At another site where I post one of the more prolific commenters, a strong conservative, posted a story that began with these words:
“We all know the tactic many Democrats have used over the last few election cycles to trick uninformed masses into voting for them: Run as a God-fearing, bible-thumping, budget balancing, gun-toting constitutional conservative; then get into office and vote for left-wing, constitution-stretching, tax-and-spend anti-gun legislation upon arrival.”
I thought that this observation along with my reply was worth sharing. So here it is.
Well, guess what, Republicans do the Same Thing:
“In a midterm election year in which the political climate and map of battleground states clearly favors Republicans, many GOP candidates are nevertheless embracing some Democratic priorities in an effort to win over skeptical voters.
The shift is evident in some of the most contentious Senate and gubernatorial races — in traditional swing states as well as decidedly conservative ones such as Alaska and Arkansas — where Republican nominees have endorsed increases to the minimum wage, legalizing medical marijuana or granting in-state college tuition to some illegal immigrants.
Even on social issues, an area where the GOP traditionally has hewed to the wishes of its evangelical Christian base, many Senate hopefuls have backed same-sex marriage or over-the-counter access to birth-control pills.”
Examples follow….in the article and there are lots of stories that focus on individual candidates. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/in-heated..
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I was actually not going to respond to the post from my conservative friend at all thinking that surely everyone knows that this is what politicians, with rare exceptions, do. Apparently some took the claim seriously. Thus, my tardy response.
The vast majority of politicians run in whatever direction will get them the most votes. Liberals will pretend to be conservatives on pivotal issues (knowing that their base will still vote for them) to pick up some conservative votes. Conservatives will pretend to be liberals on pivotal issues (knowing that their base will still vote for them) to pick up some liberals votes.
Another principal: both sides will try to fashion their public image to reflect wise, informed, caring, moderate sensibility. In turn they will try to fashion the public image of their opponent as base, ignorant, mean-spirited, radical and a bit mad.
That is how it plays out and how it has played out and how it will likely continue to be played. WHY? They want to win and they know that they have to accept and work with the nature of the average voter: uninformed, disconnected, and lazy in matter related to politics. Despite all of the verbiage about “voters knowing better” or “voters cannot be fooled”, political strategists count on the opposite.
IN FACT THE WAY MY CONSERVATIVE FRIEND WRITES HIS ARTICLE ILLUSTRATES ALL OF THIS. HE ACTS AS IF HE IS SHOCKED TO DISCOVER THAT THE “OTHER SIDE” IS ACTING IN SUCH A THOROUGHLY DISHONEST FASHION WHILE “HIS SIDE” IS THE EPITOME OF SINCERE REPRESENTATION. I HAVE READ ENOUGH OF HIS POSTINGS TO HAVE REACHED THE CONCLUSION THAT HE KNOWS THE TRUTH OF IT.
HERE IS MY CARDINAL RULE: By their deeds ye shall know them. Want to vote smart? Ignore the rhetoric and track what “they” have done. That is why I vote Democratic (when I used to vote Republican.)
HI Murph excellent article and very true a great deal of the time.
Now i really have trouble seeing you vote republican? But i am sure it is true. SO glad you changed.
Yes you can say independents are the largest party because both parties go toward the middle to get elected. Then they go back right of left after they are elected.
Now here is the difference. the GOP party platform is a spiral to not enough revenue which creates the most debt and it will grow at a bigger pace if they stay in power for 12 to 20 yrs.
Examples of proof:
One: their goal to lower the fed and state workers is designed to lay off citizens. federal example 1 million is their goal. SO if they do it it will fire approximately 400,000 republicans, 200,000 independents and 400,000 democrats. The same happens in the state at lower numbers.
Two: reduce or de-fund the mandatory budget funded by SS taxes. This budget make you and your wife money every yr by proportion of you salaries. tis always lowers YOUR SS retirement pay. SO they drive the minimum wage to keep it low and right to work states to keep them even lower. This also protects your health and they want to make health care VERY expensive to keep insurance companies a whole lot of money.
Three: Subsidies are pure spending and the GOP wants them to finance big corp and big biz. Now 20 % of the total revenue of the USA goes to finance thing that everybody MUST BUY. SO if you can not make money on your own money you are not so good of CEO’s and business men. we could cut them to 15 % and save Fd stamps and welfare programs and have plenty of money for Infrastructure.This builds the most jobs if they are going to american workers and the 401 k and IRA in vest back into american businesses.
Four: not taxing the rich enough is just lowing the nations revenue every yr. The rich do not invest that money back and hoard most of it. FOr this two work the stock markets must continue to double every 2 to 4 yrs with record profits.
Five They do not even care about the low and middle income brackets they are not needed and is an election cash cow for the billionaires really finance the election. the GOP politicians just bank the money as donated by the masses as their private millions. Best examples are Palin, Bachmann , the bushes and Romney the latest one.
SIX: They will not give unemployment extension and will lower welfare and fd stamps. NO way on min wages raises.
Seven The GOP is the far right religious party no question and this is the downfall of the party soon. also int corrupts the supreme courts.
Now the dems are a lot like the GOP in funding elections but a little less money goes too the actual candidates .
Two; The dems also do not want to cut to many subsidies.
Three: The dems really do support the mandatory budget and will not cut it unless forced by lack of votes in congress.
Four: the Dems support minimum wages increase almost all and extensions for the unemployed. and subsidies on welfare and fd stamps.
