Category: Politics

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Christian Politics right winged

The Conservative Wave Is Cresting: Next Comes the Crash

If you listen carefully, you can hear it gathering momentum, foam, vitriol, recrimination and self-serving hypocrisy. It’s the conservative wave roaring towards the beach, cresting and ready to crash. The 2012 election will be the beginning of the end for the far-right conservatives and, like the liberals who didn’t see their wave tumble in 1984, will likely lead to an even uglier aftermath. Republicans are angry now: Imagine what will happen if they lose another presidential election this year (and they will), especially if they’re able to hold on to the House and take back the Senate. So close, yet so far.

The conservative Republican era that began in 1980 and tilted the country to the right had a good run if you supported the cause, but it was never able to achieve its stated goals of severely scaling back government, ending the New Deal and Great Society programs, overturning Roe v. Wade, and ending the progressive tax structure (though they’ve come pretty close with this one). They built up the military and got a Democratic president to end welfare, passed a too-expensive Medicare prescription plan and raised taxes enough to begin to pay off the deficit, though that cost George H. W. Bush his reelection.

The era lasted because Ronald Reagan and both Bushes were able to tame the party’s conflicting passions. Reagan galvanized the economic old guard GOP while paying lip service to the religious conservatives led by Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson. Reagan was never a religious person but he talked the talk well enough to keep the support of Christian conservatives, and really, where else were they going to go? That he was able to raise taxes, reform Social Security and work with liberal Democrats speaks to his political skills. The Bushes had a mixed record with the party’s disparate groups. George H.W. inherited Reagan’s mantle, but he was considered suspect on abortion. W. was more conservative, but still did not fight all that hard for the religious agenda.

Of course, the damage that all three presidents did with their hostility to government, marginalization of gays and women, and their Supreme Court choices will endure for many years.

The more recent history of the movement shows most conclusively that it is indeed on its wheezing last breath. The public still sees the Republican Party as the architect of the economic disaster of 2008, and as the economy improves President Obama will get the lion’s share of the rewards. More people support marriage equality than oppose it and the recent flap over contraception shows that the GOP is out of touch with the way most Americans, especially women, view both the birth control and religious issues.

That brings us to why this is the beginning of the end.

The far right wing of the Republican Party is driving the party’s agenda and there’s not one candidate who’s shown they can corral the competing factions. Conservative reaction to Mitt Romney ranges from suspect to hostile and none of the other candidates can claim the right’s support. Yet. That might change as Rick Santorum showed in winning three non-binding primaries last week.

If anything, the nomination battle has proven that the movement has splintered along economic, social and religious lines. Many of the proposals we’ve heard are meant to appeal to the far fringe Tea Party wing of the party (Ron Paul) or to the religious conservatives (Santorum and Gingrich). Romney’s attempts to appeal to the center while throwing the right some scraps on abortion and taxes have so far fallen short of gaining wide acceptance.

None of the candidates would take the deal that offered $10 in budget cuts for $1 in tax increases. Some in the party still question President Obama’s citizenship and religion, and the candidates accuse him of the most outlandish things: anti-religion, creating a communist state, forsaking Israel, and wanting Iran to get a nuclear weapon.

It’s an extreme agenda to say the least, and it will lead to the GOP’s crash. History shows that when you lose the middle of your constituency, you lose your mandate to govern. The Republican Party is on that path.

My sense is that this will all be exposed during the general election campaign and, combined with an improving economy, will result in Obama’s reelection. The 2010 Congressional elections resulted in redistricting that solidified the Republican’s majorities in the House, though Tea Party seats are certainly up for grabs in many districts, and the Democrats have to defend too many Senate seats to count on continued control of that chamber. Conservatives will still hold sway on many issues, but the wave is over. The United States won’t become more liberal, but it will become less conservative and less extreme. Most Republicans probably don’t see this trend coming, and it’s already too late to stop it.

