How The Tea Party Blew Up The GOP

Well done, CB. You deserve a scotch and soda.

“To paraphrase the great political philosopher, Walter Sobchak, “this is not ‘Nam. There are rules.” ”

As a 3-time winner of the “Best Walter” trophy at LebowskiFests in LA 2005 and 2007, and NYC in 2006 and an actual Vietnam vet, I agree. See my first win photo at:
http://www.diverdan.name/JRWalter.jpg

There ARE rules. And make that a Caucasian aka White Russian, in lieu of the scotch and soda, or a sarsaparilla if you’re of the non-alocoholic sort.

@RevZafod: Mark it zero, Dude.

@nojo: It’s zero, you crazy fuck! -Smokey

@RevZafod: I’m ashamed to admit that my Credence didn’t survive the tape-to-CD transition.

@nojo: I recently bought CCR’s Cosmo’s Factory on cd. “Actors in the White House, mortgage on the car.” Ramble Tamble, y’all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRU8fEsq6nk

@RevZafod: Got-DAMN!

Greetings from Red Amerika – Farmington New Mexico, awl and gas bidniss is big here

And, btw, awesome article, CB.
/tips Heineken to author

@redmanlaw: @nojo: Bother me tomorrow, today I’ll buy no sorrow.

(I gots all my CCR on the original vinyl).

Great post, CB.

@Nabisco: Great post CB.

I want to believe this is true, but I fear that the zombies who vote for the GOP holding plackards that read “I Can Take Care of Myself, Thank You” and shout about how they should be allowed to opt out of Social Security won’t realize they’ve been betrayed until they find themselves on the verge of retirement and realize they don’t have nearly enough income to get by on (thanks to a gutted Social Security system and a neutered social safety net). And even then, many will try to blame liberals (because if it weren’t for “regulation” their investment portfolios would clearly be worth milions).

It would be interesting, nonethelss to see what would happen if the GOP were able to push through their lunatic goal of privatizing Medicare and offering seniors fixed vouchers to purchase coverage on the private market. The vouchers would either prove so grossly inadequate that few would actually be able to afford coverage or so expensive that the country would be bankrupted almost over night.

This is the problem when you’re dealing with a political opposition whose constituents are so blinded by ideology that they honestly believe that there is a great conspiracy by the scientific community to knowingly spread the “falsehoods” of Darwinian Evolution and Global Warming. How do you convince, through reasoned argument, a group of loons who choose to accept the rantings of Rush Limbaugh over the findings of the Nobel Committte?

@Serolf Divad:
“The vouchers would either prove so grossly inadequate that few would actually be able to afford coverage or so expensive that the country would be bankrupted almost over night.”

If one digs into the Ryan plan, it’s clear that it’s the former. The trick is the indexing – the plan calls for the vouchers to be indexed to no more than CPI + 1%, which is WILDLY below the historical cost curve.

As it is, if people understood the cost of long-term care in the US there would be outrage. But they don’t. I can’t afford the insurance for that on top of what I already pay for regular insurance. It’s fiendishly expensive and, as Consumer Reports pointed out, most of the firms now selling policies won’t be in business when you need it. But as we are childless and I am likely to outlive the hubby I wake in terror some nights at the thought of coping with what can be as much as $180,000 per annum on my modest retirement account.

I’ve been reading a lot about the late 18th cent and am very struck by the parallels between the tea-baggers and the anti-freemason party that had a brief, violent and pig-ignorant life. Do we all remember that Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Franklin were all Masons? Hence the pyramid on the dollar. That it was widely believed that freemasonry was behind the American revolution and the French? And the spread of democratic thinking that threatened the Habsburgs? No? Just asking. Carry on.

@Right Reverend Benedick: This is why coyotes and cockroaches will thrive after humans destroy civilization and regress to hunting and gathering in small bands. We are dumber.

@al2o3cr:

And how long do you think that would last? I mean seniors vote… they don’t just vote, the VOTE.

So while in theory this indexing would reduce the costs of Medicare’s successor by ensuring that government expenditures stay well below historical growth curves for medical insurance, in practice the GOP would instamntly cave to voters who won’t stand for not being able to afford insurance and shovel more and more money into the voucher program. The end result is that the deficit skyrockets.

That’s part of the insanity of ideas like Ryan’s, and I’m convinced almost everyone in the GOP with actual power knows this to be true. They only pretend to promote Ryan’s crap to appease the Teabaggers. The real worry is that the Teabaggers take over even the decisionmaking positions in tge GOP. Then we’re all screwed.

CB, nice article, but it contains the fatal flaw: that Republican voters pay any attention to what actually happens vs. what they are told happens. When people start to notice the problems that stem from the latest GOP fuck-you, they will be told that it’s the liberals’ fault, and no amount of holding up voting records will change the voters’ minds.

When you’re dealing with a populace as willing to be led as the one the GOP have found, logic and reasoning simply doesn’t enter into the equation. I’m sure if I cared more I could come up with a zillion examples (although getting W elected twice strikes me as a pretty obvious one), but I really don’t care.

The GOP will continue leading their constituents down the path to hell, and the constituents will continue exclaiming happily about how warm it’s getting, and make jokes about having forgotten their bathing suits. (Note for partisanship reasons: the Dems aren’t a whole lot better — until we can remove corporate money from the equation, politics will continue to be a game of “How can we screw the individual out of the most without them actually realizing it.”)