Rep. Allen West, a Florida Republican, was recently captured on video asserting that there are “78 to 81” Democrats in Congress who are members of the Communist Party. Of course, it’s not unusual for some renegade lawmaker from either side of the aisle to say something outrageous. What made West’s comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack of condemnation from Republican congressional leaders or other major party figures, including the remaining presidential candidates.
It’s not that the GOP leadership agrees with West; it is that such extreme remarks and views are now taken for granted.
We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges…
“Both sides do it” or “There is plenty of blame to go around” are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach…
Democrats are hardly blameless, and they have their own extreme wing and their own predilection for hardball politics. But these tendencies do not routinely veer outside the normal bounds of robust politics. If anything, under the presidencies of Clinton and Obama, the Democrats have become more of a status-quo party. They are centrist protectors of government, reluctantly willing to revamp programs and trim retirement and health benefits to maintain its central commitments in the face of fiscal pressures.
No doubt, Democrats were not exactly warm and fuzzy toward George W. Bush during his presidency. But recall that they worked hand in glove with the Republican president on the No Child Left Behind Act, provided crucial votes in the Senate for his tax cuts, joined with Republicans for all the steps taken after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and supplied the key votes for the Bush administration’s financial bailout at the height of the economic crisis in 2008. The difference is striking.
If our democracy is to regain its health and vitality, the culture and ideological center of the Republican Party must change. In the short run, without a massive (and unlikely) across-the-board rejection of the GOP at the polls, that will not happen.
Thomas E. Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Norman J. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
This post has a bit of the beginning of the article by Mann and Ornstein – and a bit of the end. There are a few pages in between. Click the link and draw your own conclusions.
More to the point I think was the first political ad Romney ran against Barack? The one where he showed the video of Obama saying something stupid when Obama was quoting a Republican.
When called on it, Romney said it was politics.
Only half right. That stunt is Republican Politics. They are shameless as are the voters who support them.
YES–both sides are corrupt and venal and incompetent and paid for. The pukes just that much more worse.
Ain’t reality a bitch?
100% agree, dumb scum
Barack Obama at a dog. E-I-E-I-O!
It’s fun to watch Dems launch stupid attacks against Romney that promptly blow up in their faces.
Wrong answer, Romney is the one who can’t get traction here. Dog eating? How pathetic can you get? At least Romney was an adult when he did that dog thing, which I don’t think matters that much either. The fact that Romney got rich by participating in the destruction of our econonmy and has no solutions is the real issue here.
Listening to Republicans is like listening to North Korea …you just gotta roll your eyes.
Look at the tyranny of party — at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty — a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes — and which turns voters into chattels, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern master.
– “The Character of Man,” Mark Twain’s Autobiography
All large political doctrines are rich in difficult problems — problems that are quite above the average citizen’s reach. And that is not strange, since they are also above the reach of the ablest minds in the country; after all the fuss and all the talk, not one of those doctrines has been conclusively proven to be the right one and the best.
– “The Privilege of the Grave,” Who Is Mark Twain?
Hey Orchi–I was only half way into what I thought was a most excellent post and I thought: “This reads like a copy and paste”…. and then I saw your name…..and then I saw Mark Twain.
At least you are copying from the best, AND its always on point.
A good foundation for eventually taking wind.
More people should do it.
I never learned from a man who agreed with me.
— Robert A. Heinlein
You ain’t seen nothing yet.
B,T.O.
Well, if true, rather than selling books, Heinlein either lost many opportunities or was seduced without his knowing.
Given “my” style, I do wonder if I should go the non-confrontational route: you know, basically agree but with a slight twist at the end?
Waste of time with a Puke. Can’t be brain dead and learn a thing whether in agreement or opposition.
I don’t blame the asstards like West who ran as an idiot, was elected as an idiot, and is performing as an idiot. Its what he was voted into office to do.
No. I blame the DUMBOS: especially Obama. He was elected by the left to do liberal business in Washington, but he governs like Bush light. Disgusting.
When a puke is bought out by big business==who can tell? When a dumbo is bought out by big business==its a crime.
Still, Obama is the best choice from the entire field that I can see–running or not.
Who will keep their pledge?
Great quote….I had never seen that one.
Me likes some Mark Twain.
Quotation is a serviceable substitute for wit.
— Oscar Wilde
Holy shit… Mark Twain was the precedent for selecting versus electing.
If he was still around, I’d let him push the button for each representative position that needs filling by a randomly selected individual, as it is it’d have to be a hologram.
