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Reports

The GOP Identity Crisis

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Posted on Oct 13, 2008

By Eugene Robinson

    Since George W. Bush became president, the Republican Party has presided over massive, out-of-control government spending, converted a federal budget surplus into a half-trillion-dollar deficit, and looked the other way while Wall Street’s greed and stupidity turned the hallowed free market into scorched earth. Now the party has to watch as a Republican president orchestrates the biggest government intervention into the workings of the private sector since the New Deal.

    Can any Republican candidate claim with a straight face to represent the party of small government? For that matter, can any Republican candidate plausibly explain what the party is supposed to stand for these days?

    It’s pathetic to hear right-wing talk radio blowhards try to associate Barack Obama with “radical” or “socialist” views when a Republican administration is tossing aside “Atlas Shrugged” and speed-reading “Das Kapital.”

    The Federal Reserve even announced Monday that it will make unlimited quantities of dollars available for currency swaps with the Bank of England, the European Central Bank and the Swiss National Bank, as these institutions scramble to keep major commercial banks from failing—and potentially taking U.S. banks with them. None of Bush’s Cabinet members could be heard sniffing about the effete irrelevance of “Old Europe.” 

    This attitude adjustment is necessary, mind you. The question isn’t whether some kind of drastic, frankly socialistic measures are needed to save the American economy, but which ones—buying up toxic mortgage-based investments (as the White House said it would do), buying up the troubled mortgages themselves (as John McCain wants to do), or pouring money into selected banks and taking part ownership (as the White House now says it will do). Sitting back and letting the dire situation correct itself is not an option, because the market’s phoenix-like solution begins with self-immolation.

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    Politically, though, there is at least some justice in the fact that a Republican president has to deal with this Republican-made crisis. That little piece of irony isn’t worth $700 billion, but so far it’s all we’re getting.

    After eight years of the Bush administration, the Republican Party—to put it bluntly—is a mess and a fraud.

    There is an intellectual case to be made for the economic philosophy that the party purports to represent. I disagree with it strongly, but I respect its integrity—in a way that this administration and the Republican leadership in Congress clearly did not.

    The Republican Party said it believed in free and unfettered competition, but it picked winners and losers through a system of crony capitalism. All it takes to make my point is a name: Jack Abramoff.

    The Bush tax cuts, which heavily favored the wealthy, showed that the president and his allies in Congress didn’t believe in progressive taxation. I think that’s outrageous, but the administration goes further and actually seems to prefer a regressive tax scheme. That’s the only explanation I can think of for why hedge fund managers making hundreds of millions of dollars a year pay taxes at a lower rate than their chauffeurs.

    Now that it’s election time, the party—as usual—is trying to convince Americans that it stands on the side of the little guy. Sarah Palin has been trotted out to convince everyone that the party cares deeply about the eternal roster of cultural issues—God, guns, gays, abortion, etc. If McCain and Palin were elected, the party would doubtless return these issues to the storage locker until the next election, at which point they would be dusted off once more.

    Oh, and isn’t the Republican Party supposed to stand foursquare against intrusions on privacy? Then why were Republicans so unmoved when it was revealed that the Bush administration had been conducting unprecedented surveillance of Americans’ private electronic communications?

    When Ronald Reagan was president, I had a sense of what ideas and principles his party stood for. When Newt Gingrich and his “Contract With America” brigade took Washington by storm in 1994, I knew what they believed—loopy though it was—and what they hoped to accomplish. I defy anyone to give a coherent explanation of what today’s Republican Party, under George Bush and now John McCain, wants to do except perpetuate itself in power.

    When a political party reaches the point of lurching incoherence, the most effective cure is a good, long spell in the wilderness. Americans should help Republicans out by sending them home to get their act together.

    Eugene Robinson’s e-mail address is eugenerobinson(at)washpost.com.

