Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The Grand Old Party is a Fraud

After eight years of the Bush administration, the Republican Party -- to put it bluntly -- is a mess and a fraud.

There is an intellectual case to be made for the economic philosophy that the party purports to represent. I disagree with it strongly, but I respect its integrity -- in a way that this administration and the Republican leadership in Congress clearly did not.

The Republican Party said it believed in free and unfettered competition, but it picked winners and losers through a system of crony capitalism. All it takes to make my point is a name: Jack Abramoff.

The Bush tax cuts, which heavily favored the wealthy, showed that the president and his allies in Congress didn't believe in progressive taxation. I think that's outrageous, but the administration goes further and actually seems to prefer a regressive tax scheme. That's the only explanation I can think of for why hedge fund managers making hundreds of millions of dollars a year pay taxes at a lower rate than their chauffeurs.

This is a small excerpt from Eugene Robinson's column in the Washington Post today. Here's another:

Can any Republican candidate claim with a straight face to represent the party of small government? For that matter, can any Republican candidate plausibly explain what the party is supposed to stand for these days?

It's pathetic to hear right-wing talk radio blowhards try to associate Barack Obama with "radical" or "socialist" views when a Republican administration is tossing aside "Atlas Shrugged" and speed-reading "Das Kapital.

Thanks Eugene, I needed that.

8 comments:

Life As I Know It Now said...

yeah, and the Democratic party is always left to clean up the shit mess the republicans have made

Utah Savage said...

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it.

Commander Zaius said...

I completely agree with Mr. Robinson. Once again I'm forced to bring up my co-workers who worry like small children over what socialist mayhem Obama will bring but in the next breath complain about how health care is going down the tubes, rich getting richer and poor getting the shaft, and prices going up. And people might wonder why I keep questioning whether humans are an intelligent species.

Utah Savage said...

Yes, those folks are like small children. Like small children and bullies. Afraid and lashing out. They still scare me. It's a dangerous combination--ignorance and hatred. They don't even know what the party they vote for stands for. But at least the guy at the top of the ticket is a white guy.

Dr. Zaius said...

Ha! Eugene Robinson is always on Keith Olbermann. He should have his own show!

Kulkuri said...

Democrats are the ones that walk behind the elephants at the circus and clean up the shit. It's a dirty job, but hey, it's show business. I agree with Jim Hightower, we don't need a third party, we need a second party. Repugnicans are the alcoholics and the Dems are the enablers. First we need to make the Repugnicans the Whigs of the 21st century, then either improve the Dems or if not possible, replace them too.

Utah Savage said...

Harsh, but true. Someone said we nee a labor party. I think that's true. I think we need a big revival of the Labor movement with a resurgence of the Unions.

Unknown said...

It's really the Repubs and Repub-lite for our two party system.

But it's all we fucking have until the masses wake the hell up and do a Howard Beale.

Gene is a fixture on MSNBC and I love that. ;)