Conservatives' Profoundest Fear: What if Obama succeeds?
By David Neiwert Saturday Jan 31, 2009 10:00am
Memo to Conservatives: You failed and are now irrelevant.
OK, I expect you'll ignore this memo like our previous ones. Nate Silver is right: Republicans are caught in a death spiral, and it's going to be awhile yet before they hit bottom.
Nowhere is it more self-evident than in the broad acknowledgment this week that the GOP is being led by a bilious radio talk-show host, and the ongoing fact that its most popular politician is a wingnutty, malinformed Alaska governor.
The unanimous refusal of House Republicans to vote in favor of Obama's stimulus plan may have given the Malkinites a stiffy, but all it really demonstrated was the utter impotence of Conservatives to have any say in how we proceed with fixing the economy.
And there's one real reason for that: They broke it. Their philosophy of governance, especially their feverish laissez-faire demolition of regulatory oversight, and their obscene enrich-the-rich approach to taxation, were the two overarching reasons for our current economic debacle. Of course they still want to blame minority lending for the plunge, but no one with serious money is bothering to listen any longer, because they know what the story is. And so do most Americans.
So Rush Limbaugh can pen all the worthless split-the-baby-in-two proposals for economic stimulus he likes, and House Republicans can toss out all the tax-cut-heavy alternatives they like. And no one will take them seriously, because we've heard these proposals before -- for the past eight years, in fact. They've been nothing but a recipe for failure and disaster. Why would anyone want to take that course now?
What's worse for Republicans is that not only have they not yet figured out how irrelevant they've become, they are even further from understanding the reasons for their irrelevance. They're in deep denial about the direct relationship between their philosophy and the current economic debacle, and even more so the extent to which the public is finding their pugnacious, vicious, attacking style of politics increasingly repellent.
So Neil Cavuto is right when he defends Limbaugh by saying that of course, ideologically speaking, conservatives will naturally as a matter of principle oppose Obama's policies. We understand that Limbaugh and other conservatives believes that Obama's policies will fail and will vote and speak accordingly.
But he completely overlooks the problem with Limbaugh when he openly hopes Obama will fail: It's one thing to believe a policy will fail and oppose it accordingly. It's quite another to openly hope for it.
Most liberals, by way of contrast, believed George W. Bush would fail, and many predicted it; but it's hard to find any of them, particularly leading Democrats, who were out there saying that they hoped he -- and by extension, the nation -- would fail after 9/11 because his policies were "fascist." They opposed these policies in principle. Anyone who openly hoped for our military failure in Iraq, for instance, was in a tiny minority; but there were millions of us who opposed the war because we believed it was not only wrongheaded but doomed to fail. And we were proved right.
In fact, all this shouting is just cover for Republicans' greatest and deepest fear: That Obama in fact will succeed. That progressive "socialism" (as they call it) actually will make people's lives better, heal the economy, and get the nation back on its feet. That the nation's working people will finally get a clear view of which side is on their side. That the public will finally see that not only is Conservatism an abject failure, it's a fraud.
In the end, they are such deeply invested ideologues that they would rather see the nation fail than see that reality reach fruition.
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And anyone with half a brain knows it. The GOP's adherence to outmoded dogmas means that they're about to be run over by our karma. Good riddance.
Limbaugh IS the farce (oooops make that FACE)) of the re-Thuglic party.
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The current economic crisis is largely their fault, in as much as it happened as the result of 8 years of their party being in control.
Question is are they going to focus on whats best for the country or for their party? (That's a rhetorical question. We all know the answer.)
This should be a wake up call to all their supporters however. They caused the crisis, now in the interest of their own survival they will obstruct any attempts to resolve it successfully.
and they have learned nothing from it. they re setting themselves up to be crucified in the 2010 elections. My advice is for them tokeep doing what they are doing, it will only hasten their march into irrelevant oblivion.
The ideals of Limbaughland already exist in Somalia, Haiti and North Korea.
