Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

It Goes Further Than This

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/gop-2014-obamacare-fatigue-kff-poll

While voters are no doubt tired of the Obamacare debate, I bet they're tired of all the rest of the GOP schtick.

I, personally, am tired of:

- arguing about a women's right to contraceptive care.
- arguing about a women's right of choice.
- arguing about whether kids on food stamps are moochers and takers.
- arguing about the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts.
- arguing about marriage equality.
- arguing about whether unregulated financial markets will self-regulate.
- arguing about Austrian vs Keynesian economics.
- arguing about whether global climate change is derived from human causes.

The GOP has not had a genuinely new policy idea in years.  Medicare Plan D was a disastrous maladaption of a Democratic idea.  Maybe No Child Left Behind, but... meh to that.

The problem with being a retrograde political movement extends beyond the fact that the GOP base is a bunch of shouty old people yelling at the brown people to get off their America.  It's the fact that all they can do is fight the old battles.

And it does work to the degree that the Left gets tired of fighting the same old rearguard actions to protect gains already made (see abortion, contraception).

The only reason Rand Paul is at all appealing to the political press is that at least he's being stupid about new things.

No comments: