4 posts tagged “elections”

Six months have gone by since Obama was sworn in.  In that time, the GOP has squabbled within their ranks over who qualifies as a genuine Republican.  They have stood in the way of much-needed progress in the critical areas of economic reform and job creation.  By shutting down the program for retrofitting federal buildings for energy efficiency, the GOP guaranteed higher cost of doing government business, and further delaying the inevitable renewable energy revolution.  They have proven that they are more willing to politicize important issues such as health care reform.

When was the last time you heard an earnest, coherent alternative plan from the GOP to counter Obama's proposals?  Obama has even reached across the isle for input searching for areas of consensus.

Enter, again, the far right to screw things up.

William Kristol has today put the call out for GOPers to obfuscate, delay, stall, block, while at the same time keep up appearances of being productive.  To FAKE it. What?  Why?

Well, it appears that William Kristol, one of the architects of the far-right's equally brilliant plan to invade Iraq at all costs, feels the need to justify the actions of an otherwise apparently rogue South Carolinian Republican Senator,  Jim DeMint. Speaking on health care reform, DeMint showed his true colors:

“If we’re able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo,” DeMint told the group, according to the Politico’s Ben Smith. “It will break him.”

President Obama recognized the opportunity to expose the real agenda of the Party of No Ideas and made mince meat of Sen. DeMint.

"Think about that,” Obama said of DeMint’s remarks. “This isn’t about me. This isn’t about politics. This is about a health care system that is breaking America’s families, breaking America’s businesses and breaking America’s economy. And we can’t afford the politics of delay and defeat when it comes to health care, not this time, not now.” Obama vowed to fight against “the politics of the moment.”

Let's go back to 1994, and back to William Kristol, who basically called our the GOP hounds against health care reform then.  It was clear in his message then, and today, that the exercise in demonstrating the appearance of political power (which is severely lacking) is more important to the far-right Kristol than the implications of such politicking on policy.  His ploy appeared to work then.  But all of our eyes have been opened wide.  Remember what happened the last time a GOP member listened to William Kristol and the rest of the far-right?

No big surprise here for those of us with our eyes open.  The blatant, raw preference for no-ism over progress of any kind is precisely the kind of errant politicking that has weakened the GOP.  Rush lost it when he said he hoped Obama would fail.  Cheney lost it when he tried to kick out the moderates.  Whether health care reform flies or not, this is pure posturing by the far-right.  William Kristol felt the support for health care reform among the Democrats last week begin to decrease based on fiscal projections, and his call for rallying the GOP troops is really a call to take credit for the inevitable.

Get Real, Mr. Kristol.  You fail to understand the new politics of the 21st century.  Your ploys and tactics are tired and worn out.  They fail to inspire.  They lead to GOP Presidents making fools of themselves by invading other countries without warrant, and they have lead to Mr. DeMint looking like a stick in the mud, a representative of the Party of No Ideas.  If only you hadn't pushed so hard for pre-emptive war in the Middle East, doing so much damage to the GOP that they will not likely recover again for decades to come.  Maybe then someone might listen to your advice.  Someone other than the GOP News Outlets, that is.

Here is a message to GOP candidates: Get Real.  If you play with this type of dangerous politics, and continue to gloat over increasing job losses, with no effort on your part to bring to this Democratic Congress and to this Democratic President real alternatives that you think will genuinely work, your local constituents will continue to lose their jobs, continue to struggle with sick family members with no health care insurance, continue to see the price of everything they seek to purchase grow further and further out of reach.  And you won't be able to run against Obama.  You'll be running against candidates who report that you have done nothing.

It's really, truly time to put partisanship aside, and for every candidate to take action and make a real impact that will improve the economic situation in the US.   This does not mean rubber-stamping every one of Obama's initiatives.  It does mean making progress.  Progress is made by proposing genuine alternatives that are likely to work.  Or modifying a standing proposal.  The only people who care about who gets credit for bills that work are the people who will vote for you.  Sponsor bills.  Get moving.   Don't listen to the talking points from the far right of your party; that kind of politics is the exact wrong kind to practice in this climate.  Your party is broken and suffers from a great sickness.  Their messages are colored by the terrible advice from the far-right that has ruined this country.

