Great article about why the GOP is falling

[bobblehead]

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29302

quote 1:

A steeply graduated income tax has always been the preferred weapon of the left for bringing about socialist equality. Indeed, in the "Communist Manifesto" of 1848, Karl Marx was himself among the first to call for "a heavy progressive or graduated income tax."

(yet the GOP can't get behind a flat tax)



quote 2:

Did Ike repeal the New Deal? Did Richard Nixon roll back the Great Society? Nope. He funded the Great Society. Did Ronald Reagan cut federal spending? Nope, defense spending soared. Bill Clinton slashed defense, but George Bush II set social spending records with No Child Left Behind and prescription drug benefits for the elderly under Medicare. Surpluses vanished, deficits returned, the national debt almost doubled.

(wow...bush 2 sounds more like a democrat)

[HarveyWallbangers]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081101/ap_on_el_pr/campaign_media

Comments made by sources, voters, reporters and anchors that aired on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts over the past two months reflected positively on Obama in 65 percent of cases, compared to 31 percent of cases with regards to McCain, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs.

ABC's "World News" had more balance than NBC's "Nightly News" or the "CBS Evening News," the group said.

Meanwhile, the first half of Fox News Channel's "Special Report" with Brit Hume showed more balance than any of the network broadcasters, although it was dominated by negative evaluations of both campaigns. The center didn't evaluate programs on CNN or MSNBC...

ABC recorded 57 percent favorable comments toward the Democrats, and 42 percent positive for the Republicans. NBC had 56 percent positive for the Democrats, 16 percent for the Republicans. CBS had 73 percent positive (Obama), versus 31 percent (McCain).

Hume's telecast had 39 percent favorable comments for McCain and 28 percent positive for the Democratic ticket...

It was the second study in two weeks to remark upon negative coverage for the McCain-Palin ticket. The Project for Excellence in Journalism concluded last week that McCain's coverage has been overwhelmingly negative since the conventions ended, while Obama's has been more mixed.

[MJZiggy]

That just proves that they hate Palin....just kidding.

I know that there is very serious research done as to the tiniest mannerisms of the newscasters when it comes to personal thoughts and reporting on the candidates. I read The Tipping Point not too long ago and the author wrote up studies that looked at everything from the favorability of the stories to the expressions on the newscasters' faces and then compared that to the results of the elections and poll data examining how many viewers of which broadcasts voted for whom. I loaned the book to a friend, but do recall that the facial expressions of the newscasters had an affect on voting and don't quote me, but I think Brokaw was listed as least biased.

[hoosier]

Can you imagine if media coverage of McCain campaign had to run as many "positive" stories as "negative" just to meet a quota, even when the wheels are falling off the bus? Now that would be true media bias!

[mraynrand]

Re: Great article about why the GOP is falling

(wow...bush 2 sounds more like a democrat)

I've been saying this for a long time. Bush and JFK have tons in common: Pro Big business, pro tax cut, pro 'Government can solve problems' pro spreading democracy.

Why is govt. spending out of control? Many programs passed by congress (mostly dem programs, but repubs are not off the hook at all) have automatic increases built in that expand programs far more rapidly than inflation of GDP growth, like medicare and medicaid. Tax cuts get passed by Bush, and they have an expiration date - meaning you have to refight the same battle to keep the cuts, rather than fighting a battle to get rid of them. Most government entitlement programs, once instituted, are as hard to get rid of as crabgrass.

And no one learns their lessons. The housing industry tanked because artificial demand for homes was created - prices rose dramatically and supply tried to keep up. Once the rug was pulled from the artificial demand, the price structure collapsed. Dems (and a good number of repubs) keep repeating the same thing with education and want to do the same thing with health care (we already have huge problems with health care because many people have plans that barely restrict anything). When you subsidize something, you get more of it and typically costs rise, quality drops, and demand, if subsidized from the consumer side, outstrips supply.

[HowardRoark]

Re: Great article about why the GOP is falling

And no one learns their lessons. The housing industry tanked because artificial demand for homes was created - prices rose dramatically and supply tried to keep up. Once the rug was pulled from the artificial demand, the price structure collapsed. Dems (and a good number of repubs) keep repeating the same thing with education and want to do the same thing with health care (we already have huge problems with health care because many people have plans that barely restrict anything). When you subsidize something, you get more of it and typically costs rise, quality drops, and demand, if subsidized from the consumer side, outstrips supply.

