The thesis that the GOP rained ruin on the world is so overwhelmingly supported by the evidence that it is perverse to withhold our assent, to borrow from the late paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. Next thing you know Obama will start telling us biological evolution actually occurred.
So we are now 20 months into the worst recession since the Great Depression.
But after eight years of the Bush administration that inherited the prospect of zero national debt and huge surpluses (can you imagine debating the prospect of zero national debt now), rising unemployment, a virtual hollowing out of our economy, a betrayal of our veterans, we are now six months into the Obama administration and everything is their fault, according to the GOP know-nothings
In December 2000, the Clinton administration announced projections that “the United States is on course to eliminate its public debt within the next decade.” But the national and state deficits across the nation and the unemployment in the states, that's the Democratic governors' fault, and the national debt Obama as mentioned did that too.
Here in Wisconsin, the GOP is back to its old playbook of stirring up white resentment on the economy and placing the blame for the last eight years of national economic catastrophe on one Wisconsin governor and Obama and minority constituencies, and anyone who is not making six figures and is not white.
Fortunately, as Dan Balz reportes in his recent For Republicans, the Forces Aren't With Them, and the future looks bright for a political message based on unity, civil rights and inclusion, geared especially to younger voters who are diverse demographically, less religious, culturally liberal, and less susceptible to GOP racist appeals. The screw-you economics of the GOP just won't play.
As the Democratic Strategist reminds us: "[I]f you're into polls, it pays to keep an eye on everyone's approval ratings, and on actual electoral matchups ... ." The GOP brand is shot and its heroes, Rush, Sarah Palin [and I do love that] and Newt are no where.
The American people know what the GOP did and its bloviating and constant repetition of lies just won't work.
Its star, Sarah Palin, epitomizes the Republican Party and smarter GOP writers know this ain't no good. From Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal on Palin and the know-nothing Party:
In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. ...
The era we face, that is soon upon us, will require a great deal from our leaders. They had better be sturdy. They will have to be gifted. There will be many who cannot, and should not, make the cut. Now is the time to look for those who can. And so the Republican Party should get serious, as serious as the age, because that is what a grown-up, responsible party—a party that deserves to lead—would do.
It's not a time to be frivolous, or to feel the temptation of resentment, or the temptation of thinking next year will be more or less like last year, and the assumptions of our childhoods will more or less reign in our future. It won't be that way.
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