Bush Aims To Forge A GOP Legacy (Undercut Democratic Pillars)

[rodeodance]

Good article--put the "political" in Bush's 2nd term--gut all Democratic inspired social programs.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A47559-2005Jan29?language=printer

Bush Aims To Forge A GOP Legacy
Second-Term Plans Look to Undercut Democratic Pillars

By Thomas B. Edsall and John F. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, January 30, 2005; Page A01


.....But a recurring theme of many items on Bush's second-term domestic agenda is that if enacted, they would weaken political and financial pillars that have propped up Democrats for years, political strategists from both parties say.

Legislation putting caps on civil damage awards, for instance, would choke income to trial lawyers, among the most generous contributors to the Democratic Party.

GOP strategists, likewise, hope that the proposed changes to Social Security can transform a program that has long been identified with the Democrats, creating a generation of new investors who see their interests allied with the Republicans.

Less visible policies also have sharp political overtones. The administration's transformation of civil service rules at federal agencies, for instance, would limit the power and membership of public employee unions -- an important Democratic financial artery......

[w4rma]

1. Repugs like the "Chinese economic model": slavery

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1503&ncid=1503&e=12&u=/afp/20050129/ts_afp/forumdavoschinaeconomygates_050129084900
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1195824

[truthisfreedom]

2. undercut Democratic pillars. it would be funny if it weren't so sick.

bushco does one thing again and again. it's getting more and more boring.

[rodeodance]

3. total elimination of all safty net programs is the ultimate goal of BushCO

[CindyDale]

4. The legacy of turning the US into a Third World country? LOL

[rodeodance]

6. " WH has expressly tailored its domestic agenda to maximize hazards

for Democrats"-----this article is very convincing.


.....Many Democrats and independent analysts see a methodical strategy at work. They believe the White House has expressly tailored its domestic agenda to maximize hazards for Democrats and tilt the political playing field in the GOP's favor long after this president is out of the White House.

All presidents weigh the political implications of their agendas, and hope that policies that prove popular will strengthen a party's claims on particular constituencies. What is notable about the Bush White House, some analysts believe, is the extent to which its agenda is crafted with an eye toward the long-term partisan implications.

"I've been assuming all along that creating the basis for a durable Republican majority was one of the major purposes of the administration's policy agenda," said Gary Jacobson, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego. "Indeed, I don't think these guys do anything without weighing the potential partisan consequences and are particularly attracted to policies that might increase the Republican coalition."

John D. Podesta, White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton and now head of the liberal Center for American Progress, said, "I think that most of their domestic agenda is driven and run by a political strategy as much as core fundamentals and belief.".....

[CindyDale]

7. Planning is the admin's weakest poing

Everything they plan turns to muck.

[CindyDale]

8. er weakest point I meant

[Demeter]

17. Which May Be the Only Thing That Saves This Country!

Now that we know he manufactures his crises, but cannot deal with real ones, we can defeat him! It is a matter of our watching the patterns and countering them--a form of checkers more than chess, because other than the 35 years the RW has been building their stupid little plans, gaming the system, and brainwashing the most gullible among us, they have nothing going for them.

Reality stops them.
Honesty stops them.
People with conscience stop them. *Think Jessica Lynch, the non-hero that refused the big buildup*

And a strong, angry Democratic Party, with a true leader, Howard Dean, will stop them.

[JohnnyRingo]

5. GW Buxh....Reaching across the aisle

...To give them one more chance to join his agenda.

"The Great Uniter"

[Piperay]

9. And he will have his way

if the rest of the Democrats don't get some of the backbone that Boxer has. :mad:

[burythehatchet]

10. I imagine that when the people of the 22nd century read about

world history, george dubya bush will be recognized as the single most destructive force mankind has ever seen. Think of it...the single most destructive force. And he's not through yet.

[rodeodance]

11. wish I had a majic wond to speed up time so they realize it now-then

this jaugernaut may be stopable. Guess i am feeling pesimistic -even as some Dems are speaking up.