Fits in well with my standard rant so I wont bore you with again.
Political tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth – are never basic criteria.
The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
— Robert A. Heinlein
Interesting quote.
The problem is Republicans won’t be bipartisan and pass what Democrats want.
No. The problem is the *new* Republicans have either poor negotiation skills to reach compromise or have resigned themselves not to.
I believe it is both!
70-80 Communists might be a bit low. Already we have seen Obama adopt that Communist slogan Forward.
Do you know how stupid you have to be to confuse Obama with a communist?
He was a member of the New Party in the late 90s. It is not too surprising the nature of the people who join a different type of Democratic Party because they find the existing one wanting. Of course the media was more interested in the possible different party membership of Sarah Palin’s husband.
Whatever party is out of power, their base always goes haywire.
Obama: Right wing fringe, some of the more fundy part of the Tea Party. Birthers.
Bush: Truthers, lefties saying something about the Patriot Act and something about AT&T and wiretapping. Whining about Gitmo.
Clinton: The right wing was selling Clinton conspiracy videos about Vince Foster, Waco, etc.
Nothing new here.
If Romney wins this fall, the extremist noise will swing back to left side of politics.
The only thing unusual going on: The Occupy movement. Usually you don’t see a left-leaning “grass roots” movement when a Democrat is president. This tells me Obama is not going to be re-elected as his own base isn’t satisfied with what has gone on during his watch.
Go ahead big fella..Jump. nobody will miss ya these days..
In my life, there never has been a time when the two parties were more distinct from each other.
And these people can’t tell them apart!
Yet, you hear it all the time, “Obama is just like Bush.” “Both parties are to blame for nothing getting done.”
These people glorify in their political cluelessness.
Any of commentators actually lived in a real Communism and have a bleak idea what it is?
I grow up in such place and am standing with Rep. West on this. First, the Obama Administration as a whole runs on every single principle our Communist dictator run at home at the time. Only difference – those people actually admitted who they are. As for representatives: do they subscribe to the concept of “social justice”? – Communists. It is the very basis of Communist idea: from everyone how much they can give (with no mention who defines that) and to everyone how much they need (again, no mention who’s the arbitrator).
And you can complain about McCarthy all day long but Communism is evil and oppressive and should be fought, diminished and eradicated. No? Please move in the last true bastion of it in North Korea.
Are you on crack?
Name one industry Obama has nationalized.
Let alone the distribution.
And I hear Somalia is a fantastic libertarian paradise.
You confuse anarchy with libertarianism.
Libertarians “confuse” anarchy with Libertarianism.
I remember the glee liberals had in sending Elian back to Cuba, even using him as a prop at a fundraiser.
I was wondering if we would see the same thing with the Chinese dissident. I didn’t see any glee this time around, but I wondered if the admin would be eager to hand him over. Looks like they did.
North Korea is NOT communist.
They may SAY they are but they miss the main aspect of what communism really is.
In communism you create a tiny central government with supreme authority that remains in place until the power is transferred to regional governmental functions.
After such time the tiny centralised government is dissolved.
In NO case did that happen in any so-called communist nation.
Once the central government had all the power they kept it. They became totalitarian either as an autocracy like Castro, Pot, Jong, etc. Or an oligarchy like China, USSR, Poland, etc.
THAT is NOT communism. That is something entirely different. And Americans do not understand that clearly because the governments of the West have daemonised the whole process as a form of propaganda.
There was not much difference between Hitler’s hate for Russian revolutionaries as there was hate of them by the parliament in the UK at the time.
Now of course people will say, well there are flavours of communism and that is BS. It either is or is not something. Every breed of dog is still a dog. Every colour of pigment in a human is a human. It is a facetious
use of propaganda to foster an US vs THEM mentality so that fear will turn to hate, hate to anger and anger to death so it is easier to kill what you claim is your enemy.
Old tactics, still working after thousands of years because people are easily misled.
There never were, are and never will be any communist countries. Just as we don’t have democracies because no one has time or desire to vote on every single issue in a nation of more than 24 people.
So we have different forms of governance to handle the situations at hand.
Cursor_
Arguing that because the practical application of communism differed from the theoretical ideal none of those applications of communism were “real communism” is specious. It’s a “No True Scotsman” argument. Communism has been tried in many forms and failed in all of them including on small scales. Remember the communes from the 1960’s? They failed too. Communism has been tried and has been shown to be fundamentally flawed as a form of government.
Surprising to see someone like Ornstein – a traditional American conservative and lifelong Republican – still believes it’s possible to bring that party back to participation in the economic and political tasks required for the future of America.