Give yourself a book of work that is greater than "I stopped Obama".  Something to take back home that says "I did this for you.  We made it happen.  It's not perfect, but it's much better than nothing.  And it was made better than nothing because I put my individual creative effort into it.  Even when others in the GOP were sticks in the mud.  To make things work takes creativity and compromise".

Heck, I might even vote for a Republican that talked like that. 

An important factor that appears to be providing a deep and abiding undercurrent in national politics in the US is the effect of the election of a black American to the Office of the Presidency of the United States.

Let's look at this closely, because an analysis of the futility of the fear-mongering by the right exposes a pattern of the most cynical political strategy behind the right-wing's apparent past successes.

Let's go back in time to Nixon Atwater presidential candidacy strategy of “split the country in half and take the bigger half”.  Pat Buchanan is credited with this.  The story goes that this was Buchanan's reply to Nixon's question on which side of the Vietnam issue he should adopt.  On a given, individual issue, this can be considered equivalent to voting your constituency's voice.  The other side of that is voting your conscience.

Fast-forward to Newt Gingrich's conservative revolution.  What was that?  That was the GOP's attempt to take majority control of the Congress for the first time in forty years with a promise of ten bills designed to reform the government with fiscal responsibility, getting tough on crime, welfare reform, tax relief to the middle class tied to married folks, re-assertion of the sovereignty of the US military (no UN control), job creation, and term limits.

Issue after issue, Gingrich and his cronies promoted GOP candidates with a standard list of talking points on issues that polled among conservatives and moderates - this is important - AND MODERATES - as highly important.  Moreover, the specific position the GOP took as a party issue after issue reflected the majority voice.   Individual candidates were told to emphasize issues in their local stumping that played well with their constituency, and to downplay issues where the GOP differed from local sensibilities.

The actual success of the GOP Contract with America turned out to be questionable, and, because Clinton played ball on the fiscal and social program reforms (welfare to work), Clinton seized the majority of the credit.   The same people behind the Contract with America were the most vehement in their seething, unhidden disdain for Clinton during the Lewinsky scandals.  In spite of their efforts, Clinton's approval ratings continued to climb in his last two years in office, paradoxically reaching its zenith at 73% AFTER impeachment.

Enter Karl Rove.  Rove used a stealth campaign tactic based ultimately on Buchanan's "divide the country, and take the bigger half", combined them with the "tell them what they want to hear locally".  This gave Bush II a fighting chance at beating Al Gore.  The absolute absense of the role of the role of individual morality led to congressional candidate literally without any apparent need to think, or formulate their own opinions, about issues that mattered.  The radio talk show arm of the GOP, including of course Limbaugh, Hannity and others, would beat away at finding sound bites that could catch on, softening the listening conservative audience to the more respectable and apparently rational representation of the same issues coming from their candidates regurgitation of party-line talking points.

Few understand that Rove and the GOP strategists sliced and diced the US on hundreds of issues, trying to find the bigger half on issue after issue.  This strategy, however, had two undesirable and little-recognized effects.  First, it took the "soul" out of the individual candidate's election or re-election bids.   Candidates were found to vote party-line with the Bush White House, with no initiative, no creativity, no representation of the local constitutency's voice.    GOP candidates were observed representing the White House, and therefore they tied their fate completely to Bush's popularity, which was a mirror image of Clinton's.  Bush's approval jumped to its all-time high after Sept 11 attacks, but the general trend was a downward spiral.  Bush ended his Presidency at about 33% approval rating.  In January 2004, 89% of the GOP electorate gave Bush an approval rating  This means that the same people who now say that Bush was "not a conservative" touted him as an ideal leader for their party.

Enter the 2006 mid-term elections, which saw the transfer of power back to the Democrats.  Bush tried to blame his low approval rating on the outcome of these elections, but the opposite was true: by 2006, the War in Iraq was seen by most Americans as a mistake, and, as their GOP's congressional candidates' fates were tied to the party line, they were helpless to speak for themselves.

Now, if we look at the cultural firsts that happened in this time frame, we can see the disintegration of the ability of the far right to whip the party into frenzy over issues that historically divided.  The first of these was the ascension of a woman to the Speaker of the House post.  A woman is two heartbeats away from becoming President of the US.  This tells women in every party that the power ceiling can be breached.  It also makes Pelosi a natural target for criticism from the far-right.  A bunch of balding white guys impuning the moral integrity of a mom who achieved such high status does not sit well with the majority of Americans.

