Republican incompetence

You will never surpass gay rey as the biggest faggot on the forum, but thanks for trying. Originally Posted by i'va biggen
This is true. Gay Reytardo is beyond a faggot. He's so gay, be brushes his teeth with semen, just so he feels at home
Conservative columnist David Brooks nails it.

The Republicans’ Incompetence Caucus

OCT. 13, 2015


The House Republican caucus is close to ungovernable these days. How did this situation come about?


This was not just the work of the Freedom Caucus or Ted Cruz or one month’s activity. The Republican Party’s capacity for effective self-governance degraded slowly, over the course of a long chain of rhetorical excesses, mental corruptions and philosophical betrayals. Basically, the party abandoned traditional conservatism for right-wing radicalism. Republicans came to see themselves as insurgents and revolutionaries, and every revolution tends toward anarchy and ends up devouring its own.
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By traditional definitions, conservatism stands for intellectual humility, a belief in steady, incremental change, a preference for reform rather than revolution, a respect for hierarchy, precedence, balance and order, and a tone of voice that is prudent, measured and responsible. Conservatives of this disposition can be dull, but they know how to nurture and run institutions. They also see the nation as one organic whole. Citizens may fall into different classes and political factions, but they are still joined by chains of affection that command ultimate loyalty and love.


All of this has been overturned in dangerous parts of the Republican Party. Over the past 30 years, or at least since Rush Limbaugh came on the scene, the Republican rhetorical tone has grown ever more bombastic, hyperbolic and imbalanced. Public figures are prisoners of their own prose styles, and Republicans from Newt Gingrich through Ben Carson have become addicted to a crisis mentality. Civilization was always on the brink of collapse. Every setback, like the passage of Obamacare, became the ruination of the republic. Comparisons to Nazi Germany became a staple.
This produced a radical mind-set. Conservatives started talking about the Reagan “revolution,” the Gingrich “revolution.” Among people too ill educated to understand the different spheres, political practitioners adopted the mental habits of the entrepreneur. Everything had to be transformational and disruptive. Hierarchy and authority were equated with injustice. Self-expression became more valued than self-restraint and coalition building. A contempt for politics infested the Republican mind.
Politics is the process of making decisions amid diverse opinions. It involves conversation, calm deliberation, self-discipline, the capacity to listen to other points of view and balance valid but competing ideas and interests.

But this new Republican faction regards the messy business of politics as soiled and impure. Compromise is corruption. Inconvenient facts are ignored. Countrymen with different views are regarded as aliens. Political identity became a sort of ethnic identity, and any compromise was regarded as a blood betrayal.

A weird contradictory mentality replaced traditional conservatism. Republican radicals have contempt for politics, but they still believe that transformational political change can rescue the nation. Republicans developed a contempt for Washington and government, but they elected leaders who made the most lavish promises imaginable. Government would be reduced by a quarter! Shutdowns would happen! The nation would be saved by transformational change! As Steven Bilakovics writes in his book “Democracy Without Politics,” “even as we expect ever less of democracy we apparently expect ever more from democracy.”


This anti-political political ethos produced elected leaders of jaw-dropping incompetence. Running a government is a craft, like carpentry. But the new Republican officials did not believe in government and so did not respect its traditions, its disciplines and its craftsmanship. They do not accept the hierarchical structures of authority inherent in political activity.

In his masterwork, “Politics as a Vocation,” Max Weber argues that the pre-eminent qualities for a politician are passion, a feeling of responsibility and a sense of proportion. A politician needs warm passion to impel action but a cool sense of responsibility and proportion to make careful decisions in a complex landscape.

If a politician lacks the quality of detachment — the ability to let the difficult facts of reality work their way into the mind — then, Weber argues, the politician ends up striving for the “boastful but entirely empty gesture.” His work “leads nowhere and is senseless.”

Welcome to Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and the Freedom Caucus.

Really, have we ever seen bumbling on this scale, people at once so cynical and so naïve, so willfully ignorant in using levers of power to produce some tangible if incremental good? These insurgents can’t even acknowledge democracy’s legitimacy — if you can’t persuade a majority of your colleagues, maybe you should accept their position. You might be wrong!
People who don’t accept democracy will be bad at conversation. They won’t respect tradition, institutions or precedent. These figures are masters at destruction but incompetent at construction.

