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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumGOP Meltdown: Paul Ryan Doubles Down On His Losing Southern Strategy
Mar 10, 2013 4:45 AM EDT
Paul Ryans mistaken plan to cut benefits for older Americans will alienate one of the last groups thats stayed loyal to his party, writes Lloyd Green.
After years of drifting apart, the jobs report and the stock market aligned this week, at least momentarily, as unemployment fell to the lowest level in over four years while the Dow and the S&P 500 continued to climb. Were hardly out of the woods the workforce participation rate remains stuck in neutral, overall growth remains sluggish, and worker income is still lagging behind the stock market gainsbut there are signs of hope.
Yet some things dont change. As the sputtering economy tries to get into gear, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan keeps talking about depriving hard working-taxpaying Americans of their retirement benefits, while offering nothing in return. This is the strategy that failed Mitt Romney and Ryan in November, and that alienates not just senior citizens, but voters over 45 one of the few groups thats so far remained reliably right-leaning as Asians, Hispanics, upscale Episcopalians, graduate degree holders and others have abandoned the shrinking GOP tent.
If the Presidents electoral playbook called for uniting the rich and poor and treating the middle class as an afterthought, the Congressman has a more direct, if less palatable, approach: he simply attacks the middle class, by trying to gut their earned entitlement programs.
Harping on social issues and bashing the 47 percent, along with Mitt Romneys antipathy on the auto bailout, is why Republicans got their clocks cleaned in the industrial Midwest last November, eking out just a 5-point plurality among non-college grad white voters in the Great Lakes (a group they won by 19 points nationally).
Apparently, the failed vice presidential candidate has not internalized these lessons. Instead, Ryan & Co. seems to be doubling down on 2012s failed bet, and treating working Americans as little more than moochers. A year ago, Candidate Ryan called for voucher care instead of Medicare for Americans who were then 55 and under. Now, he is pressing the idea of setting the cut-off at 56 in an effort to force more Americans off of Medicare.
-snip-
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/03/10/gop-meltdown-paul-ryan-doubles-down-on-his-losing-southern-strategy.html
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GOP Meltdown: Paul Ryan Doubles Down On His Losing Southern Strategy (Original Post)
DonViejo
Mar 2013
OP
"...cohort of centrist House Republicans are furious with Ryan’s latest suggestion"...
Spitfire of ATJ
Mar 2013
#7
Wounded Bear
(58,662 posts)1. They still think "they didn't get their message across"
When people actually do understand their message......and don't like it.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)2. Great article. Reads more like the Daily Kos than the Daily Beast. nt.
Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)9. I don't think they want to admit that their policies suck.
The GOP is trying to do everything they can to keep selling Turd Sandwiches in different wrapping paper and avoid moderating their policies.
Wounded Bear
(58,662 posts)11. Well......yeah......
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)3. Paul Ryan - Working Hard For The 1% 24/7
eom
AndyTiedye
(23,500 posts)4. Time to Circulate this Video Some More
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)12. I still crack up every time I see that commercial
Response to DonViejo (Original post)
peace frog This message was self-deleted by its author.
peace frog
(5,609 posts)6. They just never get tired of losing, do they...
?w=500
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)7. "...cohort of centrist House Republicans are furious with Ryan’s latest suggestion"...
They don't matter. Not as long as he has the rich, the crazies, and the folks at CNBC, FOX and CNN Money telling him he is a fucking genius.
BTW: Anyone who believes he is the one that actually WROTE the budget is fooling themselves. Ask him specifics and he gets the same "deer in the headlights look" Coulter got when she was asked about something in one of "her" books.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)10. +1,000
Blue4Texas
(437 posts)8. The last few double downs
Have been double losses LOL