Moderate Republicans and Independents Finally Recognize the Truth

[BluegrassCat]

An important OP-ED from two social scientists, Thomas Mann, an independent, from the non-partisan Brookings Institute and Norm Ornstein, a Republican, from the notably right-leaning AEI, where they note that the evidence has become undeniable: the Republicans are the problem.

They forcefully make the case that those of us with eyes have seen for years: the modern GOP has become a radical fringe party that makes governance impossible. A must read for those people still clinging to the myth of "it's both parties' fault" or "democrats are just as bad."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...y.html?hpid=z2

[buttslinger]

Exhibit A: Norquist

[Stavros]

This is indeed interesting, it raises questions about where the new/next generation of elected officials are coming from. In the Uk there is a growing despondency about the quality of people entering politics at local level, or in Parliament -when you deduct the lawyers, the rest seem to have left university and worked as researchers for MPs before getting an endorsement from their local party to run for office. Increasingly fewer elected representatives have run their own business, been through a war, a bankruptcy -the most trauma they have experienced seems to be a failed marriage. There were many Tories who were 'inspired' by Thatcher, but are new Republicans inspired by a person, or by issues around taxation, healthcare and so on which they see as a 'threat' to the American Way of Life??

Meanwhile, in today's NYT there is an editorial on the ballot in North Caroline:

Bigotry on the Ballot

Published: April 29, 2012

North Carolina already has a law barring same-sex marriage, but the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature is not satisfied. It devised a measure to enshrine this obvious discrimination in the State Constitution and placed it on the ballot of the state’s May 8 primary election — a test of tolerance versus bigotry that ought to be watched closely nationwide.






In their zeal, lawmakers got careless with the wording of the measure, known as Amendment One. It would constitutionally prohibit recognition not just of same-sex marriages, but of other legal arrangements like civil unions and domestic partnerships. That could harm all unmarried couples, imperiling some children’s health insurance benefits, along with child custody arrangements and safeguards against domestic violence.
The campaign against the amendment is being spearheaded by a coalition of civic, religious, business and civil rights leaders and groups. One of Amendment One’s most vocal opponents is the Rev. William Barber II, president of the state chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. Mr. Barber draws a strong link between the proposed amendment and struggles against racial unfairness, an appeal with special resonance following the publication in March of memos from the National Organization for Marriage, one the most prominent groups fighting same-sex marriage, about driving “a wedge between gays and blacks.”
Polls suggest that defeating this measure remains an uphill struggle, but at least its approval is no longer an entirely foregone conclusion. Much will depend on turnout, especially by voters on college campuses, who will need to vote in larger-than-usual numbers to defeat this declaration of officially sanctioned discrimination.
The North Carolina vote is one of several statewide ballot fights over same-sex marriage the nation will see this year. But public opinion continues to move steadily toward marriage equality. In 2001, Americans opposed same-sex marriage by a margin of 57 percent to 35 percent. Today, 47 percent are in favor and 43 percent opposed, according to a new Pew Research poll.
Opponents of marriage equality have never been able to show any evidence that any harm is caused to heterosexual marriages by granting all American adults the right to marry as they choose — because there is no such evidence. With little more than a week to go before the May 8 contest, and early voting already under way, North Carolinians need to consider whether they really want to inflict this gratuitous bigotry on their fellow citizens and their children.

[Prospero]

The piece you posted is excellent and disturbing. Thanks Bluegrass. It is a disturbing picture that has a wider echo - clearly demonstrated by the success of the radical right in the first round of the french elections and of the growth of the extreme right across Europe.

However wait for the attack dogs of the lunatic right on here to react and simply dismiss this report because it appeared in the Washington Post. They will surely claim it is simply part of the "extreme left" agenda. I can see OMK and his lickspittle buddies preparing their sneering response right now - because they are part of this irrational right wing swing.