The economic and social conditions prior to the French Revolution bear a striking resemblance to the final days of the Bush Administration. The damage done may actually be beyond repair, which fits GOP ideals perfectly, as it opens the door to their return and implementation of even more regressive policies and cementing their permanent rule.
I have to hope that our new information age will keep us connected and united enough against their threat that we can prevent that.
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if they turn the power off??
The economic and social conditions prior to the French Revolution bear a striking resemblance to the final days of the Bush Administration. The damage done may actually be beyond repair, which fits GOP ideals perfectly, as it opens the door to their return and implementation of even more regressive policies and cementing their permanent rule.
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republicans are like that really big cockroach you find on the kitchen floor that no matter what you hit it with seems to still be kicking it's legs like a Rockette.
Comparatively speaking he was easier to kill than this guy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrtCawfjDrE
A twice convicted drug smuggler/junkie/sex-tourist, you know they are toast.
Even chatshow host Craig Ferguson called out Lumpy Rash on national cable TV two days ago and exposed his drug habits to the wider world.
Its just a matter of time before Lumpy gets third time lucky, leopards cant change their spots
And thank you, Ferrofluid, for posting his comments. Isn't it the court jesters who are the only ones speaking truth to power?
Love the headline, "Ideology First." Oh so true. And "bilious," also true.
It is a shame that the retards don't care if the destroy the country as long as they save their own job!
That is the first and foremost concern of people in the republican party.
Although most of them don't understand why!
Many Indpendents and libertarians are former Republicans- Half my family are Independents, and are x-Republicans. The reason they left the party is, in the words of my brother, 'because the Christian nutcases and war mongers took over'. In recent years the Christian fundamentalists not only took over the Republican party, and shifted it to the radical right, they voiced their open distain for any moderates in their own party. Listen to the wingnut Mike Huckabee talk, and one walks away thinking that he feels the main goal of the republican Party is to promote Jesus.
At this point it is so obvious the further to the right the Republicans go, the less relivant they become. If they want to survive as a party, they need to shift back to the left and become more centrist. Will that happen? As long as the Christian radicals have any influence, as a party, they are doomed.
I could see the republican Party fragmenting- the Christian zealots go one way, the moderate republicans go the other...
What role if any will moderate republicans have in the near future of the Republican party? Mr Steele seems to be a moderate, so some moderates still remain..
It still amazes me that many right wing Republicans feel mccain lost because he was 'too liberal'. Clearly the radical right lives in their own warped reality.
I think Pres Obama will succeed, and rather than work with himn to make this country a better place, the Republicans will shift even further to the right- The only ones who can save the Republican party are the moderates- and given the level of hatred right wing Republicans have for moderate Republicans, I wonder if such help would even be welcomed. Republicans are already turning on their own.
I just hope the Democrats in the House and Senate grow some balls and a voice, and stop allowing the Republicans to walk all over them.
So true, no matter what strain of democracy and economic ideas people support, some things are beyond the pale, liberty, morality and equality are vital ingredients for a free society.
If the Republican Party does dwindle to a small regional party, i think we'd see the Blue Dogs take their place as the opposition-- and they would make a more reasonable conservative party than the current conservative party. And in that case, the moderate Republicans would join them...we could even end up with a three-party system, which I'd love to see.
Most Independents I know are x-Republicans- Anyone know off chance if that tends to be the case accross the board? The further to the right the Republicans go, they will be hemmoraging out sane memebers jumping ship..The right wing Republican reaction to the loss of their moderate members is 'good riddance'- So they don't seem to care their party is in it's death throes..
Just as Iraq is Bush's vanity war, this is his depression, too. The next time you hear some one refer to this as almost as bad as 'The Great Depression' remind them that this is 'The Bush Depression'. Don't ever let anyone forget.
well said.
The freshman rep Chaffetz sleeps in a cot in his office, I forget why, with Mitsy's help he should turn into a very good republican, learn all about him at the DesNews.
