I’m curious what Republican donors are offering aspiring presidential candidates in the way of advice.
“There’s a complete lack of understanding of what primary voters are all about,” said one GOP strategist involved in a potential presidential candidate’s campaign, who requested anonymity to speak candidly. “You go around and hang out with big Republican donors, and if you were to take all their advice on how to win, you’d be screwed beyond belief, particularly in a primary.”
I’m guessing that whatever it is they’re saying, it’s something that Jon Huntsman listened to. Ironically, Mitt Romney had better advisers. He told more lies than any man I have ever seen or even heard of. And he was rewarded for it.
Obviously, there is a chasm between your average golf-playing Connecticut banker and the real base of the Republican Party. But Connecticut bankers created this beast, even if they don’t really understand it. The beast is trained and ready to be led almost anywhere. Against racial minorities. Against Muslims. Against atheists. Against queers. Against the federal government. About the only place they won’t be led is where the Republican Establishment wants to take them.
Well Boehner’s mimicry of his fellow House members is pretty damn telling of what makes the cull.
The fat cats have had a pretty phenomenal run in terms of manipulating people to vote against their own self interests. Even before 1980, they were doing pretty well. Since 1980, they’ve been kicking ass.
Eventually, all things come to an end. But don’t expect them to go down easy. Along the way, they will cut whatever deals with the devil they deem necessary or beneficial. Back in the day, they could relegate nut cases to the attic. That’s no longer a luxury they have. Without the nutcases they’d have no power and they know it. This could have been avoided had they not been such pigs. But pigs they were and it’s too late to turn back now.
What I fear is that the pigs will go down but take the rest of us with them. Sorry, Mr. Godwin, but kind of like- Germany in 1933.
It’s a reasonable concern given that they gum up the works on pretty much everything and there are some compelling issues such as climate change that could hurt us if not addressed seriously. Mostly, they just delay progress.
My guess is they won’t soon see the kind of power they had when the shrub was in the White House and they controlled Congress. When they last had it, they tried to take down Social Security. For a moment, it looked like they might succeed. I think we’ll look back on that as the high point of the Republican ascendency. Rove postulated might be permanent. Good thing he’s wrong about most everything.
The low point of the Republican crackup we’ve not yet seen and it’s not clear how much damage they’ll be able to do on the way down. However, I’m hopeful that if we can keep them out of the White House, the damage will be limited. Big changes are coming. Demographics make that inevitable. Out beyond a multiethnic comes peak population — most likely between 2030 and 2070. Many of us will not live to see it but that’s an event which will change everything.
Capitalism is postulated on never-ending growth. It becomes hard to grow an economy when population shrinks. As much effort as might be made to increase per capita consumption, it’s hard to offset the reduced demand that comes from fewer people setting up fewer homes and needing less of everything. And declining population will not be easily reversed. Will capitalism survive and, if so, how? If not, what will replace it?
I don’t know what the world will look like in 100 years, let alone 200 or 300. But it’s clear it will be very different from the world we see today in ways that are not even a bit predictable.
While population growth in the US might peak in mid-21st century, population growth worldwide will likely continue for some time beyond that, with its attendant increase in demand. Therefore, a nation with a very slow population growth could still see significant economic growth by serving the needs of that broader global population. As a case in point, I’d offer Germany, which has relatively slow population growth yet has still managed to achieve significant economic growth over the last twenty years. Much depends on the economic policies are government decided to pursue as we go forward. We don’t necessarily need to lapse into a sclerotic economy except by the choice of some.
You’ve assumed that world population will continue to increase. However, though projections vary as to when peak world population will occur, they pretty much all have it occurring by the end of this century. Some as early as 2030. The UN estimates peak world population in 2055.
We’ve seen how Japan has struggled in the face of population decline. Countries more open to immigration have greater flexibility. However, everything changes once world population begins to decline. That’s something we’ve not seen since the bubonic plague and it’s a complete game changer.
Population growth projections assume adequate resources to support the population. I suspect there is a very real possibility that climate disruptions will become a serious problem for food production as early as mid century, maybe much sooner.
Indeed, ’tis passing strange that Connecticut bankers and brokers and hedge fund managers and the whole panoply of financial services types know all too well that aphorism on The Street, “…bulls make money, bears make money, but hogs get slaughtered…,” yet could not make themselves apply it to their activities in perverting the American economic system. Somehow they persuaded themselves that “this time it’s different” would apply as well to those thunderstorms growing on the societal horizon and they’d be able to manage their way out of it. I believe the phrase is “too clever by half” for the smartest guys in the room.
Governor Mike Pence (IN) spouting the polished up version of what Cliven Bundy said. Not that IN doesn’t have a wee bit of an historical problem wrt to inter-racial harmony.
It also won’t be led to heaven, unless that place has completely relaxed its standards.
About the only place they won’t be led is where the Republican Establishment wants to take them.
I have a dog like that.
Yeah, I read this differently. Working in campaigns you learn real fast that EVERYBODY knows how to win an election, and donors are the worst about giving their ‘sage’ advice. Nothing to see here.
I almost don’t know how to take that. On one hand, it implies that for all their money, donors don’t have what it takes on their own to outright influence voters and may even mean in some respects they are just wasting money. (Adelson’s long bet on Gingrich comes to mind for the latter, some of the appalling “Generation Opportunity” b.s. for the former). But as a philosophical point–the rich, they are not like regular folks if they can throw money at politicians, are they?
This bit:
Against racial minorities. Against Muslims. Against atheists. Against queers. Against the federal government.
It works for tv ratings and used to work for voter turnout (FOX thrives on the controversies, and wedge issues I think peaked with Willie Horton and the idea of a straight marriage amendment–call it 1988-2004, cable news, the early years). I don’t know that it does the way it used to. That’s more hopeful than I usually see things, though.
“The real base of the Republican party” are your neighbors and parents. They are old, mostly, and white… of course. We know these people. It’s hard to know what to do with them… about them. They are infuriatingly prevalent throughout much of the country.
They are, if we’re honest, the Americans who made us who we are. And yet… it’s hard not to want to dispense with them… marginalize them and let them die off… quickly. It is, I suspect, not worth trying to save that old america. Maybe we should just avert our eyes for a while and let certain parts of this country die off.
Maybe Donald Sterling can run for the nomination?
“As the midterm elections approach, the Democrats and Republicans are trying to convince their partisans that the fate of civilization depends on the outcome. If new, cutting-edge American political science is correct, however, no matter which party prevails in this year’s House and Senate elections, public policy will continue to be shaped by the preferences of the rich and well-organized, and politicians will continue to disregard many of the preferences shared by most American voters.”
http://www.salon.com/2014/04/26/the_1_percents_midterms_scam_why_its_not_about_which_party_wins_in_1
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I don’t think we have to worry about “the Beast”. The super-rich get what they want no matter what.
Sincerely,
Cynical and Detached.
The basic idea is not new at all: in a semi-democracy in order for the rich to maintain power they have to distract a large chunk of the voting population to vote against their economic self interest. This invariably requires demonizing other groups. Not to go all Godwin or anything, but this story has played out many times before.
What is very unusual this time is that the rich people are actually believing the bullshit they feed the masses.