Will Republican Criticism of Bush Stick?
Limbaugh has a piece criticizing Bush's fiscal policies. Read it here.
I don't think Rush "gets" what's going on economically here, which seems to me to be little more than the old "starve the beast" approach.
Cheers
Scott
I don't think Rush "gets" what's going on economically here, which seems to me to be little more than the old "starve the beast" approach.
Cheers
Scott
Comments
bush is really pushing the fiscal aspect of conservatism out the window.
Republicans - fiscally liberal and socially conservative.
Democrats - fiscally conservative and socially liberal.
Which one are you?
(I'm hoping, anyway.)
GARY NOLAN 2004
...
And don't fool yourself, neither Kerry nor Bush are fiscally conservative.
Originally posted by billybobsky
you cant have a working liberal social policy without expenditures. its about time people realize this.
I think the tough part is educating people on how liberal social policy actually improves their lives. The right has done such a thorough job of demonizing "liberal" that I would wager when most people hear the phrase "liberal social policy" they think of some kind of hellish vision of enforced homosexuality and property seizures, instead of interstate highways, public schools, college scholarships, etc.
Originally posted by addabox
I think the tough part is educating people on how liberal social policy actually improves their lives. The right has done such a thorough job of demonizing "liberal" that I would wager when most people hear the phrase "liberal social policy" they think of some kind of hellish vision of enforced homosexuality and property seizures, instead of interstate highways, public schools, college scholarships, etc.
Liberal social policy is a disaster. It does little or nothing to improve lives...in fact I would argue it makes them much worse. We should be spending money on roads and schools, I agree. If we were spending our trillions of dollars on roads and schools, national defense, science and exploration, the arts, and the like, then you'd hear vbery little from me.
Instead, we spend it on prescription drugs, free healthcare for the poor, corporate welfare, a massive federal bureaucrocy and social programs which hurt people more than help them. What you don't understand is that while spending on problems such as poverty has increased expontentially over the past 50 years, the percentage of people who are "poor" has only dropped very, very slightly. "Liberal Social Policy" creates dependence and apathy. It creates a governemt program for EVERYTHING.
As for Bush, I have two major criticisms:
1) He spends too much money. Period.
2) He stands for too much big government.
I'll still support him, but these are two major problems for conservatives.
He'll still get his base though....so no, I don't think the criticism will stick.
Acctually if I were to list the criticisms I have with Bush I'd be here for hours. If I were to sum up one of the worst parts I think " Spends like a drunken sailor " comes pretty close.
Just like a drunken sailor he isn't to good at where he spends his ( our ) money either.
Originally posted by SDW2001
As for Bush, I have two major criticisms:
1) He spends too much money. Period.
2) He stands for too much big government.
I'll still support him, but these are two major problems for conservatives.
He'll still get his base though....so no, I don't think the criticism will stick.
So what conservatives are left with are the religious right-type views. "We're all anti-gay" - that's what unites conservatives under Bush. Clinton said the era of big government is over, and Bush started it back up again. And it's not just Clinton. Bush is spending (social spending, mind you) more than Carter as well. And it's not just Bush. Reagan was a big spender too. Sure, conservatives blamed Congress, despite the fact that Reagan called for larger budgets every time than Congress approved, and despite the fact that the Senate was held by Repubs during most of the Reagan years. But now that Repubs control everything, they don't even have that excuse anymore, no matter how thin it was.
At this point it's just inertia for conservatives: "I voted Republican before, and I'm going to do it again." The conservative ideology is in utter shambles. The cut-taxes-while-increasing-spending policy has been proved a disaster over and over and over again. The anti-gay religious right social conservative views are all they have left. They should feel proud. I'm sure they'll win some Bible belt states with that message. But their national ideology is done.
Originally posted by SDW2001
Liberal social policy is a disaster. It does little or nothing to improve lives...in fact I would argue it makes them much worse.
Liberal social policy got Western culture out of the 18th century and into the modern era, and yet for some reason people seem to forget the reason it came about in the first place. You want to see what your vision is like, go and read Engels's _The Conditions of the Working Class in England_ for an eye-opener. There's an online version here. I really can't recommend it highly enough.
This all goes back to Henry VIII, really. When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, their absence was sorely felt. The church and monasteries and whatnot had traditionally taken care of the poor at a local level (funded, of course, by *mandatory* tithing). When they were gone (and they don't reappear in England until the middle of the c19), government had to bear the burden.
The results of their resistance to "liberal social policy" were, quite simply, disastrous.
Cheers
Scott
Originally posted by BRussell
I'm sure they'll win some Bible belt states with that message. But their national ideology is done.
Actually, before I left Oklahoma, lots of folks were grumbling about the lack of conservatism among the Republicans.
The question isn't "what if they switch their votes," which they won't do. The question is what happens if they stay home? Oklahoma just elected a Dem. governor, for instance.
So. What is the Scorched Earth Party?
* It is a fresh breeze, over a golden meadow.
* It is the rosy blush, in the cheek of a small child.
* It is a jackboot in the groin, for those too slow to dodge.
* It is the Doublemint Twins. In your bed.
* It is the genetic banks, that put the blush in the cheek of that small, powerfully and artifically augmented child.
* It is thugs bearing lead pipes, sneaking into Michael Bolton's house in the middle of the night to administer sweet justice.
* It is the joys of feeling fresh.
* It is taking those who beat the crap out of you on the playground, and putting them on a secret island, where the Sodomy Squirrels make their existance one long, living hell.
The Scorched Earth Party is the last true bastion of honesty in the undiluted smegma bath that is American Politics. We want to serve you. We want to make your life very, very, VERY different. We want to use you. We want to sleep with you.
We were the first political party to respond to the threat of Barney, and the first to advocate beating those responsible to death with lead pipes.
We were the first political party to advocate renaming the Washington Monument the Big Stone U.S. Penis and putting big, orange foam testicles at the bottom.
"I am whatever you're not."
-- some Democrat, or was it a Republican?
PS: I made the quote up
Originally posted by SDW2001
Liberal social policy is a disaster. It does little or nothing to improve lives...in fact I would argue it makes them much worse.
Are we worse off than we were in the 1800's? No.
EDIT: midwinter, I didn't see your post.
Have you lost your sense of sustainability?
We are just a step away
From realizing what we strive to be
But we've got to break out
From this insulated, blind and lame senility
Wake up the new america wo-oh!
Transcend the mass hysteria wo-oh!
Change is the thing you're wary of wo-oh!
We need a new america wo-oh!
Laurels, human triumph
Bestowments from the past
Victories don't mean a thing
If they don't last
We are just marching toward extinction
With blinders on our eyes
Jeopardizing everything
We've learned and come to realize
You call that wise?
Open your eyes america wo-oh!
See through the lies they tell to us wo-oh!
Confront the fears that worry us wo-oh!
We need a new america wo-oh!
We don't have to be afraid to re-invent
We've got to start to build
Progress and implement
For when we take our fill
And never pay the price
We only build ourselves
A fleeting, false paradise
You can live in staunch denial
And mark me as your enemy
But I'm just a voice among the throng
Who want a brighter destiny
They say with me
We are the new america wo-oh!
This is the new america? Wo-oh
Originally posted by bunge
EDIT: midwinter, I didn't see your post.
No problem.
The arguments that people are making about social policy have been tried before. They failed. Miserably.
Cheers
Scott