‘The core of the problem lies with the Republican Party’
Thomas E. Mann of the Brookings Institution and Norman Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute, two of the most respected non-partisan political analysts in Washington, go ahead and say it:
“We have been studying Washington politics and Congress for more than 40 years, and never have we seen them this dysfunctional. In our past writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges.”
Yup. That sums it up nicely, I’m afraid.
And as they conclude, the situation is not going to change until the Republicans are forced to pay a very heavy price for their extremism at the polls, and that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. The result is a paralyzed system of governance at a critical time in this nation’s history.
– Jay Bookman
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549 comments Add your comment
Jim
April 29th, 2012
10:38 pm
Jay,
You no-loads crack me up. God help us when the Republican Party goes away. Who will be left to police all the socialists?
The “main stream” is all about hand-outs and big government. You can only spend other peoples’ money for so long. Look at Portugal, Spain, Ireland, etc right now. How can you convince yourself that this won’t be us in a few years?
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 29th, 2012
10:39 pm
KANO, Nigeria – “An official with the Nigerian Red Cross says at least 16 people were killed in an attack on church services at a university campus in the country’s north.
Andronicus Adeyemo said there were also a number of people wounded, though the aid agency did not have an exact figure. He said officials canvassed local hospitals to get the figure.
The attack happened Sunday morning at Kano’s Bayero University. Police say gunmen attacked a Catholic Mass on the campus, using small explosives to draw worshippers out before shooting those who fled.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though it mirrored others previously claimed by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram. That group carried out a coordinated assault in Kano in January that killed at least 185 people.”
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/29/6-killed-in-attack-on-catholic-worship-service-at-nigeria-university/?test=latestnews#ixzz1tUHtLTCM
getalife
April 29th, 2012
10:43 pm
Jim,
Austerity failed in Europe.
Good thing our President listened to President Clinton because the gop are dead wrong as usual.
0311/8541/5811/1811/1801
April 29th, 2012
10:45 pm
“Chechen women in mortal fear as president backs honor killings”
“Chechnya’s government is openly approving of families that kill female relatives who violate their sense of honor, as this Russian republic embraces a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam after decades of religious suppression under Soviet rule.”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/29/chechen-women-in-mortal-fear-as-president-backs-ho/
G Mare 71( got the living' the red state BLUES!)
April 30th, 2012
12:07 am
I could have missed something here (not a young chick anymore & I do drink), but what do honor killings there have to do with anything on this current subject here? Just asking….
G Mare 71( got the living' the red state BLUES!)
April 30th, 2012
12:13 am
Back to much earlier here: Thanks again, Jamvet. I have an old 45 of that song & played it last week for son & a couple of grands. Would have posted this earlier but was laughing too hard & then got sidetracked playing Words with Friends.:)
Normal Free, Plain and Simple
April 30th, 2012
6:18 am
Ol’ Mitt will try anything…
http://news.icanhascheezburger.com/2012/04/27/political-pictures-this-oughta-work/
Rightwing Troll
April 30th, 2012
6:55 am
“And before you dem nutbags start whining about 2000, after 3 recounts in Florida, President Bush still came up the winner.”
And we ALL came out the loser because of that…
You wingnuts aren’t even worth the time to argue with. Your boy W drove us into a ditch while you all stood by screaming HARDER… FASTER… and you all are here again screaming HARDER… FASTER… LETS DO IT AGAIN…
Until you morons can at least acknowledge your complicity in our economic situation you don’t have a SHRED of legitimacy (or dignity for that matter), we need fresh ideas, not more of mcsame and hewing to old, disproved theories created by old, outdated theorists is not how we get there.
Riddle me this idiots… If we are not to enact any protections against global warming because the rest of the world (China, India) won’t follow suit, why are we not to enact any protectionist provisions against outsourcing?
That was the first wingnut argument in the ever evolving world of wingnuttery excuses, before downright exclamation that the science was false. That’s how wingnuts roll see, first it’s “WMD’s”, then it’s “to spread democracy”, first it’s “because they won’t, even if we do” now it’s “because it’s not true”.
I for one am fine with the way things are going,I’ve been fine throughout W’s economy and recession and things are good for me and the family. I don’t see any reason to change anything and go back to “deficits don’t matter” and “spread democracy at the end of a rifle”.
