DescentBB

As I See It:

(Tony Van Vliet was an Oregon state representative from 1975 to 1995 and a registered Republican from 1955 to 2012.)

Republicans have gotten what they wished for

Getting what you wish for can sometime be frightening — and that’s what the Republican Party now faces after thirty years of clever and some would call brilliant hard work.

That may sound strange coming from a former Republican of 57 years. Many of us who were moderates didn’t see the big plan conjured up in some dark room of very conservative, big time, rich Republicans who wanted control of the system.

It isn’t until one analyzes the game plan that the sheer brilliance comes to light. Since fortunes are made in the world of natural resources — oil, mining, timber, water and land — the quiet battle was going on in county and city government campaigns.

The bigger battle was being fought for control of state legislatures and governorships.

It had to be completed in time for the 1990 elections as that uses the census results for reapportionment of each state's political districts.

The Republican National Committee squads fanned out to all the state “R” caucuses with the winning message.

The game plan was simple — run on “No New Taxes,” regardless of your state's financial condition. One can always find a story of government waste to use in your campaign fliers. Most moderate Republicans refused to play that game; they saw and labored over shortfalls and cuts in education and human resources even as Oregon was on the path of doubling its population.

By 2014, Republicans controlled 68 of 98 of state legislative chambers with the largest gains in the South. This drive for power was accomplished with one iron-clad mantra — “if you aren’t with us you’re against us” — hardly a formula for solving problems jointly. For over 30 years the ultra conservatives have relied on “societal forgetfulness” of the common good or why they are elected. This isn’t Lincoln’s or Teddy Roosevelt’s party anymore, but now resembles the Coolidge and Harding era. Party discipline has risen above integrity and conscience. Even today those with measured intelligence follow blindly like lemmings to the sea. I was fortunate that in my 20 legislative years we were free to vote our conscience.

But the crack opened in the 90’s, and the ultra-right, tea party and invisible libertarians challenged those not wanting to spend their legislative years on “bedroom issues” — we lost some outstanding moderate Republicans.

Some Republicans are running from Trump hoping to get re-elected — not because they disagree with him, but because winning allows them to continue to do nothing productive! Others have struck a Faustian bargain that their soul was worth the trade for power.

Dot-connecting has become a lost logic. No “new taxes” has become “cutting taxes,” which will keep services for the most at inadequate service levels. Remember who brought you the “Teapot Dome" scandal, and the Wall Street crashes of 1929 and 2008!

This is the far-right group of Republicans that used goon squads on striking workers and have plotted for their elimination ever since. They eliminated “defined pensions” to free up billions in corporate pension reserves for CEO salary and stockholder increases.

They have championed cutting agency budgets then complain that caseloads have failed to protect children, or the lack of funds for managing the nation's resources, or the high debt of student loans.

I can’t imagine Sen. Mitch McConnell spending eight years with the only goal being to defeat the president or make sure he fails — what a waste! It is not surprising hate groups have risen from 149 to 892 during the Obama years, largely in the South.

The right wing of the Republican Party is bankrupt of statesmen and is now getting what they wished for. It’s time to remove them and refresh the party.

vision wrote:How Donald Trump Answers A Question

tunnelcat wrote:Hillary said something in a speech that I hadn't heard before. "Alt-Right." It turns out that it's just the White Supremacist Movement rebranded for the internet age and a new audience. Trump just hired one from Breitbart to work with his campaign. Insider bigots are now thoroughly embedded with Donald Trump.

http://www.wired.com/2016/08/alt-rights ... great-day/

https://mediamatters.org/blog/2016/08/2 ... dia/212643

Hillary Clinton’s top campaign aide, and the woman who might be the future White House chief of staff to the first female US president, for a decade edited a radical Muslim publication that opposed women’s rights and blamed the US for 9/11.

Spidey wrote:White people are so easily led by the nose.

Vander wrote:I think Cruz was more the alt-right darling, at least in my perception. He had the an edge that I think more typified the faction.

When it was pointed out to her the devastating consequences some of her plans would have for small businesses, she famously screeched: “I can’t be responsible for every under-capitalized entrepreneur in America.”

woodchip wrote:Hillary talking back in 1993 about how her proposed health care plan:

When it was pointed out to her the devastating consequences some of her plans would have for small businesses, she famously screeched: “I can’t be responsible for every under-capitalized entrepreneur in America.”

Yes, our savior of the small businessman/businesswoman.

tunnelcat wrote:Even though I loathe Hillary, the other guy's so bad that even though she's a Washington insider, she's at least a known entity who won't do something nutty. Trump however is waaaaaaay out in scary la la land and is attracting a really crazy fringe we don't need anywhere near the White House.

woodchip wrote:And we are not stupid enough to take your statement at face value unless you link proof.

callmeslick wrote:she doesn't understand cheap labor:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companie ... ar-BBvPhaR



seriously, Woody, that is what you're down to? Old quotes, out of context?

tunnelcat wrote:

woodchip wrote:Hillary talking back in 1993 about how her proposed health care plan:

When it was pointed out to her the devastating consequences some of her plans would have for small businesses, she famously screeched: “I can’t be responsible for every under-capitalized entrepreneur in America.”

Yes, our savior of the small businessman/businesswoman.

Yes, your savior, the CEO of Mylan Pharma, who just hiked up the price of the life saving EpiPen by 400 to 500%. A product that takes a few dollars to produce while the CEO makes 18.9 million a year, which was hiked up 600% this year. She blames Obamacare, insurance companies, the middlemen and high deductibles. I say she's full of greedy BS and puts her shareholders and herself above the lives of her customers. I can't even get a high deductible plan even if I wanted to under the ACA anyway, at least not as high as my old grandfathered plan had. Besides, she would have done the same damn thing even if we didn't have Obamacare, because we'd still be using our twisted capitalistic health insurance model without it. Plus, hiking up prices to usury levels is the usual monopolistic thing to do in a system such as ours that's based on an abnormal supply and demand curve and which rewards investors hungry for profits. And if you say we need to cut regulations for getting drugs approved, I've got one word for you. Thalidomide.

I've also found a new leftie slogan to counter Sarah Palin's "death panels". It's called, Pay or die.

http://fortune.com/2016/08/24/mylan-ceo ... er-bresch/

woodchip wrote:I understand Mylan ceo got a special meeting with Hillary while sec. of state to get her blessings.

woodchip wrote:And you do realize the Mylan donated to the Clinton Foundation? Maybe this is why they jacked their prices 400%.