Robert Reich Asks: Tonight's Republican Debate: The 19th Century or the Stone Age?

[kpete]

Tonight's Republican Debate: The 19th Century or the Stone Age?
Posted: 9/7/11 08:48 AM ET
by Robert Reich

......................

In the late 1950s and 1960s, the Republican Party had a brief flirtation with the twentieth century. Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Jacob Javits and Nelson Rockefeller of New York, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, and presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon lent their support to such leftist adventures as Medicare and a clean environment. Eisenhower pushed for the greatest public-works project in the history of the United States -- the National Defense Highway Act, which linked the nation with four-lane (and occasionally six-lane) Interstate highways. The GOP also supported a large expansion of federally-supported higher education. And to many Republicans at the time, a marginal income tax rate of more than 70 percent on top incomes was not repugnant.

But the Republican Party that emerged in the 1970s began its march back to the 19th century. By the time Newt Gingrich and his regressive followers took over the House of Representatives in 1995, social conservatives, isolationists, libertarians, and corporatists had taken over once again.

Some Democrats are quietly rooting for Perry or Bachmann, on the theory that they're so extreme that they'll bolster Obama's chances for a second term and make it easier for congressional Democrats to scare Independents into voting for a Democratic House and maybe even Senate.

I understand the logic but I'd rather not take the chance. A Perry or Bachmann wouldn't just take us back to the 19th century. They'd take us back to the stone age.

the rest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/tonights-republican-debat_1_b_951857.html

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

1. Those 2 options sound a little too advanced. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Your next President…

[Maeve]

4. Best laugh of the morning! And so true....if GOPers have their way.

[peace frog]

14. Perfect!! LMAO

and all too spot-on.

[hifiguy]

3. For some background on how this happened

I'd strongly urge interested DUers to read John Dean's "Conservatives without Conscience." Dean explains the nature of the authoritarian personality and the whys and wherefores of how the authoritarians took over the repuke party.

And IMO, medieval is the best term for the current crop of repuke sociopaths.

[gordianot]

11. Excellent book I paid full price .

I found 11 copies at a dollar store and gave one to every Republican I had occasional contact either for Christmas or in the mail.

[moobu2]

5. I don't think they'll go that far

It’ll just be the late bronze age.

[durablend]

6. 1700s, I'm guessing

Whenever it was when the proles were considered expendible nobodies (just like they are today!)

[kestrel91316]

19. Ummm, not quite. They want NO SCIENCE, because that contradicts the bible.

They seek a return to pre-Renaissance times: the Dark Ages.

[Jackpine Radical]

25. Pre-1543. for sure.

That's when Copernicus published his heliocentric theory.

[A Simple Game]

24. Yup, 1700s and the return of slavery. But it would be OK this time,

they wouldn't care about skin color. Anyone could be a slave, no discrimination for color, only class.

But it wouldn't be class warfare, the war would have already been lost, by us.

[Roland99]

7. Very well-said. Clear and to the point.

[INdemo]

8. A close election would be a perfect situation for another

election theft. We could be screwed either way if Democrats don't show up at the polls.

[Octafish]

9. So why does the current Democratic administration follow trickle-down nonsense?

More tax cuts for the wealthy is what we need. Oh, and don't forget to bail out the Wall Street banksters. Again.

[hifiguy]

12. Because the Current Occupant and those with whom

he chose to surround himself believe in the same old discredited, authoritarian Chicago School bullshit as the Repukes do, only in slightly watered-down form.

[tomg]

10. I am from the

1960s. Do you know the level of cognitive dissonance I experience when I see Richard Nixon presented not simply as a moderate republican but a fairly liberal one.By someone I respect. What is more, I have to agree.

[unblock]

13. it's truly sick, isn't it?

if you look at today's democratic party in terms of congressional liberals vs. moderates vs. conservatives, it actually looks quite a lot like the republican party of half a century ago.

which raises the ugly question, what would today's republican party be in 1960's terms??

[tomg]

20. Probably a cross between the

Klan, the John birch society and some weird European fascist holdover from before the 2nd World War. Either that or just an odd wing in a prison for the criminally insane.

[Che Billy]

15. We need Perry or Bachmann

Don't forget that the reason a Democrat won the Presidency so convincingly in '08 is because of the disastrous policies put in place by the Bush/Cheney neanderthal twins (my apologies to neanderthals). I believe very strongly that an ordinarily marginalized true progressive would have beaten McCain in '08 given the public's disgust over the collapsing economy.

The fact the we ended up with a weak-willed, right-centrist Democrat in the mold of Bill Clinton is a tragic, wasted opportunity.

Maybe a President Perry or Bachmann would finish the job started by Bush & Co and ruin this country to the extent that lower and middle class folks will FINALLY understand that right-wing politics only benefits the super rich and fucks over everyone else. Only then, it seems to me, will they stop voting in such big numbers against their own self-interest and start to support true progressive reform.

I had thought Bush & Co already did a sufficient job of convincing the 98% of us who are have-nots to reject Republican politics once and for all, but I clearly over-estimated the intelligence of the American people. We need to be abused by Repugs even more brutally to finally get the picture. Perry and Bachmann are the ones best suited to deliver this needed lesson, in my view.

[immoderate]

17. Sad to say, I think you are right.

Change comes when people fill the streets. Obama's job is to keep us tranquilized while his rich friends suck us dry.

--imm

[dmosh42]

16. You can bet NBC will give them all the time they can handle!

Almost every morning the Today show has a cast of looney Repukes on for interviews. I don't rememeber the last time I saw any 'sane' candidates getting air time.

[lonestarnot]

18. Is there an age before rocks?

[Uncle Joe]

22. It began with the Age of Throwing Fruit Pits and Branches at the predators from the trees and

as communication developed "The Age of Mooning" predators from the trees took over.

The current state of the Republican Party is trapped in the "Age of Mooning" it's their answer to everything.

[Uncle Joe]

21. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[MisterP]

23. Eisenhower and Nixon were Fordist/Adenauer conservatives

for "development," which meant manufacturing, infrastructure, and also controls on imports and capital
Gerald Ford and everyone after him are neolibs, for privatization and deregulation