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May 21, 2008

We're done with you

Is 2008 a transformative year? It's hard to say but I'm thinking that in 20 years we'll look back and see that this was the year where things started to change. No, it's not about Obama or Clinton or the lackluster Democratic Congress constantly stymied by incompetent and petty Republicans and a childish President completely out of touch with the country he leads.

It's about people waking up and realizing that the 'conservative' agenda of the radical right over the last 28 years was a massive, unadulterated failure, as much if not more than the Great Society which did much but ultimately failed to achieve the goals set for it.

Reality is a bitch as many are learning on a daily basis when they go to fill up the gas tank or when they try desperately to figure out how they will be able to feed their family. In the harsh light of that reality, two men getting married thousands of miles away is pretty irrelevant. Worry about abortions, the number of which was always grossly exaggerated, is a distant second to how to buy the $7 box of Cheerios. The realization that constant tax cuts lead to deficits and higher interest rates, not to mention a massive failure to invest in our future through new infrastructure, has certainly hit many like a bag of hammers. Every month when the credit card bills come.

Burka on Sunday posted a memo from some R Congressman who understands just a small fraction of what's happening. Even Rove is apparently getting it. Their solution? Pound on the Democrats about gas prices by pointing out that they don't support drilling in ANWR (with a projected production cost of $50-60/bbl and not enough of it to affect prices) and destruction of the Rocky Mountains to get at oil shale (at a cost of more than $90/bbl and, even when combined with ANWR, not enough to affect prices).

See how I did that? I'm one blogger, I don't work in the energy sector and even I know how ridiculous the Republicans (especially Cornyn and Hutchison) are on energy policy and what needs to happen to fix the constantly accelerating consumer costs. This isn't hard to understand unless you're incapable of looking at things through anything other than a partisan, ideologically tinted, glass.

On the economy and tax cuts, the Republicans are decimated by Democrats. On National Security, they poll better but still heavily damaged. Just wait until Americans learn just how much of Afghanistan we really control. The R Congressman Burka posted about wants to talk about FISA, especially if there's another terrorist attack (a prospect he views with glee as he's of the opinion it will help Republican chances in November). For the FISA debate, feel free to bring it up. It's not like we aren't ready. By the time that debate is over, the American people will be looking for convictions of those in the Administration who aided and abetted the illegal wiretapping.

Again, I'm just one blogger. There are others, like Eye on Williamson, that are seeing the same damn thing.

There is a baseline from which things will stabilize for the Republicans. We've yet to reach it. You'll see the crescendo this year when angry people confront Republican candidates loudly and unyieldingly. Once one voice is heard, others will chime in and soon it will become a chorus. Many of you are incredibly weak people who have never faced a really angry crowd. You're going to get to this year and, frankly, you deserve every bit of the verbal and written abuse coming to you.

Posted by mcblogger at May 21, 2008 08:53 AM

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Comments

I cannot agree more with your assessment of 28 years of utter failure of the empty "conservative agenda," but I find your camparison with the Great Society problematic.

Dating the failure of the Right from the Reagan administration is about right. You can smile and smile and still be a villain.

But the Great Society succeeded in lifting millions out of poverty, created social programs we take for granted today and did so despite a stunted 5-year run. Lyndon Johnson began passing the legislation in 1964 and Richard Nixon began undermining and vaporizing its best programs in 1969.

The way Nixon did this-endlessly reorganizing and "streamlining" agencies, replacing qualified professionals with hacks and cronies, torturing plain language interpreting their statutes, actually formed the pattern Bush (never original at anything) used to complete the demolition or perversion of most of the rest of federal human services and regulatory agencies.

(This has extended with GOP rule to similar recent perversions closer to home, e.g. Texas AG Greg Abbott's prosecution of only Democrats and mostly minorities under laws originally enacted to protect both political and racial minorities. But I digress).

My point is, given the results of 28 years of GOP perfidy versus a scant five to actually raise America's standard of living and economic security, one needs to acknowledge both the scale and intent of each.

As LBJ might say, only one of them is chicken salad.

Posted by: BigUncle at May 21, 2008 12:11 PM

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