[NEOBuckeye]

15. And the Bush family name will be "radioactive poison" for all time.

[AnnInLa]

12. The Rove Plan

Rove watchers claim this has been the ultimate goal of Rove all along --- to forge an America with One Political Party, with a weak, ineffectual, token Dem party. An America controlled by a coalition of repukes/religion/corporations/military, which incidentally, is the definition of fascism. To accomplish this, he has to attack the traditional supporters of the Dem Party --- unions, lawyers, minorities --- he's doing a swell job!

[rodeodance]

13. yes, it is working---in leaps and bounds of late.

[snippy]

18. Rove has spoken openly for several years about this being his goal.

He has given several interviews which covered this. His strategy of governing based on politics and polls rather than policy is just the latest part of a far reaching strategy developed and implemented by the republican party over a long period of time to become the dominant political party in the US for several generations.

The first element of this strategy was to recruit and train, with nationally solicited funds, republican candidates for local elections with the idea that these candidates would later run for the state legislature and then Congress. This was the original purpose of GOPAC.

But GOPAC evolved from just a recruitment and training organization to a propaganda machine. The purpose of the propaganda was to make sure that the republican party defined the democratic party in the minds of as many voters as possible. That became a second element of the republican strategy. In the last 10 years or so democratic candidates and the democratic party have allowed that to occur.

Since Newt Gingrich took over GOPAC, the republican strategy has included trying to marginalize the democratic party by painting it as extremist in its liberalism. This is why a republican candidate for any office higher than dogcatcher is trained to use the famous GOPAC words when referring to a democratic opponent or the democratic party. It is also why the republican party spends millions of dollars every year and employs hundreds of people solely to make the democratic party appear too liberal for most independent voters. This is part of the reason, if not the reason, that the word "liberal" has acquired a negative connotation in so many voters' minds.

Another element to the republican strategy was to focus on redistricting. The RNC spent tens of millions of dollars on state legislature elections in the late 1990's and especially the 2000 election. According to the RNC, the reason this was done was so that republicans would control more of the redistricting done after the 2000 census. Although the obvious goal of redistricting was to create more republican districts, another element of this strategy came to light just after the recent Texas redistricting.

The Texas redistricting continued implementing the republican strategy of defining the democratic party as too liberal. In effect it combined the redistricting strategy with the definition strategy. The redistricting did not seek to eliminate the most liberal democrats in the Texas Congressional delegation. Rather it sought to eliminate the more conservative to moderate democrats and guarantee the re-election of the most liberal democrats. This is part of a strategy described by Tom DeLay to make the democratic party the party of blacks, feminists, homosexuals, and extremist environmental groups like ELF. This redistricting strategy will be followed in other states whenever the republicans get the opportunity, even if that does not occur until after the 2010 census.

Rove's contribution of the most recent part of the republican strategy involves using polls to identify issues that Bush should focus on. Rove places particular importance on issues that appeal to younger voters. Hence the priority of changing the Social Security program now even though Medicare and Medicaid present much more serious and immediate financial problems for the country. This emphasis on younger voters is intended to create republican voters in elections over the next two decades.

Rove's strategy of governing based on politics and polls rather than policy also has been extended to the various departments and agencies in the federal government. During the last four years either Rove or one of his deputies has briefed nearly every department and agency on poll results concerning an issue requiring a decision by the department or agency. The most recent example of this concerns the FDA's waffling over its decision on whether to make the "morning after pill" available over the counter.

The republican strategy to become the dominant party has been well thought out and developed, and well implemented over a period of years. It has been depressingly effective in my opinion. It irritates me that the democratic party apparently has had no strategy to counter it.

[ClintonTyree]

14. So they admit to wanting to take over the world...............

It's in black in white for everyone to see. They want to do away with the two party system and take total control of the country, with generalissimo george benito bush as supreme commander in chief, in perpetuity. :puke: God, I want to scratch my eyes out.

[Gman]

16. So basicly we go back to the Herbert Hoover era

I guess they can't stand it that Hoover lost.

[htuttle]

19. Isn't trillions of dollars of debt enough 'legacy' for him?