tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post1938099411992293448..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: Really MystifiedJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-19983622678817933632012-07-24T18:56:29.293-05:002012-07-24T18:56:29.293-05:00The historical reality of the Constitution is that...The historical reality of the Constitution is that it expanded the power of our federal government while still restricting it. It's hard to imagine anyone really disagreeing with that.Couveshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00926561539205771774noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-46698909795268675862012-07-24T13:39:44.830-05:002012-07-24T13:39:44.830-05:00I'm willing to place a strong bet that shiftin...<i>I'm willing to place a strong bet that shifting who collects taxes, or even what kinds of taxes are collected, won't do much to unmuddle that mess</i><br /><br />... unless & until the GOP abandons Southern Strategy rhetoric. <br /><br />The sole domestic policy of the Republican Party is a vague fear that Government is going to tax Us and give it to Them, who are mostly lazy swarthy poors. <br /><br />That's all that Mitt Romney has-- it's why he barely has any policies at all, and gears his campaign at telling lies designed to make people think that the president is some kind of foreigner. His "fiscal policy" is to cut revenues by around $5 trillion, then make up for it with some yet-unspecified, apparently impossible secret plan. <br /><br />In the 1950s, resentment at the government was not the animating principle of membership in the Republican Party. They even had fiscal conservatives. <a href="http://www.poisonyourmind.com/2011/08/eisenhower-nixon-obama/" rel="nofollow">Pres. Eisenhower was furious at Congressional Democrats for proposing a tax cut when we were running deficits</a>: "Eisenhower... thought no issue more flagrantly demonstrated [Democrats'] partisanship than their bill to cut taxes... Eisenhower considered such an idea reckless and dangerous at a time when he was trying to narrow the deficit in the federal budget. He urged Republican leaders to “denounce the Democrats every step of the way.” ... [H]e condemned the tax exemption at a press conference on 23 February [1955] as “some kind of heights in fiscal irresponsibility.” ... Eisenhower won in the Senate, thereby stopping what he considered a sordid Democratic effort “to buy votes with the public’s money.”"<br /><br />In the meantime, though, the conpiratorial, resentnful Birchers that Ike could shrug off have become the driving force within the GOP. If the GOP effort to heighten anti-government resentment (once explicitly linked to anti-minority resentment, but no longer so explicit), then we'd have a more reasoned public discourse and, therefore, public opinion. Unfortunately, there are no signs of maturity or patriotism in the Republican Party.<br /><br />I imagine the title of this post reflects that it's all almost enough to make a man sit right down and cry.reflectionephemeralhttp://www.poisonyourmind.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-73204458590062295492012-07-24T12:05:03.627-05:002012-07-24T12:05:03.627-05:00This is really giving away the game for that part ...This is really giving away the game for that part of the right wing that has been fetishizing the Constitution: It's just sloganeering rather than any sort of deeply considered ideology. I would be delighted to see some Tea Party members attacking Shlaes over her contention that replacing the Articles with the Constitution was some kind of grave mistake, but I doubt we'll see much of that.TNhttp://www.debris-slide.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.com