Rightwing Troll
April 30th, 2012
7:02 am
And to think… someone here said wingnuts aren’t into evolution… just look at their excuses, they evolve alright…
Tea Party 2.0: Upgraded for 2012
April 30th, 2012
7:04 am
Washington (CNN) — While loud and raucous rallies are still a part of the tea party toolbox, the movement, which came to life over dissatisfaction with big government and anger over government bailouts and President Barack Obama’s health care reform, is evolving.
“After the 2010 elections, what was interesting, we moved to what I call Tea Party 2.0,” said Clyde Fabretti, a conservative activist affiliated with tea party groups in Florida such as the West Orlando Tea Party and the Central Florida Tea Party Council. “2.0 allows for … our ability to accomplish legislative initiatives, supporting various tea party candidates that adhere to the principles and values. And we have been hugely active.”
“But it isn’t the kind of activity that makes the press,” Fabretti continued. “I mean, when you put 5,000 people at an event, you know, everybody shows up with their cameras. You have 10 meetings with different legislators on [Capitol] Hill — nobody knows about it.”
http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/27/politics/tea-party-upgraded/index.html?hpt=hp_bn5
Normal Free, Plain and Simple
April 30th, 2012
7:12 am
The Tea Party will flush our country down the toilet.
Rightwing Troll
April 30th, 2012
7:14 am
So far, the law has failed to produce results: Not a single insurer is offering a policy under the new law.
“Nobody has even asked to be approved to sell across state lines,” Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens said. “We’re dumbfounded. We are absolutely dumbfounded.”
Imagine that another failed wingnut policy… and they’re “dumbfounded. absolutely dumbfounded”…
The free market means a “free” market, why would anyone want to insure the overweight, mentally challenged residents of Georgia? From an actuarial standpoint this state is a loser, the free market has chosen…
Rightwing Troll
April 30th, 2012
7:16 am
Why does wingnut “evolution” always seem to yield the same result?
James Thomas
April 30th, 2012
7:23 am
Indeed, the republican party may be the problem right now but thank goodness for that. You see what these two “non-partisans” fail to mention is that the main stream has left the reservation. In a society full of entitled people and demonized successful people, you’d be hard pressed to see the America of the past two centuries. In fact, I believe the republicans won primarily to STOP the democrats from going to a total socialist style government. Yep…Blame these republicans but know that without them this administration would have had no check on how far they took us down the rabbit hole.
Mick
April 30th, 2012
7:23 am
The iced tea party was always just a front for the far right looney bin. Where are they now? Under a rock somewhere ready to emerge after obama gets re-elected along with a democratic house. Just like jason voorhees, they’ll be back for a sequel…
James Thomas
April 30th, 2012
7:24 am
No the Tea Party isn’t going to flush our country. In fact, they are the plunger to get rid of what you guys are doing to stop up the system.
Midori
April 30th, 2012
7:31 am
if the tea party is the plunger, is the republican party the feces?
Midori
April 30th, 2012
7:32 am
I think I answered my own question.
TaxPayer
April 30th, 2012
7:34 am
Tea Party! That is just a bunch of right wing nuts going around telling people to keep government out of their Medicare and Medicaid.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
7:35 am
“demonized successful people”
Could we at least agree, that it would be helpful to write beyond a seventh grade level of sloganeering to make out points?
Normal Free, Plain and Simple
April 30th, 2012
7:50 am
The Tea Party lives in the “S” bend…
Granny Godzilla - Union Thugette
April 30th, 2012
7:52 am
“The core of the problem lies with the Republican Party’”
BINGO!
Normal Free, Plain and Simple
April 30th, 2012
7:54 am
The Tea Party rents from Moaning Myrtle…
carlosgvv
April 30th, 2012
7:59 am
We all hear abut the war on terror. When will our politicians be honest and say what it really is – the war on Islamic terror? I don’t think we have to worry much about the Methodists or Catholics or Jews or Hindus blowing us up.
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
8:01 am
On topic:
For me the main challenge is juggling my malevolent feelings toward official Gooperdom, and my scorn for the “but both sides do it!” enablers.
anyway, kudos to Messrs. Mann and Ornstein. Here’s one of many great pull-quotes from the linked piece worthy of pondering…
Today, thanks to the GOP, compromise has gone out the window in Washington. In the first two years of the Obama administration, nearly every presidential initiative met with vehement, rancorous and unanimous Republican opposition in the House and the Senate, followed by efforts to delegitimize the results and repeal the policies. The filibuster, once relegated to a handful of major national issues in a given Congress, became a routine weapon of obstruction, applied even to widely supported bills or presidential nominations. And Republicans in the Senate have abused the confirmation process to block any and every nominee to posts such as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, solely to keep laws that were legitimately enacted from being implemented.
