Tag: GOP Out of Touch

GOP Prepares to Screw the Pooch on Immigration

Buck Banks

As political momentum in Washington, D.C. swings toward tackling immigration reform, the Republican Party once again is ready to squander a mighty electoral advantage heading into the 2014 midterms. The general failure of President Obama’s economic agenda, health-care reform, civil liberties record, and foreign policy is an electoral gift. Yet with a Senate majority in plain sight, the GOP faithful is crying that ‘Amnesty=Suicide’ and Republican leaders are calling for massively invasive new rules that will only increase the size, scope, and spending of the federal government. … And this is the party of small government? No wonder the country is so screwed.

— Nick Gillespie, in the Daily Beast.

More on the Inability of Conservatives to Take Responsibility for Their Actions

Buck Banks

There’s nothing in this for conservatives. Not even a bright or shiny object. I don’t know how you negotiate up from this capitulation. I think the long faces are a result of the realization, if not the vocalization yet, that this sets the precedent for this Congress.

— Rep. Tom Massie (R-KY), quoted by TPM, on the deal to end the government shutdown and lift the debt ceiling.

A Possible GOP Diagnosis: ‘Hysterical Delusional Affirmation’

Buck Banks

Charlie Cook has a fun piece in the National Journal that makes a good case for the GOP to get its collective head examined:

Here’s a question for conservatives and Republicans: Going into the 2012 Election Day, or even in the last few days before Election Day, did you think Mitt Romney was going to win? A couple of months ago, did you think the strategy of threatening to shut down the government or prevent raising the debt ceiling, to force the outright repeal or defunding of Obamacare, would really work?

So the question is whether conservatives and Republicans should begin to worry if their instincts—specifically, their judgment on matters of politics and policy—are a bit off. Maybe “spectacularly wrong” would be more accurate. Does that worry anyone on the right or in the Republican Party? Are they concerned that continuing to follow such awful political instincts could lead to catastrophic consequences for their movement and their party?

“Hysterical delusional affirmation” and “delusional synergy” aren’t terms normally associated with the political process, but after the spectacle of the past few weeks, they seem pretty apt. While many Republicans—those who are clear-eyed about today’s political realities—are exempt, these terms apply to enough of them that it may be time for the GOP’s Non-delusional Caucus to stage an intervention. Otherwise the party may be headed for some voter-administered therapy.

Read more here.

GOP Still Trying to Ram Through Romney’s 2012 Economic Plan

Buck Banks

The fact that a major party could even propose anything like this is a display of astonishing contempt for democratic norms. Republicans ran on this plan and lost by 5 million votes. They also lost the Senate and received a million fewer votes in the House but held control owing to favorable district lines. Is there an example in American history of a losing party issuing threats to force the majority party to implement its rejected agenda?

— Jonathan Chait, looking at the Republican list of demands to raise the debt ceiling and concluding, “It’s Mitt Romney’s 2012 economic plan. Almost word for word, in fact.”

GOP: Old and In the Way

Buck Banks

The modernity gap that haunted the Republican Party on Election Day 2012 has since worsened. Demographics, attitudes and technology continue to make the Republicans look like out-of-touch relics of a bygone era. A record-high 30 percent of Americans now identify as socially liberal, Democratic-leaning single mothers are a growing portion of the electorate, and more Americans than not have an unfavorable view of the GOP, notwithstanding the recent spate of negative news surrounding the administration.

— Lloyd Grove, writing in the Daily Beast.