The Growing Partisan Divide

Who is John Galt? ^ | 09/08/09 | "John Galt"

[cpurick]

...Whenever I think of our shifting political landscape, I'm reminded of something I heard on late night TV a few years ago:

"Today is the anniversary of the Watergate break-in, when the Republicans ordered a break-in of Democratic National Headquarters. To give you an idea of how long ago that was, that's back when Democrats actually had ideas worth stealing." —Jay Leno

You see, Republicans and the Democrats were not always enemies as much as they were rivals. Once, their ideas were similar enough that Republicans even got caught "cheating" -- trying to peek at the Dems' plans. Arguably, the GOP wanted to match the left's best ideas in its own proposals.

Now try to imagine anyone on today's right rummaging through DNC headquarters in the middle of the night looking for a better idea. Leno was right -- unless you were looking for evidence of treason, what the hell could anyone possibly hope to find, of any actual value, in the offices of Democrat strategists?

It's been said that if JFK were alive today, he'd be a Republican. Less than 50 years ago, Kennedy lowered taxes, aggressively opposed communism, and said, "Ask not what your country can do for you."

Today's Democrats would throw JFK out of the party for saying that. To them, taxes can never be high enough. Government, they seem to think, is the answer to all of our problems.

[muawiyah]

Fur Shur today's Republicans, or even competing Democrat factions, would find no reason whatsoever to steal a peak at DNC plans.

I'm not sure the DNC would want to look at them either ~ like Democrat Congresscritters these days can't even read the bills they vote on.

[jwparkerjr]

It is very frustrating to me to read articles like this that decry the growing partisanship in politics and then very smoothly makes it look like the source of it is bipartisan. At the heart and soul of the divide is the Left’s absolute inability to handle their loss of power in a graceful way.

If I had to point out a starting point for all this I would have to go back to the Bork nomination process. Then you can follow it on up through the years with the various hearings and the BDS.

It's like one side, perfectly willing to live in peace and work toward mutually beneficial goals, is the target of a sudden, viscous attack and when defends itself it's cited as being cause of the problem!

[Paladin2]

It’s a split of Feeling (and Lazy non-investors in the future) vs. Thinking people driven by the “leaders” (toreadors actually) of the “Feeling” (and live-for-todayers).

[Licensed-To-Carry]

What people need to realize is that America is now effectively split between the wagon pullers and the wagon riders.

As more and more citizens get into the wagon, it becomes to much for the pullers to handle. They are at the stopping point now.

Soon I see 2 seperate countries, one of hard working wagon pullers and one of whining, crying, I want more of everything for free, wagon riders.

The divide is too great between the factions to ever be healed.

[Paladin2]

Where’s my darn pie? 0be promised.

[Non-Sequitur]

Fur Shur today's Republicans, or even competing Democrat factions, would find no reason whatsoever to steal a peak at DNC plans.

And do today's Republicans even have any plans for the DNC to steal?

Today's partaisanship is nothing new. I think it really started taking when the Democrats acted as they did during the Bork hearings under Reagan, and has grown steadily worse as each side has retaliated for the actions of other. But is the divide really growing? Or has it been there for decades and it's only this modern age of 24 hour news and the internet that is giving it more visibility?

[Sawdring]

It's been said that if JFK were alive today, he'd be a Republican

Most of these politicians are chameleons. They will change their ideas to do whatever is popular or whatever will keep them in office. Bill Clinton was a chameleon, he was white but many of his supporters in the media thought he was the first black President.

[muawiyah]

Today's partisanship is a direct consequence of heavy narcotics misuse by Democrats. They can no longer think more than a couple of steps ahead ~ which is why they seem to be stuck in the '60s.

Republicans, in contrast, are quite pure and unsullied.

[dfwgator]

It began when politics started going beyond the water’s edge, when the anti-war types took over the Rat Party.

[JerseyHighlander]

In short time I believe Obama will be viewd more as a Socialist Nixon than an incompetent Carter redux. Just read another aricle today saying Obama and his advisors are making the same mistakes as President Nixon and Burns in the early 1970's. ------------------------ http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2009/09/state_and_local_1.html Posted by: GK at September 5, 2009 11:51 AM A history lesson. In 1947 Herb Stein, Keynesian Chairman of Richard Nixon's Council of Economic Advisors developed the "full employment budget concept." In summary the concept was that the federal government excelled at tax collection, states excelled at government spending. The Keynesian tax policy (used by Kennedy) was inefficient. If congress was encouraged to lower taxes they would lower too much creating an “overheated" economy, but if congress was encouraged to increase taxes they would drag their feet allowing inflation. A better Keynesian idea, Stein postulated, is for the government to deficit spend as if the country were at full employment (4%), what Keynesians today would call "potential" GDP. If the government spends as if the economy were producing at full employment, then the economy would actually reach full employment and the deficit spending could slowly decrease. While no evidence indicats this would work small details have never stopped government economists from experimenting, after all "we must do something." Nixon faced a budget problem when he entered office. Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society" not only took current tax revenues, it also took future revenues; budgets arrived in congress with a built in deficit. The Great Society passed tax collection to the states in what we today call unfunded mandates. The Great Society would provided 75% funding for a program if the state provided 25%. The states, not wanting to lose federal funding to other states, increased taxes to fund the 25% of the Great Society program. By the time Nixon took office the states were crying to Washington to help fund federal social programs so state politicians did not have to continue to raise taxes. The climate in 1970 was ripe. Unemployment was climbing and Nixon needed a new way to feed his "New Federalism," so Stein easily sold his 1947 idea. In January 1971 Nixon proposed a $4 billion revenue sharing scheme telling congress it would be a self-fulfilling prophecy. But for the scheme to work Federal Reserve Chairman Arthur Burns had to expand the money supply. In April 1971 the National Observer reported that Burns at the beginning of the year was slow in providing the credit needed, but in April Burns proudly stated the country is "awash in credit." In the first two quarters of 1971 Burns increased the money supply 11% to stimulate the economy. But the harsh world of unintended consequences – actually intended consequences since any rational economist should have seen them – US interest rates fell from 8% to 3.5% and money that was flowing into the US now flowed back to Europe, and gold flowed out of the US Treasury. The design of the Bretton Woods system made all currencies extensions of the dollar, so dollar inflation spread directly to the rest of the world. At the end of March 1971 the European bankers visited Burns begging him to slow his loosening of credit. The US refused to end Stein’s Keynesian experiment, Burns continued his stimulus, and the Bretton Woods system exploded. But wasn’t it worth it to reach Nixon’s goal of full employment? Unemployment at 5.6% in November 1971 moved up to 6% in April 1971 after Burns stimulus. Today the Obama administration is repeating the foolishness of Nixon, Stein and Burns, but the difference is credit expansion funds “bubbles” rather than gold out-flow. Ultimately credit expansion will fund inflation just as Nixon’s policies created the inflationary 1970s. But more serious to the average person is unemployment. Those whose mantra is “unemployment is a lagging indicator” become tedious when rates are forecast to continue near Great Depression levels more than two years after stimulus was to have solved the problem. “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” Edmund Burke

[charmedone]

“Most of these politicians are chameleons. They will change their ideas to do whatever is popular or whatever will keep them in office.”

They are not saying Kennedy would have changed his views. He was at that time, farther to the right than McC, Snow, Collins, Pansy Boy and others.

Kennedy was for lower taxes and a whole host of what would now be considered far right notions.

Bobby was farther left and of course, Ted was a solid socialist.