Republican scandals, blunders will haunt them in November

[kpominville]

From here

This has been a bad week for the GOP. Their usual modus operandi of obstruction and personal destruction isn’t working for them anymore.


Republicans appear to be waking up to the fact that they are in serious trouble come November. They have spent the last few years trying to appeal to the extremists in the tea party crowd and alienating the rest of America in the attempt. The Republicans have already been reduced to a southern regional party after the last few federal elections. By trying to align themselves with the tea party, they set themselves up for spoilers come November. Third parties in the American system only serve to drain votes away from one party and the tea party movement, being a conservative movement, threatens the Republican party far more than the Democratic party.


The Republicans new “Let me see your papers” immigration law in Arizona has caused a firestorm of controversy and criticism. Even several prominent Republicans have called it “unconstitutional”. It threatens to drive Latino voters away from the Republican party completely. Despite the claims by talking heads on Fox that it will not lead to racial profiling, the law says that police officers are now "required" to demand documentation from anyone who "looks" like an illegal immigrant. When asked what an illegal immigrant looks like, not even the Republican Governor who signed the law could answer. In fact, no Republican has been able to answer that very simple and straightforward question. This law is reminiscent of the kind of ham-handed legislation we saw during the George W. Bush years that is tailored to appease the most radical parts of their political base with little to no thought given to the lives of real people that it affects. One Sherriff in Arizona is already refusing to enforce the law, calling it "abominable" and a "national embarrassment."


Then in a move that seemed calculated to make themselves look bad, Republicans spent the first part of this week defending Wall Street abuses against new regulations. They tried to block debate on new regulations from even beginning, very clearly siding with Wall Street against the American people.


Now some Republicans are so frustrated with the narrow appeal of their party and its obstructionist tactics that yesterday they chose to change their course and stop blocking debate on much needed financial reform. But was it too little too late?


After more than a year of partisan obstructionism can the Republican party turn itself around into a productive part of the government that is actually willing to work with the majority in good faith? It does not appear likely at this time, which will probably mean more losses for Republicans this November.

[Demeter]

1. Nobody Ever Went Broke Underestimating the American People

Except maybe great Britain in 1776.

Every day I hope it won't come to that again.

[KansDem]

2. "...can the Republican party turn itself around into a productive part of the government "

...a productive part of the government???

When was it ever? :shrug:

[teknomanzer]

11. The 1860's?

[emulatorloo]

3. A DU'er lead me to this article -- "A METHOD TO REPUBLICAN MADNESS"

I am afraid it makes a lot of sense. That they have a strategy which they have repeated time and time again when Democrats are in power -- Make the country ungovernable. Block everything so they can claim "Dems are weak and ineffectual" Create a lot of noise that makes people sick of all the noise, and then have them associate the unpleasantness bickering with Dems being in Power.

Compares it to CIA de-stabilization efforts against foreign govts.

Here's a snip, worth reading the whole think if you have a chance.

Will it work? Hopefully not.

A Method to Republican 'Madness'

By Robert Parry
March 31, 2010

http://consortiumnews.com/2010/033110.html

Washington’s conventional wisdom for explaining the intensity of Republican obstructionism toward President Barack Obama breaks down one of two ways: either it’s a philosophical disagreement over the role of government or a desperate need to stay in line with a radicalized right-wing base.

But there is another way to view the GOP political strategy, as neither principled nor reactive to the rantings of Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and the Tea Partiers. It is that the Republicans are following a playbook that has evolved over more than four decades, to regain power by sabotaging Democratic presidents.

In this analysis, the Republicans believe they can reclaim the lucrative levers of national authority by making the country as ungovernable as possible while a Democrat is in the White House, essentially holding governance hostage until they are restored to power. Then, the Democrats are expected to behave as a docile opposition “for the good of the country” (and usually do).

The “destroy Obama” game plan tracks most closely with Newt Gingrich’s strategy for undermining Bill Clinton 16 years ago. But today’s strategy also traces back to Richard Nixon’s sabotage of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Vietnam peace talks in 1968 and Ronald Reagan’s October Surprise gambit against President Jimmy Carter’s Iran hostage negotiations in 1980.

In all four cases – covering the last four Democratic presidencies – the Republicans did not behave as a loyal opposition but rather as a single-minded political enemy that viewed the White House as its birthright and Democratic control of the Executive Branch as illegitimate.

[barbiegeek]

5. +100,000-you should post this article, I'll rec it up

[elocs]

6. A kick is better than a Rec. You can only Rec once, you can kick multiple times,

day after day.

[barbiegeek]

7. how do I kick it

[elocs]

9. I sent you a P.M. about it, but you just kicked this thread with your response.

A response is a kick for a thread (K&R means "Kick & Rec"). When you respond to a thread it kicks it back to the top of its forum. Just now at 4 p.m. I kicked this thread to the top of the Editorials & Other Articles forum just by responding to it.

You can Rec a thread only once and only within the first 24 hours of the thread. You can Rec a thread without kicking it, but that does not move it up to the top of its forum. That's why I think in the long run that kicking is better than a Rec because you can do it multiple times.

[emulatorloo]

10. Be sure and read his latest: "Does Obama Know the War He's In?"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x533576

I got the link to the article I cited in that one.

[Enthusiast]

8. +1, This is why not investigating

and prosecuting the Bush Administration is wrong. Looking forward is a violation of President Obama's oath of office.

[DFW]

12. This repeats what I have been saying for years:

The Republicans feel they have a permanent lease on the White House, and any Democrat that happens to
find himself in it is to be considered a squatter on private Republican property.

They have never wavered from this since JFK, and the feeling is all the more intense that not only a Democrat
is president, but one of color and one "foreign" parent. It is a fallacy that the dominant element of the
Republican Party is interested in a competitive relationship with the Democrats. They are ONLY interested
in a dominant position, with Democrats as a sideshow, to be tolerated as window dressing to be able to tell
the world we are the Democracy we have always claimed to be.

The true relationship, as I see it, is one of the Bolsheviks vs. the Mensheviks in Russia in 1917, the NSDAP vs. the
rest of the Reichstag in Germany in the 1930s, the Falange vs. the Republicans in 1936. We see it as political opposition.
They see it as war. In all three of the above cases, the extremists took power, and held onto it by, shall we say, less
than democratic means. The American right is engaged in just such a civil war (as they see it). Underestimating their
resolve to retake power by ANY means will do us about as much good as it did Alexander Kerensky.

Let's NOT do it this time, hey?

[callous taoboy]

4. Good. The party of no more.