12 Republican Myths That Are Killing Us

GOP Clown College

 Alan Grayson was a U.S. Representative for Florida's 8th Congressional District from 2009-2011.  He was defeated for re-election, but while in the Congress was one of the few progressive voices who spoke out forcefully against the right.  Most notably, during the health care debates he had the audacity to describe the Republican health care plan as "'Don't get sick, and if you do get sick, die quickly."  He is running for Congress again, and it would be great to have him back.  (Click here to help.)  Here's a taste of his wit and wisdom.  -- Lovechilde

By Alan Grayson, cross-posted from Reader Supported News

As the Republican demolition derby rolls on, I continue to be amused by how each remaining contender tries to assume the "small government" mantle.

Mitt Romney wants a government so small that it provides universal health care.

Newt Gingrich wants a government so small that it will establish a permanent base on the moon.

Rick Santorum wants a government so small that it will fit inside a woman's uterus.

The only real remaining advocate of small government is Ron Paul. Dr. Paul appears to be disqualified from the Republican presidential primary, however, because he is unwilling to drench himself with the blood of our imagined enemies, like Gerard Butler in the movie "300."

But what about that Jon Huntsman guy? This week three different people told me, quite independently of each other, how sorry they were that Governor Huntsman never gained any traction in the Republican presidential primary.

I told them that they should get over it. Huntsman wasn't any better.

It somehow counts as an act of courage for Huntsman to have tweeted: "I believe in evolution." Of course, it would have been more courageous if Huntsman had said that to a Tea Party audience, and then they tore him limb from limb, thereby disproving the theory of evolution right before our eyes.

And evolution is not something that you "believe" or "disbelieve." Evolution is like gravity; it's not like Santa Claus or the Abominable Snowman. (Question: Why do they both live at the North Pole?)

Be that as it may, neither Huntsman nor any other Republican presidential candidate has been willing to take on the hard myths. The myths that are killing us. Here are a dirty dozen, right off the top of my head:

1. The government can't create jobs. (Tell that to FDR, who created four million jobs in three months.)


2. Tax cuts reduce the deficit. (Doesn't it bother them that a man named "Laffer" came up with this one?)


3. A fetus is a baby.


4. The poor have too much money.


5. Cutting the federal deficit will end the recession.


6. The rich are incentivized by tax cuts, while the poor are incentivized by lower wages, no benefits, an end to the minimum wage, and unemployment.


7. An unwanted child is God's will.


8. Everyone who wants health insurance has it.


9. The problem with education is the teachers.


10. The "free market" satisfies every human need.


11. There is no discrimination in America anymore.


12. The distribution of wealth and income are irrelevant.

I don't remember Jon Huntsman disputing any of these myths. And these are the ones that do the real damage. Show me a candidate who is willing to take on these myths, and I'll pay more attention.

Courage,  Alan Grayson

Could There Still Be A Race For The Republican Nomination?

DonkeyHotey

by Fuzzyone

I have thought for a long time that there was little chance that anyone but Romney could capture the Republican nomination. He has the money and organization that all but Ron Paul lack, and Paul just can't appeal to enough Republicans. But now Public Policy Polling has a poll out showing Gingrich with a six point lead over Romney in South Carolina:

Newt Gingrich ................................................. 34%
Mitt Romney..................................................... 28%
Ron Paul ........................................................... 15%
Rick Santorum................................................... 14%
Rick Perry .......................................................... 5%
Buddy Roemer.................................................... 3%
Someone else/Not sure ...................................... 2%

Even more interesting, or at least entertaining, is that if Stephen Colbert is included he gets 8%, taking a bit from everyone. Colbert's Super PAC, now run by Jon Stewart (which lovechilde wrote about the other day) is running ads urging people to vote for Herman Cain, who has dropped out but whose name still appears on the ballot, but it is hard to know how that will impact things.

What is likely to have an impact is Perry's announcement that he is dropping out and endorsing Gingrich.  That leaves only Gingrich and Santorum fighting for the non Romney, non Paul vote.  The problem they both have is lack of organization and money. But a strong showing in South Carolina could bring in the money and after Florida on January 31 there are not any really big events until March 6, Super Tuesday.

I still doubt anyone can beat Romney, at least anyone who is in the race, and tonight's ABC interview with Newt's second wife does not seem likely to help him. Still, this might be a more interesting race than I would have expected a few weeks ago.

Keep Your Distance: Ron Paul Is A "Full Bore Crank"

DonkeyHotey

There is nothing charming about Ron Paul.  Much like a broken clock, he gets a couple of things right -- anti-war and anti-torture.  But that does not make him interesting or credible or anything close to a reasonable candidate for President.

I couldn't agree more with Kevin Drum who describes Paul as "a full bore crank. In fact he's practically the dictionary definition of a crank: a person who has a single obsessive, all-encompassing idea for how the world should work and is utterly blinded to the value of any competing ideas or competing interests."

This obsessive idea has, at various times in his career, led him to: denounce the Civil Rights Act because it infringed the free-market right of a monolithic white establishment to immiserate blacks; to dabble in gold buggery and advocate the elimination of the Federal Reserve, apparently because the global economy worked so well back in the era before central banks; suggest that the border fence is being built to keep Americans from leaving the country; claim that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional and should be dismantled; mount repeated warnings that hyperinflation is right around the corner; insist that global warming is a gigantic hoax; hint that maybe the CIA helped to coordinate the 9/11 attacks; oppose government-sponsored flu shots; and allege that the UN wants to confiscate our guns.

It is one thing to be non-interventionist, but taken to the extreme views that Paul holds, it would mean that U.S. participation in World War II was misguided.  On the domestic front, Paul notoriously asserted his belief that FEMA should not have responded to Hurricane Katrina. And more recently confirmed his view that there is no need for sexual harassment laws in the workplace.

And that's not all. "As we've all known for the past four years, you can layer on top of this Paul's now infamous newsletters, in which he supported a political strategy consciously designed to appeal to the worst strains of American homophobia, racial paranoia, militia hucksterism, and new-world-order fear-mongering."

The "bottom line," as Drum says, is that Paul is not merely a "flawed messenger" for anti-war and civil liberties positions, "he's an absolutely toxic, far-right, crackpot messenger for these views."  As  Drum concludes, "if you truly support civil liberties at home and non-interventionism abroad, you should run, not walk, as fast as you can to keep your distance from Ron Paul."