I got this from someone I don't know this morning in email (thanks whoever RolandStcy is).....great article
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/6/44012/2437/542/655441
A Republican Says It Better Than I Ever Could
by thereisnospoon
Thu Nov 06, 2008 at 10:36:50 AM PST
About a month ago I wrote that America is not now, and has never been, a conservative country. Paul Rosenberg, Eric Alterman, and Think Progress have also done an excellent job swatting away at this meme.
But the best argument that America is indeed a center-left nation was penned without fanfare by one of the Republicans at RedState.com, nephewmiltie, in response to a post assessing the grim future of the GOP.
In just a few short grafs, nephewmiltie exposes the entire GOP economic fraud better than I've seen any progressive do.
thereisnospoon's diary :: ::
People are not afraid of Socialism, it is an acceptable political outcome.
Well, be honest. The voters have long supported socialism. This country was dominated for 50 years by the New Deal coalition, remember? The Reagan and Gingrich revolutions were never against the New Deal. They were against the Great Society. Thus, people have never opposed socialism for themselves. People have for decades wanted free public schools, grants to go to college, retirements, medical care, money to keep their businesses and farms afloat, etc. So in other words, Americans supported the socialism that benefitted them and people like them. They just opposed it for the other guy. The Great Society was easy pickings, because it went to a small segment of society that, let's face it, most people didn't like anyway.
In other words, when most of Europe went hard right in the wake of global depression, America went socialist with FDR and the New Deal--and loved it. But when that New Deal got extended to minorities and the desperately poor, many people freaked out. The Old Dixiecratic South switched to the GOP, and the rest is history.
But the GOP never even seriously tried to cut off the spigot of the huge amounts of money going to "real Americans." By contrast, the GOP actually gave away more money to their constituents than the Democrats ever dreamed of giving to their inner city base. Remember when Democrats were pointing out that "red state America" was a net economic drain while "blue state America" paid more taxes than they spent? It was 100% true, yet the next GOPer who stood up before his "real American" constituents of suburbanites and middle Americans and told them that they needed to get off welfare and stand on their own two feet would be the first. No, that was a message for the folks in Barack Obama's inner city, not the Iowans whose economic boom the past few years has been totally due to the government funded ethanol industry.
In other words, the Republican Party isn't about "small government": it's about socialism for corporations and rich white people.
The GOP needs to come up with a "no socialism for anybody" message instead of the "no socialism for the people who we don't like and don't vote for us but plenty of socialism for 'our types of people the real Americans'" message and actions that have dominated the GOP since 1980.
By the way: small government Sarah Palin actually increased spending in her state. So why did we presume that she supported small government and less spending? Simple: because she is a Republican from a state that doesn't have a Chicago, Detroit or Harlem in it. That is precisely the problem that I am speaking of.
Ouch. In other words, the Republican Party is, above all, a party of lying racist thugs who steal money from the electorate, and have gotten away with it because they refuse to spend it on black people. That's really all she wrote.
And the worst news for the GOP? The country just elected an African-American. As I said many moons ago, Obama's election means the GOP is screwed, because every day an African-American family lives in the White House, is another day the Southern Strategy dies, and people get used to the idea of African-Americans being not "other", but American just like them.
The racist lie upon which the GOP has predicated itself is exposed. We're ALL "socialists" under their definition, with the rare exception of a few in the utterly discredited Club for Growth crowd. It's just that some of us with a moral sense want to put that "socialism" to work for all of us, while others are content to advocate only for "socialism" for our rich, white, and corporate citizens.
Thank you, nephewmiltie, for putting it better than I ever could.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/11/6/44012/2437/542/655441
A Republican Says It Better Than I Ever Could
by thereisnospoon
Thu Nov 06, 2008 at 10:36:50 AM PST
About a month ago I wrote that America is not now, and has never been, a conservative country. Paul Rosenberg, Eric Alterman, and Think Progress have also done an excellent job swatting away at this meme.
But the best argument that America is indeed a center-left nation was penned without fanfare by one of the Republicans at RedState.com, nephewmiltie, in response to a post assessing the grim future of the GOP.
In just a few short grafs, nephewmiltie exposes the entire GOP economic fraud better than I've seen any progressive do.
thereisnospoon's diary :: ::
People are not afraid of Socialism, it is an acceptable political outcome.
Well, be honest. The voters have long supported socialism. This country was dominated for 50 years by the New Deal coalition, remember? The Reagan and Gingrich revolutions were never against the New Deal. They were against the Great Society. Thus, people have never opposed socialism for themselves. People have for decades wanted free public schools, grants to go to college, retirements, medical care, money to keep their businesses and farms afloat, etc. So in other words, Americans supported the socialism that benefitted them and people like them. They just opposed it for the other guy. The Great Society was easy pickings, because it went to a small segment of society that, let's face it, most people didn't like anyway.
In other words, when most of Europe went hard right in the wake of global depression, America went socialist with FDR and the New Deal--and loved it. But when that New Deal got extended to minorities and the desperately poor, many people freaked out. The Old Dixiecratic South switched to the GOP, and the rest is history.
But the GOP never even seriously tried to cut off the spigot of the huge amounts of money going to "real Americans." By contrast, the GOP actually gave away more money to their constituents than the Democrats ever dreamed of giving to their inner city base. Remember when Democrats were pointing out that "red state America" was a net economic drain while "blue state America" paid more taxes than they spent? It was 100% true, yet the next GOPer who stood up before his "real American" constituents of suburbanites and middle Americans and told them that they needed to get off welfare and stand on their own two feet would be the first. No, that was a message for the folks in Barack Obama's inner city, not the Iowans whose economic boom the past few years has been totally due to the government funded ethanol industry.
In other words, the Republican Party isn't about "small government": it's about socialism for corporations and rich white people.
The GOP needs to come up with a "no socialism for anybody" message instead of the "no socialism for the people who we don't like and don't vote for us but plenty of socialism for 'our types of people the real Americans'" message and actions that have dominated the GOP since 1980.
By the way: small government Sarah Palin actually increased spending in her state. So why did we presume that she supported small government and less spending? Simple: because she is a Republican from a state that doesn't have a Chicago, Detroit or Harlem in it. That is precisely the problem that I am speaking of.
Ouch. In other words, the Republican Party is, above all, a party of lying racist thugs who steal money from the electorate, and have gotten away with it because they refuse to spend it on black people. That's really all she wrote.
And the worst news for the GOP? The country just elected an African-American. As I said many moons ago, Obama's election means the GOP is screwed, because every day an African-American family lives in the White House, is another day the Southern Strategy dies, and people get used to the idea of African-Americans being not "other", but American just like them.
The racist lie upon which the GOP has predicated itself is exposed. We're ALL "socialists" under their definition, with the rare exception of a few in the utterly discredited Club for Growth crowd. It's just that some of us with a moral sense want to put that "socialism" to work for all of us, while others are content to advocate only for "socialism" for our rich, white, and corporate citizens.
Thank you, nephewmiltie, for putting it better than I ever could.
