As Brian Beutler says, Republicans have become the Grand Obstruction Party. Why?
The answer, I think, is that the cynical bargain that has been the basis of Republican strategy since Reagan has now turned into a moral trap. And as far as we can tell, no elected Republican – not one – has the strength of character to even attempt an escape.
The cynical bargain I’m talking about, of course, was the decision to exploit racism to advance a right-wing economic agenda. Talk about welfare queens driving Cadillacs, then slash income taxes. Do Willie Horton, then undermine antitrust. Tout your law and order credentials, then block health care.
For more than a generation, the Republican establishment was able to keep this bait-and-switch under control: racism was deployed to win elections, then was muted afterwards, partly to preserve plausible deniability, partly to focus on the real priority of enriching the one percent. But with Trump they lost control: the base wanted someone who was blatantly racist and wouldn’t pretend to be anything else. And that’s what they got, with corruption, incompetence, and treason on the side.
Nonetheless, aside from a handful of Never Trumpers, just about everyone in the Republican establishment decided that they could work with that. They knew what Trump was, but were willing to overlook it as long as they could push their usual agenda. What about the populism? They guessed, correctly, that this wouldn’t be a problem: Trump didn’t even hesitate about abandoning all his campaign promises and going all in for cutting taxes on the rich while slashing benefits for the poor.
Early on, some speculated that this would be a temporary alliance – that establishment Republicans would use Trump to get what they wanted, then turn on him. But it’s now clear that won’t happen. Trump has exceeded everyone’s worst expectations, yet Republicans, far from cutting him loose, are tying themselves even more closely to his fate. Why?
The answer, I’d argue, is that they’re stuck. They knowingly made a deal with the devil, and can’t back out.
Read the whole thing.
Paul “Ayn Rand” Ryan said the other day that Medicare was the primary driver of “deficit spending and debt.” The 2018 Medicare budget is $704.5 billion dollars. The 2018 military budget is $824.6 billion dollars. The deficit and debt comes from where Paul?
“Ayn Rand” Ryan is really pissed off at McConnell because the leader of the Senate told Paul over the weekend that there would be no legislation dealing with either Medicare or Social Security offered in the Senate in 2018.
Denmark is a democracy with a Socialist economy.
According to Capitalist dogma, something “Ayn Rand” Ryan firmly believes in, a Socialist democracy is an impossibility.
But then, the only thing that the Capitalists actually do well is lie.
There’s also the millions in Putinesque money going to campaigns of important Repubs.
The current Repubs may be in it up to their necks just as much as the Dump. The Devil has come calling for payment and he wants it in rubles.