Republican Party
Last week my neighbor was asked to take an automated phone survey on "the deficit crisis." Ho hum, huh? We live in Mo Brooks' district and no matter what our Congressman is asked, he manages to work "" into his response so we hear a lot about it. Everyone hears it since Republican rhetoric has elevated the issue to the level of "existential threat." The twist on this particular phone survey is that my friend was offered A FREE CRUISE (absolutely FREE except for a few minor "fees") for taking the survey. We laughed about how the Republicans have hit rock bottom with their talking point when they have to bribe folks to take their surveys.
State of the UnionIn the Frank Capra film "State of the Union," Republicans hoping to unseat Harry Truman recruit wealthy industrialist Grant Matthews (played by Spencer Tracy) to run for the 1948 GOP presidential nomination. Matthews gets talked into it, but soon decides he'll be different by telling people exactly what he thinks. This horrifies his veteran campaign team. They want him, for example, to talk to a conference of business executives about the "binding shackles of government," and promise to fix that if elected. Matthews calls that doubletalk.
He thinks Americans hunger for the truth, and he aims to let voters know exactly what his views are. No, no, no, say his staff. People are too lazy to vote in the primaries, they say, so Matthews has to be mealy-mouthed, sort of like an early Mitt Romney. "We've got to bring you into that convention without any enemies," insists campaign strategist Jim Conover (Adolph Menjou).
State of the UnionIn the Frank Capra film "State of the Union," Republicans hoping to unseat Harry Truman recruit wealthy industrialist Grant Matthews (played by Spencer Tracy) to run for the 1948 GOP presidential nomination. Matthews gets talked into it, but soon decides he'll be different by telling people exactly what he thinks. This horrifies his veteran campaign team. They want him, for example, to talk to a conference of business executives about the "binding shackles of government," and promise to fix that if elected. Matthews calls that doubletalk.
He thinks Americans hunger for the truth, and he aims to let voters know exactly what his views are. No, no, no, say his staff. People are too lazy to vote in the primaries, they say, so Matthews has to be mealy-mouthed, sort of like an early Mitt Romney. "We've got to bring you into that convention without any enemies," insists campaign strategist Jim Conover (Adolph Menjou).
You've got to admire the chutzpah (pronounced "chuts-paw" by Michele Bachmann) of Republicans and conservatives and their opinion-leader enablers. First they mounted a bald attempt to seize permanent control of government -- and that's hardly an overstatement, since at least one GOP party official a couple years ago said flat out that was their goal. But the effort hasn't been going entirely as planned, so they're doubling down.
How, exactly, do you go about seizing control when the public isn't keen to vote your political cabal into undismissable majorities? Well, there are ways, as we are learning in Wisconsin. For example:
* Trying to eliminate or make much more difficult our state's constitutional provision for recalls of state elected lawmakers. The recalls can be for any reason the voters choose. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as of this morning has now written at least two editorials backing this dumb-down of what we ought to rename Constitutional Recall.
You've got to admire the chutzpah (pronounced "chuts-paw" by Michele Bachmann) of Republicans and conservatives and their opinion-leader enablers. Their attempt to seize permanent control of government (and that's hardly an overstatement, since at least one GOP party official a couple years ago said flat out that was their goal) hasn't been going well, so they're doubling down.
And how do you go about seizing control when the public isn't willing to help vote you into undismissable majorities? Well, there are ways, as we are learning in Wisconsin. For example:
* Trying to elilminate or make much more difficult our state's constitutional provision for recalls of state elected lawmakers for any reason the voters choose. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as of this morning has now written at least two editorials backing this dumb-down of the recall right.
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