THESE ARE NOT YOUR MAMA'S LIBERALS

Yahoo News ^ | Tue Mar 3 | Maggie Gallagher

[Delacon]

How should Republicans respond to Obamanomics?

Because of the breathtaking speed and size of the new president's proposals, critics have yet to coalesce around any clear, single narrative. This is a problem, since six different responses to Obamanomics are almost the same as no response at all. Worse, Republicans have tended to fall back on old, time-tested framings that sound, well, old.

Republicans say: The stimulus package/new budget expansion is "pork"; it contains something called "earmarks," they tell the American people. It is "wasteful" government spending that drives up an abstraction called the "deficit." Obama we fear is engaged in "class warfare," which is fundamentally "unfair" given that, as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg blurted out, 1 percent of the taxpayers pay 50 percent or more of the taxes.

All true enough, I suppose.

But Obamaheads chuckle as they listen to these responses. They understand that Americans are not an ideological people -- no more than 20 to 30 percent of Americans respond viscerally to this kind of rhetoric. For too many economic conservatives, living in a bubble, the electoral problem of the GOP is social conservatives -- those funny Americans who care about abortion and marriage and God in public schools. Obamaheads, by trying to downplay social issues and highlight economic ones, show they understand that it is the conservative position on things like the minimum wage that, however economically correct, are politically problematic.

These are not your mama's liberals. Sure, the Obama administration may not understand how to stimulate economic growth, conserve the family, protect religious expression or even defend the nation militarily (that remains to be seen), but they understand domestic power and its uses far more than the Reagan revolutionaries ever did.

The first trillion of your

[Candor7]

Republicans need to start reflecting the sentiments of their supporters. Rush Limbaugh told them. They did not listen well.

[Delacon]

The first trillion of your children's money the Obama White House spent was dedicated primarily to paying back Democrat interest groups -- to getting all the people who organized voters to support Democrats on the security of the public dole: teachers unions, labor unions, Acorn. (What did social conservatives ever get for 30 years of support for the GOP that's remotely equivalent to just the first round of hard-left cash payouts now taking place?)

Let me predict: The second round of Obamaism will be about finding new ways to delegitimate and silence opposition to the Democrats' new governing coalition, whether it's threatening conscience protections around abortion or gay marriage, shrinking talk radio, or a "cap and trade" carbon tax that -- as Europe's experience shows -- does nothing to reduce carbon emissions but does mean that every business executive is now a supplicant to Washington.

[familyop]

"THESE ARE NOT YOUR MAMA'S LIBERALS"

I won't help to vote them into office, either, or their "bipartisan" friends. Let them be muzzled, until they are all in comfortable nursing homes.

[JSDude1]

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/85091

[Arkinsaw]

The ultimate truth here is that their policies do not work. Their philosophies do not work. They can have power for awhile, and ram stuff through, but ultimately those things will fail. A lot of painful lessons will be learned, but maybe in the end that is a good thing.

[noobamamama]

But Obamaheads chuckle as they listen to these responses.

Let them keep laughing...these idiots will be the ones that will be saddled with the incredible debt that is now being put upon them...Not me

[word_warrior_bob]

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x32cxf_yuri-bezmenov

Not your mama’s liberals, just textbook Marxist/Leninists.

[Major Matt Mason]

But Obamaheads chuckle as they listen to these responses. They understand that Americans are not an ideological people -- no more than 20 to 30 percent of Americans respond viscerally to this kind of rhetoric.

Perhaps. But many of these same, non-ideological people see their 401K's shrinking each day, and they don't see this administration doing much to make the problem go away. In fact, it is hard to tell if Obama even cares about this mess. Not surprisingly, his approval numbers are slipping a bit, although you won't hear this said aloud by the lapdog media.

[Tex Pete]

[NTHockey]

People, this is not rocket science. Short responses are all the average American can understand.

