Headline by McClatchy: Will Washington state lead the GOP back to power?
Since the beginning of the Obama administration and the election of the super duper majority, news outlets have been having wet dreams over the return of the GOP. "Is this the ticket to the GOP?" "What's next for the rise of the GOP?" "Will they be able to take a Delorian back to 1994?"
And why am I pissed off? Because none of these articles even suggest what might occur if the Republicans were to regain the House or the Senate, let alone the presidency. While, McClatchy and CNN or the Times poo poo over the grand possibility of a resurgence, no one even considers the consequence. News outlets, I get it are trying to sell. Stories sell, but this drumming up of a potential Republican awakening actually is detrimental to our country. Are our memories really so short? The Republicans are responsible for a debacle over the last twenty years and given us a historical "how not to govern" play-by play. It isn't a matter of opinion, it is rooted in fact.
Two unpaid wars, insurmountable debt, maintaining the health care status quo, an unregulated and reckless financial sector, record unemployment and unabashed disdain for science and modern technology. That is what we got.
Some insist we forget the past or settle in on the now and it is exactly what the GOP would love for Americans to focus on; however if we do....well for chrisssake.
Steven Benen:
I can see why this may have a certain, surface-level appeal for some people. Never mind what happened before; let's just focus on problem-solving in the present and future. To look backwards, point fingers, and assign blame doesn't get us anywhere.
But this approach is misguided in important ways. As regular readers may recall, one of my favorite scenes in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" is when John Cleese's Sir Lancelot storms a castle, sword in hand, slaughtering most of a wedding party to save a damsel in distress. The castle owner, anxious to curry favor with Lancelot, encourages the survivors of the attack to let bygones be bygones. The castle owner tells his guests, "Let's not bicker and argue about who killed whom...."
In contemporary politics, conservatives are the castle owner, urging us not to bicker and argue about which party's rule was nearly catastrophic for the United States. As Clive Crook put it, "Who cares? ... What does it matter who caused the problem?"
Except, of course, "who did what in the past" matters very much. It's not about "finger-pointing"; it's about credibility. It's about understanding that those who are responsible for creating a mess deserve to be held accountable for their failures. It's about voters appreciating whose ideas work, whose ideas fail, and making electoral decisions accordingly.
It's about realizing who deserves to be taken seriously and who doesn't.
...We have to begin to realize that accountability and credibility still matter.
And articles and headlines like this only further the gap.
I am Frank Chow and I approved this message
Update I: Sterno makes us a great point in the comments section:
...looking back in order to analyze what was done and what it lead to is critically important. We need to understand why things went wrong so that when future politicians propose the same policies we'll know why we shouldn't elect them.
Of course it means that it's in the interests of Republicans to conflate these two concepts. To cry on about a partisan blame game rather than what it really is, trying not to make the same mistakes twice.
This isn't to say that, in the long run, we'd refuse to vote for Republicans, but rather that when they run, they need to offer something different. Republicans have been running the playbook that was written by Reagan. It was perhaps the right playbook for 1980, but we are in a very different time. Cutting taxes when they are at 70% might make sense. Cutting them when they are at 35% probably doesn't.
And then we get this prime example of what I mean, Tim Pawlenty GOP presidential hopeful and current governor of Minnesota. "Cut Spending!!!!" That's it. Oh and he calls the federal budget a "ponzi scheme" just stupid.
3 comments:
Looking back and trying to assign blame is a waste. However, looking back in order to analyze what was done and what it lead to is critically important. We need to understand why things went wrong so that when future politicians propose the same policies we'll know why we shouldn't elect them.
Of course it means that it's in the interests of Republicans to conflate these two concepts. To cry on about a partisan blame game rather than what it really is, trying not to make the same mistakes twice.
This isn't to say that, in the long run, we'd refuse to vote for Republicans, but rather that when they run, they need to offer something different. Republicans have been running the playbook that was written by Reagan. It was perhaps the right playbook for 1980, but we are in a very different time. Cutting taxes when they are at 70% might make sense. Cutting them when they are at 35% probably doesn't.
Agree with everything you said. If they aren't bringing anything, but the same ideas to the table. Stop inviting them to the table, till they do! (insert some sort of rallying cry here)
Or just wait til their ideas are relevant again :). Figure what, 40-50 years? Works for me :)
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