My mom used to say "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face" -- hey, Congressional Republicans: Don't cut off your dicks to spite your balls!
Don't make me picture Limbaugh's or other Republican dicks- They're all no doubt pink and slimy like a dogs'.
It is true though, if the Republicans can't call the shots, they'd love to see this country destroyed. I have heard half a dozen right win callers on the radio openly wish that that terrorists attack us and kill many pople, just beacuse they feel it would hurt Obama's political standing.
About as hard to picture as a neutrino.
rather gross even for Bill's humour.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg2_MntkMzg
very NSFW btw
That's why they succeed at failure. So damn good at it.
regulatory oversight was begun with the Clinton administration, Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers, Alan Greenspan.
Yes, a Republican congress passed it, but don't blame all of today's troubles on just one party or president.
n/c
There used to be a thing called a liberal republican. They felt the government had a duty to be fiscally responsible (not always conservative, not small enough to drown in a bathtub) .. but to use taxpayer money as sparingly as possible and wisely. Save in good times for when you needed to spend in bad. Saving or spending itself wasn't bad, being unwise or taking more than you needed from a citizen was bad.
Social issues were, in large part, simply not the government's business.
What did we get?
BOTH parties engaging in reckless financial behavior.
BOTH parties distracting us with divisive social issues, in areas where the additional laws were not making us safer, smarter, better (Wars on Crime, Drugs, Abortion and now Terror) .. and in many cases making the problems worse.
IMHO, both parties have been fiscally irresponsible and socially divisive at the expense of good sound legislation (and passing unneeded counter-productive legislation) while many members of both parties lined their own pockets.
Both parties, instead of taking measures to allow people to work out their own social issues, and stepping in only to fix large public problems, used social problems as big flags to get re-elected, without ever doing much constructive to fix the social problems.
We need to questions politicians on both sides. The current Pelosi Pork Package is not a stimulus package: It's a payback. If you trust ANY politician these days, you are nuts.
Yes, which is why I refer primarily to Conservative Failure here.
Because when Democrats like Clinton et al joined in on these travesties, they were being specifically conservative -- as a way of establishing their centrist credentials.
Given the 8 years of Bush with 6 of those years having a repub majority in both houses the blame can be laid squarely at their feet of not doing their jobs to stop it. In fact it was their firm and principled stand against engaging in any kind of oversight that let the bad decisions of the past become the economic crisis of today.
Of course, that's why most sensible liberals thought, and still think, that he's a narcissistic idiot.
Racism, sexism, homophobia and social injustice are not ideologies. They are hateful, fearful, irrational and immoral aberrations of a flawed, dysfunctional and self-protecting psyche that doesn't know the difference between repressed negative defenses and conscious self-aware thoughts. Limbaugh is a scared, angry, mean-spirited, over-grown emotional child whose arrogance, bigotry, prejudice, greed and callousness serve as defenses for his unconscious damaged and perverted emotions. He's a seriously screwed-up human being on a soapbox preaching to and exploiting his fellow misanthropes for 30 pieces of silver. The fact that there are so many people who feel he is a kindred spirit is testimony to the fact that evolution is not a uniform process.
The positions on Iraq were limited to two:
- "openly hoped for our military failure" and
- opposed the war as "not only wrongheaded but doomed to fail."
I just wanted to point out there was a third:
- opposed the war as immoral and wrong and not worth the human cost even if it had "succeeded."
That group, doubtless smaller than the second but equally doubtless considerably larger than the first, always seems to be overlooked in these discussions.
