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.
How Republicans are made:
http://wired.com/images_blogs/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/24/elephants.jpg
http://wired.com/images_blogs/photos/uncategorized/2008/07/24/elephants.jpg
copy and paste, then remove the www.
Elephants are supposed to have long memories and know who is out to kill them. Something doesn’t add up.
It seems to me that the GOP has such low confidence in Romney’s chances, that in other to persuade the voters to accept him this fall, they have to slander the Democrats as much as possible, in the public’s eyes (0r ears). So calling them communists is bound to guarantee they get 99% of the over 70 Republican voters, who may have been on the fence about Romney. And didn’t know Ron Paul was even running.
Romneys plan to turn the economy around: “Do the opposite of what Obama is doing.”
BRILLIANT!!!
Keynes says in a slump the gov should spend money to stimulate the economy back to health. If you use austerity measures and cut programs, you will cause deeper problems. Lets check the record:
Japan 15 years ago hit real estate problems and cut budgets: still in its 15 year stagnation.
Europe responds to 2008 Crises by making budget cuts: their downward spiral continues.
USA resp[onds to 2008 Crises by making a bastardized half ass stimulus of 1/3 to 1/4th the size needed because of Puke interference: we have a very weak recovery with the Pukes fighting it every step of the way.
Keynes: proved.
So–don’t follow the science of economics, don’t follow the science of global warming, don’t follow the science of evolution or genetic research, slash women’s preventative health services.
Have any problems? – – – Just borrow some money from your parents or start a business. Thats what Romney did. Whats wrong with YOU?
Silly Hoomans.
> Japan 15 years ago hit real estate problems and cut budgets: still in its 15 year stagnation.
Yes, and this despite Japan’s government spending billions on trying to stimulate its economy just as Obama did. Japan’s debt-to-GDP is well over 200%.
> Europe responds to 2008 Crises by making budget cuts: their downward spiral continues.
Europe’s governments are broke. The UK has a debt-to-GDP ratio somewhere around 100% like us. So, arguing that they didn’t spend enough is ridiculous. Europe’s government’s have been trying to spend their way out of recessions for generations and the result is that they never can pay down the debt they accumulated during that recession. It builds over time to what we have now.
> Keynes: proved.
Like Orwell. Inflation is good. Debt is growth. The problem with the Keynes fanatics is that they only look in the moment. They never look a generation or more down the road. Where do think all that debt is going?
May Keynes and his theories rest in peace.
hmeyers, the sometimes reasonable conservative says:
5/4/2012 at 11:14 am
When Obama took office, I thought he would fix some of the problems of the economy using tactical methods for effective use of government resources. //// I thought the economy would do Obama in: too big a fubar to correct in 3 years and Bush/Clinton errors would be blamed on Obama. I was totally right about that. I did think and assume he would rather fix some of the problems of “GOVERNANCE” using direct appeal to the people for support. I was totally wrong about that.
But the stimulus bill was pretty much a waste of a trillion $$$, with no permanent results./// The problem with economics, is no one knows for sure. Who knows? Europe went austere and is in worse shape. We went stimulus, and have a weak recovery. Looks like the stimulus “worked.” Looks like a stronger stimulus might have worked even more. But NO ONE knows, there can be no proof. Just reasonable application of theory……..and when is that gonna happen?
Green energy? Green jobs? Alternative energy?
We need it. We still don’t have it. /// Agree totally. I blame Carter and his failure to impose a Carbon Tax. We would be green energy self sufficient by now if he had. It will come….someday. Its the only solution, a solution that now problably will not solve all related problems. That is life.
If Obama’s health care is overturned on June 5th, what exactly has Obama done? /// Broke the egg to the status quo, to make the omelete of universal health care. Given Puke opposition to all that is good and holy, it might even be his plan.
According to the stats, it appears the GOP is pretty much a lock to take over the Senate because so many red-state Democrat-held seats are up this fall. So a 2nd term Obama isn’t going to be doing much. /// I hear very confident, knowing, well placed people saying……..everything. How Romney can poll at all, anywhere, anytime, except Rich old white guys over 50, above 30% is beyond me. This country’s voting base is just simply…..sick.
Obama makes a ton of speeches, but he never backs it up with action. /// Not never. But close enough. Which is worse==a Puke promising bad policy and delivering it, or a Dumbo promising hope and change and not bringing it? …. Oh, the horror!!
He has done a few good things, but mostly he hasn’t delivered and I don’t think he wants to be bothered with being president. /// He’s too reserved for us to know. I think he doesn’t want to be bothered being a partisan advocate. How close that is to the same thing is…..definitional.
Completely dysfunctional. How do I get off this planet?
Bobbo, I guess maybe another way of phrasing things.
I don’t know how the economy can be fixed.