I figure Official Gooperdom are beyond help, but you “Both Sides Duit” folk? Suck. On. ^^This^^.
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
8:03 am
I don’t think we have to worry much about the [not muslimy-types] blowing us up.
Carlos, tell the survivors of the OKC bombing they’ve nothing to worry about Christofascist nutters. Tell doctors who perform legal procedures supposedly protected under the Constitution; tell their staffs, and their patients, “hey, no worries.”
You can’t.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
8:10 am
The Tea Party???
In way too many cases, the extremists of the extremist GOP…
It is, in other words, not a mass movement at all, and it appears to be losing steam. Even in congressional districts in which Tea Party–backed candidates won in 2010, enthusiasm has waned. A New York Times poll of voters in those districts found that “27 percent said they disagreed with the Tea Party and 20 percent said they agreed—a reversal from a year ago, when 27 percent agreed and 22 percent disagreed.”
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/mar/08/will-tea-get-cold/?pagination=false
Also…
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/us/politics/tea-party-support-falls-even-in-strongholds-survey-finds.html
Also…
A new survey from Public Policy Polling (PPP) shows that Occupy Wall Street, also known as the 99 Percent Movement, now has much more public support than the Tea Party. The PPP poll of 1,000 American adults shows that 27% have a “very positive” or “somewhat positive” view of the Tea Party, compared to 44% who have a “somewhat negative” or “very negative” view. In contrast, 32% have a “very positive” or “somewhat positive” view of Occupy Wall Street, compared to just 35% who have a “somewhat negative” or “very negative” view. Those results already show an advantage for the 99 Percent Movement, but the support grows once Occupy Wall Street is described with the following statement:
“The current economic structure of the country is out of balance and favors a very small proportion of the rich over the rest of the country. America needs to reduce the power of major banks and corporations and demand greater accountability and transparency. The government should not provide financial aid to corporations and should not provide tax breaks to the rich.”
When asked if they agree with that statement, 60% of respondents said they “strongly agree.” Another 16% “mildly agree,” compared with just 12% who “mildly disagree” or “strongly disagree.” Over the last year, Tea Party-backed Republicans have obstructed attempts by Democrats to end corporate tax breaks and to allow the Bush tax cuts for the rich to expire. Occupy Wall Street has generally favored an end of all corporate tax breaks, and more government oversight for large businesses.
The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street Movement have been compared to each other ever since Occupy Wall Street became a national story. Both share disgust with the federal bailout given to large corporations, but from that point the two movements differ greatly. The 99 Percent Movement is greatly concerned with growing income inequality in America, whereas the Tea Party believes that such inequality is natural, necessary, and in some case even beneficial. Many Occupy Wall Street protesters would support a higher income tax rate on the richest Americans, but Tea Party members generally call that “socialism” or “wealth redistribution.”
jeff
April 30th, 2012
8:13 am
They had a great segment this morning on NPR with the authors of this book. Really great stuff. Glad Jay was on top of this. However the right-wingnuts on talk radio and faux news I am sure will scorn this piece.
TiredOfIt
April 30th, 2012
8:13 am
When you vote in November, just remember what was happening in the fall of 2008 and you will do the right thing.
kayaker 71
April 30th, 2012
8:17 am
I don’t think that those F-18s patrolling our coasts, those TSA searches and the gazillions of dollars that we spend on security in this country is protecting us from a bunch of Baptists. Libs always post McVey as a Christian facist. He was far from that. Waco was a retaliation for Ruby Ridge and for the Branch Dividian standoff at Waco. It has little to do with Christianity and more to do with revenge for those killings. Muslim terrorist violence, however, has everything to do with some Muslim whacko notion that everyone but them are infidels and need to die. Some camel heading Arab back in the 700s seems to have had quite an effect on these sheep. Just like liberals….. lots of trouble figuring out things on their own.
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
8:19 am
However the right-wingnuts on talk radio and faux news I am sure will scorn this piece.
You’re merely “sure?” You’re not 100% certain, bet the house, the 401k, the kid’s college fund?
