RoR: Forum

James-

I understand that the primary focus of your article was to criticize the dems, but even given that, I usually see at least a little criticism about what's doing on the other side of the fence. I'd be interested in hearing about what you think the Republicans and the Bush admin do wrong.

rde

Post 1

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 7:46am

James,

Record deficits, exploding oil prices, the inevitable decline in the dollar, a frothy housing market, record private debt, and theological regulation of emerging biotechnologies and this is setting the stage for rapid economic growth? I think not. We will continue to hobble along economically and our budget deficits will eventually drive long-term interest rates up deflating the housing market. Bush's prescription drug disaster will also come home to roost as it is the biggest new domestic spending program since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.

Jim

Post 2

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 8:02am

Enjoyed yr analysis James. The Dems do seem to be on an infantile course, without any range.

I'm continually impressed with the Bush admin. When I read Bush's second inaugural address I thought if he follows through he'll change the world - for the better. Each time I hear Condi speak I think, hey, they're doin it, and I couldn't ask for a better US foreign policy. Couldn't do it better myself! (As you think too, I'd guess).

Good to read your teasing out the future prospects. Do it myself. Yr observation about the real effects of supply side is a good reminder that certain ideas are at work 'out there' despite the small franchise.

- Sam

Post 3

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 8:08am

Impressed? Don't forget the idea that words shouldn't be followed, if there are no deeds. Judge the deeds not only the words, for words can be lies.

And this is what I see in George W. Bush, much good sounding sound waves and a lot of Democrats stuff in domestic policy...

Post 4

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 8:41am

James H-N:

Record deficits, exploding oil prices, the inevitable decline in the dollar, a frothy housing market, record private debt, and theological regulation of emerging biotechnologies and this is setting the stage for rapid economic growth? I think not. We will continue to hobble along economically and our budget deficits will eventually drive long-term interest rates up deflating the housing market. Bush's prescription drug disaster will also come home to roost as it is the biggest new domestic spending program since Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.

Yup. That's part of the little information packet that hits my processor when I think of Dubya. I wasn't going to go there, but since you did...

I can't even stand to look at that strange, dead look of non-understanding in Dubya's eyes. Karl Rove could be a negative character in an AR novel- he's a backstabbing little shit-weasel. And who'da thought that a %$## boring-ass Methodist would have sold out to the Religious Right like Dubya has! I'm one of the only religious guys on this whole forum, and I'm hacked off about the erosion of church/state separation, which the Republicans and the administration are all effing about.

This administration is one of, if not the finest Good 'Ol Boy Networks<tm> ever created in the history of American politics. Never before has business, religion, and politics been intermingled in such a filthy, depraved manner.

Post 5

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 8:57am

Spot on analysis, James! With the number of people on the left who see America as a slave-owning, Native American-killing, nuclear weapon-using country, then it makes sense that they wouldn't want to see her protected as much. It's why they're anti-Capitalism. It's why they take the side of the Gitmo prisoners, and want us to lose in Iraq. It's also why they want us to hand over more of our soverignty to the corrupt, anti-American UN.

And let's stop pretending that it's some far-left fringe of the party too.

http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110006878

(Democrats) Embraced Michael Moore, giving him an honored seat at the party convention in Boston last July. When Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11"--surely the crassest effort to politicize the attacks--had its Washington premiere, many Democrats showed up, including the party's then-chairman, Terry McAuliffe, and its then-Senate leader, Tom Daschle. "There might be half of the Democratic Senate here," then-senator Bob Graham of Florida observed.

Whatever one's problems with the GOP, the best reason to support them right now is that they're not Democrats.

Post 6

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 9:52am

(hums "Hokey Pokey")..."...and that's what it's all about~!

Here's a shiny, hot-off-Reuters example of capitalism gone....somewhere...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8381220/

WASHINGTON - A top U.S. Army procurement official said on Monday Halliburton's deals in Iraq were the worst example of contract abuse she had seen as Pentagon auditors questioned more than $1 billion of potential overcharges by the Texas-based firm.

