Comments Posted By michael reynolds
Displaying 211 To 220 Of 839 Comments
It's not about winning with these people. Duh.
Once you win you have to take responsibility, you have to at least acknowledge the existence of certain facts and realities. This inevitably leads to a dilution of ideological purity -- Reagan raising some taxes, increasing the deficit, failing to close a single federal department and fleeing Lebanon, or Bush the Elder raising taxes, or Bush the Lesser and his drug benefit.
Every time Republicans actually win and have actual responsibility they come face-to-face with the fact that their ideology is about half bull--it. That it doesn't really work. Then the ideologues get cranky and start denouncing their leaders as RINO's.
Given a choice between ideology and power of course they choose ideology, because their "ideology" is really just an inflated self-importance.
What's surprising to me is that you're surprised, Rick. Don't you recognize the mindset that prefers comforting myths of specialness to difficult reality? It's called religion. It's no coincidence that the instinctive non-intellectual conservatism of teabaggers and religiosity walk hand-in-hand. They both involve the deliberate denial of reality.
You keep writing these posts asking why the far right doesn't recognize reality. It's obvious: reality is complex and nuanced and fundamentally antithetical to dogma. It's also problematic for the self-importance of ever less important groups. Given a choice between Jesus, Guns, Liberal-bashing, Gay-bashing and race-baiting -- beliefs that elevate the importance and self-esteem of the teabaggers -- and a reality in which they are part of an aging, dwindling, increasingly powerless class, it's not even a choice for these people.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 2.11.2009 @ 11:51
'UNRULY' CONSERVATIVES SHOCK THE GOP IN NY23
Gayle:
Rick is an atheist. Rick is not hostile to gay marriage or to abortion. He frequently criticizes Republicans and openly despises Palin and Huckabee.
So whether you would vote for him is not the point: the party does not tolerate such wide divergence from its teabagger party line. The odds of any state GOP anywhere, ever, nominating Rick Moran are zero. Your side does not tolerate heretics, as we've seen in NY 23.
It's about the party, not you. I didn't say Rick couldn't get votes from individuals, I said he couldn't be nominated. In other words, you're the one making a stupid assumption.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 2.11.2009 @ 10:45
Rick:
You're a member of a party that would never allow you to run for any office.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 2.11.2009 @ 09:12
Moose:
You're a poorly-disguised cretin.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 31.10.2009 @ 19:47
Moose:
"We" in that case meant Obama supporters. And if that is synonymous with "liberal nutroot" you are in a world of hurt because we're about 55% of the population.
If you also exclude Moran and his ilk as RINOs then my guess is your team nails about 10% of the population, making you and yours the voting equivalent of the African-American vote, or say, twice the gay vote.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 31.10.2009 @ 17:51
MooseH:
I supported Gulf War 1, Afghanistan and the Iraq invasion. I favor means-testing social security and medicare. I want to see corporate income tax rates cut. My first vote was for Richard Nixon. So, yeah, I'm a real far left nutroot.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 31.10.2009 @ 16:04
Sorry, Jon Huntsman.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 31.10.2009 @ 09:00
Anonymous:
My support for Obama is not ideological. I barely have an ideology.
The 2012 election will rest, as they always do, on which of the available candidates I think will do the least damage. I can't tell you for sure how I'll vote unless you can tell me who will be repping the GOP.
I will say that none of the currently bruited GOP names has a prayer with me. The only GOP leader I kind of like is Jim Huntsman, former Governor of Utah, currently ambassador to China. Sort of Romney with 70% less android.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 31.10.2009 @ 08:59
Sota:
Well, in fairness, since you guys spent 8 years digging the hole we ought to have at least a year or two to fill it back in, don't you think?
What exactly is your theory? That the GOP can spend 8 years systematically screwing up everything they touch from Katrina to Iraq, from the budget to the broader economy, and then hey presto overnight it's someone else's fault?
Is that how it works in your family? Because in my family if one of my kids is screwing around and breaks a glass, I may clean it up, but he doesn't get to pretend it's my fault. He doesn't get to tell me to hurry up. He doesn't get to lie about who broke it.
You think you just come along and with your incompetent leaders and your idiotic ideological drivel and your reckless indifference to accountability screw this country into the ground and we all just shrug and forget about it?
Let me lay this out for you: your most recent administration set a national record for sheer, bloody-minded incompetence. Not since James Buchanan have we seen such a disastrous administration. Your most recent president was a reckless buffoon and his vice president should be standing trial as a war criminal. So maybe the question is: don't you think you and your party owe the world a decent interval before you start in lecturing us on how to fix the mess you made?
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 30.10.2009 @ 17:03
Sam's point is not irrelevant or new. Soldiers have always snickered a bit at men who sent them to fight while avoiding battle themselves.
It goes back at least to the Iliad wherein Achilles snarks at Agamemnon for managing to steer clear of battles himself.
I would argue that veterans have a perfect right to roll their eyes when dealing with war enthusiasts whose enthusiasm is entirely for other people's sacrifice. I don't think that says anything about the quality or capability of a particular president (FDR didn't serve but did manage to lead effectively) but I think guys who get shot at have earned the right to view with jaundiced eye those (like myself) who've remained safely at home.
Comment Posted By michael reynolds On 30.10.2009 @ 13:51