Excellent pithy explanation on the housing problem; too many homes were built with fake money provided by touchy feely social engineers. It was NOT the fault of Bush.

As far s the other two issues.

I think in education, it is not a demand issue; rather it is a supply issue. The supply is constricted by the government and the demand is forced down one path. The result is an inferior product.

In healthcare (and I get the feeling you may have some expertise in this area, so I will defer to you), again the free market is interfered with (via third party payers), so both sides get screwed up. Quality and quantity.

[mraynrand]

Re: Great article about why the GOP is falling

I think in education, it is not a demand issue; rather it is a supply issue. The supply is constricted by the government and the demand is forced down one path. The result is an inferior product..

I was thinking more along the lines of college funding. And you have a point about interference at many levels. It's not a just a simple manipulation of demand.

[bobblehead]

Re: Great article about why the GOP is falling

And no one learns their lessons. The housing industry tanked because artificial demand for homes was created - prices rose dramatically and supply tried to keep up. Once the rug was pulled from the artificial demand, the price structure collapsed. Dems (and a good number of repubs) keep repeating the same thing with education and want to do the same thing with health care (we already have huge problems with health care because many people have plans that barely restrict anything). When you subsidize something, you get more of it and typically costs rise, quality drops, and demand, if subsidized from the consumer side, outstrips supply.

Excellent pithy explanation on the housing problem; too many homes were built with fake money provided by touchy feely social engineers. It was NOT the fault of Bush.

As far s the other two issues.

I think in education, it is not a demand issue; rather it is a supply issue. The supply is constricted by the government and the demand is forced down one path. The result is an inferior product.

In healthcare (and I get the feeling you may have some expertise in this area, so I will defer to you), again the free market is interfered with (via third party payers), so both sides get screwed up. Quality and quantity.

come on howard....low interest rate fiscal policy had a lot to do with the housing problem....a republican policy.

education spending....no child left behind.

healthcare.....medicare part D.

Our Grand old party ain't so grand anymore...they are simply obama lite.

[mraynrand]

Re: Great article about why the GOP is falling

And no one learns their lessons. The housing industry tanked because artificial demand for homes was created - prices rose dramatically and supply tried to keep up. Once the rug was pulled from the artificial demand, the price structure collapsed. Dems (and a good number of repubs) keep repeating the same thing with education and want to do the same thing with health care (we already have huge problems with health care because many people have plans that barely restrict anything). When you subsidize something, you get more of it and typically costs rise, quality drops, and demand, if subsidized from the consumer side, outstrips supply.

Excellent pithy explanation on the housing problem; too many homes were built with fake money provided by touchy feely social engineers. It was NOT the fault of Bush.

As far s the other two issues.

I think in education, it is not a demand issue; rather it is a supply issue. The supply is constricted by the government and the demand is forced down one path. The result is an inferior product.

In healthcare (and I get the feeling you may have some expertise in this area, so I will defer to you), again the free market is interfered with (via third party payers), so both sides get screwed up. Quality and quantity.

come on howard....low interest rate fiscal policy had a lot to do with the housing problem....a republican policy.

education spending....no child left behind.

healthcare.....medicare part D.

Our Grand old party ain't so grand anymore...they are simply obama lite.

Your points are valid, but not quite that simple.

[Joemailman]

I think the GOP's biggest problem is that they are increasingly becoming a party that appeals only to whites in a country that is becoming increasingly non-white. They better figure out a way to start connecting with minorities, or what happened this year will keep happening. I believe there are no black Republican congressmen or Senators, and only 2% of the delegates to the Republican convention were black. They do somewhat better with hispanics, but have slipped there too. Bush saw it coming and tried to push through immigration reform, but was shot down by the right wing of his own party.

[rdanomly]

Re: Great article about why the GOP is falling

Excellent pithy explanation on the housing problem; too many homes were built with fake money provided by touchy feely social engineers. It was NOT the fault of Bush.