Post 7

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 10:25am

There can't be that many leftists, because Ronald Reagan has been voted the greatst American of all Times. So, democrats wouldn't have voted for Reagan. I think there is no big left anywhere to see. The problem is that there are too many socialist Republicans, who are just doing what the left was unable to do...

Post 8

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 10:29am

" and have moved further away from the political mainstream with each decade."

"They consistently put their own political survival over the wellbeing of their country..."

But moving away from the political mainstream would be the very antithesis of putting "political survival" first.

Contradictions don't exist. Check your premises.

Post 9

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 10:50am

As hyperbole goes, that was off the chart.

The Democratic "red" states are losing population and electoral votes for the most part to the Republican "blue" states.

I was under the impression that Republicans were red and Democrats blue.

Post 10

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 12:58pm

The next big fun thing that should be exploding in the chamber for the Republicans is Tom Noe's missing coin scandal here in beautiful Ohio. This one could really have some hang time, it's got giant kickback scandal written all over it. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050622/NEWS01/506220409

I think governor Taft is a total toolbox, and even though this looks promising for doing him in, even that will never redeem this mess. If I'm not mistaken, Noe is the top Republican fundraising kahuna for OH.

The golf part is hysterical.

Post 11

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 1:42pm

Am I reading the same article as everyone else? I thought it was an analysis of the Democrats position and strategy. How they're losing ground, taking more desperate measures, stalling, and pinning all their hopes that the Republicans will fail on their own. And more importantly, how all of that may lead them to a complete collapse.

James, I liked the article. I've heard other people come to the same conclusions, but offer different/more reasons for them. I've heard the Republican party has become very organized and efficient, while the Democrats have ridden on previous success and ideological mainstream. There's Foxs News, which has had a huge effect. There's the internet, which favors the Republicans, including blogs and alternative news sources, plus is an effective check against the mainstream liberal bias.

Even the Democrats themselves have commented frequently on their lack of identifying position, lack of direction, etc. The Democrats appear to be more willing to use any means of stalling the Republicans, including preventing votes on judges, etc. The myriad lawsuits to win the Presidency in 2000 set the standard that anything goes.

Is it really the collapse of a major party? Is it just politics as usual? It'll be interesting to find out.

Post 12

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 2:04pm

Well, as I see it, the Democrats have lost their profile. While the Republicans have soaked up all the former Democrats agenda items and transformed them to their own agenda. This is why the Democrats have become mostly obsolete for many voters or just harmless.
When do I need a spending-Democrat, as long as I have a spending Republican who tries to do what the Democrats never had the guts to do?

I just think they slept and lost the political war for the next few years, because they couldn't take up the race with the clever Republican agenda.
And admittedly, they have done a bold and good move, speaking in political terms, the only other being capable of doing this has been the German Reichschancellor Bismarck... really, remarkable.. he also stole the agenda of the German socialists and gave social security to the people, in exchange for unlimited power... nice trade-off for world war I.

Post 13

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 2:41pm

Hi James,

Great article. Can’t wait for ’06. If it’s anything like ’02 I’ll be giggling all evening.

Jon

Post 14

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 4:32pm

'02 was great, but for my money, nothing beat sending Daschle back home in '04!

Post 15

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 7:30pm

Hi, guys.
Rich - your first post was interesting- as you went on, I began sifting through my notes on effective sedatives. Anyway, the Bush administration does many things that I don't approve of, but they do have a pretty good understanding of what is important to fight for and what isn't. I wish some of you were as well focused. In general. I, like most of you I bet, consider myself a classical liberal; Bush is a moderate conservative in today's America. I just plain disagree with him on feminism, gay rights, religion, and a host of other issues. Over the next several years, I will be writing many articles on what Republicans in general and specifically, are doing wrong. Some topics for articles I am considering might give you a few hints on this matter:
1) Gay Marriage - the Essential Issue
2 An Agenda to Resurrect the Democratic Party
3) America's 44th President- Hillary Rodham Clinton?
4) Why Not a Center Left and a Center Right Libertarian America?
5) Why I hate Politics and Follow it Religiously