[robertlouis]

There wouldn't be a civil war this time, but maybe these bigots, who seem to be strongest in the south, should piss off from the rest of the US and form their own little pariah state where they can happily ban abortion, persecute gays, subjugate women, continue their long-held traditions (pace the Trayvon Martin case) of racial harassment and hatred, and await the resurrection which their righteous beliefs and behaviour surely deserve.

That last bit was sarcastic, btw.

[Prospero]

Bits of the south are truly beautiful though and i have many friends in North carolina, Georgia and Florida. So I think perhaps all those truly loveable rednecks should be sent on a wagon train to - erm.... Nebraska?

[robertlouis]

Bits of the south are truly beautiful though and i have many friends in North carolina, Georgia and Florida. So I think perhaps all those truly loveable rednecks should be sent on a wagon train to - erm.... Nebraska?

No - inner city Detroit.

[onmyknees]

An important OP-ED from two social scientists, Thomas Mann, an independent, from the non-partisan Brookings Institute and Norm Ornstein, a Republican, from the notably right-leaning AEI, where they note that the evidence has become undeniable: the Republicans are the problem.

They forcefully make the case that those of us with eyes have seen for years: the modern GOP has become a radical fringe party that makes governance impossible. A must read for those people still clinging to the myth of "it's both parties' fault" or "democrats are just as bad."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...y.html?hpid=z2

OK,,,,some questions before we get to the meat of the post. Why is it that when liberals are trying to prove a point, they find faux conservatives to make it for them, then they present it as though there's wide consensus in the movement as if they've just discovered some Johnny Cochren moment (if the glove don't fit...you must acquit) ? Norm Orenstein is a smart guy, but if you asked a thousand conservatives to list the top 100 conservative thinkers and writers, he wouldn't make anyone's list. He's a moderate, possibly a Neo Con so to hold him up as the vanguard of the conservative movement is foolish. Is like using something David Brooks says. They have no creditability, that's not to say what they write has no merit, but when you start quoting George Will or Jennifer Rubin both who write for the Washington Post, then you'll get my attention.

Since Orenstein is a moderate, he seeks moderation, agreement, consensus. Ok ...I'll buy that. But can you honestly say liberals seek moderation ? Did you seek consensus on the health care bill, or did you ram it through with no Republican initiatives or votes for that matter? No...you rammed it through because you had the votes. Are you interested in working with Paul Ryan on his budget? No...you prefer to demonize him. Obama set up the bi partisan Simpson Bowles deficit commission, then ran from their findings....Get real. To say that liberals suddenly want to meet in the middle and govern is laughable. If Orensitens point is that Republicans have moved further right, he's probably right, but he could have written the exact same article and focused on the liberals lurch leftward....so much so that longtime liberal Joe Liberman left the party. Would it impress you if I posted some writings by Liberman? Of course not...so don't expect me to be impressed by Orenstein. And what has become of those moderate democratic members of congress? Do a little research on the blue dog caucus and every one of them will tell you they were shunned by Nancy Pelosi. Did you know there were 2 blue dogs who had democratic primaries last week, both were "moderate" democrats....the kind that make Orenstein all warm and fuzzy. Both got trounced in their primaries by far left candidates. The blue dog democrats are an endangered species. How can the Republicans think Obama wants compromise when it's been 8 months since he's met with the Speaker of the House? You liberals have zero capacity for self examination. You'll point to an article by Orenstien as affirmation that it's all the Republicans fault, but you'll never look any further for answers, why would you...that might mean you have to come to terms with the truth, and posting an article by a moderate Republican might make you feel vindicated, it doesn't solve a fucking thing. . Here's what African American ex moderate democrat Congressman Davis said....Put this in your pipe Norm Orenstein and Blue Gas and smoke it, and stop posting articles by faux conservatives and holding them up as "gotcha" moments. You liberals had it all for the first 2 years of Barry's term, and didn't give 2 shits about working together....now suddenly you seek the advice of moderates and wring your hands about Republicans ? Please. And btw....it may be an "important" article to you because you can't see the forest for the trees, but it's not important to me.