Lb is the perfect spokes man for the repubs
got out of service because of a pimple
calls his mercedes a junker compared to his bentley
wants more tax cuts for himself when he already has more than 99% of americans
drug addict
I challenge him to make one sacrifice for this country. and it cant be cutting out the second helping steak at dinner.
that why we are in the mess we are in greed ...........
the repubs talked about obama redistributing money check any income distribution chart and the poor already have redistributed their income to the rich.
wow, the (R) are terrified of bipartisanship. they won't have anybody to hate and/or complain about. bush handed us a mess. please spare me that the dems. were the majority for two years in the legislative branch......big deal paper thin majority up against threat of veto/signing statements and filibuster. rush
can stick it. he's just an entertainer that spreads deception(manure). these people get off hating people that aren't like them.......they are afraid the (R) culture club will lose membership.
Limbaugh is the new bush. Obama, as charming as he is, has a mess to clean up and if you get in his way of doing it you are toast. The trickle down theory (let them eat cake theory) is not working. It never did although it did help a lot of people get richer while the working class got poorer.
Obama by bringing up Limbaugh is connecting him to the people who've used him so effectively all these years, the Republicans. So what do they do? Beats me.
Another interesting item. The Neddie Ledbetter Bill was just passed. The bill is equal pay for equal work. Neddie worked for about 18 years making less then the men at her plant. She sued and the supreme court denied her her win. Congress attempted to make it a law and the Republicans killed it McCain included. One of the most effective Obama ads during the election was Neddie Ledbetter ad. She spoke eloquently of her discrimination and how John McCain voted against the bill that would mean equal pay for women. Think of that. How did that effect the average person, men and women alike? There were people out there working two jobs and leaving kids home along because the woman couldn't achieve the same pay at a plant. This was a huge amount of lost wages for families.
And Obama signed the bill into law on Wednesday. I think it was a signal to the Republicans. If you vote against what is best for the working American you're going to pay. Keeping things wonderful for the wealthy is a kick in the teeth to the people who make this country work.
this is going to bring happiness and justice to millions.
Funny thing is the past week or so, I've been seriously considering getting in better shape, although it won't be as easy as it used to. The reason being I depend so much on the VA to keep me in medicine (I do pay copays.) The reason being: that's government money.
And then I look at rich slugs like rash limpballs and wonder what's the point.
When I was in my 20's I could eat pizza and french fries for lunch and still lose weight, now I gain weight if I just smell a pizza cooking.
Old+infirm=total suckage
except for the part about limball: not looking to him for food guidance.
Republicans think those who believe they are their brother's keepers are socialists, while those who believe in raping American taxpayers and letting people starve are fiscal conservatives. Defending today's immoral and obscenely greedy Republican philosophies is more an exercise in self-deceit than political policy. Corporatism and privatization has allowed the mercenary rape of taxpayers by wasting hundreds of billions of dollars as the direct result of wanton unchecked avarice, unhealthy competition, moral and ethical corruption on the part of rich people just WANTING to be richer. The fact that this country has so many homeless and starving children, women and men, while mercenary wall street executives and carpetbagging politicians like Dick Cheney pocket millions is about as socially and morally abhorrent as it gets. Most of what has taken place during the Bush presidency can't be explained or justified by citing any Christian value or humane ideology. The incalculable damage that's been done to our financial stability, national defense, moral standing and social fabric wasn't done by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist army; it was done by George W. Bush and his Republican henchmen.
It was also continued by the democratic congress who've been in power for 2 years now. Don't let any democrats escape responsibility- Hilary voted to go into Iraq, Obama has no problem throwing 30,000 troops into Afghanistan- and anyone who thinks those policies are ok is either too stupid or too wicked to be in the US government.(Or maybe those are the requirements these days?).
to say obama has 'no problem' going into afghanistan i don't believe to be true. he has been handed the afghanistan/pakistan quagmire. this area is on the edge of collapse. it's a tough decision for him it has the potential to be the next vietnam if you will........but to say 'no problem' i don't think so. were in this region deep for various reasons. pulling out abruptly could have dire consequences NOW. i'm NOT happy about it either.
theres always a bright side
I disagree, the "war on terrorism" is a joke and everybody knows it. Bush's faulty premise that a war on a tactic is legitimate is actually misleading and criminal in the evil it has produced by wasting time, money and countless lives in a quagmire manufactured to give maximum profits to the MIC. Obama knows he must talk on a deeper more respectful level to Moslems to end this hatred of the West, something cowboy war criminal Dubya could never focus on in his peanut shaped brain.
hey ysbadden losing weight can be easier than you think. you know the deal reduce calories especially
simple carbohydrates, have some protein every meal, walk everyday and take omega-3 supplements. losing weight is the deal. a major concern with time is metabolic syndrome with excessive body weight.