I agree with the glut of useless homes built with fake money, but I'm not sure what you mean by the touchy feely social engineers. To me that sounds like you are talking about the non-profit housing organizations. If that is who you are referring to, they've had a much smaller rate of foreclosures than the for profit mortgage outfits (sorry the article is a bit old): http://www.slate.com/id/2168413

As for the housing problem and Bush, it doesn't look like his admin tried too hard to stem the tide of shady mortgages: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine...s+%2B+analysis

I'm not bringing this up to flame a bad president (ok, just a little), but to show some info that might help prevent messes similar to this in the future.

[mraynrand]

I think the GOP's biggest problem is that they are increasingly becoming a party that appeals only to whites in a country that is becoming increasingly non-white. They better figure out a way to start connecting with minorities, or what happened this year will keep happening. I believe there are no black Republican congressmen or Senators, and only 2% of the delegates to the Republican convention were black. They do somewhat better with hispanics, but have slipped there too. Bush saw it coming and tried to push through immigration reform, but was shot down by the right wing of his own party.

Nobody elects black republicans. When they run, the blacks all vote for the white liberals. When black conservatives get nominated for the supreme court, white liberals concentrate on pubic hair on coke cans.

John McCain also promoted the Bush amnesty bill. Still, he was painted as a hard line conservative, even in spanish and at a rate of three to one. I wouldn't vote for him either listening to those Obama commercials.

Republicans lost their way - Bush was basically JFK. JFK supported medicare. Bush supported medicare (drug bennies). JFK supported the presidential physical fitness program. Bush supported no child left behind on a multiple choice test. JFK supported tax cuts. So did Bush. JFK ramped up a war. So did Bush. JFK strongly responded to a crisis he partly helped create. So did Bush.

Bush wanted all gays killed, wanted all muslims put in prison, wanted to spy on all americans (to find the muslims and gays, so he could kill or imprison, or torture them), and established a theocracy. The constitution was shredded under Bush. Thank goodness he is soon gone. Woof!

[bobblehead]

I think the GOP's biggest problem is that they are increasingly becoming a party that appeals only to whites in a country that is becoming increasingly non-white. They better figure out a way to start connecting with minorities, or what happened this year will keep happening. I believe there are no black Republican congressmen or Senators, and only 2% of the delegates to the Republican convention were black. They do somewhat better with hispanics, but have slipped there too. Bush saw it coming and tried to push through immigration reform, but was shot down by the right wing of his own party.

See, there is the problem...trying to connect with a voting block instead of simply residing over a constitutional capitalist society as the founding fathers mandated. how would you propose such "connecting"....maybe we could pay restoration to all the black people who were slaves....Or we could make gov't loans available to minorities for housing whether they qualify or not...that seems like nothing could go wrong.

[texaspackerbacker]

Re: Great article about why the GOP is falling

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29302

quote 1:

A steeply graduated income tax has always been the preferred weapon of the left for bringing about socialist equality. Indeed, in the "Communist Manifesto" of 1848, Karl Marx was himself among the first to call for "a heavy progressive or graduated income tax."

(yet the GOP can't get behind a flat tax)



quote 2:

Did Ike repeal the New Deal? Did Richard Nixon roll back the Great Society? Nope. He funded the Great Society. Did Ronald Reagan cut federal spending? Nope, defense spending soared. Bill Clinton slashed defense, but George Bush II set social spending records with No Child Left Behind and prescription drug benefits for the elderly under Medicare. Surpluses vanished, deficits returned, the national debt almost doubled.

(wow...bush 2 sounds more like a democrat)

And to think I used to like Pat Buchanon. He just doesn't get it, and he hasn't gotten it for some time now.

I'll give you/him Eisenhower and Nixon--both piss poor excuses for conservatives anyway--neither would even have claimed the label. But he goes on to decry Reagan's massive defense spending--which was absolutely necessary to rebuild what Jimmy Carter screwed up, and which WON THE COLD WAR! That's just WRONG on at least two levels.

First of all, the anti-Reagan statement denies the absolute necessity and magnificent success of returning America--actually BRINGING America to the pinnacle of world dominance. Secondly, it completely ignores or disputes the obvious economic BENEFIT of Reagan's defense spending.

