Sunday, March 27, 2011

Sunday Question for Conservatives

In today's NYT story about social conservatives and Iowa, Michele Bachmann is quoted as saying:
It can’t just be a Republican. We need to have people who have guts, who you won’t see melt like wax when they get there.
Does this strike you as correct: that a major problem for conservatives has been that Republican officeholders are lacking in guts?

Also: regardless of what you think, do you believe that most conservatives would agree with Bachmann's diagnosis?

3 comments:

  1. "Does this strike you as correct: that a major problem for conservatives has been that Republican officeholders are lacking in guts?"

    In general no. I think GOP officeholders should only take a hard line when it is clear the majority of voters agree with them. The passage of TARP is the big example of when they needed more guts. They should have only voted yes if it had been less generous and had more strings attached. I also think they should show more guts in opposing affirmative action, reducing immigration and mandating the use of English in government documents.

    It has been more common in the last decade for the GOP to push for things that are popular with their base but not with the majority of the general electorate. Bush's push for privatizing Social Security was not popular even with GOP voters. The Midwest governors pushing to reduce state employees benefits probably have the backing of most voters. Whether Midwest voters want their governors to try to break unions is less certain.

    Most conservatives probably agree with Bachmann.

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  2. Why are you trying to make sense of Michele Bachmann? She's literally a wide-eyed lunatic. More to the point, why are you trying to make sense of any right-wing Republican in Congress?

    Hint: The words these people say don't have any actual correspondence to reality; such words are merely verbal fuel to feed the flames of fanatical, empty-headed "conservatives." So for everyone's sake, stop trying to take the words of Republicans as logical concepts - they are ALWAYS GOING TO BE RIDICULOUS.

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  3. I think she's right, but not in the way she intended. There is a shortage of national Republicans willing to stray from Tea Party/Limbaugh talking points - being terrified of your own base is never a good look in politics.

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