Author Topic: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.  (Read 1819 times)

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Xavier_Onassis

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Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« on: February 17, 2016, 05:33:13 PM »
Robert Reich Nails It: The GOP Is Dead And Has Fractured Into 6 Warring Tribes
Last Updated on February 16, 2016
"Robert Reich says the GOP has splintered into six different factions, and that’s a problem for us ALL

Watching the GOP primary race this season, you may have noticed that this primary is different from past primaries — it’s a complete unadulterated clusterfuck.

For starters, the Republicans onstage don’t  at all sound like classic Republicans anymore; the right wing’s brand of common sense and measured speech has been replaced with pure fantasy rhetoric on war, the economy, social policies, being anti-government, and unbridled hatred for anything remotely Democratic or liberal. Those are the common themes, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty, there’s more going on onstage than that.

Economist and author, Robert Reich, recently penned a piece on his blog stating the Republican Party as we used to know it is dead.
 

Instead, the once thriving and successful party has now split into six smaller warring tribes. Reich says these tribes consist of:

“I’m writing to you today to announce the death of the Republican Party. It is no longer a living, vital, animate organization.

“It died in 2016. RIP.”

        Evangelicals opposed to abortion, gay marriage, and science.
        Libertarians opposed to any government constraint on private behavior.
        Market fundamentalists convinced the “free market” can do no wrong.
        Corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, subsidies, special tax loopholes, and other forms of crony capitalism.
        Billionaires craving even more of the nation’s wealth than they already own.
        And white working-class Trumpoids who love Donald. and are becoming convinced the greatest threats to their wellbeing are Muslims, blacks, and Mexicans.

    “Each of these tribes has its own separate political organization, its own distinct sources of campaign funding, its own unique ideology – and its own candidate. “

The death of the party has been most notably evidenced by right wing America’s favored candidate, Donald Trump. A billionaire who has never been a public servant, held office, or won an election, and has dominated this race by being a bully, playing on people’s racism and fears, and without giving a solitary specific on almost any issue except his tax policy. What the actual fuck?

And Trump may actually be the catalyst that sends this shitshow down in flames if he makes good on his threat to run as a third party candidate. He’ll take at least 1/3 of the GOP’s support away and guarantee a Democratic win, but why should he care? He’s only loyal to himself and his frothy-mouthed band of white nationalists and uneducated, politically ignorant blue collar workers who are blinded by his tax policy (which would put America trillions into debt within a decade) and his racist promises of mass deportation and keeping Muslims out of America.

For further evidence that the GOP is over, look at Ted Cruz’s success in this race, the Texas senator whose shining moment was shutting the government down for a few weeks which cost America billions of dollars unnecessarily and accomplished absolutely nothing. The senator who has no other Senate endorsements because he’s that abhorrent.

Or take Marco Rubio, who never shows up for his job in the Senate and has done nothing worth noting in that position other than join in on the opposition to everything Obama. But, hey ladies, he’ll force you to carry your rapist’s child, so that’s…something.

Or Ben Carson, who wasn’t even registered as a Republican until a few years ago and has about as much political experience as the scalpel he used to cut into brains. But he’ll go real hard on Hummus, so not to worry, America.

Reich continues:

    “Without a Republican Party, nothing stands between us and a veritable Star Wars barroom of self-proclaimed wanna-be’s.

    “Without a Party, anyone runs who’s able to raise (or already possesses) the requisite money – even if he happens to be a pathological narcissist who has never before held public office, even if he’s a knave detested by all his Republican colleagues.

    “Without a Republican Party, it’s just us and them. And one of them could even become the next President of the United States. “

Reich is right, these losers have killed the Republican party from the inside out. And that’s a problem if one of them becomes our next President, but it’s looking like an even bigger problem for the party. The right wing seems to think that if they find a candidate who is the most conservative person on the face of the planet, they’ll win, yet the further right they go, the less they represent American values, and that’s a reality they are going to have to face sooner rather than later.

Because if one of them is elected President by some fluke, we ALL have to live with it."
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2016, 09:25:54 PM »
  This is written in defense of the Republican establishment? The do little status quo loving deeply rooted establishment?

  The public is loaded with impatience with the Republicans who were elected to spank the Democrats and who have done so little in that vein that the same voters want to spank the Republicans at large. Perhaps this is not the ideal situation but stasis is no kind of ideal situation either.

Quote
  Corporate and Wall Street titans seeking bailouts, subsidies, special tax loopholes, and other forms of crony capitalism.
        Billionaires craving even more of the nation’s wealth than they already own.
In what fantasy is the Democratic party free of grasping billionaires?

If your credulity is not challenged by poor politicians telling you that they are penniless, while accepting free rides all around the world and hefty fees for talking in secret meetings, then your credulity is impregnable.

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #2 on: February 18, 2016, 09:23:16 AM »
This is an analysis of the republican Party, NOT a comparison with the Democratic Party.

Sirs seems to be one of the evangelical types.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #3 on: February 18, 2016, 06:44:18 PM »
Then , would an analysis of the Democratic party leave a lot of these features out?

I recall previous elections in which the Democrats fielded a large group of candidates, somehow the party found a way to survive.


Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #4 on: February 18, 2016, 11:00:49 PM »
The splits in the Republican Party are not about personalities or individual candidates, they are about the direction the Party wants to take the country.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2016, 10:55:43 PM »
The splits in the Republican Party are not about personalities or individual candidates, they are about the direction the Party wants to take the country.

So you think the different candidates in the Republican primary contest are wildly different from each other?

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2016, 05:44:53 AM »
So you think the different candidates in the Republican primary contest are wildly different from each other?
========================================================
That is what they themselves are claiming.