Ex-Rep. Artur Davis Former congressman (D-Ala.); fellow, Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics :


Several points of rebuttal to some of the analyses I have seen: while Holden's and Altmire's defeats were influenced by redistricting and myriad factors that it would take a Pennsylvanian to know, there is no serious question that their opposition to healthcare reform wounded them and gave their opposition an easy rallying cry. Given that 36 House Democrats opposed the bill two yeas ago--the largest break in party discipline on a final passage vote in over 25 years - what happened to Holden and Altmire is a sign of how rapidly dissent has become intolerable in the ranks of Democratic activists.

Between a cable culture that ridicules moderation as a timid dodge; a presidency that has lurched to the left and portrayed opposition to its agenda in stark, moralistic terms; and the tendency of rank and file moderates to skip voting in partisan primaries; both parties have reverted to ideological battle stations. For the first time in the two party era, we have an essentially liberal party and an essentially conservative one.

One other point worth making: the media-driven notion that it is Republicans alone who have rebuffed their center is a myth. It is blunt fact that at this point in our political culture, a Democrat who held any of the following combination of positions--who believed, for example, that the Affordable Care Act is bad policy, or who opposed tax hikes on the wealthy, or who dared to question the liberal focus on income inequality, even one who didn't share the conviction that same sex marriage is a basic test of equality - would inspire a stream of funding against him and the inspired antipathy of his own party's grassroots. The big tent is now the church of the true believer.

[onmyknees]

Hey BGC....I know you came to the table thinking you had some earth shattering revelations , but in the end it was nothing more than a dud. I was curious to see what other real conservatives thought, and it didn't take long to discover they agreed with me unanimously...Here's a real conservative who has some cred said...


Norman Ornstein to the Press Corps: Stop Covering the GOP Fairly to Stop Their Success


Nothing says marginal extremism like holding the US House, most statehouses, most governorships, and a plurality of national party ID.


Posted by Erick Erickson (Diary)
Monday, April 30th at 10:16AM EDT

“It is a soft form of the liberal fascism about which I’ve been warning. The GOP must be painted as extremist by the press, their point of view must be painted as fringe, and they must be shut up because they are too damn successful.”

Norman Ornstein is the in house pet liberal at the American Enterprise Institute who they let out of his cage once in a while to lament the free market, conservatives, and the like. I’m not sure why groups like the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute ever allow their supposed scholars to team up with the Brookings Institute, but whenever they do it results in intellectual underwear stains for both organizations.
In today’s quasi-bipartisan inane ramblings, Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute and Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institute want the Washington Press Corps to know the GOP is extremist, destroying the country, and they should all stop paying attention to the GOP or treating them with balance.
Nothing says marginal extremism like holding the US House, most statehouses, most governorships, and a plurality of national party ID.
Now, we know their target audience is the press corps because they write

Our advice to the press: Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views. Which politician is telling the truth? Who is taking hostages, at what risks and to what ends?

This is a growing trend among left-wingers. They have not won the arguments. In fact, Ornstein and Mann take 1,998 words to make sure we know the left has been wholly unsuccessful in its agenda. So what Ornstein and Mann resort to in response is