James- you need new sources of information -we are in a very robost recovery. Record deficits -Clinton recession and 9/11- they are much lower than they would be if Bush weren't there; exploding oil prices- inhereted idiotic environmental policy and Democratic blocking of domestic energy development; the dollar is doing pretty well the last six months; greatest housing market in America's history- James! You must visit earth occasionally!
Sam- I am leaning towards Condi in 2008 at this point.
Max - nobody tells you what he is going to do and then goes out and does it as well as George Bush.
Scott- I like your priorities.
Robert- Check your premises- the Democrats are far from reality as to what is the mainstream and far from reality from surviving in the real world. They are the picture of consistent premises, as am I.
Justin - I stand corrected. The media couldn't call the Democrats Red or they would be admitting that they were closer to "the Reds" than the Republicans are. I keep remembering that fact and forgetting who is Red and who is Blue.

Joseph - I believe that Liberalism's choke hold on political America was loosened in the late 70's, when the cable television revolution first got underway. This was made possible by convergence of new ideas from the right during the last 50 years. Led by Ayn Rand and Objectivism, this may be a main theme of a book by Barbara and me, if we can ever successfully shoo away all the flies and sit down and write it.
The Democrats lack of agenda is why they might just disappear, but I stress that it is unlikely that that will happen. I will write an article shortly on a new Democratic agenda which I could support, particularly if the Republicans go off the deep religious right end, which is also quite possible.
Jon ( and Scott and Sam- in fact, all of you!) Let's have a party at my house on election night 2006!

Post 16

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 10:57pm

I listened to Bush's speech on Iraq tonight, and I think it was the best political speech I've ever heard. I remembered that when I first heard Ronald Reagan's television talk endorsing Goldwater, I thought: "I know that this speech won't convert everyone and create a landslide for Goldwater, I could give a dozen reasons for their obliviousness to Reagan's words -- but somewhere inside me, deeper than that knowledge, I'll never fully understand why not." Tonight, I thought: "I know that this speech won't convert everyone and create a unanimous endorsement by Americans of the war, I could give a dozen reasons for their obliviousness to Bushs' words -- but somewhere inside me, deeper than that knowledge, I'll never fully understand why not."

When I first read ATLAS SHRUGGED, years ago, I thought. . .

Barbara

Post 17

Tuesday, June 28, 2005 - 11:39pm

The trouble with political criticism (and I'm am, verbally, either the fourth or fifth most-staunch criticizer of Bush on this website) is that it is difficult to tease out the effects of an administration -- from the direction set of the administration preceding it. It's a Leviathon thing (gov't has a kind of momentum -- hard to reverse).

Bush talks wonderful talk -- I'm the first to admit of the importance of combining the words "individual" and "rights" in a single sentence of a presidential speech.

The great question, however, is: How much of the incontrovertibly-unprecedented growth in statism -- is due to Bush-origination (and how much is merely left-over from our so cleverly-disguised Clinton-despotism)?

Yes, contemporary Liberals have no vision -- but they NEVER HAVE. Every liberal move, from the Great Society onward, has been an unprincipled "bleeding-heart" move. This is nothing new.

Objective measures of statism exist -- and ought to be applied to the current administration (regardless of freedom-affirming rhetoric).

Ed
(Edited by Ed Thompson
on 6/28, 11:41pm)

Post 18

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 12:14am

We all heard about the eminent domain ruling that gives the government power to seize private property... Well, lucky, Mr. Bush has done this before his career really boomed:

http://www.menrohm.com/2005/06/george-bush-and-eminent-domain.html

And this is the champion of freedom?

Post 19

Wednesday, June 29, 2005 - 8:57am