Poisonally, I think he’s wrong. I think the combination of Tea Party nutballs and corporate flunkies set loose by Gingrich in ’94 have thoroughly destroyed any chance of sensible decision-making. Greed rules 100%, now.
Half the Republicans in my extended family have left the Republican Party and re-registered as independents. They hope someone like “Americans Elect” can rebuild something – sooner or later.
Haven’t discussed this particular article with them, yet. They find any examination of today’s Republican Party just too depressing.
Greed has always ruled both parties.
Agreed.
Today, the Teapublicans would consider Reagan a leftist communist – he would never pass campaign muster with the loons that have hijacked the GOP.
To make things worse, the 10% fringe element is who’s voting who is even up for consideration. The smartest that wanted the job, John Huntsman, got booted out from the get go by the Christian Taliban for not being crazy enough.
I think Jon Huntsman would have had a reasonable shot at the nomination, but he seemed more interested in getting praise from Democrats than votes from Republicans. A few minor changes in his speeches and interviews would have put him up as a frontrunner to be shot down by Romney. Instead, he was more interested in bashing Republicans.
I thought he was crazy enough.
Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy.
– Dwight D. Eisenhower
Ornstein is the house liberal at American Enterprise Institute.
the republican party is what used to be known as the “Old South”, an area of the country from Virginia to Texas that has NEVER given up on the ideas that formed the Confederacy, people who still believe in slavery as a means to increase their own fortunes, and who, by god, will use any means to achieve it. It wasn’t for nothing that Romney was chastised by the southerners in, I believe SC, maybe Ole’ Miss, as having no idea how to live on next to nothing, something southerners have been, and still are, doing from the beginning. Not for nothing the south is the worst area for education, wages, etc. THIS is what our business and financial leaders have in store for the WHOLE country, as they try to feed that black hole in their soul… from a southerner, born and bread
Surely you mean “born and bred.”
What so many forget is – McCarthy understated the number of communists in the State Department.
By the by, when West was asked if they “hide it, ” he replied , “No, they actually don’t hide it, it’s called the Congressional Progressive Caucus.” Maybe you can show us how that caucus’s ideology differs from, say, The CPUSA?
Liberals have always been quick to mock claims of Communism. Prior to ‘have you no decency left?’ McCarthy was taking sarcastic questions of can you please identify any Communists for us. He then responded that you have one on your own staff, talking about a guy who they had recently fired for his Communist ties. Even then, liberals recognized that Democrats are Communists, as the guy who said have you no decency left defended his staffer with the line that ‘he is a Republican.’
Allen West’s classification of far-left liberal lawmakers in the Congressional Progressive Caucus as communists was accurate.
Those on the liberal left adhere to a collective ideal, directed and controlled by a centralized government to guarantee and enforce social and economic justice.
If it quacks like a duck…
Hmm. Perhaps Allen West was referring to people who get the “Worker’s Vanguard“? Some people get it just to read other points of view, since forewarned is forearmed.
Allen West doesn’t like it when three or more people assemble on a public commons for some purpose not sanctioned by enterprise or industry.
Allen West thinks that by raising the specter of communism, (which is merely one of the three methods of organizing the economy, and is the way to organize any military,) he will suddenly pull off what Joseph McCarthy couldn’t.
Allen West probably misses the old days when a good Red bait would get you elected.
Someone needs to tell Allen West that the Soviet empire has collapsed and that the enemy is now the doctrinaire religious Moslems who want to see people like him dead, because he’s just like them, doctrinaire.
OK the republicans are the problem. If you think the democrats are the solution you out of your fucking mind.
The Republicans have no souls; the Democrats no spines. A very deadly combination in our politics.
i would expect that once the election season really starts the dems will eviscerate the redumblicans so called economic plan of austerity and tax cuts. they simply have hit the wall with the stupid “just cut taxes and the “job creators” will perform miraculous miracles. ya just like they did under bush. but that doesn’t mean the wall street liberals have any answer to our long term problems either. face it, if you are sitting around waiting for the government to solve any problem the republic has, you might as well be waiting for godot.
Yeah, ObamaCare falls short..I can’t wait for RomnEconomics.
No need to condemn something when the reality is the Communist Party has “strong allies” within the Democratic Party. Interpret that how you will. http://tinyurl.com/7urjrf9
Shouldn’t be shocking when you factor in how even Obama has ties with Van Jones who he wanted to be one of his czars. Or how Bill Ayers is a friend of Obama’s.
