tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post7421032579926402574..comments2023-10-31T11:27:58.514-05:00Comments on THE SATURDAY AFTERNOON POST: BALANCE OF POWERJack Jodellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02165430903903838990noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-52821520769971535092009-10-11T23:53:10.555-05:002009-10-11T23:53:10.555-05:00re:
>>ultra-conservative Republicans
>>...re:<br />>>ultra-conservative Republicans<br />>>will emerge as de facto winners,<br />>>and the balance of power will be<br />>>on their side. <br /><br />Frankly, it seems to me like the balance of power has been on the GOP's side now for nearly 30 years, since Reagan. The GOP has enjoyed victory after victory (even during the Clinton years). They've slashed and gutted the nation's social safety net so extensively that they now have a tough time just finding more programs to cut.<br /><br />The nation has moved so far to the right that Nixon was actually to the left of Clinton on domestic policy.<br /><br />Will Obama be another corporatist like Clinton? So far, he hasn't really shown much in the way of progressive polices.<br /><br />We really haven't had a progressive in the White House since LBJ---and it's pretty much been downhill since then.Marc McDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17105754072842852126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-21050616646375398962009-10-11T23:51:11.954-05:002009-10-11T23:51:11.954-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Marc McDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17105754072842852126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-63948242387132392742009-10-11T23:49:05.795-05:002009-10-11T23:49:05.795-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.Marc McDonaldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17105754072842852126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-5375452412172406902009-10-07T09:08:37.726-05:002009-10-07T09:08:37.726-05:00SJ,
The GOP is indeed now a party of lost souls ab...SJ,<br />The GOP is indeed now a party of lost souls abd working substantively with them on anything is all but impossible. They are behaving like a swarm of killer bees who want to completely annihilate all who differ from them. They deserve nothing but a heavy dose of insecticide. Classic bipartisanship is therefore dead.<br />----------<br />Oso, <br />I think your description of the New Deal's effect on the right and especially regarding the '50s is insightful and wholly accurate. And that, I think, is why the current far-right GOP is so opposed to Obama and particularly his push for a public option. For, like FDR, Obama has a clear understanding of exactly what the average citizen today needs and wants to deliver it for them. The GOP is deathly afraid the public will strongly embrace universal, government-run health care. This will adversely affect all their corporate backers, and both they and their big business pals will be completely shut out again, which the GOP wants to avoid at all costs. I say, to hell with them: their time is deservedly up.Jack Jodellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02165430903903838990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-33914528469698770342009-10-07T03:53:14.002-05:002009-10-07T03:53:14.002-05:00"bi-partisnaship" -I still hate typos.
-..."bi-partisnaship" -I still hate typos.<br />-SJSJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17181694732531476160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-38268280037644472142009-10-06T21:09:18.380-05:002009-10-06T21:09:18.380-05:00Jack,
I think you're right on all counts.In Kr...Jack,<br />I think you're right on all counts.In Krugmans book Conscience of a Liberal he points out how the Welfare State/New Deal was so popular that the Right more or less had to live with it,hence the Eisenhower era.There was a lot of bipartisanship and not so much meanness.They weren't idyllic times for minorities but in terms of foreign/domestic policy and the way the elected politicans got along-there was bipartisanship.<br /><br />Until circumstances changed (vietnam/gold window closing among many things)and the Right was able to chip away at the New Deal till it began to crumble. and I agree with SJ too-the 2008 election was NOT about bipartisanship.<br />and TomCat-yeah herding cats is tough and doesn't pay off !Osohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09513535195785731541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-90725275405755126622009-10-06T16:25:22.963-05:002009-10-06T16:25:22.963-05:00@Jack,
the bi-partisnaship some Americans may have...@Jack,<br />the bi-partisnaship some Americans may have wanted just wasn't, and isn't possible. I wasn't part of that camp in the last election cycle because I didn't ever see the point, because as you, Mycue and I have discussed several times, these are not <b>true</b> Republicans or Conservatives in any case, -they are big-business sell outs who will always put corporations ahead of their constituents. You cannot negotiate with people who are trying to destroy whatever you are trying to do -there is simply no consensus to build unless you drop your whole program of goals in a situation like this. The GOP idea of bipartisanship is "don't do anything we don't agree with" -The Obama adminsitration refuses to concede this obvious reality and act acordingly. The GOP has said it will vote against any Healthcare Reform, so how on earth does anybody do anything with that? <br />Whichever principled "real" Republicans there may have been once upon a time, the Chuck Hagels, the John McCains, the Arlen Specters have been lost to retirement, become divorced from their party's center of power or now skewed identity or have moved across the aisle already, or even become independents like Lincoln Chaffee.<br />Obama's gotta become LBJ real quick, and I mean in the medicare civil rights way, -not the Vietnam way... <br />-SJSJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17181694732531476160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-18382611356589924892009-10-06T15:46:07.324-05:002009-10-06T15:46:07.324-05:00TomCat,
I read you. We just need far more liberals...TomCat,<br />I read you. We just need far more liberals, that's all.<br />----------<br />SJ, <br />I think the country wanted a semblance of bi-partisanship. They certainly didn't want more Bushonomics, extended war, or obstructionism. They voted for change, and they wanted, and are fully correct to, expect some definitive action. It's time for no more Mr. nice guy from Obama.Jack Jodellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02165430903903838990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-22123874761209892932009-10-06T15:08:46.930-05:002009-10-06T15:08:46.930-05:00@Jack,
agreed on all points.
--And the bottom lin...@Jack,<br />agreed on all points. <br />--And the bottom line is, the country didn't vote for bi-partisanship anyway, to put it brusquely.<br />The last elections were a blanket rejection of the GOP's ethos and current approach.<br />The Democrats are at the wheel now because they were voted into that position, no matter what Rupert Murdoch and Roger ailes think, and Obama had better start acting like it or he'll find himself and the country going nowhere fast as Republicans only seem interested in slashing tires until 2012.<br />-SJSJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17181694732531476160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-86740232950720399222009-10-06T13:19:45.234-05:002009-10-06T13:19:45.234-05:00Sigh! Organizing Democrats is like herding cats. ...Sigh! Organizing Democrats is like herding cats. :-(TomCathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11397335545286040472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-52147473459941885522009-10-06T12:02:39.170-05:002009-10-06T12:02:39.170-05:00I'm in the same boat as you, Mycue23. We can o...I'm in the same boat as you, Mycue23. We can only hope and pray that, with time, people will tire of the constant GOP mud-slinging and that their current practice of being the party of "no" will blow up like an atom bomb in their face. For Obama has a great deal of good to offer the country, and the Republicans have absolutely nothing. They should be challenged on, and lose, on that basis alone. CALL THEIR BLUFF, OBAMA AND YOUR PARTY!!!Jack Jodellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02165430903903838990noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6234638383123311700.post-39011070299588850212009-10-06T11:50:42.030-05:002009-10-06T11:50:42.030-05:00Jack, as always, you present the facts and argue t...Jack, as always, you present the facts and argue the point with great clarity. I too have made the point that bi-partisanship is a waste of time, yet the President seems to persist in this fantasy. There are days when my faith in his ability to affect change is badly shaken (and you've seen that represented on my blog a few times), but on other days I think he's got a plan that we just can't see. I don't know which one is right. I hope, for all of our sakes, it's the latter.Mycue23https://www.blogger.com/profile/07474424588090159340noreply@blogger.com