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

It’s kind of like how they refused to compromise on their healthcare plan and insisted on parliamentary gimmicks to ram it through Congress, cooked the books to make it look like it would cut the deficit, chose to ignore facts not in dispute since Adam Smith wrote Wealth of Nations back in the 1700′s, and tried to paint their opposition as wanting to put women back in kitchens, blacks back in chains, and old people in the grave.
Oh wait . . . that’d be the Democrats who did that when they controlled Congress and the White House at or near filibuster proof levels for two years and did nothing to fix the economy, but chose instead to wreck private healthcare in America.
Ornstein and Mann are all upset at Allen West for comparing the Progressive Caucus in the House to the Communist Party — an accurate comparison considering how the groups are so closely aligned in their publicly stated agenda.
For 1,998 words, Ornstein and Mann chronicle Republican successes since 1994 and view it all as bad. The drive to reduce government is viewed as bad government. Republican ideas are viewed as unworthy of consideration or fair treatment by the press.
This, in fact, is the point to pay attention to in it all.
The American Press Corps leans left and does so objectively. Consider, in the past few years, the number of journalists who went to work for Barack Obama. Consider, in the past few years, the number of journalists who have moved from left-wing organizations into the mainstream or who have spouses who work for left-wing groups. I can think, offhand, of a number of very prominent journalists in Washington who are married to pro-abortion advocates, DNC and left-wing political operatives, etc. The press does lean left.
The way the press has tried to get around its biases is to state both positions as fairly as possible. Now, even so the press fails miserably often intentionally putting a female pro-abortion activist against a male pro-life activist even though there is a ready supply of female pro-life advocates ready to go on TV.
But the press takes the approach they ridicule Fox News for taking — being fair and balanced. Left-winger says X and cites these facts. Right-winger says Y and cites these facts. You decide. They’ll reveal their biases in who they use for those facts and how they give treatment to them.
Consequently, left-wingers are upset. Their ideas have been rather unsuccessful since around Ronald Reagan’s election and have been declining ever since. Now we’re starting to see a new trend in journalism.
First is the belief Ornstein and Mann peddle:

The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.

They cite a liberal’s research that conservatives think differently from liberals and make the blanket determination that the liberals’ “facts” are the real facts.
An example would be taxes. To the simple minded liberal, raising taxes increases revenue to the federal government in an amount capable of solving our debt problem. They ignore that cutting taxes can generate enough economic growth to generate new revenue into the treasury as we saw during the Reagan years. Liberals view the Reagan deficits as proof tax cuts don’t work and ignore the excess growth in government defense spending during the time.
Another example would be global warming. Conservatives and the American public at large have failed to buy into politically correct notions of global warming and the left views this as a terrible thing.
The list is pretty extensive and those are just two examples. Because conservatives have been so successful, Ornstein and Mann first must label them out of touch with facts and science and then do what the left has been trying since Barack Obama took office — silence dissent.

We understand the values of mainstream journalists, including the effort to report both sides of a story. But a balanced treatment of an unbalanced phenomenon distorts reality. If the political dynamics of Washington are unlikely to change anytime soon, at least we should change the way that reality is portrayed to the public.
Our advice to the press: Don’t seek professional safety through the even-handed, unfiltered presentation of opposing views. Which politician is telling the truth? Who is taking hostages, at what risks and to what ends?
Also, stop lending legitimacy to Senate filibusters by treating a 60-vote hurdle as routine. The framers certainly didn’t intend it to be. Report individual senators’ abusive use of holds and identify every time the minority party uses a filibuster to kill a bill or nomination with majority support.
Look ahead to the likely consequences of voters’ choices in the November elections. How would the candidates govern? What could they accomplish? What differences can people expect from a unified Republican or Democratic government, or one divided between the parties?

It is a soft form of the liberal fascism about which I’ve been warning. The GOP must be painted as extremist by the press, their point of view must be painted as fringe, and they must be shut up because they are too damn successful.
The sad thing is, there are a number of Republican Leaders in Washington who agree and wish conservatives would just send them money, but otherwise shut up.

[BluegrassCat]

So you're saying other members of your extremist party agree with you? Amazing! You're proving Mann & Ornstein's points for me. When Democrats, Independents and Moderate Republicans all agree the GOP has become an extremist radical movement, it's time to finally admit, it IS you after all. The data on this aren't ideological, they're just facts. The GOP has become far more conservative over the past 30 years than the Democratic party has become liberal. You didn't like the way Obama passed a conservative healthcare bill endorsed by Republicans only a few years back? That you pull that example out is only further proof of how truly out of the mainstream you and your party have gone.
Show me the evidence that says it's the Democratic Party that's driving polarization. Oh, you can't, so you'll hurl lies and insults as usual.