Regardless, the liberals will find what ways they can to talk bad about any minority who has a dissenting viewpoint from their own.
They only need look to the GOP for a plethora of examples.
Harry Truman said of one Repuke, Nixon: “He speaks out of both sides of his mouth, TELLING LIES OUT OF BOTH SIDES !!!” – NOTHING HAS CHANGED – REPUKES CAN’T TELL THE TRUTH – ONLY LIES !!!
OK I’ll say it. The Republicans are the problem. The Democrats are as well.
Whatcha gonna do?
It will be a fun year both party dolts frothing at the mouth for one who will save them…with all the campaigns lies that you can swallow, har.
Go ahead and say it…WE’RE ALL screwed.
OK SHEEP: Listen up. Stop the non-think zomboid dittohead lock step arguing the dog whistles of meaningless labels back and forth and just go issue by issue what you think is best for America. Try to rate them a 1, 2, or 3 in importance and assign that issue to the Party that is in favor of it or likewise a Minus 1,2,3 if you are against and assign that to a Party.
Identify the issues you think are worthy enough to vote on.
Then simply do the math.
Start with: Should the rich pay roughly 30% of their taxable income in Federal taxes?
Should a family of four earning $15,000 per year also pay 30% of their taxable income in Federal taxes?
Should student loans have their interest rates raised?
…and so forth.
No fair to spot the label and vote on “Why that there is an Obama position….and other such nonsense. Vote the merits if you even know what that means.
Try it. Course, we are too aware not to know what label is there.
Pukes: are you for Obama Care?===NO== Minus 3.
BUT–are you for removing pre-existing conditions as consideration on whether or not you can get or keep insurance?
Are you for or against kiddies being able to continue insurance under their parents policies?
How comfortable are you when the details of a issue go to one party but “the label” you choose to support goes the other way?
Do you even feel manipulated at all?
Its only too bad that “cutting your own throat” is only rhetoric.
I have said it before, but any President R or D, but especially one who calls himself a Constitutional scholar that would sign into law, that which negates our Bill of Rights, will ever get my respect, or my vote.
That was my personal breaking point.
Agree!!!
To add, if you vote for this clown again, and you ever get arrested and held without bail, or access to attorney, and whine about it…I will be the first to laugh in your stupid face.
McC–your point is valid, but only in a vacuum.
What ARE you gonna do when the ONLY viable alternative to Obama will maintain that law and do all sorts of other deal breakers as well?
I’m sorry, but you have to think about these candidates “all the way through.” Not “one point” and fini. You overly fixate on the first bad thing that catches your attention and are then BLIND SIDED by something even worse===which was observable if you had just continued to look.
And thats why I continue to post: Look, just LOOK!!!!!! Its just that simple.
Look, just LOOK. Stop the short sightedness. Stop cutting your own throat for one or more emotional reasons.
Look at the whole man, the whole party, the whole package. Do the same for the other side. Compare and Contrast. Weigh and measure the issues.
Do the Math.
Should the rich pay roughly 30% of their taxable income in Federal taxes?
Yes
Should a family of four earning $15,000 per year also pay 30% of their taxable income in Federal taxes?
It should be 5%, and should be slowly raised per thousand dollars until they hit $25,000. EVERYONE should pay something. Setting up a system where you don’t pay anything creates a mentality of entitlement. Everyone should pay in, regardless of your value to the economy.
Should student loans have their interest rates raised? It should fluctuate with the market. Considering how this only effects NEW loans, this should be a moot issue. It’s not like student loans are ARM loans.
Also, the government should be teaching trades in schools. If you start college with absolutely no trades to fall back on if your degree doesn’t work out, you are doing it wrong. Learn to cook. Learn to woodwork. Learn to weld. Learn to work on motors. Learn networking. Learn computers. Learn SOMETHING other than one thing to rely on.
When you say completely STUPID shit like:
Should the rich pay roughly 30% of their taxable income in Federal taxes?
Yes
You have no idea what America is all about.
NO ONE SHOULD PAY A DAMN DIME IN INCOME TAX – PERIOD!!!
Income taxes were permanently instituted by Democrats in 1913 by then Democrat President Woodrow Wilson. Never mind that it’s technically against anything mentioned in the Bill of Rights (a.k.a. the first ten Amendments to the Constitution)! Never mind that there is still no law compelling anyone from filing Income taxes with the IRS. You might want to actually read the 16th Amendment before you say “look at it.” But because of TRADITION and other perversions by our leaders just try and NOT file your taxes!