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Mitt Romney Politics

Romney’s “Severely Conservative” Statement Causing Conservatives Severe Pain

Mitt Romney‘s statement at CPAC that he is “severely conservative” is causing some other conservative leaders to scratch their heads. Richard A. Viguerie, the Chairman of ConservativeHQ.com, had this to say after hearing Romney’s proclamation.

“In my 50 years in conservative politics at the national level, I have never heard anyone other than Governor Romney describe himself as ‘severely’ conservative.

“Romney has shown, once again, that he can mouth the words conservatives use, but he has no gut-level emotional connection with the conservative movement and its ideas and policies.

“To paraphrase a story about Mark Twain, one day his wife decided to repeat some of his more colorful four-letter words to embarrass him into cleaning up his language. After absorbing the barrage, the author thought for a moment and said, ‘Honey, you’ve got the words right, but you just don’t have the tune.’

“After 50 years in the conservative movement, I can say with some authority: Mitt, you may have the words of conservatism right, but you just don’t have the tune.”

“I wasn’t quite sure what the word ‘severely’ meant,” Sarah Palin told CNN, and Rush Limbaugh found it odd that Romney felt the need to express just how conservative he was. “I have never heard anybody say, ‘I’m severely conservative,” Limbaugh said, “no, I’ve never heard anybody SAY it.”

I don’t agree with Rush Limbaugh on anything, but on this issue I see his point. If you have to go this far and use these type of words to describe your ideology, then something’s really wrong. Like the old saying goes, “action speaks louder than words.” So because of Mitt’s lack of Conservative actions as governor of Massachusetts, he’s now trying to fool some by using his words.

Sad part is, Conservatives are so easily fooled.

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Politics republican candidates

Thomas Friedman – Republicans Should Just “Sit This Election Out”

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times writes:

WATCHING the Republican Party struggling to agree on a presidential candidate, one wonders whether the G.O.P. shouldn’t just sit this election out — just give 2012 a pass.

You know how in Scrabble sometimes you look at your seven letters and you’ve got only vowels that spell nothing? What do you do? You go back to the pile. You throw your letters back and hope to pick up better ones to work with. That’s what Republican primary voters seem to be doing. They just keep going back to the pile but still coming up with only vowels that spell nothing.

There’s a reason for that: Their pile is out of date. The party has let itself become the captive of conflicting ideological bases: anti-abortion advocates, anti-immigration activists, social conservatives worried about the sanctity of marriage, libertarians who want to shrink government, and anti-tax advocates who want to drown government in a bathtub.

Great analogy. Republican presidential candidates for 2012 amounts to… nothing!

Categories
Politics weekly address

President Obama Reminds Us – No Action In Congress Could Raise Your Taxes This Month

President Obama used his weekly Presidential address to call on Congress to “do the right thing” on the expiring Payroll Tax issue. The tax extension recently agreed to is set to expire at the end of February.

… at the end of the month, taxes are set to go up on 160 million working Americans. If you’re one of them, then you know better than anyone that the last thing you need right now is a tax hike.  But if Congress refuses to act, middle class taxes will go up.  It’s that simple.

Echoing recent appeals to the public, the President called on Americans to pick up the phone and call their congressperson and demand that they extend the Payroll Tax Cuts.

 I hope you’ll pick up the phone, send a tweet, write an email, and tell your representative that they should get this done before it gets too late.  Tell them not to play politics again by linking this debate to unrelated issues. Tell them not to manufacture another needless standoff or crisis.  Tell them not to stand in the way of the recovery.  Tell them to just do their job.  That’s what our middle class needs.  That’s what our country needs.

Categories
Mitt Romney Politics Rick Santorum

Once An Independent And Moderate, Mitt Romney Now Calls Himself A Conservative

Mitt Romney‘s back is up against the wall. His agility to win is being questioned by some of his most ardent supporters and conservatives are still looking for another candidate to carry their banner into the 2012 Presidential election.