But I don’t think Obama knows either, but more than that I don’t think he really cares.
He’s doing great. Obama and Michelle can throw parties, golf, go on vacation 20 times a year.
I’d be all for Obama if he had a plan. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t even bother to put forth any ideas.
And the empty speeches thing to me eventually became a problem because listening to him is a turn off. Who cares what he says? He’ll just say something.
More than anything, this bothers me.
Romney actually fixed 2 or 3 issues in Massachusetts. I believe we will eventually find out his ideas on health care reform which due to “RomneyCare” I think might be significant reforms. I guess we will find out in August (after it is known what the Supreme Court decides).
I don’t like run-of-the-mill cookie-cutter closed-minded Bible-Thumping conversatives.
But Romney is no such thing and he had a hard time in the primaries because he’s not really conservative, but more results oriented.
At least this is my take.
Well, thats the hope isn’t it?
My take: Romney by nature is a moderate out of touch self serving politician. He will be captured by the far right during his first term as he will want to be re-elected and he will need his base.
He will personally push for continued tax breaks for the rich: HE personally benefits in the ten’s of millions per year by doing so AND he appeals to his base.
As income inequality resulting in job growth failure and the ripping of the social safety net and austerity in times of recession, IS a major cause of bad economic times, I don’t see Romney possibly doing any better than Obama.
Fix the economy: invest in the future: Green Energy. That solves 3-4 major issues at the same time.
Obama can do that, Romney could do it. Eventually it will get done as all other head in the sand responses will have been tried.
Ah, Bobbo let’s see what happens.
I always enjoy debating with you, although I guess right now we can only share speculation.
I will say that the polling numbers being this bad for Obama in May — long before people have put serious consideration to casting a ballot — is George H.W. Bush re-election territory.
An incumbent president should not be 1% ahead or barely tied in the polls.
Yes, I am hoping Romney is somewhat of trojan-horse GOP candidate. Historically, he does not actually have an ideology but more likes to “fix stuff”.
But who knows, I just we just have to watch and see what happens …
Sadly, I think that is the case.
I think it is beyond debate that Pukes are bad for the 99%.
Open for debate: just how far right wing is Obama in personal philosophy, and just how far left is Romney AFTER securing his own tax advantages?
and even History will not be able to tell us: such a tempest it is.
taxed enough, I would be happy to go along with your plan of total deregulation of all business and other functions, as long as you would allow me to kill any person who’s business results in the direct harming of me or my family, such as polluting my property, selling me foods that have poisons or the like, engaging in financial schemes to purposely defraud me of my income, place me in harm’s way on the job, and so forth. If, as a business owner you would allow that, with NO LEGAL CONSEQUENCES, then we have a deal. If, however, you want the law to cover your ass while you are fucking mine, no deal…
Don’t mind alfie, he is so delusional he thinks reagan shrank the size of the federal government. Next he will tell you all about god, and jebus, and the holy spook, and how the the bible predicted all this.
As usual, Eideard, your title provides stunning analysis. Stunningly ignorant. Your willfully blind partisan Pablum contributes nothing to the useful discussion of politics or this blog.
The day John boots you to the curb will be a good one as it will free up space for intelligent discussion.
Eideard has his only personal blog where some of the regulars here go when they find this blog to be too right wing.
Partisan suck and are irrelevant.
They suck because they aren’t open-minded.
They are irrelevant because partisans don’t decide who wins elections, swing voters do.
40 Democrats and 40 Republicans can drink their own Kool-Aid and slap themselves on the back and tell themselves they are right and all that jazz.
It is the 20% who thinks they are both full of shit that make the real decision of who is President and who controls the House and Senate.
Hey Eidork,
If that’s about 78 to 81 percent of Demoncrat are commie, then I’d agree. It’s about 20 to 30 percent in the republicrats.
Did you miss the number or President Hussein’s department appointment that think Mao was a great guy. Or how about Jimmy Boy Carter’s likening Pol Pot’s human right record are one to mimic by world leader. Or how about Jimmy boy’s fawning relationship with Tito or Idi Amin. Yeah, most Demoncrats are closet commie’s.
If you were smart you’d be for Rummie also, like McCain or Dolepot. You’d be likely to more Demoncrat polices through, look what the closet Demoncrat King Geogie Bush did you the demons.
Whatever………………………………………………………………………………
Traaxx
Reagan. Raised. Taxes.
Top rate 70% when he came into office, 28% when he left.
That is only a small part of the equation. I myself support a top level of 30%. I will admit I am a top5% myself, and my concern for those without is purely compassionate. In other words, I got mine. That doesn’t mean I turned in my heart to get my gold amex.
Cunty Eideard is right as usual folks. A shill for the New World Order from across the pond has a precious opinion. That’s nice. Get your eurohouse in order and get back with us when we give a damn.