In the age of Reagan, Republicans had to pretend their policies were ultimately for the good of ordinary people. Now they don’t even bother to pretend.
Today’s Republicans Have It So Easy
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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For the lat few months, it’s as if there’s a million dollar prize for whoever can be the biggest arsehole of a bastard.
Republicans no longer need to pretend to care ever since the party’s opposition transformed into the “Republican Admiration Society”, culminating with Obama, hopefully terminating with Hillary.
Senator Barack Obama: “I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path, because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown, but there wasn’t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people — he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity, we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.”
https://www.democracynow.org/2008/1/17/headlines/obama_appears_to_laud_reagan_for_confronting_1960_70s_excesses
Also ever since they figured out that spewing hate works better than making promises. Promises need to be fulfilled, hatred is its own reward.
Astute!
It’s always good to see a Democratic politician opposed to such gaucheries (in both senses of the term) as opposition to the US war in Indochina and domestic racism….
Henri
The disdain for the average American citizen didn’t begin with Number 45’s Administration. Donald Rumsfeld was heard by numerous people to have said: “I don’t care how many people aspartame [NutraSweet] kills, I want it on the market.” He was aided in this endeavor by Ronald Reagan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rL8vRVEjYB8
What one must admire about Mr Rumsfeld is that despite his WASP roots, he was an equal-opportunity killer. Kill ’em at home, kill ’em abroad – it was all the same to him, so long as the money kept rolling in.(I use the past tense of the copula above, as I doubt whether Mr Rumsfeld any longer plays a major role in the killing going on today – on the other hand, he surely approves)….
Henri
Obama gave great speeches, some of the best I’ve heard.
But Clinton, Bush, jr, Obama, and Trump do pretty much the same, stupid things that don’t help median Americans. The ACA is definitely great for those on Expanded Medicaid, which covers about 10% of Americans. Republicans say they want to get rid of all Medicaid, which coverts about 20% of all Americans. Of course, the insurance executives who contribute to their campaigns won’t be happy if they really get rid of the entire ACA. But getting rid of all Medicaid and giving that money to the job creators remains a major Republican goal, but one they’re having trouble implementing.
Où sont les neiges d’antan ?….
Henri
«For the la[s]t few months, it’s as if there’s a million dollar prize for whoever can be the biggest arsehole of a bastard.» As if ?… 😉
Henri
I was reading recently that if we take the Laffer Curve seriously, it shows that the top tax rate should be somewhere around 75%. Funny how the Supply-Siders never mention that part…
You say “seriously”? Why do you think it’s called the laugher curve? 😀
😛
NYAH!