Posted on 04/30/2012 3:42:33 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist slammed for radicalizing Washington
Washington is more dysfunctional than it has been in 40 years, and while Democrats have deserved their share of the blame over the years, today "the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party," write Thomas E. Mann and Norman Ornstein in the Washington Post. What makes their column particularly interesting is that Ornstein is not liberal, but a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Together, they call the GOP an "insurgent outlier in American politics" because of the party's extremism, antagonism to facts and science, hatred of compromise, and complete opposition to the Democrats' legitimacy.
The biggest two culprits of the Republicans' radicalization over the past 30 years, according to Mann and Ornstein, are Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist—Gingrich for deliberately making the Capitol dysfunctional in order to stoke and use anti-Washington rage around the country, and Norquist for creating an anti-tax pledge that makes compromise impossible. In response to the GOP's nuttiness, Mann and Orstein call on journalists to stop trying to present "both sides" on the issues, and instead concentrate on "truth," focus on who is "taking hostages, at what risks and to what ends," and to stop treating filibusters like they are routine. Ultimately, though, if democracy "is to regain its health and vitality, the culture and ideological center of the Republican Party must change," they write. And the only way that will happen is if voters start "punishing extremism."
Ignore at your peril Washington D.C.
Looks like 1972 all over again!
The GOP-E mouthpiece has spoken.
They are really scared....and they should be. Rebellion is brewing!
I would submit, as did Cicero, that the enemy within, aka RINOs are a greater threat to God and Liberty than are any easily identified socialists.
Obama win = A united GOP against him.
A Romney win = a House divided which cannot stand.
Ergo, Romney is the greater threat.
I do understand this is counter intuitive, but consider that we have been losing the war for the soul of America since Wilson and then consider that each loss has always been to the rot within the party. The betrayal of principle, again and again.
No more. Not one inch further. Come what may and that may be the very end itself, so be it. Not by my hand, not on my watch. ENOUGH !
We’ve seen the house divided - up close and very, very personal — right here on FR.
Instead of all the back-biting we must put our money and our muscle into state races and build up rock solid conservative state houses and governor’s offices. They are our fire wall now.
SHOW the GOP-e we are building our defensive lines — all 50 of them.
Attacking Gingrich and Norquist is so far off the real problem, it’s crazy.
Newt is a reformer, and governed as Speaker as a conservative. That record is clear. He fought and won many a battle that took the party and nation to a better place. The Romney E pick was a forgone conclusion within a house divided. And Newt’s right: Obama is a dire threat, not years from now, but NOW.
I respect those who can’t bring themselves to vote Mitt, and I also respect those who cast an anti Obama vote for Mitt if their state is key, and hanging in the balance by a handful of votes.
Without Norquist’s no tax hike pledge, the GOP would be even MORE lost.
States must now line up and fight the Federal Leviathan under Obama with every tool at their disposal, unless or until he’s ousted from office.
If Mitt should win, states have to still weigh in and take back control under the Constitution of our Republic of States.
Absolutely disgusting. These are more of the establishment liberals who Newt has been fighting his entire career. Newt stands for conservative principles. The RINO brigade and faux conservatives stand for violating conservative principles and calling it “compromise.”
They think the government needs more of our tax money. That’s all you need to know to know they’re immoral lunatics.
Romney is one of their type so they should be happy with where things are going now. Newt would’ve completely reformed the following:
Social Security
Welfare
Food Stamps
Unemployment Benefits
Management of the bureaucracy
EPA
Romney will “take a look at some of that” and do nothing.
Much of the base is in denial now. Once what you say happens, and it will without question if Mitt wins, we will get a repeat of 2006 and 2008 in 2014 and 2016, with a huge Democrat takeover. And with Mitt and the Repukes having accomplished nothing in their term, the Dims will have a huge mandate to do whatever they want. And if there is one movement that has its act together, is unified and organized, and is ready to overthrow the big-money special interests, it's the commie libs. This country won't survive a Romney win because it will lead directly to a communist takeover in 2016 that might be unstoppable and irreversible without a civil war.
Any chance the 2nd book from the bottom is a picture book?
The states must remember that they have a duty and a purpose and that they have power and the law behind them. Texas and Wisconsin are two examples of what state governments who FIGHT for what is right and legal will face and how it must be done. And the states must support each other wherever and whenever they can.
We must be a “Band of Brothers” against the overreaching Federal Government. Every time a state takes the easy path - folds under the guise of compromise - in order to “get” back their share from the Federal “kitty” they lose more freedom and state rights slip further under the iron control of Washington DC.
It’s time we stop forgetting to build-up strong conservative power bases in every state and support stalwart candidates and remove the go-alongs.
You are right. If state leadership believes sitting in the GOP-e wagon is easier than getting out and pulling their own cart, they need to be replaced.
Freepmail!
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