They believed Donald Trump was going to be their poster-boy when he toyed with their emotions about running, but soon realized that Trump was just trying to boost viewership of his Apprentice television show. And they hauled their hopes and prayers on the back of Michelle Bachmann, but soon realized that she was too much of a right winged nut-job for their nut-job liking.

Rick Perry was their god and their savior, until he opened his mouth and tried to talk. He was packed up and shipped back to Texas just as fast as he was welcomed and urged into the nomination process. And then there was Herman Cain, who actually managed to carry the conservative mantle for about a month, but after everyone and their mother began accusing him of sexual misconduct, Cain too was shipped back to the pizza joint he crawled out of.

Newt Gingrich will be Newt Gingrich. Conservatives gave him a win in South Carolina then watched as Gingrich self-destruct. Unable to contain the euphoria of his win, Newt crowned himself the man, tooting his own horn, then losing miserably in Florida.

Throughout all this Mitt Romney fumbled, flipped and flopped his way through the debates. He even agreed in one debate that Newt Gingrich was more of a conservative than he was.

Then there was this little nugget when Romney admitted to being an independent.

I was an Independent through Reagan/Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan/Bush.

Throughout the years, Mitt Romney’s been an Independent, accused of being a moderate, he’s been “a businessman and not a politician,” and he’s even been accused of being a liberal because of his views of many social issues. But at no time in his business or political life has anyone ever accused Mr Romney of being a Conservative… until now. With the last three caucus and primary wins by the self-proclaimed Conservative Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney is now, suddenly, “severely conservative.”

“I fought against long odds in a deep blue state, but I was a severely conservative Republican governor,” Romney said, trying to convince the group at this week’s CPAC meeting.

“I did things conservatism is designed for – I started new businesses and turned around broken ones. And I am not ashamed to say that I was very successful at it. I know conservatism because I have lived conservatism.”

This guy really wants to be president, but pandering to a particular group telling them what you think they want to hear is not the pathway to the White House. Mitt Romney is still living in the old days where candidates spoke to certain groups without fear of their words going viral. He must somehow learn to pattern a message for the country, instead of the group he is talking to at that moment.

But sticking to one message that would appeal to the nation would require some level of honesty, and honesty is something flip floppers lack.

Categories
Christianity Politics Rick Santorum

Santorum Use Christianity To Foster Fear In His Followers

How low do you have to go to call yourself a Christian, then use Christianity and its teachings as a fear mechanism for keeping your faithful followers in check by lying to them and invoking their deepest fears – that their faith is being challenged by the all powerful, all mighty president, Mr. Obama?!

Well, if you’re Rick Santorum, you can go pretty low. In the video below, Santorum does just that as he used God and Christianity to tell the audience that President Obama has taken us 1down a road of “overt hostility to faith in America.”

Categories
Politics

Mitt Romney’s Supporters Concerned – Maybe He Can’t Win After-all

Supporters of  Mitt Willard Romney are beginning to ask questions. They are taking a second – and in some cases, a third look – at their candidate, and they are wondering if he really has what it takes to beat President Obama in the fall election.

With his unlimited cash flow and his support from big Wall Street brokers and hedge fund managers, many thought the Republican nomination would have already been paid for by the Romney campaign, but Rick Santorum’s recent trifecta wins in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota solidified what many already knew – that they were supporting a weak candidate who has no appeal no platform and no message on how he will help America if elected.

Even before Rick Santorum’s surprising sweep of three contests on Tuesday, the Romney campaign was receiving a steady stream of advice — and warnings — from Republicans who are increasingly anxious about Romney’s performance, which has not improved over nearly six weeks since the state caucuses and primaries began.

One prominent adviser told the candidate to sharpen his use of conservative code words and create “small pictures” — vivid imagery, in other words — to connect with voters. Another flew to Boston to say that Romney’s message is too businesslike and broad to capture the passion of angry Republican voters. Still others have gone on television and written opinion columns to hammer home what is becoming a common theme this year: that Romney has not been able to ignite a cause when the GOP is primed to become part of one.

