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The Coming Conservative Crack-up [warning: leftist commentary]
American Prospect ^ | 30 Sep 2008 | Paul Waldman

Posted on 10/01/2008 5:24:44 AM PDT by oblomov

In Washington over the last week, there were lots of ideas about what a bailout of Wall Street ought to look like. But none had less chance of becoming law than the plan put out by the core of the House GOP caucus, the conservatives known as the Republican Study Committee. The members of this group (which has more than its share of extremists and buffoons) offered as the cure to our current woes the removal of regulations on businesses and a suspension of the capital-gains tax, as though they were the congressional equivalent of those Japanese soldiers hunkered down on remote islands, unaware that the war had ended years before and that their side lost.

Not that anyone much cares what the Republican Study Committee thinks. But its desperate attempt to head off government intervention into the smoothly humming operation of the free market, comical though it might be, tells us something about what our politics will look like after this election. The conservative movement that has dominated American politics for the last three decades is sputtering toward the end of its relevance. Its various factions, so willing in the past to put their differences aside in service of the goal of obtaining and holding power, are heading for a civil war. Whether the movement can remake itself will determine whether progressives are beginning their own long period of ideological supremacy.

Unless something truly extraordinary happens to change the subject -- the outbreak of nuclear war between Pakistan and India, or perhaps Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan getting trapped together in a well -- the economic mess will dominate all political discussion between here and Election Day.

(Excerpt) Read more at prospect.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bailout; conservatism; leftist
Everyone hates the market. But what happens when Atlas shrugs?
1 posted on 10/01/2008 5:24:44 AM PDT by oblomov
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To: oblomov

Yeah, I can’t remember the end of the book, Did we just start eating each other? Been a long time since I read it.


2 posted on 10/01/2008 5:27:03 AM PDT by refermech
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To: oblomov
But its desperate attempt to head off government intervention into the smoothly humming operation of the free market, comical though it might be,

Comical it may be to some....but I, for one, was very proud of my Congressman Thaddeus McCotter that voted NO and called the "Bail Out" for what it was "a piece of DUNG"....yes, his EXACT words....he said it on Fox. Wow!

God Bless the House Republicans!

3 posted on 10/01/2008 5:30:31 AM PDT by Taggart_D
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To: refermech

The government and society collapsed, and it is suggested that the capitalists were called upon to rule.

Many of Rand’s views were ethically objectionable, but I fear that her book’s portents are coming to pass.


4 posted on 10/01/2008 5:32:16 AM PDT by oblomov
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To: oblomov
Maybe they should just call the bailout plan Directive 10-289.

I'm astonished at how prescient Rand was. My friends and family are getting a little tired of my proselytizing for Objectivism.

Anyway, somebody needs to slap this fool with a Laffer Curve.

5 posted on 10/01/2008 5:38:49 AM PDT by Bobarian (Green: It's the new Red.)
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To: oblomov; All

what a moron himself!

“But its desperate attempt to head off government intervention into the smoothly humming operation of the free market, “

and

” well — the economic mess will dominate all political discussion between here and Election Day”

so what is it you a$$nine buttwipe for the sheeple? A smooth freemarket or a economic mess? only the liberal twitwads can have it both ways........


6 posted on 10/01/2008 5:39:08 AM PDT by jbp1 (be nice now)
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To: jbp1
He lost me at "buffoons", but in all fairness the "smoothly humming operation" was supposed to be sarcastic. He's too poor a writer for that to be evident.

Five weeks is an eternity in politics, and given the short attention span of the average American, this discussion will burn itself well before Columbus Day.

7 posted on 10/01/2008 5:46:13 AM PDT by Bobarian (Green: It's the new Red.)
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To: oblomov
After Lyndon Johnson beat Barry Goldwater by 22 points, there were more than two Democrats for every Republican in both houses of Congress. Yet four years later the GOP took back the White House...

I wonder why, you twit. Part of Johnson's problems were tied to the war, but some of it was a backlash to the expense of the War on Poverty and the war in general.

This bozo labels himself as a "Progressive". His statement:

the free market can't be left to its own devices, and government must be the guarantor of economic security.

says it all. I never realized the Constitution says that the government is supposed to guarantee economic security. I just thought it was supposed to provide an environment where you can pursue life, liberty, and happiness. Where'd I go wrong and when did this clown rewrite the Constitution?

8 posted on 10/01/2008 5:46:40 AM PDT by econjack (Some people are as dumb as soup.)
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To: oblomov

Well, this Paul Waldman joker is certainly in for a big surprise isn’t he.


9 posted on 10/01/2008 5:47:56 AM PDT by Virginia Ridgerunner (Sarah Palin is a smart missile aimed at the heart of the left!)
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To: Bobarian
...will burn itself out well before...

Geez.

10 posted on 10/01/2008 5:48:45 AM PDT by Bobarian (Green: It's the new Red.)
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To: Bobarian
I waded through Atlas Shrugged a few years back. About the first 1100 pages was boring as hell. The last 100 or so accurately portrayed what today's American Left is all about.

I disagree with Ayn Rand on two counts:

-Her atheism. Even the smallest DNA strand is more complex than anything man has ever created, and I believe that it just couldn't have developed by itself. It stands that an almight Creator created it.

-Objectivism has no place for children. I had this explained to me by a former atheist who was an Objectivist, but is now a pastor. Children make illogical, irrational demands on us. The family is one of the most inefficient ways to raise children....yet it's the best way to do it.

11 posted on 10/01/2008 5:50:27 AM PDT by HammerOfTheDogs
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To: oblomov; wagglebee

There must be something in the DNA of every maggot infected gay mediot that makes them write like they were in a hot tub with Jayson Blair while doing these bs opeds filled with lies, hate and just bs.

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-hptb5&p=Paul%20Waldman%20is%20%20gay&type=


12 posted on 10/01/2008 5:52:08 AM PDT by Grampa Dave ( I do not want to know the type of person, who does not like Sarah !)
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To: oblomov

Isn’t it amazing how there never are any extremists or buffoons among “Progressives”? Well, at least according to them.


13 posted on 10/01/2008 5:56:27 AM PDT by Harry Wurzbach (Rep. Thaddeus McCotter is my hero.)
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To: HammerOfTheDogs
It's probably not a good idea to accept every tenet of any philosophy.
14 posted on 10/01/2008 6:04:05 AM PDT by Bobarian (Green: It's the new Red.)
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To: Virginia Ridgerunner

“Not that anyone much cares what the Republican Study Committee thinks”

The manic depressive lefties are currently in a manic phase.

He obviously thinks the sub prime mess is due to capitalists run amok when in fact it was unchecked liberalism demanding easy loan terms.

Lowering business taxes and freeing money is the opposite of what he wants which is to have businesses owned by the state.


15 posted on 10/01/2008 7:51:11 AM PDT by y6162 (uot)
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