Friday, June 24, 2011

When the GOP doubled down on crazy

Good article in Salon by Gene Lyons:

"Defending the American Dream," they call it.

Granted, it's hard to feel sorry for gullible listeners who hear Beck ranting about how Armageddon approaches, so they should hoard canned goods and buy gold. This on a program sponsored by Goldline. Somebody's going to con them out of their savings, so it may as well be Beck.

Shoot, they can always fall back on Social Security until President Michele Bachmann does away with it.

I call that last line "When right-wing delusional dogma ate us old folks' store-brand cat food".

[...] "If the grass roots found out that these guys were getting paid seven figures a year to say this stuff, it might leave a bad taste in their mouth."*

I have every confidence, however, that the grass-roots talk radio audience can rise above such niggling concerns -- and for the same reason that a failed "end of days" prophet's deluded followers patiently await his recalculations.

*Like store-brand cat food?

After the catastrophic Bush presidency, the Republican right had two choices: rethink or go crazy. A disturbing number chose to double-down on dogma. As a consequence, the estimable Fareed Zakaria argues in Time, the GOP has become as dependent upon abstract ideology as its worst enemies.

"They resemble the old Marxists, who refused to look around at actual experience," Zakaria writes. "'I know it works in practice,' the old saw goes, 'but does it work in theory?'" [...]

I heard that somewhere before. Hmmmm... Mr. Lyons must be very smart!

No more "compassionate conservatism" for them. The GOP candidates competed to describe an imaginary paradise of sweeping tax cuts, vastly reduced spending, an end to government regulation, the bolstering of state's rights, and burgeoning prosperity for all. It's as if the presidency of George W. Bush never happened.
...

Never mind President Barack Obama. The real class enemy is Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Back to the Roaring '20s!

Swell. Rigid frames, flimsy wheels, and brakes and lights that let you think you can see and stop until you actually try to. That's what the Repugs want. Thank you, but no.

2 comments:

Fixer said...

... flimsy wheels, and brakes and lights that let you think you can see and stop until you actually try to.

Like building hotrods when we were kids. We'd put all the money into the motor. Brakes? Don't need no brakes, just need to go fast. Lights? There's lights there; don't know if they light up but they're there. Ain't long after that yer swapping the great engine into another chassis because you couldn't see well enough to stop (oops) before you hit the fire hydrant.

Yeah, I did that, but I was 16. Seems that's where the Rethug emotional development ended.

Gordon said...

Like.