Republican Party Strategy – When You Have No New Ideas, Attack The Opposition

The Republican Party wound up their Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) this week and about all they have to show for it is a bunch of self-idolizing feel-good speeches directed mostly at President Obama and the Democratic Party. Naturally you wouldn’t expect the opposition to have anything good to say about the conference or the speakers, but many in their own party had criticism for them. Among them was Sarah Smith of Alexandria, Va. She said “I’m still seeing who will lead us out of this wilderness”. And House Republican Whip Eric Cantor said, in response to Rush Limbaugh’s comment about hoping the Obama Administration fails on the economy, “I don’t think anyone wants anything to fail right now. We have such challenges. What we need to do is we need to put forth solutions to the problems that real families are facing today”.

Last years CPAC gathering saw them wringing their hands when John McCain was the last man standing as their hopes for President. The Republican Party was not very happy with that, but McCain was all they had. As one writer pointed out, they “had to make do with someone they didn’t truly believe in”. Of course, as we all know, McCain lost, but the Republicans could learn a good lesson from that loss if they would just accept why John McCain both won & lost. The same writer referenced above asked the question “do Republicans need to reinvent them selves and provide new ideas of their own”? That’s the key point; they can’t come up with any new ideas. But I have to give Tucker Carlson some credit for trying. He tried to get them focused on one of their main problems when he said “It’s the end of the road for self-denial”. He didn’t succeed very well, but he did get a lot of “boo’s” when he suggested they need to put more effort into digging up facts and rely less on opinion and punditry. Carlson was referring to the way many in the news media get their facts versus the way many Republicans get their “facts”. The outcry from the audience was a resounding “NOOOOOOOOOOOO”! So what was the audience saying; that facts are immaterial? I guess so, and why not; it worked well in the past, as illustrated by their very good friends at Fox, an organization disguised as a news source.

The Republican Party stood by & said nothing for 8 years while they watched George W. Bush & Dick Chaney drag the party down. Now they are paying a price for that. The only thing the Bush administration really did that was aligned with the Party’s ideology was cut taxes for the wealthy & corporations and flood more money into their friends pockets, which seems to be the only answer they have for any problem. Dean Baker for the Boston Review said “conservatives support regulatory structures that cause income to flow upward, while liberals support regulatory structures that promote equality” . Of course, he was speaking of regulating our financial markets, but by simply removing the words “regulatory” from Baker’s quote you will uncover the ultimate goal of the Republican Party. This is the root cause of their real problem, but they refuse to accept it.

The party’s commitment to keep using the same policies that brought them down was reflected in the speakers chosen to speak at CPAC. The self appointed Republican Party savior (now confirmed by CPAC), Rush Limbaugh, was their star speaker. (You could almost hear the groans from the non-neoconservative Republicans when that announcement was made.) But the other speakers were nearly as bad. About all they could contribute was more attacks on the Democrats and calling for more tax breaks (for the wealthy and corporations). You know they have no new ideas when the largest applauses (with standing ovations) came from criticism of President Obama and/or the Democratic congress. That in it self tell us something if we are paying attention rather than just waiting to hear what we already want to hear.

http://www.cps-news.com/2009/03/03/republican-party-strategy-when-you-have-no-new-ideas-attack-the-opposition/

As well as to attack all Americans except those with the top 1% of incomes.