None of them has spoken one word against breaking up the big banks and preventing yet another collapse in the economy due to a few greedheads on Wall Street seeking commissions for selling bogus financial scams.

Not one of them has said the want to do anything about the growing disparity between the continuing prosperity of very few rich in the top half a percent and the growing poverty of the poorest half.

They want to waste our time talking about the Great Wall of Trump, more Cold War weapons that are useless against terrorists like Isis. Cruz wants us to think that "carpet bombing" entire cities, killing hundreds of thousands  of innocent Syrians and Iraqis to exterminate a few hundred fanatics in compact Toyota pickup trucks.

They want to enroll Ukraine in NATO and attack the Russians if they complain. They think that a few Chinese on some islands of no importance are a threat to "our freedoms". 
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2016, 12:02:36 PM »
So you think the different candidates in the Republican primary contest are wildly different from each other?
========================================================
That is what they themselves are claiming.

None of them has spoken one word against breaking up the big banks and preventing yet another collapse in the economy due to a few greedheads on Wall Street seeking commissions for selling bogus financial scams.     
I am a bit disappointed with this.
Quote

Not one of them has said the want to do anything about the growing disparity between the continuing prosperity of very few rich in the top half a percent and the growing poverty of the poorest half.
No. This is an illusion. The rich are not robbing the poor. Putting more people to work might be the best thing to do , and reducing regulation and the weight of the government on the economy might be the best way to accomplish it. if the result was a few benefiting greatly while very many benefited mildly , should not be defined as a problem.
Quote
They want to waste our time talking about the Great Wall of Trump, more Cold War weapons that are useless against terrorists like Isis. Cruz wants us to think that "carpet bombing" entire cities, killing hundreds of thousands  of innocent Syrians and Iraqis to exterminate a few hundred fanatics in compact Toyota pickup trucks.
That wall appeals to me , it produces control. If we then decide that there should be a lot of immigration we can open the gate.
Quote
They want to enroll Ukraine in NATO and attack the Russians if they complain. They think that a few Chinese on some islands of no importance are a threat to "our freedoms".

Why should Russia feel entitled to the sovereignty of its neighbors?

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2016, 04:17:03 PM »
The US has its own sphere of influence. Notably in Latin America and in lots of Caribbean and Pacific nations.
The French have a sphere of influence over its former African colonies, and invade them when they misbehave.

  Russia has ALWAYS had a huge influence in Ukraine. Maybe it is not fair, but Americans have no good reason to provoke conflict between Russia and Ukraine. If  a third of the population of Ukraine were English-speaking ethnic Americans, then it might make a difference. But this is not the case: a third of the citizens of Ukraine favor Russia over the West.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #9 on: February 20, 2016, 11:18:54 PM »
  It was wrong to interfere with apartheid in S. Africa?

  Greater Russia is a colonialist thing , which is alright?

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2016, 11:39:12 PM »
A boycott of South Africa, a country of 30 million that posed no military threat at all and was opposed by everyone (except those in the pockets of the mega rich, like Reagan) is hardly the same as the threat of Russia, a country many times larger. Ukraine has been horribly governed by Ukrainians, the Russians are seen as an improvement by at least a third of the people who live in Ukraine.  It would be a horrible mistake to take Ukraine into NATO and send troops and waste money on Ukraine. We can embargo Ukraine, as we did South Africa. Senf=ding troops would be idiocy, politically and militarily.

We did not threaten South Africa with invasion. We did not arm the ANC against it, either. What is proposed by fools like Cruz far exceeds the South African embargo.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2016, 11:47:45 PM »
  I don't think we need to invade Russia either.

   A third of the population is a minority.

Russia is arming up as well as they can, the most certain way to get into a very serious fight with them is to invite them to win what they want by defeating us or making us back off under threat.

Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #12 on: February 21, 2016, 12:19:42 AM »
Russia should be allowed a sphere of influence in Ukraine. Both the Bush and the Obama governments have provoked Putin by supporting pro-Western Ukrainians. We have spend a LOT of money doing this. It was a bad idea.
Pro Western Ukrainians have persecuted their fellow citizens who are ethnically Russian.
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."

Plane

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #13 on: February 21, 2016, 12:42:50 AM »
  This is the same story that was told to justify the invasion of Poland in the late 30s.

   Even if it is true , is the best solution to reverse the abuse?


Xavier_Onassis

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Re: Robert Reich explains the Republican Party pretty well.
« Reply #14 on: February 21, 2016, 10:25:26 AM »
This is the same story that was told to justify the invasion of Poland in the late 30s.

There were German minorities throughout Europe. But 30% of Polish citizens were not German. When Germany invaded Poland, France and the UK  declared war. Hitler had no real justification. Putin can accurately say that Russia and Ukraine have been culturally joined since the Middle Ages.

The United States cannot force Russia to break its ties with Ukraine without serious armed conflict. Then Ukrainians, no matter what weapons we supply them with, cannot defeat Russia.  A conflict between the two would be right on Russia;'s borders, The US could not stage any sort of boots on the ground conflict without very serious permission and invitation from the EU countries. Please note that the US is thousands of miles from the Ukraine-Russian border.

The independence of Ukraine is not anything that Americans should be asked to pay for or die for. Note that the United States sucks at creating democratic governments. It took Korea over 35 years to become democratic. The US invaded the Philippines in 1898 and it still is not any sort of exemplary democracy. Whatever has resulted in Puerto Rico is clearly dysfunctional. And the experience in Iraq has been to replace a brutal dictatorship with a permanent Civil War with ethnic and religious chaos.

 

Ukraine was incapable of governing itself. Since 1991, every government has been hideously corrupt, regardless of ideology. The Ukrainians need to decide what happens in their country without our aid.  It is NOT a problem the US can solve. It is not a problem we will solve. 
"Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana."