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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow South Carolina Results Vindicate Political Power Of Economic Inequality Arguments
The pro-Wall Street lobby group Club for Growth called Gingrichs attacks on Bain disgusting while the Wall Street Journal said the former speaker was taking the Obama line. CNBC host and former Reagan official Larry Kudlow, who was once bullish on Gingrich, said this weekend, Newt Gingrich is not a free-market capitalist. Rush Limbaugh torched Gingrich, saying he was singing from the same playbook as Occupy Wall Street.
But Gingrichs upset victory in South Carolina seems to show that potency of arguments that highlight the unfairness and inequality of our economic system. As Ruy Texeira writes, conservatives should realize theyre attacking the opinions of most Americans who do, in fact, believe the system unfairly favors the wealthy:
On CNNs State of the Union yesterday, Gingrich took a bit of victory lap on the Bain attacks, acknowledging that they helped him win South Carolina because, he argued, they show voters where Romney is vulnerable against President Obama. Watch it:
Its worth remembering that in its early days, the Tea Party was nearly as anti-Wall Street as it was anti-government, galvanized by the Wall Street bailout. Much of that resentment likely remains, despite the best efforts of conservative elites to redirect that anger toward the government in order to white wash the distasteful record of companies like Bain.
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/01/23/409249/how-south-carolina-results-vindicate-political-power-of-economic-inequality-arguments/
If a creep like Newt can make economic inequality arguments work for him, it shows the genuine power of the argument.
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)"If a creep like Newt can make economic inequality arguments work for him, it shows the genuine power of the argument."
I think the Doltentariate (the lower-SES social conservatives) are only capable of hearing a message like this from someone like Newt. If it were to come from an actual rational person, they would immediately tune it out as "socialist garbage."
StandingInLeftField
(972 posts)I think the Doltentariate would like ANYONE with the name "Newt."