2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumYou Can't Do Nothing About Nothing
A few weeks ago, the Republicans unveiled their 2014 agenda, and it was . . . nothing.
I kid you not. Here is how it was reported in Politico:
"Last Thursday, a group of House Republicans filed into Majority Leader Eric Cantor's Capitol office suite and received a blank piece of paper labeled 'Agenda 2014.' . . . A Republican aide . . . said . . . 'The problem is we don't know where we are headed . . . .'"
Many people saw the absence of an agenda as a problem. I think that it understates the problem. My concern is that the Republicans don't know where to go, not that they don't know how to get there.
To give you an idea of where they seem to think we should go, here are some actual bills that were actually introduced by actual Republicans last year:
-- a bill to allow the states to nullify any federal law (didn't we settle that in 1865?);
-- a bill to require every high school student to read Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged (mandatory libertarian indoctrination -- oh, the irony . . . .);
-- a bill to prohibit lap dancing and jello wrestling (which contained fascinating definitions of the terms "nudity" and "sexual device" ;
-- a bill establishing a state religion (not Islam, that's for sure); and
-- a bill authorizing restaurants, hotels, hair salons and other businesses to deny service to gay customers.
If you're trying to do stuff like that, then doing nothing is a massive improvement.
But more importantly, you just can't do nothing about nothing. You're always doing nothing about something. When the Republicans say that they have no agenda for 2014, then in effect, they're saying this:
"We're going to do nothing about the 20 million Americans who can't find full-time work."
"We're going to do nothing about the fact that America now has the highest inequality of wealth in history."
"We're going to do nothing about the fact that our military expenditures are roughly equal to that of every other country combined, even though we face no conceivable threat of invasion, and we spend approximately $50 billion spying largely on ourselves."
"We're going to do nothing about the fact that the United States has run a trade deficit of at least $350,000,000,000.00 every single year since 2000, with no end in sight."
"We're going to do nothing about the fact that the Arctic ice cap is disappearing, the release of methane greenhouse gas from tundra is snowballing ('snowballing' - hah!), and global temperatures may rise by 10 degrees by the end of the century."
"We're going to do nothing about the fact that there are so many corporate income tax loopholes that corporate tax revenue is at its lowest in 50 years."
"We're going to do nothing about the fact that according to some tests, American students have the lowest math scores in the entire world."
"We're going to do nothing about the fact that 434 out of 435 House Members and 99 out of 100 Senators raised most of their campaign funds from big donors (the only exceptions being Sen. Sanders (I-VT) and moi)."
"We're going to nothing about the fact that the federal minimum wage buys less today than it did in 1968, and the bottom 20% has a far lower household income today than it did in 1999."
"After we repeal Obamacare, we're going to do nothing about the 50 million Americans who can't see a doctor when they're sick." (The Republican healthcare plan: Don't Get Sick. And if you do get sick, Die Quickly.)
So it may seem that the Republicans are doing nothing about nothing. But they're actually doing nothing about everything. Whatever the problems we face, their infantile solution is always the same: close your eyes, and it will go away. Close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears, and repeat "La-la-la-la-la-la-la."
Will that work? No. All of these problems have solutions, but none of them is going to solve itself.
That's our job.
Courage,
Rep. Alan Grayson
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
billhicks76
(5,082 posts)Would they Wellstone him if he got close?
Laelth
(32,017 posts)That said, I think our ruling oligarchs are starting to get the message. Perhaps conditions are such that they might now let us have a semi-liberal government for a little while.
-Laelth
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)but appear to be doubling down on the propaganda and voter suppression as a solution.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)Others are scared to death of the Tea Party monster that they have created as this thread indicates: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251346174
-Laelth
Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)Not what I would call a semi-liberal government.
sakabatou
(42,082 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)and that is one thing they manifestly don't have.
The second thing the GOP doesn't have is a code of ethics. Without that as a guide, they can't make policy that people will consent to follow.
