Thursday, September 16, 2010
Ed Kilgore at TNR:Yesterday’s eight contests all but ended 2010’s primaries, and we're now able to step back and assess their overall political impact. The immediately obvious effect of this year's contests has been to move the GOP far, far to the right—not only via successful primary challenges that overthrew incumbents, but also because the remaining independent-minded Republicans, fearing for their careers, rushed headlong into Tea Party orthodoxy. ...
The role of the Tea Party movement in this rightward shift was significant, but it was not ubiquitous. And if, like me, you think the Tea Partiers are simply a mobilized bloc of conservative Republican voters, focusing on their role as if it were some sort of independent force is a chimera. What we have actually witnessed this year is the final victory in a Fifty Year War waged by the conservative movement for control of the Republican Party. The timing of this rightward lurch is remarkable, given that the usual practice of parties which have recently lost multiple elections is to “move to the center.” And, barring some miracle, an electoral triumph for this newly hard-right Republican Party will almost certainly render the transformation semi-permanent, confirming, as it will, the longstanding belief held by “movement conservatives” that excessive moderation — usually defined as any moderation — hurts Republicans politically. ...
the events of this primary season confirm the picture of an exceptionally excited Republican Party that is moving to the ideological right as fast as is practicable. Re: The timing of this rightward lurch is remarkable, given that the usual practice of parties which have recently lost multiple elections is to “move to the center.” That would be true in ordinary circumstances where a party competes on a more-or-less even field. But now that big money has returned to politics (last seen during the Guilded Age), there is no need for compromise. If you own the megaphone (like Murdocn) or can create synthetic populist movements (as the Kochs and Armey have), then there is no need to go back to the center. Just stay on message - or go even more to the right. The money will get you in.
posted by Quiddity at 9/16/2010 02:17:00 AM
3 comments
"The money will get you in."
But it won't keep you in if all you have in mind are idiotic policies like five-year spending freezes that will do nothing but plunge this country into Great Depression II.
Sorry, DPT, but we're already in the Great Depression II. The Democrats have already admitted it, saying that unemployment will stay where it is indefinitely. With almost 25% of all Americans out of work (the real number), Obama and the Socialist Democrats have achieved their goal -- in less than 2 years, they have left the greatest country in the world broke and ruined.
The Tea Party is the last chance to save the United States from the Democratic Socialists. The next few years are going to be brutal but necessary.
Don't expect a spending freeze. This new Congress is expected to produce nothing less than a balanced budget. This means massive, across the board slashing of all government spending. Massive federal employee layoffs. Complete defunding of virtually every Federal program not specifically authorized by the United States Constitution.
Also, expect comprehensive Congressional investigations into the corrupt Obama administration. Geithner hauled in front of Congress to explain to the nation exactly what the administration has done with the TARP money. Bernanke hauled in front of Congress and ordered to produce a complete public audit of the Federal Reserve.
Eric Holder put in front of Congress and ordered to explain his decision to not enforce the voting rights act and to dismiss the Black Panther after the government won the case and before the sentencing of the convicted criminals.
Impeachments and Congressional trials for the whole damn bunch of them.
In short, the job of the next Congress will be to shut down and start dismantling the parts of the Federal Government not specifically and explicitly authorized by the Constitution. Get rid of all the entitlement program deadwood like the bankrupt Social Security system, Medicare, and Medicaid. Double-tapping Obamacare in the crib. Lay off 50-60% of all Federal employees, about a million of them, and you'll start to see the budget deficit start to come under control. Then we can start the long process of paying off the national debt and getting our country back on its feet.
Q, small correction.. It is "Gilded Age."
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