Excerpt: "In this campaign, Romney is now the 'the man who isn't there' - the dispensable one. But in Paul Ryan, the Golden Boy from Janesville who schooled himself in the ideology of right-wing think tanks inside the Beltway, they finally have one of their own - a true believer for the new Gilded Age."
Portrait, Bill Moyers. (photo: Robin Holland)
In Paul Ryan, The Right at Last Has Their Man
14 August 12
ver since Barry Goldwater lost his bid for the presidency in 1964, the conservative movement has been looking for a choice, not an echo (Goldwater's mantra). Reagan came close, but compromised too often on taxes and back-slapped with Democratic Speaker Tip O'Neill too often to give them total satisfaction. George W. was almost the putty-in-their-hands they'd craved, but the vast corruption he tolerated left a record they couldn't boast of, and his wild deficit spending (including two wars they allowed him to put on the credit card and the budget-busting Medicare prescription bill) frustrated their aim of reducing the government until it could be drowned in the bathtub.
Mitt Romney hasn't won their hearts either. He has shed so many of his previous positions in order to appease the Tea Party that he sounds as if he is reciting by rote Conscience of a Conservative - Goldwater's declaration of principles - and just might forget it all the morning after his inauguration.
This was never Romney's party, and without Karl Rove's shadowy money behind him, he would not have survived the primaries. So shape-shifting a figure was unlikely ever to inspire the front line troops in an election the Right sees as a showdown with the Anti-Christ at Armageddon. In this campaign, Romney is now the "the man who isn't there" - the dispensable one.
But in Paul Ryan, the Golden Boy from Janesville who schooled himself in the ideology of right-wing think tanks inside the Beltway, they finally have one of their own - a true believer for the new Gilded Age.
The country, too, now has a choice, not an echo. And that should add up to a definitive election in November.
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Comments
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They are not really 'conservatives' either ---what exactly are they 'conserving'? They are really just right wing RADICAL [as in pulling things up by their ROOTS] extremists!
DON'T VOTE REPUBLICAN AT ANY LEVEL, A LOT OF STATES NEED CLEANING UP TOO.
DO VOTE, DON'T HAND IT OVER TO THE Rs LIKE LAST ELECTION, GET OUT AND FIGHT FOR OUR RIGHTS, OR THERE WILL BE NOTHING LEFT TO FIGHT FOR.
The only way to ensure that this disaster is not foisted upon us is to:
- make a concerted effort and drumbeat for Dems to vote in November: no excuses that Obama is not progressive enough for our vote - he is hugely superior to the Repub alternative.
- work on Independents and moderate Republicans (yes, there are still some of those left) to see that a win by THIS Republican slate would be a disaster.
Lets get to work!
Nope not a one!
Here in Canada we have always had two major parties - the Conservatives and Liberals. The Conservatives were essentially taken over by the Reform Party (at one time the right wing of the Conservative Party that had abandoned the Conservatives years ago for being too close to the centre in Canadian politics). Using many of the same tactics and relying on many of the same fears created by and for the GOP base in the US, they first gained a minority and then a majority. Why? Because the "Left" in Canada is split. We are now shifting further to the right and because they now have a majority, we cannot do anything until the next election. Bottom line: They have a virtual carte blanche.
You want to split the Democrats, siphon off their votes to another party on the left? Go ahead and you will one day end up with a Republican House, Senate, President and SCOTUS and you will never be able to turn back the clock. Democracy, as good or bad as it is in the US, will continue to be re-defined until one day it will not be recognizable. History books will be changed, military will be used on American soil to repress dissent with the blessing of the Supreme Court. I greatly fear a Republican President this time - not only for the US but for the rest of the world.
The teabagging folks did not bring down the Republicans. They are the naive, ignorant fools used by the Right Wing Conservative as tools to achieve their agenda of turning America's incredible wealth into a bunch of private vaults. Every one of the .01% cannot wait for the transformation to be complete. The goal is for at least the .001% to each have a vault just like Scrooge McDuck. (BTW he voiced by Alan Young of Mr. Ed fame!)
Tell your sane Republican friends - VOTE FOR JILL STEIN OR ANYBODY ELSE BUT ROMNEY / RYAN!
Destroy all leg up programs for the working class while enriching his benefactors and stealing the patrimony of all Americans, the environment.
Gut the programs that he took advantage off, cut investment in infrastructure, education and make health care a privilege of the wealthy.
The Occupy movement will have its rallying cry, and our Democracy will get the boost it so desperately needs, for a cleaner and more robust future.
DESENT IS NO LONGER ALLOWED.
Will American as ill informed as they are see the light or will they fall for stupid TV ads? TV ads must and should become unconstitutiona l unless equal free access is given to all parties (Including independents greens, socialist communists..)
An amendment or 2 are WAY overdue or fascism will CONTINUE to grow while the majority doesn't even know what the word means.
It's repeal brought the financial crash of '08, enabled by Bush & Republicans who ignored what was going on. Republicans are thrilled with the results which have given them unprecedented power.
You think things are bad now, after Bush's 'rule' and Republican obstructionists ? If Romney/Ryan get in, you will live to regret it.
Phil Gramm repealed Glass-Steagall ; why haven't Cheney and his war-profiteerin g companies [Halliburton, KBR, BlackWater, Bechtel etc.) been prosecuted????
If middle class Republicans were to vote their pocketbooks and wealthy Republicans would vote their conscience, these guys couldn't make Dog Catcher. But the $$$ makes it an uncomfortable horse race.
A note to Onterryo from Canada: Yes, the right is making inroads, but that is true all over the world. Too many 99%’ers are voting for candidates beholden to the 1%. Alas, the words of Abraham Lincoln are showing themselves to be most prophetic: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time”. The trouble is that enough people can be fooled often enough.
