ubertroll
So always to tyrants.
- Joined
- Jul 5, 2003
- Posts
- 11,822
It used to be that the GOP decried liberal democrats as eggheads--that they had plenty of theories and ideas and predictions, but no results to back those theories. It was, actually, a valid criticism. For instance, with affirmative action, all the rhetoric in the world won't change the fact that it's exceedingly hard to get any two education studies to say the same thing about ANYTHING--even now, affirmative action is an almost completely rhetorical debate.
Now, however, it's Republicans who are the eggheads. It all started with 'trickle down economics'--it isn't voodoo, but it's pure theory not backed by results. Indeed, if you look at the Eisenhower administration, the top income tax bracket was 85%, and that didn't remotely stop the economy was booming. When you're making several hundreds of millions of 2005 dollars, apparently no amount of tax is going to satiate your drive from wanting one more.
Want more examples? How about their own version of the domino theory--destroy the dictatorship in Iraq, and then all the other dictatorships in the area will fall as their people see the glories of freedom! Never mind the fact that this is even less sensible than Johnson's Domino Theory. Lay aside the fact that Johnson's central doctrine that drove his entry into Vietnam [fight them on the porch or they'll be raping you in the bedroom] has been EMBRACED by the Republicans with regard to the war on terror. Even aside from the fact that their rhetoric is hopelessly flawed, it's empty rhetoric. Republicans are no longer grounded. They've detached themselves from reality.
Combine that with their embrace of domineering majoritarianism in the House and Senate [which they decried for the many nearly unbroken decades of being in the minority, particularly in the House], massively unbalancing the budget for the forseeable future, and massive porkbarrel spending, and it's official:
The national Republican party has become everything it said it hated fifteen years ago.
Now, however, it's Republicans who are the eggheads. It all started with 'trickle down economics'--it isn't voodoo, but it's pure theory not backed by results. Indeed, if you look at the Eisenhower administration, the top income tax bracket was 85%, and that didn't remotely stop the economy was booming. When you're making several hundreds of millions of 2005 dollars, apparently no amount of tax is going to satiate your drive from wanting one more.
Want more examples? How about their own version of the domino theory--destroy the dictatorship in Iraq, and then all the other dictatorships in the area will fall as their people see the glories of freedom! Never mind the fact that this is even less sensible than Johnson's Domino Theory. Lay aside the fact that Johnson's central doctrine that drove his entry into Vietnam [fight them on the porch or they'll be raping you in the bedroom] has been EMBRACED by the Republicans with regard to the war on terror. Even aside from the fact that their rhetoric is hopelessly flawed, it's empty rhetoric. Republicans are no longer grounded. They've detached themselves from reality.
Combine that with their embrace of domineering majoritarianism in the House and Senate [which they decried for the many nearly unbroken decades of being in the minority, particularly in the House], massively unbalancing the budget for the forseeable future, and massive porkbarrel spending, and it's official:
The national Republican party has become everything it said it hated fifteen years ago.