The second cultural first of course was the election of a black American to the Office of the President.  What was important in this outcome was that the world did not stop; people went about their days, going to work, raising their children, in spite of this outcome considered so unacceptable by the far right.   The far right was put into its proper place as a minority viewpoint on the issue of race.  Which leaves them weak and unable to lead.  The in fighting between the far-right talk show hosts and the former right-wing party leaders is symptomatic of a deep fracturing of the GOP in which it's every elected candidate for themselves.  All politics are local.  Therefore GOP candidates should be turning to the local constituency, and they are learning, on issue after issue, that the country cannot be divided neatly along past issues like abortion, gun control, and other fear-issues, mostly because, to a person, we are focused on trying to make our own lives work, manage our credit, keep or find jobs, feed and house our families.  These are issues that unite across cultural divides.

Now we see the far right, and the GOP talk show hosts, hammering and hammering away at the six month point with blame for Obama for not miraculously turning the tide of the business cycle, for not creating millions of jobs in six months.  They cannot necessarily criticize Obama for not immediately undoing Bush's legislation, or reverse course on every economic policy, for they supported these policies and enacted the legislation.  So all they have left is what Obama has done so far.  And they have overplayed their hand, and peaked too early.   Obama wisely is holding back on spending the bulk of the stimulus package for a number of reasons, including (1) he wants to see where it is most effectively applied, and most needed, and (2) he can survive another six months of unwarranted criticism because the facts don't bear out the assertion.  He is in a marathon, and the far right think he's in a sprint.  They far right is trying (and failing) to seize the banner of economics, as if the idea to have a recovery was theirs, portraying Obama as a person who wants the US to fail, spreading rumors about his supposed personal Islamic past, questioning his allegiance to the US.

Six months from now, after the recovery has really taken root, and is obvious to even the most jaded right-winger, these issues will be seen as derisive, irresponsible dabblings in hate.  So let them continue to try to divide; only Obama is positioned to bring those split apart on issues together.  The crazies have even so far as to say that their last best chance right now is an attack on the US by bin Laden.  The fact that they would exploit such an event to their party's benefit should disgust all voting Americans.

The main thesis of this analysis is that due to their practice of 'divide and conquer', the far right is seen by the US public as an external threat to a recovery.   Statements like "I don't care about that issue, I don't have time to care about that issue, I have a mortgage payment to make" are more likely from moderates than "I need to do x and y before Obama takes it all away from me".   The far right is too far out of touch with the new culturally reformed America, and cannot relate in a real and meaningful to their supposed constituency.  They are, therefore, no longer legitimate leaders in their own party.  Never, ever would we want to see such a thing, but Get Real asserts that even an attack on the US would bring people together right now because Obama would ask the people of the US to work together.  He has no hidden agenda for a war on Iraq to fulfill.  And, unlike Bush and Cheney, he has no big-money interests expecting him to assert US foreign policy to the benefit of war-contract companies.

So, to sum up, the more the far right attempts to divide, the more isolated they become.  Obama has time now, in the next six months to a year, to oversee a recovery.   And the good news is that it's overdue.  There is a backlog of hiring; small businesses right now are reluctant to hire into new positions due to uncertainty over their future contribution to their employee's health care.  Obama should drop health care for a year if it does not pass this time around, and give the economy a year to rebound, facilitated by investments that lead to new jobs now and that in the long-term lower the cost of doing business in the US, such as creating a national renewable energy grid with locally optimized blends of electricity from wind, geothermal, solar, tidal, and other sources.  Making all federal buildings more energy efficient would put local contractors to work now for insulating air returns, installing high-efficiency heating and cooling units, etc.   Obama needs to make repeated trips to Detroit and underscore the changes in the auto industry as progressive and, important, enabled by but not mandated by the US government.