Here is an alternative to a third party. There is the Congressional Progressive Caucus. It is entirely Democrat except for Bernie Sanders who is an independent “democratic socialist”. Almost without exception CPC members occupy safe seats. They win their elections by large pluralities. They can remain in the Democratic Party and at the same time become a de facto third party. They can challenge leadership in both parties and tell them “hell no” when either wing of our one party system threatens to support laws that are contrary to the best interests of working class America.
In the meantime, working families need to start voting in their own best interests.
I shudder at the thought!
After reading your post, I remembered when Romney recently introduced Ryan as the next "president" of the US.
Maybe he was trying to tell us something.
The Republicans/Tea Party want to permanently rule with an iron fist. The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory, first developed by the German syndicalist sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties.[1] It claims that rule by an elite, or "oligarchy", is inevitable as an "iron law" within any organization.
the multinationals run the world, and the US government is just the muscle.
Watch the defense budget, then argue.
Give me a break! That is ridiculous! Romeny and Ryan spell disaster for 99% of this country but many don't realize they are the ones who will loose out. Read with an open mind.
Jim pull your head out of Fox news and realize, the American Dream will completely be dead if Mitt gets in. Everything you think will happen under Obama will happen if Mitt is elected . You are projecting all the right wing crap onto the left...stop it!
Ayn Rand was a feminist, and strongly believed that women control their bodies in all aspects, including the right to an abortion. Ryan is a so called 'pro-life' Congressman who does not believe that a woman has a choice when it comes to getting a safe and legal abortion.
Ayn Rand was an Atheist, not an Agnostic, a full blown Atheist. Ryan is card carrying Catholic, and a self righteous one to boot.
On those two issues alone Ayn Rand would never accept or appreciate Paul Ryan as one of her followers. In fact she would denounce him as an usurper.
In addition, as has been pointed out by other commentators, Paul Ryan gladly accepted, not only the boots, but the boot straps, and a strong and steady hand to lace and pull those straps. In his warped mind he called that 'pulling himself up by his OWN bootstraps!'
In essence he is a moral and intellectual phony.
This would be Emperor has no clothes, and has to be fought against, based on his obvious nakedness, at ever opportunity.
It's amazing how alike the team of Romney/Ryan mimic that of Bush/Cheney. The puppet & the puppeteer theme, is at it again, and the best the GOP thinks & feels America deserves.
Well, jg4447, in 1968, I was 19 and 21 was the voting age then. As a future Democrat, I would have voted for the Democratic nominee,Hubert Humphrey, even though he was LBJ's veep, during the ghastly Viet Nam mess.(I think the Hube would have cut the war a lot shorter than Nixon did, though not as fast as Kennedy or McGovern) Or, if he had not been murdered, I would have voted definitely for Bobby Kennedy, or then, George McGovern (possibly, actually, the best of the whole bunch. Went with him in '72) But, had I been a Republican, which I was not and never will be, I probably would have preferred George Romney, too, instead of Richard M. Nixon. George and Mitt represent two different kinds of Republican thinking. Funny, though, I really have a hard time saying WHAT kind of thinking Mitt represents. Maybe: $$$$$
In the old time tradition of the Republican (and Democratic) Parties, the inside maxim is, "Better to lose an election than lose control of the Party".
1) Too many voters are massively ignorant and susceptible to negative ads, no matter how mendacious. If they can be swayed by Rush or FOX Noise, they can be swayed by anything. This is a baseline reality.
2) Unless you're a real activist with time to work, give as much $ as you can. If you can't give $, send emails, comment in chat rooms, try and make a dent. VOTE for Obama! All this crap about corporate ties is largely true, but the whole system's been rigged for decades, so now it IS a question of "lesser evil". When you look closely at Obama/Biden vs. Romney/Ryan, it's Errol Flynn/Alan Hale vs. Basil Rathbone/Claude Rains; there's no contest! (for anyone going "Who the eff are those guys?", it's the classic, and best "Robin Hood"-1938). Electing Romney, especially with the adult "Eddie Munster" on the ticket, is like amputating your fingers to save your hands: good luck. With all his $, Romney can't just "buy" a presidential election; people have to go into the booth and pull. Americans still know a "busted flush" when they see and hear one. We elected Al Gore in 2000 (he won the popular vote by many thousands), but got Bush in a coup by SCOTUS. No more. Women and Repro Rights are THE key! His taxes are still key!
The disgusting hyposcrisy and amazingly huge machine that barrels over just about everyone in the world and pays off fantastically for those on the right side of the tracks, that .01% that has realized that they must use every weapon they have up to an including violence and murder - because it is murder on a huge scale to take people's money for private use, not even to use it for the betterment of the country, or filter it through government where it has a chance to help others, the .01% realize they must shut it all down for everyone outside their own stations. They pay people handsomely for them to come up with all the reasons why this needs to be done, but bascially it is totalitarianism and evil.
He has been created by the media.
Mitt Romney at least made money and knows somehow the business world .... albeit from the wrong side with the wrong lessons ...
but Ryan never did anything but pander to Republicans.
He does not even understand his budget ... that from non-partisan economists. He does not know what capitalism is, or what business is, he knows nothing except how to rub the bellies of his Republicans betters to get a plum job where he does not have to work .. because to really balance the budget of this country would take work, and Ryan did not do it.
The other story simply says that the friend allowed Paul Ryan to stay at her apartment in NYC when he was in the city. I asked her what he was like, she said "By now, I think he has become a very dangerous man." and she is a republican..... ..
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