Let's just say it: the Republicans are the problem

[we vs us]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html

As written by a guy from the Brookings Institute (center-left) and a guy from the American Enterprise Institute (right).

" We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them [Republicans] this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country's challenges.

And it's if they've already anticipated Guido's objection:

No doubt, Democrats were not exactly warm and fuzzy toward George W. Bush during his presidency. But recall that they worked hand in glove with the Republican president on the No Child Left Behind Act, provided crucial votes in the Senate for his tax cuts, joined with Republicans for all the steps taken after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and supplied the key votes for the Bush administration's financial bailout at the height of the economic crisis in 2008.

[cannon_fodder]

I'm a registered Republican.  One who has cast straight ticket ballots (in Iowa).  I voted for Gw, twice.  And I agree.

Compromise is weakness.
Giving in to facts is giving up.
And anyone not for us, is against our country.


That isn't Orwell, it is the GOP platform.

We are broke.
We won't cut the military (largest discretionary spending by far).
We won't consider new taxes.
We won't give up some of the above in exchange for some of what we want.
We are still broke.


Religiously driven social issues before anything else.
Small government second (*does not apply to military, "security", or personal freedom conflicting with point 1).
Best interest of business third.
Everything else somewhere down the line.

[guido911]

And the retort. Just sayin:

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/04/28/lets-just-say-it-the-democrats-are-the-problem/

[Hoss]

And the retort. Just sayin:

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/04/28/lets-just-say-it-the-democrats-are-the-problem/

web site aptly named...

[nathanm]

And the retort. Just sayin:

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/04/28/lets-just-say-it-the-democrats-are-the-problem/

That's not so much a retort as a bunch of jumbled together words that have nothing to do with that which they are supposedly rebutting. Upon a quick read, one might almost think that they were trying to provide support for the OpEd by doing exactly what it was calling out.

[TulsaRufnex]

[we vs us]

And the retort. Just sayin:

http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/04/28/lets-just-say-it-the-democrats-are-the-problem/

Not a lot of coherence there, sadly.  A lot of poo flung against the wall but not an actual argument. 

Guido, how long have you been paying attention to politics?  I started watching during the Clinton era and the change in the Republicans even in that 15 years has been enormous.  Does that register to you or does it just seem like business as usual? 

[carltonplace]

Run of the mill republicans/conservatives are not the problem; it's the ones that use terms like "RINO" that are moving the party further to the right. A few years ago Tom Colburn was "fringy"...now he is a moderate.

[Gaspar]

There are only two political philosophies: liberty and power. Either people should be free to live their lives as they see fit, as long as they respect the equal rights of others, or some people should be able to use force to make other people act in ways they wouldn't choose.

Democrats and Republicans participate in different flavors of power, but either way, they act contrary to liberty. Because of that, they will always strive to act contrary to one another, even when those actions are ridiculous, the policies damaging, and the outcomes devastating to the people.

Neither party is interested in the principals this country was founded on.  Both are guilty of selling to the highest bidder and buying votes with pillage.

The two party struggle is no more than a team sport that we pay to watch.  They should serve beer, hot-dogs, and foam fingers in the gallery of congress.

[nathanm]

I'll just leave this here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-king-tax-me-for-f-s-sake.html

[Red Arrow]

I'll just leave this here: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/04/30/stephen-king-tax-me-for-f-s-sake.html

Nothing new here.  Yawn.

[jacobi]

Neither party is interested in the principals this country was founded on.

What? Slavery?  Killing indians? Or having a government that is stronger than any individual economic unit?

[nathanm]

Nothing new here.  Yawn.

lol, you should do stand-up.

[nathanm]

What? Slavery?  Killing indians? Or having a government that is stronger than any individual economic unit?

He probably means a government that isn't beholden to the traditional power structures as most European governments were at the time of our founding. What he fails to realize is that his libertarian philosophy implicitly enables our government to be taken over by powerful interests by refusing to use our collective power of regulation and oversight. I suspect the disconnect is that he speaks libertarian, but seems to actually be more Randian.

[Red Arrow]

lol, you should do stand-up.

OK, tell me what was new.  All I saw was the same old liberal dogma.