“NO ONE SHOULD PAY A DAMN DIME IN INCOME TAX – PERIOD!!!”
Rolls eyes.
Never mind that there is still no law compelling anyone from filing Income taxes with the IRS.
Rolls eyes
I can see why you would want to sign-on as anonymous. Moron
Ha, ha. Dallas, you’re going to get a headache with all that eye rolling.
Plus, you will know better than I, but I think a Puke will find that attractive.
Two good reasons to avoid that excellent but ineffective response.
Pragmatism.
Speaking incoherently out of both sides of your mouth and denying reality at the same time?
Quite the accomplishment.
Rave on.
Simply not true. Income taxes existed and were legal prior to 16th Amendment which the Courts stated continuously gave Congress no power of taxation it did not already have.
Now, a better question is whether wages *should* be considered a direct tax (which they are) and thus outlawed. However, to date, the Courts have claimed that wages are not direct taxes.
No. EVERYONE should either be under a flat tax or fair tax. Preferably the latter since it is based strictly off one’s consumption. Problem solved.
Nope. It’s an erosion of the Bill of Rights. Why stop with health care? Maybe the government should force me to buy a cell phone since I’d have to pay a tax for 911 service and that too is important for how one can get access to healthcare depending on the situation.
Open up state borders. Have tort reform. Establish group accounts for high risk patients. ELIMINATE waivers provide to special interest groups who are not required to pay into obama care for a number of years.
Other than that, how much power do you want the Federal government to have in dictating how one can run a private business?
Typical child propaganda in order to compel someone from exercising good judgement.
Shrink and reduce the power of the federal government. Problems will be MOSTLY solved.
You’ve done “some” of the analysis. Now score them, assign them, and
do the Math.
You’re really for fair tax? Prebates and all?
Ha, ha.
The “PROBLEM” is about 68% Elephant, 21% Ass and about 80% Fog Of Humanity in which people believe anything they hear.
Anybody remember that “Question Everything” notion from the ’60s?
.
Republicans should take up Obama’s Buffett plan and have an alternative tax form where you calculate all income with no deductions and are taxed at the rate equal to that of the average secretary in America. Not Warren Buffett’s secretary who appears to be the highest taxed highest paid secretary ever. How is this person paying a 30% tax rate?
The TRUTH: Remember the stock market crash of 2008? Bush’s TARP & bank bail outs? 2 unfunded wars? Tax cuts for the wealthy? Medicare Part D? National Debt at 11.909 trillion? (GAO source) All BEFORE Obama. All continuing to add to the current debt.
And Obama wants to spend even more.
Republicans are the party of rich people, and Democrats are the party of poor people. That means that Republicans in power try to create more rich people, and Democrats in power try to create more poor people.
Only Herbert Hoover has created more poor people than Obama.
Where’s the sheet of paper with the supposed names on it? (“I hold here in my hand…”)
(I suppose in this day and age, it would more likely be a thumb drive, memory card, tablet or phone…)
This is another one of those things I never, ever thought I would say:
Gee, I kind of miss the old Soviet Union.
* The people with short memories might be reminded of what life was like under _actual_ Communist tyrants.
* When the West had to show they were better than the Communists, the “common man” got treated much better than his counterpart in the USSR or any of its satellite nations. Since the collapse of the USSR and of the European Communist Party, the kid gloves are off and the Western plutocracies are approaching being as hard on their citizens as any of the former Communist states.
= = = = = = = = = = = = =
At the start of each new U.S. Congress, in January of every odd-numbered year, newly elected or re-elected Members of Congress – the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate – must recite an oath, part of which reads:
“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic …”
Whenever I hear that phrase about domestic enemies, I think of Grover Norquist, surely a greater threat to the Republic than the USSR ever was.
Surely, he is a greater threat to the “Republicans” too. What are they thinking? Dude could never get elected, and if he did, you would never see his like again!
Many of the comments here are a fun sort of denial-reality.
No amount of agreeing that 2+2 = 5 actually makes it true, though.
Obama got into office because a lot of people wanted to give the man the benefit of the doubt and let a relative unknown run the show.
It hasn’t worked, he’s done a really bad job mostly. Democracy lets you kick people that suck out of office, an advantage of over dictatorship.
Cognitive Disconnect.
Just listening to commentator about the Gay just fired by Romney. “How do gays work for the Pukes in such an environment of hatred and abuse?”
Yea, verily…..how do those gays do that????
And if that question is clear in your mind as a Republican, the same issue exists with YOU and your economic security unless of course you are part of the 1%.
All you have to do is…………..look.