20 lbs in 2-3 months, gone. And I eat pizza a lot. I'm having one today and one tomorrow. Trader Joes. Mmmmmm. Goat cheese. Get a dog. S/he'll take YOU for a walk, at least one a day...
=-(
But I make our own pizzas (little ones) with a cornmeal crust and we put goat cheese, pine nuts and sun dried tomatoes on them.
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Oh, for a second there I thought you meant get a dog to eat.
David makes an excellent point here.
So many of us knew Bush's policies were doomed to failure. But we had excellent reasons for this -- we already know that trickle-down economics were the path to economic disaster. We already knew enough about the Bush Crime Family to understand Dumbya was coming in to raid the US Treasury.
Did we hope he would fail as a leader? Of course not - but we DID understand that he WOULD fail and that America would pay the price.
I also agree that the re-Thugs are in such deep denial that it is beyond their cognizance that they ARE the problem.
Bullying and blustering, lying and stealing - have always worked for them in the past. They see no reason why these tactics won't continue to bear fruit for them.
But seeing themselves as the solution when they are the problem - will assure the continuation of the divisive hate-filled vitriolic rhetoric that defines them as a party and charts their future - a downward spiral to oblivion.
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is really Conservatism in Oblivion.
Turn the mike off... go home... no body is paying attention any more.
The radicals have taken over
Hold onto your wallets
DDDDUUUUHHHHHH!!!!!
Your taxes are about to go sky high
DDDDDDUUUUUHHHHH!!!!
It's time to pay tribute to our military
DDDDDDDDDDUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crash and burn Meatbaugh you fat tub of goo!
So there you go, Obama's program is succeeding, already. And the future is still to come. The "pubes" did nothing but collapse this great country. The mess is like walking into a forty year old outhouse without a floor(somebody elses analogy but true). An investigative committe is starting to review "how" the republicans put America into such a mess after 9-11(Bush+) and that should keep old Flush Bimbo busy defending things while Obama repairs the outhouse and builds a new and bigger home. We're really going to have to take care of the "problem"ie:Flush,Bush,TheGOP for getting us here. Prosecution can easily be done while we protect our future from any more crap. Bottom line: OBAMA SUCCEEDS! REPUBLICAN PARTY DIES...Good riddence!
Thomas Jefferson
It just says so much about the Right that this guy is a leading light .
The shame of it all is that they're too stupid to see that.
While its tempting to say "just leave 'em to stew in their own stupidity" there is also nothing wrong with having a good strong opposition party to any Govt.... its a cornerstone of any democracy.
The shame of it is that this opposition party is starting to look more and more like a fundamentalist/nazi/crackpot organisation doing nothing to educate/enlighten and contribute to Government. ... and I worry that they will produce even more rabid right wingers than we saw at the palin/mc cain rallies.
Something for wingers to consider...with the job they have done with the leadership of the Shrub, anything will be considered a success because you cannot do any worse than the republicans have done. Think about it, they put us into the worst situation we have seen since the Great Depression and they are wishing that we get worse? What kind of morons are in the GOP?
then theres the dumb ones.
this article.
It's good to hear this pig squeek in pain as Obama leads us toward a brighter future. Conservetards will never understand what is truly good for the country if they keep listening to morons like limbob.