Obama should turn the argument around on his avowed critics and ask them what their plans would be, and take their input seriously if they have material plans to stimulate the economy, and ask them to tone down the pointless rhetoric and do everything they can do to stimulate the economy.  The far right is now rendered impotent in fanning the flames of past culture wars.  The GOP appears to be the "Party of No", and if they keep alienating blacks, women, Hispanics, and moderate conservatives, they will enjoy being the or one of the minority parties in the US congress for a long, long time as the "Party of No One".

The Washington Post published a list of the potentates behind McCain.  Here is part of that list, showing the members who are part of PNAC, the group that called for war on Iraq in BIG BOLD LETTERS.

WILLIAM KRISTOL, The Weekly Standard editor, informal foreign policy adviser.  CHAIRMAN OF THE PNAC.

ROBERT KAGAN; senior associate with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington Post columnist and former speechwriter for then-secretary of state George P. Shultz; informal foreign policy adviser.  PNAC PROJECT DIRECTOR.

RANDY SCHEUNEMANN, national security aide to then-Senate Majority Leaders Bob Dole and Trent Lott and now a lobbyist, defense and foreign policy coordinator (for this cycle and 2000). PNAC PROJECT DIRECTOR.

GARY SCHMITT, former staff director of the Senate Intelligence Committee and now an American Enterprise Institute scholar, foreign policy adviser. PNAC SENIOR FELLOW.

Sources: The Washington Post, PNAC Website.

Some others behind McCain include the usual suspects (bear with me, it's worth it...):

Richard Lee Armitage, President George W. Bush’s deputy secretary of state and an international business consultant and lobbyist, informal foreign policy adviser.  ADMITTED SOURCE OF THE PLAME CIA LEAK.

Smith, R. Jeffrey (September 8, 2006). "Armitage Says He Was Source of CIA Leak", The Washington Post, p. A03. Retrieved on 2007-01-27.

Bernard Aronson, former assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs and now a managing partner of private equity investment company ACON Investments, informal foreign policy adviser

William L. Ball III, secretary of the Navy during President Reagan’s administration and managing director of lobbying firm the Loeffler Group, informal national security adviser

Stephen E. Biegun, former national security aide to then-Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and now Ford Motors vice president of international government affairs, informal national security adviser

Max Boot, Council on Foreign Relations editor and former Wall Street Journal editorial editor, foreign policy adviser

Brig. Gen. Tom Bruner, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Lorne W. Craner, International Republican Institute president, informal foreign policy adviser

Lawrence S. Eagleburger, President George H.W. Bush’s secretary of state and a senior public policy adviser with law firm Baker Donelson, endorsed McCain April 10

Brig. Gen. Russ Eggers, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. Merrill Evans, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Niall Ferguson, Harvard historian and Hoover Institution senior fellow, informal foreign policy adviser

Michael J. Green, former Asia adviser to President George W. Bush and now Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Asia policy adviser

Gen. Alexander M. Haig, Jr., President Reagan’s secretary of state, endorsed McCain April 10

Maj. Gen. Evan "Curly" Hultman, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Brig. Gen. Robert Michael Kimmitt, current deputy Treasury secretary, informal national security adviser

Henry A. Kissinger, President Nixon and President Ford’s secretary of state who met McCain in Vietnam and is now a consultant, informal adviser

Col. Andrew F. Krepinevich, president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, briefed McCain as well as Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Bill Richardson

Adm. Charles Larson, former superintendent of the U.S. Naval Academy and now chairman of consulting firm ViaGlobal Group, informal national security adviser

Robert "Bud" McFarlane, President Reagan’s national security adviser and now a principal with Energy & Communications Solutions, energy and national security adviser

Brig. Gen. Warren "Bud" Nelson, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Brig. Gen. Eddie Newman, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. John Peppers, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Ralph Peters, writer and retired Army officer, informal national security adviser

Brig. Gen. Maurice Phillips, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Gen. Colin L. Powell, President George W. Bush’s secretary of state, informal foreign policy adviser

James R. Schlesinger, President Nixon and President Ford’s secretary of defense, energy and national security adviser

Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to Presidents Ford and George H.W. Bush and founder of business consultancy the Scowcroft Group, adviser.

George P. Shultz, President Reagan’s secretary of state and a Hoover Institution Fellow, endorsed McCain April 10

Brig. Gen. W.L. "Bill" Wallace, Iowa veterans advisory committee

Maj. Gen. Gary Wattnem, Iowa veterans advisory committee

R. James Woolsey, former CIA director and now a vice president at consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton, energy and national security adviser.