After Romney’s three wins, five losses and his solid lead in delegates, most Republicans said they still think he will win the nomination.

But they see a candidate who lacks broad support among conservatives, and whose recent defeats reveal that his organization is not quite as unstoppable as many supporters had thought.

Categories
Politics Rick Santorum

Rick Santorum Says Hiring Women Catholic Priests is a “Hostile” Act

Apparently, according to the Catholic Church, president Obama is waging a war on their religion. The war the Catholics claim, is the requirement approved by the president’s administration that calls on employers to provide an option for contraception in their employees health care policies.

Of course, no one is explaining that this law has been in effect for the last 10 years through the EEOC — Equal Employment Opportunity Commission , or the fact that the Catholic University in Washington DC is already providing this option to their employees. And everyone seems to forget the waiver included in the law for Churches.

But manufactured crisis is what gets the spotlight, and even Congressional Republicans like John Boehner has joined the war, choosing his obvious position and firing on the president.

“In imposing this requirement, the federal government is violating a First Amendment right that has stood for more than two centuries, and it is doing so in a manner that affects millions of Americans and harms some of our nation’s most vital institutions,” Boehner, R-Ohio, said. “If the president does not reverse the Department’s attack on religious freedom, then the Congress, acting on behalf of the American people and the Constitution we are sworn to uphold and defend, must.”

That is expected. Congressional Republicans have been looking for any reason they could find to oppose this president. But it was something said by Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, that caught my attention.

Mr. Santorum, the present leader in the Republican presidential field actually suggested that women priests create a hostile environment.

What they’ve done here is a direct assault on the First Amendment, not only a direct assault on the freedom of religion, by forcing people specifically to do things that are against their religious teachings. . . . This is a president who, just recently, in this Hosanna-Tabor case was basically making the argument that Catholics had to, you know, maybe even had to go so far as to hire women priests to comply with employment discrimination issues. This is a very hostile president to people of faith. He’s a hostile president, not just to people of faith, but to all freedoms.

We had already awarded the say anything to get elected trophy to Mitt Romney, but now here comes Santorum. We just placed the order for a second trophy.

Categories
fail Mitch McConnell Politics

An Almost Impossible New Low For Congress, And We Have Republicans To Thank

When President Obama became President of the United States, something got triggered in Congressional Republicans. They all decided that this particular president must not succeed. Before Mr. Obama’s moving truck drove up and delivered the Obama’s personal merchandise to the White House, Republicans had already began their game plan – to fight, to argue and to disrespect the office of the President like no other time in this nation’s history.

So they fought and continue to fight. And they set new records for filibusters. And they criticize  President Obama, for everything from the price of gas and oil – that has everything to do with market speculators and nothing to do with the president – to jobs lost in a recession that began primarily because of Corporate greed and the policies of Mr. George Bush.

Yes, the Republican’s game plan was, and is, in full effect. Every time they succeed in stopping a jobs plan, and every time they filibuster tax cuts for businesses, and every time they try to cut American’s rights, or manage to take away benefits that Americans have paid into, Republicans believe that Americans would blame the President.

Well Republicans, your game plan is flawed. Yes, you’ve managed to create an atmosphere in Washington of no coorporation and no compromise, but your expectation that the public would blame the president is not working out the way you planned it.

This new poll shows the disgust Americans are feeling about the job both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are doing.

Only 10 percent said they approved of the way Congress was handling its job, down from 13 percent in January.

The previous all-time low from Gallup was 11 percent in December of 2011.

Congress’s approval rating averaged 17 percent in 2011, peaking at 24 percent in May — it has been slowly declining since.

But don’t expect Republicans to stop now. Don’t expect them to do the job of the American people who sent them to Congress. Republicans would continue pushing against and fighting this particular president because there is something inside them that commands them to do so. And what ever that something is, Congressional Republicans are prepared to go down with the ship if it means Americans might think the president is a failure.

