Stupid is as stupid does Mama Gump
I wrote an article a day or so ago about the GOP autopsy report of 2012. In it I wrote that the second most important thing the GOP needed to do was to scrap the rusty, rigid ideology of the 20th century, and pursue conservative ideas of the 21st century. Which the RNC refused to do.
And today, 10 years later, it’s killing them in 2022, and just when they need it the most. Because you can say what you want to about President Biden, but he has reached across the aisle, and has gotten things done. The problem for the GOP is that they just can’t claim any credit for it. And it’s only getting worse.
For instance, not one single GOP House incumbent voted in favor of the Senate’s pared down reconciliation infrastructure bill. Not a man-jackin’-one of them. And then they all looked like brain dead morons when they went home to their districts to brag about all the cash they brought home, only for the Democrats to proudly display their NO votes in ads and speeches, reminding voters that if they had their way, the state wouldn’t have gotten a dollar.
Not too long ago, thanks to a small bipartisan working group of Senators, congress passed the most comprehensive gun control legislation of the last 30 years. But it was the Democrats that forced the issue in the House, and as I wrote at the time, due to the GOP’s reliance of NRA campaign cash, GOP Senators didn’t dare to tout their progressive votes in their reelection or fundraising blasts.
And here we go again. Once again it’s a small, bipartisan working group of Senators who have come up with a bill that fixes the Electoral College Act to make it harder for a future President to steal an election, and for the states to diddle it. Right now the bill has 9 GOP co-sponsors in the Senate, and McConnell has expressed a willingness to support it. And again, if it passes, with the Stop The Steal! mantra of the national GOP, GOP Senators have to be careful about touting their votes to the sheeple.
And how about this one? After SCOTUS overturned Roe v Wade, The Democratic House passed a bill codifying same sex marriage, getting 47 GOP incumbents to vote for it. In the Senate, it already has 5 hard GOP votes for it, and 9012 GOP Senators open to voting for it. And yet again, if it passes, the with the GOP’s rock hard abti LGBTQ stance, the GOP Senators and House members won’t even get to tout their votes to their constituents.
Come on gang, let’s gild the lily. Here’s one more. After SCOTUS kneecapped the EPA from controlling carbon emissions, Biden issued a series of executive orders to do what he could. But once again, realistically speaking, it falls to the congress to act.
And tonight on MSNBC, former FL GOP Representative Carlos Curbelo rattled off a list of a half a dozen GOP Senators that he personally knows, that are committed to combating climate change, including Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Mitt Romney.
The obvious solution is yet another small, bipartisan group of Senators that can work out something that can pass the Senate. It goes without saying that if it can pass the Senate, Pelosi will ram it through the House. And once again, with the GOP’s climate denial platform, those Senators won’t be able to properly exploit their votes.
Let’s be frank. These GOP members, especially in the Senate aren’t doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. What they’re hoping for is that the hard core base isn’t paying attention to Washington politics that doesn’t involve Trump, but that the soft GOP and independent voters they need are. In other words, they’re being typical politicians.
But my takeaway point is this. If, anytime over the past decade, the RNC had gotten its head far enough out of Trump’s ass to revamp their national platform into the 21st century, keying on issues that the voters actually care about, then these GOP incumbents would be in a much better place. Because they could tout their votes to the mainstream of American voters, who actually care about these issues. Sic Transit Gloria, GOP.
Mcturtle never let any bill under Obama unless he got maximum and sometimes detrimental appeasements from Obama. Reid finally blew up filibuster on judges because mcturtle refused to let anyone through.
Now recently, suddenly, cornholio gets a gun bill through. infrastructure got through. Is mcturtle relenting or does he realize he has over played his hand? turtle head was expecting easy wins in Georgia and Pennsylvania, Ohio, possible pick up in Arizona. Now he is looking at a losing hand in many races. Dems pick up one seat no matter where and he loses out on a chance to be leader of the senate. I suspect he announces his retirement at that point.
“But my takeaway point is this. If, anytime over the past decade, the RNC had gotten its head far enough out of Trump’s ass to revamp their national platform into the 21st century”
Do you know what the word “conserve” means?
Depends on the country. Conservatism as practiced by the conservative parties in the U.K. and Canada for instance, is more geared toward economic/taxation/business issues. You don’t hear them spouting anti reproductive health issues and I’ve yet to hear one of their pols spouting off about needing more interference from religiosos.
And that’s how it USED TO BE with the Republican Party before Reagan invited the hypocritical “Religious Right” into the fold. Even then, the GOP was only willing to overturn Roe–not put a target on the entirety of women’s reproductive health matters. I’m willing to bet that *IF* the GOP had been willing to consider something akin to the Affordable Care Act in the Reagan years*, there wouldn’t have been any real opposition to including birth control pills in the measure (as long as they were used primarily for the myriad of uses they have beyond just birth control).
But as the religious nuts became more and more entrenched as the “base” of the GOP, the more adamant they were that women’s health issues (reproductive or otherwise) became more subject to religious whims.
*Granted, it would’ve been a hard sell as mainstream conservatives would see it as “further government overreach” since they’d been trying for more than 4 decades to do away with Social Security and more than a dozen years to do away with Medicare/Medicaid. But there would have been SOME GOP conservatives who would’ve been willing to work with the Democrats for the benefit of their constituents.
It doesn’t mean what the GOP is doing. They’re reactionaries.
All the above, Murf, is why I keep telling people to pay better attention to Liz Cheney, who DID draw the correct lessons from that autopsy report. She’s going to use her position as Vice Chair on the J6 Committee to gut that 20th Century approach and rebuild the GOP into something that works.
That said, she’s ultimately no friend of ours. Her aims mostly match that of loudmouths like DeathSantis. The only difference is she also understands how you need to be careful and quiet in achieving such a goal. The rest of them still stupidly think they’ve got the manpower, time and influence to make such dreams happen now…thus they continue to fail. And don’t bother telling me that because they haven’t satisfied your lust for results that it’s otherwise. Without a massive buy-in from the mainstream, it only goes so far.
Well I think gop is going to have a problem soon. Just seen the sign on the gas station down the street. We got to just under five dollars a gallon. Looked today and it just went to three ninety nine. Republicans aren’t going to like 👍 that.