Boy, now there's a perfect world. We know that conservatism has failed, but will that narrative really be a part of the "National Conversation?" If you're figuring the odds, ask yourself if the actual substance of Joe Wilson's claims was ever a part of it. To put it briefly, the Guv'ment exposed his wife, creating controversy and diverting the "National Conversation" away from the real crime (of unprovoked war).
This is the same tactic as when Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, to try to dismiss and divert attention from all the charges and accusations of pedophilia - most of which were eventually resolved with large sums of money, if I recall.
When considered as a large group, quite bluntly, people are as attentive as goldfish and therefore cannot readily relate to the notion that thirty years of conservative economic policy is what broke our toys. Sorry, but I really didn't grok that the election was so definitively a "Great Repudiation" as much as it was again the simple expression of trying something different (which makes the prospect of the Dems' Congressional majority surviving 2010 more tenuous, no?).
And, yeah, I'm with ya, Niewart: I'd love to see your predictions come to pass, even if I think they're unduly optimistic. Americans are a wonderfully good and virtuous people, but having a substantial attention span doesn't seem to be one of those virtues.
(**edit** this quality could be described as what my English Literature teacher termed a "classic Shakespearean tragic character flaw.")
What comes out of Rush Limbaugh's mouth never surprises me. What shocks me is that there are those who actually think the guy is a genius. Visit NewsBusters.org and read some of the adoring comments there about him. It's sad. Limbaugh is no different from Howard Stern, Imus, or any other radio personality. He has a shtick that has made him rich. Alice Cooper put on face-paint and became the original punker. Harrison Ford put on a Fred C. Dobbs hat and became Indiana Jones. Arnold pumped iron and became governor of "Caleevorneea". Limbaugh put on a right-wing fascist Halloween costume (which now includes a pony-tail) and giggles all the way to the bank. No degree in economics or political science. In fact, not even a college diploma. Never served a day in the armed forces. Nobody, especially the dreaded "liberals", should take a word this blow-hard says seriously. It is all designed to keep his name in the news and his ratings bloated. So, Carville is dead right when he says that Rush is an "entetaynah". Unfortunately, a lot of people do take him seriously and actually use his act to form their opinions. PT Barnum was right.
Well, early indications show that Obama is facing resistances from many fronts to his promised changes. And those naively inexperienced Americans who voted for him are and will be disappointed. First of all, Obama is a slick talking politician/actor who promised everything and to everyone just to get elected. Now that he is elected, we are seeing that some of his theories and what he is practicing are hypocritically short coming. Secondly, this is not a perfect or political corrected world and human nature is not all good. In matter of fact, human and nations are more in competition with each other like "dog-eat-dog." There are some in the USA, especially right-wingers such as Rush Limbaugh(American rightwing master propagandist) who wished Obama would fail in his endeavor for change. Thirdly and most significantly, the United States has a wickedly corrupted system, manipulated by the machiavellian few individuals of wealth and power who are represented by their hired agents supported thur thought controlling(political corrected) institutions that governs over, for the most, an ignorant, divided, go-along-to-get-along populace of cheap-talking liars and stupidly weak fools where "war is peace, ignorance is strength, freedom is slavery*". I'm afraid Obama, no matter how sincere, moral and valiant he may be, will not able to overcome those listed predicaments. So, no he can't.
Faithlessly and hopelessly yours,
Dr. Know
public intellectual
left/postmodern/anarchist
<<$atan Rulz: this life is made for suckas>>
*George Orwell - British author/political philosopher
You are stirring up hatred with lies for your own gain. Few Republicans wish to see Obama fail and I'm sure the number is smaller than the number of Democrats who wished to see Bush fail. Neither point of view serves this country,not every Republican believes what is said by media darlings and Democrats are every bit as responsible for this financial crises as Republicans. The sub-prime mortgage collapse started this mess and that market was pushed by Democrats even before Clinton took over. It is a matter of record not conjecture that the Bush administration pushed for tighter regulation in that area but failed to force it.
Your tone and demeanor are not conducive to a discussion of facts. Your just like Rush only your barking in a different direction.
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