But their game plan is not working. We the people are paying attention…

 

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Mitt Romney Politics Republican Rick Santorum

The Campfire After Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri: Santorum Sweeps! Mitt to be Nominee!

And the headlines will be breathless. Rick Santorum hit the trifecta last night winning all three states and setting himself up as the chief conservative challenger to Mitt Romney. Which is like being the first raccoon to cross the Interstate before the semi barrels by going 80 mph, good buddy.

Never mind that no delegates were at stake in any of the states. It’s all symbolic for the conservatives as they attempt to pull Romney so far to the right that he’ll have to lean just to stand up straight.

In the end, it won’t matter. Mitt will be the nominee, but he’ll be damaged and forced to say even more things that he doesn’t believe in order to mollify the conservatives. The Democrats are trying hard to give him an issue over religious groups forced to cover birth control. I would say this was a winning issue, but somehow, Mitch McConnell lecturing the country about religion and the pill is probably the best thing to happen to reproductive rights in a long time.

That sound you just heard? It’s just Tim Pawlenty baying at the moon. Move along citizens.

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Categories
Politics Racism

Hidden In Pete Hoekstra’s Web Ad, Race Was Injected

It’s your weekly dose of Republican racism.

By now, you’ve all probably heard about the Superbowl ad that Republican Pete Hoekstra ran in his home state of Michigan.

Hoekstra, running a campaign against Democratic senator Debbie Stabenow, used an ad of a “Chinese” actress, speaking broken english and invoking many of the stereotypes associated with the Chinese people. When asked about the obvious racial overtones in the ad, Hoekstra defended it, saying the ad contains nothing racial, and was meant to point out Mrs. Stabanie’s reckless spending.

“We knew we were taking an aggressive approach on this,” he said, “but this is a time where the people in Michigan and across the country are fed up with the spending, and we wanted to capture that frustration that they had with Washington, D.C. This ad … hits Debbie smack dab between the eyes on the issue where she is vulnerable with the voters of Michigan, and that is spending.”

Maybe Hoekstra is just ignorant to what is obvious to the rest of the nation, or maybe it was just poor judgment on his part. But thanks to the good folks over atTalking Points Memo, we now see that Hoekstra and his team knew the racial aspects of the ad, and they willingly contributed to it.

So what did Talking Points Memo find out?

It’s hidden in the programming language of the ad, a derogatory racial epithet used to describe Chinese people was found. The name “yellowgirl” was used to describe the “Chinese” actress Hoekstra used to deliver his message.

Coding from the ad.

img class=”yellowgirl” src=”https://s3…

Now again, Hoekstra could continue claiming this ad had nothing to do with race, but when you look at the coding in addition to the ad itself, it would seem that race is was the original intent, with messaging coming in second.

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Mitt Romney Politics Rick Santorum

Mitt Romney Aims to Waterdown the Frothy Santorum

Mitt Romney’s negative attacks in Florida have already destroyed Newt Gingrich and according to every poll we’ve seen, Romney is quickly turning off the independent voters with his do anything and say anything to win mentality.

But Romney won’t allow a few turned-off independents to stop his need to be president, as the richest candidate in the race now aims his guns at Santorum – the only Republican candidate who have so far, stayed above the fray.

Mitt Romney’s campaign is turning its attacks on Rick Santorum after a poll showed the former senator leading in Minnesota.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R), a top Romney surrogate, will attack Santorum by way of a noon conference call for his history of supporting earmarks, Romney’s campaign announced Monday morning. Minnesota voters go to the polls for their state’s GOP caucuses on Tuesday.

The campaign also emailed “a summary of Santorum’s false attacks on Massachusetts healthcare” that provides a laundry list of nonpartisan fact-checking websites’ analysis on some of Santorum’s statements criticizing Romney’s health insurance overhaul in Massachusetts.

The fact-check list comes ahead of a planned healthcare speech from Santorum.

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