Will the GOP ever get serious?

The Republicans' big-idea guys and policy wonks outlined their 2016 platforms this week. They sound a lot like 1980

BY JONATHAN BERNSTEIN


Here we go again.

We just managed to get through a campaign in which the Republican candidate’s idea of innovation was to hold a convention themed around an out-of-context quote from his opponent. But we knew Mitt Romney was at his heart a manager, not a policy innovator. So maybe it will be better next time, with new candidates such as Bobby Jindal, Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan. Right?

Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Of course, there’s still plenty of time for innovative conservative ideas. Hey, don’t laugh. Ronald Reagan campaigned on a whole book full of policy options, and as recently as 2000, George W. Bush really did feature new ideas in his campaign.

But neither John McCain nor Mitt Romney had any interest in such things – and judging from the three proto-candidates who rolled out their “ideas” this week, it looks as if Republican politicians these days don’t even remember what actual policy ideas look like.

Start with Jindal. An alleged policy guy, he published an almost embarrassingly empty op-ed this week that had all of two ideas: a Balanced Budget Amendment and term limits. In other words, the same old ideas that Republicans have been trotting out since …well, certainly since the Reagan administration. Okay, granted, Jindal’s version of the BBA is the souped-up one that Republicans have been pushing recently, but that’s even worse than the old-fashioned variety – it seems to track what Bruce Bartlett called “the dopiest Constitutional amendment of all time” when Tea Partying members of the House were pushing it in early 2011.

So not much there.

Marco Rubio? His big rollout speech was given while accepting a Jack Kemp Foundation award. His big idea, as Dave Weigel reported this week, turns out to be the exact same policy ideas that Republicans have been giving for some time now but labeling each one as a benefit for the “middle class.” Which mainly involves reciting the words “middle class.” A lot. A whole lot. As Weigel counted, 35 times.

Not much in the way of new ideas there, either.

Paul Ryan, meanwhile, also spoke at the Kemp shindig, and he continued the theme he evoked late in the campaign. It boils down to rejecting Mitt Romney’s rhetoric of “47 percent” and arguing forcefully that Republican policies are actually just what the poor should have always wanted. But as Jonathan Chait put it, Ryan has “no policy to offer the poor other than the incentive of being hungrier and sicker.”

Now, it’s true that Paul Ryan cannot be fairly accused of simply echoing back the same stale policies Republicans have been running on for three decades. Unfortunately, what he has replaced them with is a shell game; as Paul Krugman has long pointed out, Ryan – the Eddie Haskell of the GOP – is more con man than policy wonk.

Again: there’s nothing about either the Republican Party or conservative movement politics that makes it impossible to develop and run on serious policy proposals. George W. Bush, in addition to his tax cut plan, ran on education reforms and his “faith-based” initiative. Ronald Reagan adopted quite a few policies drafted at the Heritage Foundation. But that was then; now, Heritage is more comfortable with Jim DeMint, a senator who has been extremely effective at influencing the ideological composition of Republican nominees but who is not known at all for policy expertise.

What’s happened? I think a large part of it is that there’s very little incentive from conservative audiences or conservative voters for policy; what gets them excited (and reaching for their wallets, in many cases) is partisan rhetoric, not policy. For the last several years, the way to get a big reaction in conservative circles is to make a teleprompter or a birther joke, not to bring up unsolved problems in the nation. Just as Swift boats and flip-flop jokes were all the rage before that, and Whitewater, Travelgate and the rest of the nonsense they threw at Bill Clinton was popular in the 1990s.

Of course, attack politics is always popular with partisans; Democrats certainly had their share of fun with Mitt Romney’s 47 percent, and earlier generations of Republicans enjoyed attacking Walter Mondale or Jimmy Carter (and certainly enjoyed attacking Ted Kennedy). But Republicans then (like Democrats now) also attempted to find real solutions to real problems.

Indeed, if you want a good example of this, remember that Ronald Reagan ran for office promising relief from inflation when inflation was a major national problem. Republicans in 2012 ran for office promising … relief from nonexistent inflation. Rubio, at least, seems to be still fighting that fight in his speech.

Better that, apparently, than addressing what needs to be done about jobs, health care (we’ve been waiting two years now for a “replace” portion of repeal-and-replace), the climate, income inequality or any of the other things that ordinary Americans identify as things that should be fixed.

In other words, there’s just no sense at all that Republicans have become a party capable of identifying real problems in the nation and finding solutions – conservative, pragmatic or anything at all – to them. They’re just the same old group that is easily mocked for suggesting that tax cuts for the rich will be a cure-all and that has to remind itself not to insult half the electorate. Of course, there’s a long way to go before the 2014 midterms, let alone the 2016 election. But judging from what Jindal, Rubio and Ryan had to say this week, they’re going to need all that time.


http://www.salon.com/2012/12/08/will...rce=newsletter

The GOP gains in the 50 state houses has been amazing. These Tea Party driven wins have started the slow difficult process of dismantling the Progressive spend, spend, spend policies that has devastated the economies of Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, and many other states.

This week, Michigan started the process of de-legislating union power - they voted to do away with closed shop union rules !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They did this after the good citizens of Michigan overwhelmingly rejected the union-backed constitutional amendment that would have protected collective bargaining mandates.

