To Replace Him With ANYONE.

I think Rachel Maddow (here and here) and The Federalist (via Raw Story -- below) are only ones who connected on the first swing of their bats:

Crony Capitalism, though.

Last edited Thu Jun 12, 2014, 03:29 PM - Edit history (1)

On a local issue.

They all know that each and every individual, from the newborn to the octogenarian, has lost at
least $ 200,000 to the crony capitalism that is an accepted and promoted way of life among the Beltway crowd. And that is math done that simply calculating what the Big Bailouts have cost each of us. And should a person try and somehow compute what it costs us as a society to let Sallie Mae employ Pacific Rim third-worlders to handle the customer service end of the student debt mess, etc, we would probably see something like a million dollars a piece.

It is already accepted Beltway insider knowledge that it is "too costly" to return jobs here to Americans. but if we don't have jobs, then what? Is that not a lot more costly?

At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the formula of "Good paying jobs" = "A decent consumer society" was worked out in his head by one Henry Ford. And of course, business leaders across the nation protested that he would find himself broke, but exactly the opposite happened. His own workers bought the Fords they were producing, and Ford soon was a household name.

took a huge hit. Companies terminated defined benefit plans because the 7-8% returns that *annually* they could expect in normal times were essentially 0% for the entire decade. People nearing and in retirement can't put their money in safe places like CDs or bonds because the returns are 0 or worse, and with inflation their $ will run out. What can they do?

All of these outcomes that affect the "little guy" are at least partly the result of letting the banks and others run wild, privatizing their profits but socializing their losses. So the average American has lost far more than $200K.

Dave Brat's whole philosophy of economics and how to treat other people is no different, worse, than Cantor's. So why would his voters think this man is magically going to be less a crony than Cantor. He's a person with little experience, almost no support staff, and not exactly independently wealthy. He is prime material for the crony capitalists. Honestly what Tea bagger hasn't been a total legislative failure? They don't know what they are doing, hate the government so they've never bothered to learn how it works, and thus end up lambs for the lobbyists and think tanks to carve up. Dave Brat IS THE FACE OF CRONY CAPITALISM. Yet somehow his voters don't see it coming.

It shows that there is anger over the problem across party lines, even if there are strong disagreements and strong misunderstandings about how to solve it.

It is a start...an opening to building a coalition to stop these corporate vipers.

and they keep voting for the same ideology. Conservative philosophy has made their lives worse, but they vote for it time and time again. They believe somehow these conservatives aren't "real", or "doing it right", but America today is conservatism at work. I laugh at my conservative friend that say Obama showed once again liberalism is a failure.

I don't disagree that is a start... but I keep waiting for the next step. The next step when we across the board vote for a more liberal congress when things aren't working the way they should. When we look for people that think government can be an answer. When they think free markets aren't pure. People that equality must be won and won't naturally plop out of hard work, when the rights in your constitution need framework or they aren't worth the paper their printed on.

I think Dem voters and Republican voters aren't that far apart on what are the "issues" they just believe completely different solutions. There are so many Republicans out there that don't seem to get Eric Cantor IS the Republican Party. The Tea Party has done nothing to improve their lives. I is the same shit in another label. When do people wake up? When does the next step happen. Shit they don't have to vote for Democrats but where are the real liberal republicans that existed when I was born. Why do grifters seem like the solution to these people?

Lots of "they" in your post.

In fact, we haven't had this kind of agreement before. Democrats have been propagandized that corporations are the problem, and Republicans have been propagandized that big government is the problem.

This is new, to have a growing agreement that the cronyism, the intersection of the two, is the problem. And it is an opening to begin to craft a message about the need to end the cronyism, that can appeal to everyone.

.... and neither do I.

If you are right, it wouldn't be the first politician that folded like a paper napkin as soon as they hit the beltway.

On the other hand, even some conservatives are beginning to realize that the capital formation policies they pursued rightly decades ago are not helping any more. There is no shortage of investment capital any more, the shortage is on the demand side.

This guy is an economist and maybe he really gets it.

In any event, it would be impossible for this guy to be a worse deal for Dems and the country than Cantor. If we could get rid of a few more of his ilk we might start making progress.

I know full well what is happening to these "pure" tea party congress people. There is overwhelming evidence what happens to these people. This guy isn't Paul Krugman and I know it.

Republicans vote for the same people in a different label over and over expecting a different result.

If you haven't been paying attention the Tea Party caucus has been vastly worse than non-tea party caucus in their stances. He is not a breath of fresh air. He is stale 19th century ideas waiting for lobbyists to fatten him up. He's doomed even if he doesn't know it. Washington eats people like this up because they were made to be consumed.

The point is the growing awareness among Americans across party lines that cronyism, the incest between government and corporations, is a problem that needs to be solved.

It opens important possibilities for crafting a political message and a movement that can appeal across party lines.

... I'm aware of the TP stances, I just don't care. If the Democrats can't beat this guy whose fault is that? I'm tired of the gridlock. Nothing can get better until is gets better or gets unbearable. Anything that fucks with the status quo has my vote. Sorry.

this guy might be doing a bait-and-switch, but the rest of the TP didn't even bother with the bait. I hear vanishingly few even Dems talking about the economic treachery going on every day so excuse me if at least SOME of this guys comments offer hope.

No, we don't agree on solutions yet. But we are seeing some growing agreement over the problem.

Now, watch the propaganda, because this will scare the hell out of the corporate One Percent. We will be propagandized incessantly to herd us back into our own Red and Blue camps and our hatred toward each other. Watch the messaging closely. Notice the difference between

(1) those who acknowledge that exploiting this common awareness of the problem to build coalitions that can actually do something about it will be tricky because we have such different ideas about how to solve the problem, but who acknowledge that we share a common need to solve it ....

and

(2) those who will dispense automatic loathing and fear and every tactic in the book to stoke the hatred and push us back into partisan isolation and impotence. They will be the same voices that relentlessly defend every new corporate assault brought to us by smiling Third Way Democrats and Republicans.

... you said ^^^^^^^ +1000

The big lie to both sides is that the other side is getting everything they want.

The corporate propagandists will be desperate to make sure any awareness of the problem that seems to resonate to both sides is stomped out with renewed calls for partisan hatred....

...which is very telling about their agenda, because, after all, the purpose of elections is supposed to be to find the best representation for the people...that will draw support on its merits broadly, because the message speaks to the interests of the people.

... would understand what is happening.

It's getting harder and harder for me to have any empathy or sympathy for the people who are getting beaten down and do nothing and I mean nothing about it.