The clear difference between Eisenhower/Nixon and Reagan was that Reagan CUT taxes, while Ike and Dick did not. If they had, they probably could have gotten away with perpetuating FDR, Kennedy, and Johnson's damn social programs.

What Buchanon really doesn't comprehend, though, and several of our forum conservatives right along with him, is the POLITICAL aspect. That is especially ironic since Buchanon himself, when he achieved his greatest success, ran as a POPULIST--an anti-free trade/anti-elitist/pro-working class candidate. The ONLY difference between Buchanon in the 90s and Obama in '08 was that it was all lies and demagoguery with Obama.

The class warfare rhetoric, though, is extremely damned effective. And countering it with this STUPID "it ain't fair" and "Joe the Plumber" crap just played right into the hands of Obama and the leftists. What Buchanon doesn't get/what Bobblehead, Howard, possibly Aynrand and others also just don't get is that there are a helluva lot more of "them" than there are of "us"--a helluva lot more lower/lower middle/middle class Americans who were conned into believing they would get tax relief from Obama than there are upper income people whom Obama made no pretense about screwing--because there are so few of them--at least that's the way Obama's damned demagoguery made it sound.

We lost because instead of explaining effectively that Obama was lying, McCain capitulated to the lies, just claiming it was "wrong", "socialist", "wealth sharing", whatever.

Don't you people understand? A huge slice, possibly a majority of the electorate WANT to Share the Wealth/WANT to screw the very rich--never mind the fact that Obama's scheme is doomed to failure because his net effect is NOT to cut taxes/never mind the fact that he will undoubtedly find an excuse to not even cut taxes for most in the middle and lower end. The point is that what McCain attacked Obama on--class warfare and sharing the wealth--is, politically speaking, a WINNING issue for Obama and a LOSING issue for McCain.

And the greater problem is that we/McCain/Republicans in general, should not even have gotten sucked into discussion of this trumped up/leftist mainstream media contrived pseudo-crisis over the economy. Rather, the good guys should have hit Obama on his GLARING WEAKNESSES--Security from terrorism--the most important issue of all, the war, social/moral issues like abortion and the gay agenda--link his ass with opposing Prop 8, for example.

But no, McCain--followed closely by most of our forum "good guys" blundered right into the class warfare argument--on the LOSING side.

THAT is why the GOP failed/lost/whatever.

[mraynrand]

Re: Great article about why the GOP is falling

We lost because instead of explaining effectively that Obama was lying, McCain capitulated to the lies, just claiming it was "wrong", "socialist", "wealth sharing", whatever.

Don't you people understand? A huge slice, possibly a majority of the electorate WANT to Share the Wealth/WANT to screw the very rich--never mind the fact that Obama's scheme is doomed to failure because his net effect is NOT to cut taxes/never mind the fact that he will undoubtedly find an excuse to not even cut taxes for most in the middle and lower end. The point is that what McCain attacked Obama on--class warfare and sharing the wealth--is, politically speaking, a WINNING issue for Obama and a LOSING issue for McCain.

And the greater problem is that we/McCain/Republicans in general, should not even have gotten sucked into discussion of this trumped up/leftist mainstream media contrived pseudo-crisis over the economy. Rather, the good guys should have hit Obama on his GLARING WEAKNESSES--Security from terrorism--the most important issue of all, the war, social/moral issues like abortion and the gay agenda--link his ass with opposing Prop 8, for example.

But no, McCain--followed closely by most of our forum "good guys" blundered right into the class warfare argument--on the LOSING side.

THAT is why the GOP failed/lost/whatever.

I agree with much of what you wrote above. I remind you that it was almost impossible for McCain to talk of anything else because the economy dominated. McCain also lost the 'socialism' argument because he supported the bailout and he lost because the bailout is bailing out banks (if you read the current state of the bailout, it looks like banks have used bailout money to secure their cash position and aren't any more liquid than before). If McCain had rejected the bailout, he might have done better. If he had hammered more on Obama's weaknesses he might have won. But that's all unlikely. McCain was ahead, the economy tanked, and he lost. It was the economy stupid. And yes, people want their handout and McCain NEVER effectively pointed out that if you tax the producers you might get a nice $500 or $1000 dollar check, but you better make it last, because you're going to lose your job due to increased taxes on business.