Posted on 03/09/2016 9:35:38 AM PST by smokingfrog
We have a very serious political problem in this country. Our system of government works best when it is balanced between roughly equal political parties, one on the center-right and the other on the center-left.
Unfortunately, what we have is a centrist Democratic Party and a far-right Republican Party. Therefore, the system is out of balance, creating gridlock even as the public cries out for action on serious problems such as our deteriorating public infrastructure, epitomized by that in Flint, Michigan.
I believe that Republicans made a deal with the devil in 2009 when they embraced the Tea Party, a populist group who were just mad as hell and weren't going to take it anymore. In Congress, the Tea Party has been aggressive in destroying all the norms that made it work for more than 200 years.
The government was shut down, increases in the debt limit are constantly at risk, nominations to even the most minor administration positions are blocked and, now, the president has been denied the opportunity, which is his right under the Constitution, to name a new justice to the Supreme Court.
Flush with such "victories," extremists of all shapes and sizes were attracted to the Tea Party ranks—Christian religious fanatics, gun nuts, anti-gay bigots, nativists opposed to all nonwhite immigrants, secessionists, conspiracy theorists and, of course, racists.
What binds them together is hatred. Hatred of government, yes, but also hatred of liberals, minorities, homosexuals, non-fundamentalist Christians, environmentalists, feminists, and many other groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnbc.com ...
LOL...does this idiot consider a Socialist and an Alinsky Communist running for the Democrat Party a “centrist” ticket? You can quit reading after that statement because he obviously writes with two left hands.
I suspect Trump has a wider appeal among the great unwashed (and to a lesser extent, minorities), than the DemoRat Machine, and the GOPee will admit.
NO NEED TO READ FURTHER! The Democrat Party has become one that a Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez would feel at home in is this clown's idea of "centrist."
Yes, it has. I just think people are confused about who is on which side.
Yes. A lot of crossover voting is going on.
But who is it hurting and helping the most? That’s the question.
Well, incrementally for decades now, both parties have been creeping toward socialism.
That's one virtue of Bernie Sanders, I suppose: at least he's honest about it.
(Good God this election really is showing how screwed we are, isn't it?)
“centrist Democratic Party”
Reminds me of the old saying about religion: everyone more observant than me is a fanatic, every less observant is an apostate. This guy has quite an egocentric view of “centrist”.
“Commentary by Bruce Bartlett, who served as domestic policy adviser to Ronald Reagan and a Treasury Department official under George H.W.Bush. He also worked on Capitol Hill for the late Rep. Jack Kemp. He is now a writer living in Virginia.....”
Says it all! WOW! In the next century when the history books are written about the rise of Socialism in the U.S. and then its (US) eventual demise (i.e. running out of other peoples’ money or when the USDollar is no longer the world’s reserve currency) people will wonder how it happened? This guy worked under both Reagan and Bush yet his words come right out of the DNC talking points memo. Unreal! He would’ve said the EXACT same things about Ted Cruz if he were the front runner! Disgusting....
The opinion of a flaming liberal.
This is the Carroll Quigley theory, which Quigley stated in statist "masterpiece" Tragedy and Hope (1966) thusly:
"The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea, acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election, without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy."
If Republicans are swallowing crap like this, no WONDER America is no longer effectively a Constitutional republic.
It’s crap, but it’s old crap, from 1966. See my post above.
His wrath against the Tea Party seem very out of place. First, because the Tea Party revolt happened so long ago, and nobody's talking about it as a present-day phenomenon. Second, because Tea Partiers shared a lot of the rage he had against the Bush administration. If Bartlett still were a dissident Republican or disgruntled conservative, he might recognize that, but by now he's just another Democrat or liberal.
He was a supply sider when he worked for Reagan, but evidently did not like the Bush tax cuts and approved of TARP. & the stimulus. I’m no x-pert, but it seems to me that we need reasonable tax rates and a simple tax plan with no favoritism for those that have the money to lobby the congress critters. That and a balanced budget. Otherwise, you’re always going to have these up and down cycles with the govt. trying to catch up and manipulate the economy back to where it should be, as opposed to having more moderate and steady economic growth based on productivity, innovation, technology, etc.
He explains his reasoning here:
http://capitalgainsandgames.com/blog/bruce-bartlett/1168/supply-side-economics-rip
Far Right Republican Party???? he is CLUELESS!!!!!
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