These are some mightly powerful allies.  But I'm puzzled... confounded.  Confused.   With all of these candidates, it leaves one to ask: WHY PALIN?

It's possible that the reason why McCain chose Tina Fey look-alike, Governor-Sarah-Palin-of-Alaska,-whose-is-currently-under-investigation-for-ABUSE-OF-POWER-for-her-apparent-retaliation-(by-dismissal)-against-Public -Safety-Commissioner-Walter-Monegan-for-refusing-to-fire-her-former-brother-in-law,-Alaska-State-Trooper-Mike-Wooten,-who-at-the-time-was-involved-in-a-divorce-and-child-custody-battle-with-Palin’s-sister,-Molly McCann....

Demer, Lisa (2008-08-29). "Palin's first scandal began as family feud", Anchorage Daily News, The McClatchy Company. Retrieved on 2008-08-31.

it's possible she was chosen because she would fit right in.

After all, she's quite the environmentalist:

And she's a member of the NRA (love those animals she's protecting!):

And she wears real fur, and here she shows her foreign policy experience by partying her ass off with Vikings:

And she's married to an oil company dude:

And, she was Miss Wasilla, 1984:

(Some photos shared by Grizzly Bay.)

And she's spot-on with women's issues:

According to GrizzlyBay.org, there are 10 Top Things We need to know about Gov. Palin:

1) She is presently under investigation in Alaska for abuse of power

2) She strongly supports big oil (her husband works for oil company BP)

3) She believes creationism should be taught in public schools

4) She is opposed to birth control even amongst married couples

5) She is opposed to abortion even in cases of rape and incest

6) She has no federal or international experience.  Prior to being governor (for less than two years) she was only the     mayor of a small Alaskan town and a beauty queen!

7) She believes global warming is a farce and is opposed to listing the polar bear as an endangered species

8) She supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and anywhere else big oil wants

9) She supports Pebble Mine which will destroy the richest salmon run in the world

10) She supports aerial shooting of bears and wolves in Alaska.

Ok, since I wrote a song about #10 (Cry of the Wolf), Gov. Palin lost me on that one.

Most people would ask "What does this say about McCain's judgement?".

Not me.

Now, my point, friends, is not that Miss Wasilla can't be VP.  Or P.  My point is that the PNAC needs someone who will do their bidding.  Someone who will answer to them.  When the PNAC first courted McCain, they promised, I'm sure, the candidate his spot at the top... as long as they could pick the VP spot.   They probably promised him all the oil in the world, too. 

Ok, I apologize to friends of McCain.  But the only other plausible explanation I can think of is that McCain wanted to throw the election.  He's lost the woman's vote.  He's lost all hope of ever getting ANY environmentalist' vote.  He's lost the black vote.  He lost the Asian vote long ago.  I predict he will lose the Hispanic vote in ANY DEBATE... just read McCain's lackluster and non-committal position on on immigration where he promises funding to Federal Funding to Attorney's Offices in Border States. To insure that the NeoCons do not ever run the White House again in his lifetime, McCain has secured the White House for Obama/Biden.  He's a true patriot.

Or it's all about oil, oil, oil.

It's all over this election.  The GOP is dripping in oil.  Follow the money.  Who has the money?  Think, think...

Here's PNAC Chairman William Kristol PREDICTING the Palin pick, and claiming that it will cause gas prices to plummet.  Who is in control, Mr. McCain?  Whose choice was this?

© 2008 Get Real.

BUZZ THIS!

STUMBLE THIS!

Wake up, America!  Let's get real.  We prefer to live under so many delusions.  We sop up the lies, fabrications, justification, palliative comments.  We are willingly mislead when the truth is too hard to bear.  We ignore the truth even when it's right in front of our faces.

Without analysis, we consume positions as facts, adopt perspectives from leaders on how they make us feel, without any understanding of the long-term consequences of those perspectives to ourselves, our families, and our local and global neighbors.

Check back here for refreshing, in-depth, informed analysis of events & people.  Get Real will publish on issues that are important to us... even when many fail to realize their importance.