Five: the dems or liberals you can use this every time the dems are mentioned. They do support taxing the rich more but not to much. the equation looks like this. About 45 % on the net income is the proper tax rate now with current deductions and will always work.
Both parties do not what to restructure taxes on the large corps and big bizz. You can not bite off the hand that feeds you so most corps pay almost ZERO taxes and up to 12 % which is the lowest in the world except Ireland. The only major corps that really do pay taxes are oil companies. they are taxed on every gallon they sell first and it is spent and can not be deducted against.
so7.static-shell.com/content/dam/shell-new/local/corporate/corporate/downloads/pdf/payment-govt-transparency-message-2013.pdf Check the chart at the end of this link. about 9 billion goes to the USA in federal and state taxes. OH other oil companies do not disclose their tax returns but so pay taxes maybe not enough.
Both parties need the military and homeland security.
The GOP wants way to much and will go to war at the drop of a dime.
The dems want less but not too much. They generally will stay out of war when they can.
some cures that both parties seem to stay away from are:
One: raising the SS taxes to the top earners, bernie sanders supports this.
two: Taxing the stock market, 20 cents a trade will make money and dedicate it too paying the national long term debt.
Three: Expand the tax to 10 brackets to fine tune the tax rates for all.
SO these are the main points and differences in the parties platforms. Not all issues are presented hear or the post would be a many more pages long.
SO that is why i vote Democrat. It’s philosophies are for the regular people of the USA more.
That’s about it in a nutshell RSGmusic. As long as we have a two party system in this nation that controls elections and government it will remain that way IMHO. Sad commentary but truth. BTW: Excellent comment!!
The Constitution is the villian in all of this. It was set up in the Electoral College for a first and second place finished, in the Congress for majority/minority organization…it was tailor made for two parties and it is tailor made to repress other (third, fourth, fifth) parties as an outright rejection of the parliamentary system that is based on coalition government.
Thanks Monicaangela. You have a good point on a two party system.
There is evidence that a Parliament type of government is better suited to the common man.
Generally more taxes but the services really meet the common man much better.
Best example i have are Holland and Belgium. We stayed their 2 1/2 weeks on a vacation of 6 weeks in europe.
Sweden is also a good example and i believe they now have the highest incomes per person in the world.
live long and prosper MA and your family and friends!!
excellent, multi-faceted analysis…
my take away is that both GOP and Dems are jaded, both operate from selfish and self centered motives, both have their eyes much more on the elections than the electorate, both are part of a fundamentally corrupt system dragged down by the power of money….
having said that I do not seem them as equally jaded, equally selfish/self centered, equally corrupt…
the GOP “wins” the race here because their attention is glued to the priorities set by the mega-wealthy, the ultra-rich. Their base, as George W Bush joked in a moment of likely unintended honesty
and that is what makes all the difference.
Yea Murph thanks for the compliment on the post. It took me a while to write. The first version was twice as long.
Yes i agree with you the GOP wants the billionaires ( ultra wealthy) to rule america and Gop officials are just puppets.
George Carlin, May He Rest In Peace, can handle this topic much better than I can. 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKftRlzh2RM
And:
Carlin- the gift for the absurd as a vehicle for truth.
In this case, it’s the truth that is absurd.
Murph, most politicians lie. You say look at what they have done and I agree. Every Republican has voted against the American people since President Obama has been in office. That is what they have done, NOTHING!
By their works shall ye know them….
And by their works I know the GOP is anti-Most Americans.
Murph, the “We all know” strategy is a very common and effective lead-in typically used by conservatives to accomplish a few things:
1) Reassure other already like-minded individuals
2) Herd and corral the vulnerable and ignorant toward a specific point of view
3) Convince some that everyone already thinks this way, why aren’t you? This is very useful for people susceptible to needing to “belong”.
The most powerful long-term benefit of this style of discourse is that its sticky. It’s easy to process, consume and regurgitate, so even if it doesn’t immediately gain traction, it eventually is latched onto and consumed and spread by its hosts.
Other examples might include:
“It’s common knowledge that…”
“Everybody understands that…”
Of course your friend understands that his party of preference also does this. He doesn’t have to admit it though. Rationalizing away contrary information in order to maintain the communal reinforcement is more important than obtaining new contrary information that would put your place in that community in jeopardy.
That said, in a general election I think the Republican will tend to be more successful peeling away moderates and liberals with little more than a patina of moderate and liberal-ness. Democrats tend to have great difficulty peeling off conservatives to their cause and tend to disaffect liberals and moderates when they obviously pander.
Spot on funksands!!
Terrific structural analysis….
In my own experience that invitation “to join the crowd composed of all those who know…..” is evident in the Tea Party and in Occupy.
Both operate from a set of assumed principles rather tested and ever more rarely challenged.
They both appeal to a certain kind of person who seeks group identity as a foundation for personal identity.
I am (and I think you are) true independents. I have a set of very mixed views that represent positions on both sides of the midpoint in the right to left political spectrum. In some I am more left than right and in others more right than left. With that being the case it is hard to be as doctrinaire as the purists demand since “it’s common knowledge that….and….everybody understands that…”
As the GOP core has grown smaller it has also grown harder and more resolute which makes peeling away members from that body very difficult. At the same time the Dems remain squishy and soft around the edges for many reasons…not the least of which is their lack of discipline as voters in every election. Part of peeling them away is getting them not to vote.