Anybody out there ever coach Little League, Pop Warner or youth hockey? You know that the way to make the youngsters grasp fundamentals is to communicate with simple sentences of three words or less. You will lose them if you try to explain Newton’s Laws of Physics!

Same situation here. 0bambi lies; call him a liar. The spending is out of control; 0bambi is killing the country. The stock market goes down; 0bambi’s depression.

And then there’s the ever popular:
“Hey, hey, what do you say;
How many lives you ruin today?”

[Longhair_and_Leather]

"...the electoral problem of the GOP is social conservatives -- those funny Americans who care about abortion and marriage and God in public schools."

And without us, the socialist party would have held 400 House seats and 90 Senate seats for the last 30 years. So how funny are we, Maggie?

[MHGinTN]

The Goblin Fire has enthralled the developing minds of our children ... the damned television is a flickering programmer of darting consciousness, eschewing contemplation.

[okie01]

...the electoral problem of the GOP is social conservatives -- those funny Americans who care about abortion and marriage and God in public schools.

Maggie, at bottom, you're an imbecile.

There are three legs on the conservative stool -- national security, fiscal conservatism and social conservatism. You've just sawed off one of the legs -- hoping, evidently, to convert the party from a stable structure to a flatline.

If you've got a problem with a pro-life and pro-marriage position or religious worship, maybe you ought to be a Democrat.

I respected the lady...once.

No more.

[Delacon]

“And without us, the socialist party would have held 400 House seats and 90 Senate seats for the last 30 years. So how funny are we, Maggie?”

Actually I don’t think she was speaking for herself there. She was speaking for the left. But as she comes at social cons from a lefty pov she does raise some questions. What has the gop done for social cons over the past 30 years? Now I am not a social con but I can recall that social cons went for the Huckster last election or worse stayed home. So the flip side of the coin is what have social cons done for the GOP lately. I was never a McCain supporter but I bet McCain is looking pretty good right now to all republicans.

[The Great RJ]

My mother-in-law is a classic example of how many Americans view this economic crisis. She has no stock holdings and regards big companies as only existing to make fat cats richer by exploiting the poor. Thus she sees the drop in the Dow as those rich cheaters getting what they deserve. Second she has fully swallowed the it's George Bush's fault excuse and will blame Bush for screwing things up so bad that poor Obama can't fix things. The layoffs by US companies are just the fat cats wanting to get more money by getting rid of employees. She thinks it is high time that the government take over health care so everyone will be cared for not jut the rich or those with good insurance.

Sadly she is not unique in this country.

[Delacon]

And one thing is for certain. 2010 won’t be about social issues. It will be about economic issues. The left will chuckle like crazy if we push social issues in 2010 and rightfully so. Maggie was right to bring the economic angle up.

[MHGinTN]

The fifth column enemy of We The People are trying their best to make the debate about policies and eschew conservative principles. As Rush said last weekend, if we hold to our conservative principles, whatever policy is at issue will have clear right and wrong. The enemedia aiding the kenyan klown to mutate US into his vision of a modern socialist state have decided to try and herd what’s left of conservatives holding to their principles, by ridiculing them as ‘old fashioned’.

[okie01]

I was never a McCain supporter but I bet McCain is looking pretty good right now to all republicans.

What we've got is a catastrophe.

McCain would've been merely a disaster.

[Longhair_and_Leather]

She may not have been speaking about herself, but my point is that the social conservatives have made up the grass-roots of the party for the last 30 years, so it's not as if they haven't done any of the heavy lifting.

Why did many go for Huckabee? That one still perplexes me. I'm not sure of the numbers as to who among the base sat it out last November, but I remember how deflated I was after the bailout vote, and thinking that many on our side may just take a pass. I also remember thinking that we have nominated candidates that keep moving left ever since Reagan, and the continued move to "rat-lite" would just turn off too many conservatives. Even though I voted for McCain, I commented to my dad, "It feels like voting in the Soviet Union."