proving that this incident, with Rep. Emanual Cleaver being spat upon, had actually happened, and Tea Party groups offered a cash reward for proof. Well, here it is.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/28/congressman-spit-on-by-te_... -
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