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
8:22 am
Waco was a retaliation for Ruby Ridge and for the Branch Dividian standoff at Waco.
The Branchers are Christians.
(certainly every bit as much as OBL and the AQ nutters are Muslims.)
carlosgvv
April 30th, 2012
8:23 am
stands – 8:03
So you’re ok with calling it “The War on Terror” as opposed to “The War on Islamic Terror”?
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
8:24 am
So you’re ok with calling it “The War on Terror” as opposed to “The War on Islamic Terror”?
no, I think you should save the word “war” for, you know, actual wars. I’m old fashioned that way.
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
8:24 am
It is pathetic and shemeful the way the looney fringe compares the Oklahoma City bombing to muslim terrorists in an attempt to rationalize the insane behavior of radical muslim terrorists. The OKC bombing was carried out by two or three individual domestic nut cases. The muslim terrorists are an international movement containing of millions of fanatical religious killers dedicated to the destruction of all non muslims. The muslim terrorists use children as suicide bombers. If you can’t tell the difference then shame on you. The OKC bombings took place 15 years ago or more while the muslims terrorists blow up people every day.
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
8:24 am
Obamakomedy SHEEZ.
stands for decibels
April 30th, 2012
8:26 am
And the OKC bombing *was* the result of Christofascism; and these lunatics terrorize fellow Americans every day, today; sorry that’s so hard for the righties to accept.
Heading upstairs.
JKL2
April 30th, 2012
8:26 am
jamvet- Could we at least agree, that it would be helpful to write beyond a seventh grade level of sloganeering to make out points?
Yes, just let us know when you are going to start.
Peter
April 30th, 2012
8:30 am
Have the Republican’s figured out a way to pay for the George Bush Wars ?
ANSWER is NO !
JKL2
April 30th, 2012
8:32 am
jamvet- Those results already show an advantage for the 99 Percent Movement, but the support grows once Occupy Wall Street is described with the following statement:
“
Congradulations, your propoganda is working. Continue to lie to people about what those OWS idiots are doing enough, and people might actually start believing they are doing something positive. I know I’d luvs me some good rioting…
JKL2
April 30th, 2012
8:34 am
peter- Have the Republican’s figured out a way to pay for the George Bush Wars ?
Use the Democrat answer to everything. “You can’t afford it, who cares. F’ing finance it!”
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
8:40 am
If you like big government, more taxes, larger deficits to be passed on to our children and their children, less freedom, the end of social security, and the government deciding who lives`and who dies, then you are opposed to the Tea Party. If you think every one should work for the government, ride a government bicycle to work, hane a government controlled thermostat, live in the same identical government provided housing, eat a government provided diet, etc. then you are a liberal.
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
8:50 am
Congradulations (sic), your propoganda(sic) is working. Continue to lie to people about what those OWS idiots are doing enough, and people might actually start believing they are doing something positive. I know I’d luvs me some good rioting…
TOO LONG!
Just write: I got nothin’…
JamVet
April 30th, 2012
8:52 am
Mighty Righty
April 30th, 2012
8:40 am
Once again…
Could we at least agree, that it would be helpful to write beyond a seventh grade level of sloganeering to make our points?
TiredOfIt
April 30th, 2012
9:17 am
There are two kinds of republicans, millionaires and fools.
Peter
April 30th, 2012
9:26 am
YUP JKL2. Avoid the question as a true Republican..
No the Republican’s only know how to run the deficit up attacking other countries.
Never saying how to pay for all……Never a clear policy as to why they do it….. Oh I mean the oil.
Sorry but the US citizens never got a piece of that pie.
JKL2
April 30th, 2012
9:30 am
Peter- No the Republican’s only know how to run the deficit up attacking other countries.
obama says,”What?”
Now that he is the deficit king, what are the Democrat’s planning to do about it?
JKL2
April 30th, 2012
9:38 am
jamvet- Just write: I got nothin’…
Your poll numbers increased in your favor after explaining to the people your imaginary reason about what the 99% stands for. Never saw that one coming.
Your propaganda seems to be working. Now if you could just explain to your OWS people what they are doing. They really seem to be confused:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsJPKMvWDmY
Peter
April 30th, 2012
1:03 pm
YUP JKL2 . Obama should have done zero and allow the Bush Depression to happen I guess.
That would have been the Republican way.heck Bush almost got us there.
And of course spending money here at home is BAD.. 3 trillion for a made up war Good according to the GOP !