So, if the GOP decides to open their eyes and ears and noses and minds, and shut their greedy, growling mouths for a while, they might figure out a thing or three.
But I'm not holding my breath.
erronis
(14,941 posts)Or is the moneybags that have their grips on the GOP?
I think most of these aholes in congress are reasonably intelligent (~100IQ) and probably very rational when it comes to their well-being. I also think they couldn't give a rats-a about the country.
world wide wally
(21,718 posts)legislation or repeal Obamacare 20 or 30 more times.
Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)all potential members take a general aptitude test (similar to the military's enlistment assessment exams)? And let those results be public records.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)... they are intelligent, alright. They know exactly what they are doing. And it's not the People's business. They do TPTBs bidding. If a there's a bill that hands gazillions to The Corporation, they'll vote for it. Privatize education? They vote for it. Privatize the Post Office? They vote for it. TPP trade bill? They'll vote for it. A raise for themselves in the middle of the night? They vote for it. I think politicians need to be given a psychological test before they can even run for office, locally and all the way to the top.
Half-Century Man
(5,279 posts)Removing plausible deny ability.
And Louie Gohmert (R- Arkham Asylum)couldn't pass the "what is your favorite color test".
"Blue. No, red" and off he flies from the bridge of death.
ReRe
(10,597 posts)Don't get me started on Gohmert.
Orrex
(63,083 posts)lob1
(3,820 posts)Orrex
(63,083 posts)Actually, as far as I'm concerned, they're one and the same, so...
panader0
(25,816 posts)cinnabonbon
(860 posts)nashville_brook
(20,958 posts)That's my congressman.
Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)That is a pretty steamy book, with lots of pre-marital sex and adultery. You would think that the Republicans would not want their innocent children reading that trash.
Maybe they should just require that they read John Galt's horribly long speech for indoctrination. That is so boring that the kids would hate it.
SalmonChantedEvening
(31,947 posts)TheKentuckian
(24,934 posts)Scuba
(53,475 posts)SmittynMo
(3,544 posts)I am so sick and tired of our country just sitting idle, and not moving forward, only because the GOP. When Obama won the White house, he had many visions for the betterment of mankind, especially in the US. We all know why hardly any of his promises have not been kept. The GOP!!! And sadly, most of it was because he is our first black president(racism). And as proven over and over again, the GOP does not support us moving forward. In most cases over the past 6 years, it has moved backwards.
This country really screwed up in 2010 by not showing up for the elections, and more idiots were put in to stop Obama. It's not too late. We have to stop the GOP, and get this country moving forward. The only way is to vote them out of office. We, as a country, have this opportunity again this year. I hope the Democrats show up in record numbers. If we don't, then it's 4 more years of total gridlock. Re-review Alans facts. Every fact is accurate. They are the no agenda party. Protect the military salaries and screw the citizens. Their latest act of shutting down unemployment benefits is just more proof.
So what do we do to fix this. Vote! Vote! Vote! Get the word out.
As for Alan, I only hope he runs in 2016. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. He'd make a great pair with Bernie Sanders.
mithnanthy
(1,725 posts)I would love to see that ticket!
loudsue
(14,087 posts)Keep up the good work!
Danascot
(4,662 posts)To siphon off as much of American citizens' money into the pockets of their patrons as possible.
indepat
(20,899 posts)the support of an electorate getting so viciously screwed and crapped on.
A Simple Game
(9,214 posts)We would be lucky if the Republican agenda was nothing, it is not. Their agenda is to oppose all progress proposed by the Democrats and to even reverse most of what has been accomplished. We need to bring back the old name for ultra conservatives, reactionaries, because that is what they are, they have no ideas of their own, they can only react, and always negatively, to what the opposition proposes.
The Wizard
(12,482 posts)Nothing comes of nothing.
What, you expected something other than nothing from drooling fools elected by bigoted morons.
Response to Alan Grayson (Original post)
Name removed Message auto-removed
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Response to hrmjustin (Reply #34)
uppityperson This message was self-deleted by its author.