It has been said that those who actually like government should probably be the ones who run it.
"the permanent decline that now seems inevitable."
Blind political ideology, like blind religious ideology, makes you stupid.
Epistemic closure....exactly.
and thanks for the irony, bot.
I don't think "like" is best term. about "admit and respect govt's roles in a nation" and who commit making those roles operate as effectively and efficiently as possible.
in contrast, for Repugs, "govt IS the problem" so govt must be hobbled and/or destroyed, so when in power, Repugs are committed to misgovern thoroughly, self-fulfilling their philosophy that govt is the problem. In reality, REPUG govt is the problem
TB!GFY,
Boutons_ with the bads per par...
Government in and of itself is not the problem... the problem is the corrupt people IN the government and that we're attempting to handle everything at once in Washington.... statists can try to deny it, but it's just a fact that different states have different needs and not every problem has a one-size-fits-all solution....
"just a fact that different states have different needs"
bull
all states need their roads, bridges, dams, electrical grids, healthy water/lands maintained.
all states need reasonably priced, universal no-profit insurance and universal no-profit health care.
"But, but, everybody needs my talking points because the TV said so!"
*giggle*
Pretty long article, but highly damning.The day after the article appeared, my boss called to chew me out, saying that Karl Rove had called him personally to complain about it. I promised to be more cir spect in the future.
Interestingly, a couple of days after the Suskind article appeared, I happened to be at a reception for some right-wing organization that many of my think tank friends were also attending. I assumed I would get a lot of grief for my comments in the Suskind article and was surprised when there was none at all.
Finally, I started asking people about it. Not one person had read it or cared in the slightest what the New York Times had to say about anything. They all viewed it as having as much credibility as Pravda and a similar political philosophy as well. Some were indignant that I would even suspect them of reading a left-wing rag such as the New York Times.
I was flabbergasted. Until that moment I had not realized how closed the right-wing mind had become. Even assuming that my friends’ view of the Times’ philosophy was correct, which it most certainly was not, why would they not want to know what their enemy was thinking? This was my first exposure to what has been called “epistemic closure” among conservatives—living in their own bubble where nonsensical ideas circulate with no contradiction.
After careful research ... I came to the annoying conclusion that Keynes had been 100 percent right in the 1930s. Previously, I had thought the opposite. But facts were facts and there was no denying my conclusion. It didn’t affect the argument in my book, which was only about the rise and fall of ideas. The fact that Keynesian ideas were correct as well as popular simply made my thesis stronger.
I finished the book just as the economy was collapsing in the fall of 2008. This created another intellectual crisis for me. Having just finished a careful study of the 1930s, it was immediately obvious to me that the economy was suffering from the very same problem, a lack of aggregate demand. We needed Keynesian policies again, which completely ruined my nice rise-and-fall thesis. Keynesian ideas had arisen from the intellectual grave.
The book needed to be rethought and rewritten from scratch in light of new developments. Unfortunately, my publisher insisted on publishing it on schedule. I tried to repair the damage as best I could, but in the end the book was a mishmash of competing ideas with no clear narrative. It sold poorly.I am disinclined to think that Republicans are yet ready for a serious questioning of their philosophy or strategy. They comfort themselves with the fact that they held the House (due to gerrymandering) and think that just improving their get-out-the-vote system and throwing a few bones to the Latino community will fix their problem. There appears to be no recognition that their defects are far, far deeper and will require serious introspection and rethinking of how Republicans can win going forward. The alternative is permanent loss of the White House and probably the Senate as well, which means they can only temporarily block Democratic initiatives and never advance their own.
I’ve paid a heavy price, both personal and financial, for my evolution from comfortably within the Republican Party and conservative movement to a less than comfortable position somewhere on the center-left. Honest to God, I am not a liberal or a Democrat. But these days, they are the only people who will listen to me. When Republicans and conservatives once again start asking my opinion, I will know they are on the road to recovery.
Bruce Bartlett is the author of The Benefit and the Burden: Tax Reform—Why We Need It and What It Will Take.
Vitamin I does that to you.
Your kind of Christianity, especially apologists who are trying to paper over pure evil, and defend the indefensible deserves mocking.
Tell me, if your God decided that he wanted to you slaughter children what would be the best way to deliver this ultimate good to them?
Your God ordered people to kill children, and you defend that here. I find that more than a little morally replulsive.
lol...where you been, RG?
Last edited by TeyshaBlue; 12-21-2012 at 02:36 PM.
Very busy. :^/
Just ducking in to check on things, in between spreadsheets.
How are things?
We've solved most of today's problems. Unfortunately, that involves SA210 as our fair, but permanent ruler.
So it's kind of a mixed bag. lol
Boehner's Failure and the GOP's Disgrace
emarkably, John Boehner couldn't get enough House Republicans to vote in favor of his proposal to keep the Bush tax cuts in place on the first million dollars of everyone's income and apply the old Clinton rates only to dollars over and above a million.
What? Even Grover Norquist blessed Boehner's proposal, saying it wasn't really a tax increase. Even Paul Ryan supported it.
What does Boehner's failure tell us about the modern Republican party?
That it has become a party of hypocrisy masquerading as principled ideology. The GOP talks endlessly about the importance of reducing the budget deficit. But it isn't even willing to raise revenues from the richest three-tenths of one percent of Americans to help with the task. We're talking about 400,000 people, for crying out loud.
It has become a party that routinely shills for its super-wealthy patrons at a time in our nation's history when the middle class is shrinking, the median wage is dropping, and the share of Americans in poverty is rising.
It has become a party of spineless legislators more afraid of facing primary challenges from right-wing kooks than of standing up for what's right for America.
For all these reasons it has become irrelevant to the problems America faces.
The Republican Party in the process of marginalizing itself out of existence. I am tempted to say good riddance, but that would be premature.
http://readersupportednews.org/opini...-gops-disgrace
As my hair gets thinner, I like the idea of a God who sics bears on kids who would make fun of my bald pate tbh.
"if you only accepted all my bull on faith, contrary to all the morals and evidence we have, you it would all be so clear"
You could put the same words in the mouth of any cultist or conspiracy theorist, and it would be the same.
Once you go down the "faith" road, it makes getting conned by liars all the easier the next time, because you have taken something as true without evidence.
Lastly, I'm not sure I would want a relationship with such an insane, evil thing. If you are willing to look the other way, that is your business I suppose. Stalin got away with it because people were afraid of him and obeyed him without question as well. Going against Stalin got you horribly punished. Sound familiar?
thats why thou shalt worship no other god is in there.
I had no idea spreadsheets were comfortable to sleep between...
tl;dr
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