    © 2008, Washington Post Writers Group


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By cyrena, October 16, 2008 at 7:34 pm #

By Purple Girl, October 14 at 5:34 am #


Barb Boxer just won some Brownie pints back yesterday when asked if we should only Look Ahead or if we need to look back to the Cause of this Economic Crisis…..She said we Must look Back to assure it never happens again. Did she ellaborate on Convictions for these high Crimes, slightly.bu tthen again we don’t want to tip our hands too far with such stratedgic Plans..the lil’ SOB’s will be heading to their Havens in the UAE.

~~~~

THANKS Purple Girl, (as usual) for pointing this out. Just like 9/11, the WHY as well as the how is critical. These criminals have refused to address the WHY 9/11 happened, and they damn sure don’t want to get into the ‘how’ either, because they are a million percent complict in, and responsible for the fact that we would be subject to attack.

Same thing with the crashed economy. Boxer knows, (as should anybody paying any attention for the past 30 years) how this came about. And yeah, spiritgirl is right, Regan kicked it off in earnest with PATCO. (the air controllers bust up). So, decades of labor struggles basically down the drain.

And Eugene hit it all right on spot. Deregulation and lawlessness from the Rethuglicans is where we can point the fingers. And we will. Oh yeah…we definitely will.

I agree that it would be a mistake to tip our hands fully, (even though these criminals already have their bags packed and their stolen loot stashed) because it would be foolish to give them any more advantage (or head start) than they already have planned. This is what a whole bunch of folks still haven’t figured out about Obama. He’s not tipping all of his hand either; at least not in respect to this criminal establishment.

GREAT piece from Mr. Robinson here! (as usual).

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By Kitsch, October 16, 2008 at 6:50 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

The GOP is the FEAR and LOATHING party.

Report this

By samosamo, October 16, 2008 at 12:37 pm #

Not a better example of the economic, political, religious, environmental and justice systems being totally dysfunctional for the people yet highly lucrative and profitable for the crooks that openly lie, cheat, steal and kill for their greed. And then to be broken down(pun intended) into the choice of the ‘LEAST WORST’ is in actuality, NO CHOICE, a looser’s choice.
To me it is so bad because nothing is basically hidden since the criminal mind has infected and gamed the systems, all of it is openly manifested to the point that it is accepted because the ‘elite’ have bought their way into this position which says ‘money rules’. And has anyone said ONE thing about fixing this? NO, ergo, the choice of the LEAST WORSE which leaves us the ‘hurry up and wait’ case of who will become president, IF that happens at all, and what will they actually do.

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By Inherit The Wind, October 15, 2008 at 5:13 pm #

troublesum, October 14 at 2:08 am #

What democrats stand for, that is the question.
***********************************************
Actually, how much will they stand for, THAT is the question!

“In my day a college widow stood for something!
(In fact, she stood for plenty!)” (waggle eyebrows)
—Professor Quincy Wagstaff, aka, Groucho Marx

Report this

By royf, October 15, 2008 at 4:00 pm #

Earth to Mr. Robinson:

I can give a coherent explanation of what the Republican Party is all about.  It is about taking money from from us ordinary people’s pockets and putting it in The Billionaires’ pockets.

In complete contrast, what the Democratic Party is now all about is taking money from from us ordinary people’s pockets and putting it in The Billionaires’ pockets.

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By Spiritgirl2, October 15, 2008 at 1:29 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

You’re wrong about the grade “B” actor - his greatest role was as President!  His war on the working class started with the firing of the Air Traffic Controllers, and decimating the union they belonged to!  It has been down-hill since then.

When Newt & the gang with their “Contract on America” came about I realized there was a fundamental difference between what was said and what was done!  The Lee Atwater make them afraid at all costs was very effective, along with the paying off of the pimps in the pulpit! The funny part is that they bill themselves as the “family values” party, what nerve!  Hubris, greed, corruption, violence, and poverty for everyone else, that is what this party stands for!