The North Carolina statehouse, governors office, supreme court, and other key administrative positions were decisively taken over by GOP winners in November....The GOP will control the legislative agenda in that state for at least the next decade.

The GOP holds 30 of the 50 governors and has full control (both houses of the legislature and the governorship) in 23 states compared to 12 for the Democrats. The United States is far from being anything like a pure blue nation. Republicans have both a legitimate claim and the power to exercise a significant role in governing.

With the significant wins that the GOP has had it is no wonder that the Democrats (especially the Progressive wing) want to promote a false story line that the GOP needs to change it's modus operandi.........The GOP is beating the Democrats....why should they change?

The TP gains in various state houses (which, BTW, traditionally come at the end of a national movement - er, TREND - not in advance of one) have shredded the GOP's ability to create sound policy.

You cite it yourself. Michigan "starting the process" of busting the unions. Sorry bro ... ain't gonna happen. Do you really think the people of that state will stand for that? You forget them.

State Republican parties will experience in the next two years what the national republican party experienced this year. Just takes a little longer to get down to the mouth-breather level.

More evidence of the folly of your jubilation can be seen right here in Texas, where the TP nutjobs have left this state in a financial hole from which they may never recover without significant tax increases. Last legislative session was an exercise in utter futility and we're expecting more of the same in January.

And the GOP has been in control of EVERY statewide position, including the elected Supreme Court, since 1994. And Rick Perry continues to refuse federal funding that the citizens of his state have already paid for.

Is this the America you want? TP fanatics painting state governments into inescapable corners? Obviously, for you, this is preferable to the obstructionism in Washington.

Nobody ever claimed the United States was a pure blue nation. I don't believe that's a healthy scenario. But I do believe that you're a DIPSHIT!

With the significant wins that the GOP has had it is no wonder that the Democrats (especially the Progressive wing) want to promote a false story line that the GOP needs to change it's modus operandi.........The GOP is beating the Democrats....why should they change? Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Actually, dildo, that was the cry of the commentators on Faux News on election night.

Get your facts straight. Address the issues put forth in the OPs story, Donkey Hote!

GOP is sinking rapidly into the sunset. And your bullshit is getting worse with every post.

People -- what's the over/under on a Whirlyturd meltdown on the order of the recent one we've experienced by IBCrying?

It has already happened you DIPSHIT !

First on November 6th:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/no...mich-n19.shtml

Then this week:

http://www.minbcnews.com/news/story....4#.UMTP6OTAd8E

...

You cite it yourself. Michigan "starting the process" of busting the unions. Sorry bro ... ain't gonna happen. Do you really think the people of that state will stand for that? You forget them.
Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

You cite it yourself. Michigan "starting the process" of busting the unions. Sorry bro ... ain't gonna happen. Do you really think the people of that state will stand for that? You forget them.
! Originally Posted by Yssup Rider

You better read up on this.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...ts-from-union/

My point is that passing legislation is never the LAST step. It's the first step. Do you honestly think these bills will NOT face legal challenges? How fucking naive are you? Lame duck legislatures do this shit all the time. UNLESS YOU THINK THIS IS THE WORK OF THE "NEW" MICHIGAN GOP LEADERSHIP, which would make you appear even dumber than you already do.

That's why this nation has a system of checks and balances.

You're the dipshits.

Yeah; tell that to the unions in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio....they thought their supreme courts would reject the will of the people......

You think you are smart. But your dumber than most. Your posts in this thread is proof to that.

Yeah; tell that to the unions in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio....they thought their supreme courts would reject the will of the people......

You think you are smart. But your dumber than most. Your posts in this thread is proof to that. Originally Posted by Whirlaway

Yep, Whirly is "trending" once again!

AssUpRodeHardByHisGayLover thinks the judges of Michigan will save his union thug buddies.....it won't happen.

The citizens of Michigan overwhelmingly voted to reject the union demands. The GOP state legislators are making good on that expectation, and you can bet the state supreme court will as well.

How did that work out in Wisconsin

How did that work out in Wisconsin Originally Posted by oktome

Didn't you hear the latest? Wisconsin is "trending" Obama. Isn't that right WhirlyTrend?

Whatzup are you smoking dope again? Scott Walker won his recall bigger than he won his election. Or didn't you hear that? As for the original cut and paste; you have an article written by a liberal who is surmising suggestions from unidentified parties about something that will happen in four years. Why am I not interested? Anything are far as position or policy is going to be affected by the 2014 election, the economy, foreign policy, and Obama's continued incompetence. So I dismiss anything like that out of common sense. Didn't Chris "my leg is shivering" Matthews just say that the candidates in 2016 will be Hillary and Christie?

OK. I challenge anybody to read the post above mine and deny that someone isn't in the midst of apoplexy.

Deep breath, Barleybrains. My screen, while it is a very large, expensive Samung -- one of two in fact -- just dedicated to the computer end of the enterprise -- is not capable of handling the froth from your quivering piehole.

Speak English, for Christ's sake!

And go find someone to talk to...about your mother, about your father, about all the women who you pay to whip you with herrings.

You're a fick suck. And only setting gicker!