What we now know about the Republicans in the USA is that rather than vote to save the US economy and avoid massive tax rises on the middle classes they'll vote down all compromise to prevent a tax rise on the rich alone.
Not so far from George Osborne then, after all.
What's astonishing is their ability to win support in a democracy. That can only be explained by the corporate capture of the democratic process.
And perhaps that's almost the most worrying part of this.
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You’re on the money as usual,what we have in place is a business dictatorship,and all the democracy we are allowed is the choice of three administerial bodies for that dictatorship.
I increasingly think that all we know about the USA is that we don’t really know much about them at all. I’ve had reason to look up stuff on the internet about cancers recently and to see people whose first response to a bad diagnosis is to worry about insurance is utterly shocking. Similarly, the sincerity with which many ordinary Americans appear to think that Obamacare is the same as communism is bewildering.
The Republican Party has completely taken leave of its sense, but it should be pointed out that President Obama’s plan is not exactly first rate either. The problem with the “fiscal cliff” so called is that it would amount to massive austerity but Obama’s alternative also involves austerity and worse talks about cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Talk about Hobson’s Choice.
Incidentally as a side note, whenever anyone says that the Republicans still won the House in November, that is not entirely true. The Democratic party actually got more votes, but the joys of FPTP and Gerrymandering gave the Republican Party a majority.
You have to remember that a lot of people vote for the Republicans not on the basis of their economic interests but on cultural/religious issues e.g. anti-abortion, pro-guns (strange bedfellows) and of course racism can play a part with some people.
In the 18th and into the first years of the 19th, the London Mob loved the Duke of Devonshire and his delightful Duchess, Georginia. She was mistress to Charles Grey at one time, later 2nd Earl Grey of The Reform Act of 1832.
There are also people who haven’t been “captured” that simply don’t agree with your brand of politics. It is perfectly possible to disagree with the positions you take and not be a neoliberal. That’s the beauty of a democracy – there’s all sorts of views.
@ David B – “captured” or not, Right or Left, you have to agree that the latter-day Republicans have taken leave of their collective senses, with a complete a la Norquist ban on ANY raising of taxes, and an avowed attempt to “shrink the state until it can be drowned in the bath”, not to speak of supporting yet more guns – in schools, churches, public places (though probably not in legislative buildings, for fear of being topped themselves).
Frankly, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford would not only not recognize the current Tea Party infected Republican Party, they would publicly disavow and disown it. Even Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr would more than pause for thought. Only Nixon and Dubya might -might – recognize their handiwork as being the cause of the GOP’s current lunacy – a Party unfit for any sort of government whatsoever – entirely bound hand and oot by special – and very narrow (the 1% at most) interests.
So, if you’re an old-world Macmillan/Heath Tory, then good on you – but if you’re anything later, excuse me while I cross the road!
Seconded
David B: and I disagree with yours. I suggest that, while you might not like Richard’s approach (wholly appropriately, in my view, fighting fire with fire), there is no alternative to his view if you want to crush neoliberalism; being nice about it won’t beat it.
Quite so Nick
Reasonable people who accommodate themselves to the existing ways of the world do not change it
‘Not so far from George Osborne then, after all.’
Thom Hartmann explains Wanninski’s ‘Two Santa Clauses’ theory and how it has allowed the Republicans to con America for the last 30 years. As he says:
‘The Two Santa Claus theory isn’t dead, as we can see from today’s Republican rhetoric. Hopefully, though, reality will continue to sink in with the American people and the massive fraud perpetrated by Wanniski, Reagan, Laffer, Graham, Bush(s), and all their “conservative” enablers will be seen for what it was and is. And the Obama administration can get about the business of repairing the damage and recovering the stolen assets of these cheap hustlers.’
https://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0
The strands which are paralleled by George Osborne’s UK strategy are drawn out in:
http://think-left.org/2012/08/20/has-george-osborne-been-taking-trans-atlantic-lessons-from-the-jude-wanniski-and-the-republicans/
Hopefully, the reality will sink in with the British too.
Is that your Christmas wish?
Not a bad one…
A wish like that shouldn’t just be for Christmas…..
I’ll wish for you to have a happy restful Christmas instead.
And to you
Thanks for all your blogging too
“You have to remember that a lot of people vote for the Republicans not on the basis of their economic interests but on cultural/religious issues e.g. anti-abortion, pro-guns (strange bedfellows)”
Actually most republicans claim to be against strange bedfellows.
In reality, of course,the actions of all too many evangelical preachers disprove that one.