While it was not my vote that ensconced W. in the White House that fear factor has been the hallmark of his Mis-Administration!  He is a man that was a drunken frat boy, never ran a successful company (they all failed), and as Governor of Texas had one of the worst records high teen-pregnancy, H.S. drop-out rates, death penalty rates in the lower 48, and yet the sheeple chose this idiot to run the country?!?!  What pills were they taking, because we are all going to need something to get us thru this b.s.!

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By Paul_GA, October 15, 2008 at 10:36 am #

What Roy says is quite true; Reagan made possible the two Bushes (and also Bill Clinton). And yet the Repubs build Ronnie up to be a sort of GOP version of FDR (probably because no one has a living memory of Lincoln, the original GOP “saint”).

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By Anarcissie, October 15, 2008 at 8:25 am #

I think the idea that Reagan invented lying is cute.

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By Roy Sablosky, October 14, 2008 at 10:06 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Anarcissie says, “Reagan Democrat-ized the Republican Party”. This is false and misleading. Reagan (or his advisors) discovered that you can do almost anything you want to, if you are willing to lie through your teeth, all day long, about *why* you’re doing it. This innovation made the Bushes possible, exposing the United States and several other countries to epochal tragedy.

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By Anarcissie, October 14, 2008 at 3:40 pm #

Reagan Democrat-ized the Republican Party: big spending, foreign interventionism and war, completed the “Southern Strategy” of taking in the social conservatives and Fundamentalists formerly on the Democrats’ plantation, while dumping out several million Black and Hispanic voters.  No wonder the GOP is confused.

As for the Democrats, with the Republicans gone off in every direction so wildly, they’re quietly playing a “we have no beliefs or identity, but at least we’re not crazy” game, which may turn out to be a winner in the end.

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By Steve, October 14, 2008 at 1:38 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

What do either of these parties stand for??  Forget about McCain and forget about Obama.  NOW IS THE TIME FOR ARMED REVOLUTION!!!

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By knute, October 14, 2008 at 11:58 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

It appears that the only thing the grand old party stands for since Saint Reagan is “GREED”. Well greed and maybe monster truck rallies and above all, a contempt for our constitution championed by an admin. they have been rubber-stamping for these past 8 years. The republicans in Congress and the republicans on mainstreet, some our neighbors, all deserve our collective contempt for enabling these past 8 years of lunacy.

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By Paul_GA, October 14, 2008 at 11:01 am #

Rene, since when did either of the two major parties stand for anything other than power and perks?

A plague on both their houses!

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By Purple Girl, October 14, 2008 at 9:34 am #

Barb Boxer just won some Brownie pints back yesterday when asked if we should only Look Ahead or if we need to look back to the Cause of this Economic Crisis…..She said we Must look Back to assure it never happens again. Did she ellaborate on Convictions for these high Crimes, slightly.bu tthen again we don’t want to tip our hands too far with such stratedgic Plans..the lil’ SOB’s will be heading to their Havens in the UAE.
What they may not realize is that it will not only be US hunting them down, but all those they helped Screw over in the UAE countries. So Run Forest Run, they are Quick and far more skilled at passing Judgement and rendering Punishment than US!Thoop! Consider it an Opportunity to Work Across the ‘Aisle’, Kind of like Skeet Shooting- One Releases, the other Fires.

Report this

By troublesum, October 14, 2008 at 6:08 am #

What democrats stand for, that is the question.

Report this

By Rene Tihista, October 14, 2008 at 1:35 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

A wonderfully accurate and concise skewering.  But Mr. Robinson, you are too kind to the Reagan era fraud.  It started there with St. Ronnie the Con Artist.  Dr. Feelgood set the stage for this tragic charade.  There is no Republican or Conservative “philosophy” other than so called free market Friedmanism.  The markets will always correct themselves, Uncle Miltie propounded.  Yeah right.  When we look back now at the stewardship of our economy by Alan Greenspan we now see how insane was the course of our Ship of State.  The Republican Party stands for NOTHING!!  It hasn’t since the Presidency of Abraham Lincoln.

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