These insurgents are incompetent at governing and unwilling to be governed. But they are not a spontaneous growth. It took a thousand small betrayals of conservatism to get to the dysfunction we see all around. Originally Posted by timpage
When the Democratic presidential field consists of a criminal and a socialist, you really don't have much room to talk about the issues splintering the Republican Party right now.
When the Democratic presidential field consists of a criminal and a socialist, you really don't have much room to talk about the issues splintering the Republican Party right now. Originally Posted by SinsOfTheFlesh
One has nothing to do with the other.
CuteOldGuy's Avatar
You're confusing debt with deficit... Originally Posted by WombRaider
How is she confusing debt and deficit? The national debt is $18 trillion.


Your stupid is showing again. You don't know the difference between the debt and the deficit.


Are you able to dress and feed yourself? You make LittleEva look like Stephen Hawking.
You make LittleEva look like Stephen Hawking. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
You and JLIdiot look like a couple of losing Welshers!!

Pay up, Bitches!
dirty dog's Avatar
You and JLIdiot look like a couple of losing Welshers!!

Pay up, Bitches! Originally Posted by bigtex
put up the proof or shut up fat ass.
  • DSK
  • 10-19-2015, 06:43 AM
You're confusing debt with deficit... Originally Posted by WombRaider
No, she isn't. You seem to be...
One has nothing to do with the other. Originally Posted by WombRaider
It's easier than trying to defend the GOP clown car.
put up the proof or shut up fat ass. Originally Posted by dirty dog
I did, go find it dumb ass.

Meanwhile, COG pay up!
When the Democratic presidential field consists of a criminal and a socialist, you really don't have much room to talk about the issues splintering the Republican Party right now. Originally Posted by SinsOfTheFlesh
Sure I do. The only thing more pathetic than the Democratic presidential candidates are the Republican presidential candidates. And, I intend to post about it frequently. So, get used to it.
How is she confusing debt and deficit? The national debt is $18 trillion.


Your stupid is showing again. You don't know the difference between the debt and the deficit.


Are you able to dress and feed yourself? You make LittleEva look like Stephen Hawking. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
Because Obama has reduced the deficit, dumbass. Your stupid is always showing. Deficit is yearly, debt is overall. Keep trying, you fucking idiot.
How is she confusing debt and deficit? The national debt is $18 trillion.


Your stupid is showing again. You don't know the difference between the debt and the deficit.


Are you able to dress and feed yourself? You make LittleEva look like Stephen Hawking. Originally Posted by CuteOldGuy
He makes you look like Tonto, dull knife.
I B Hankering's Avatar
Because Obama has reduced the deficit, dumbass. Your stupid is always showing. Deficit is yearly, debt is overall. Keep trying, you fucking idiot. Originally Posted by WombRaider
Actually, you "#Grubered", freelance faggot, Odumbo Minion from Arkansas, if your stupid-ass could read and understand the Constitution, your stupid-ass would know that it is Congress that controls the purse strings; not Odumbo. Furthermore, even an illiterate 2nd grader, like you, you "#Grubered", freelance faggot, Odumbo Minion from Arkansas, can see that the deficit increased and spiked while that dim-retard Pelosi was running the show, and it's been going down since the Republicans took over, you "#Grubered", freelance faggot, Odumbo Minion from Arkansas.
Actually, you "#Grubered", freelance faggot, Odumbo Minion from Arkansas, if your stupid-ass could read and understand the Constitution, your stupid-ass would know that it is Congress that controls the purse strings; not Odumbo. Furthermore, even an illiterate 2nd grader, like you, you "#Grubered", freelance faggot, Odumbo Minion from Arkansas, can see that the deficit increased and spiked while that dim-retard Pelosi was running the show, and it's been going down since the Republicans took over, you "#Grubered", freelance faggot, Odumbo Minion from Arkansas. Originally Posted by I B Hankering
+ 1 !!!!! ( woomby after THAT post > )
CuteOldGuy's Avatar
Because Obama has reduced the deficit, dumbass. Your stupid is always showing. Deficit is yearly, debt is overall. Keep trying, you fucking idiot. Originally Posted by WombRaider
She didn't have that confused, my ignorant little friend. You did. Why? Because you're stupid.