These people are trying, trying so hard to end the ACA because they wish they were fighting against the New Deal. They really wish they could turn the clock back to Hoover's administration. They suffer from exactly the delusions celebrated in the theme song of All in the Family and have let themselves be carried away because they hate the real America so much that they don't care how severely they damage the economy, hurt people, or even kill them by denying them healthcare. You would think they had come to accept reality (only people in their 90s remember a time without welfare or Social Security, and they were in grammer school at the time), but this is the power of delusion and hatred for those who aren't exactly like them.
These are the classic "Dead Enders" you see in any large & progressive society. They want to reduce the size of the federal government because that is the entity they feel has put them into their Dead End. Without the feds, there wouldn't be Civil Rights, reproductive choice, and freedom from religion. The Dead Enders lost those battles in the courts and Congress over the past 50, so rather than accept change, they are doing a 'scorched earth' fight for their regressive vision of America.
If there's no federal government to enforce the laws they don't like, then maybe those laws will go away. Hey, if you believe in talking snakes, donkeys and pigs, you can believe anything!
It's an interesting result of gerrymandering, that these districts are so solid for their Republican reps, but increasingly out of step with the nation. They'be painted themselves into a nice, reliable, but increasingly alienated and alienating corner. I wonder if once the dust settles and the Republican party feel the overall national wrath that these marginal constituencies have brought upon them, that the gerrymandering tendencies might be brought under control a little?
These people represent 18% of the population, part of the 20-25% of any population that will never make it toward the center of the bell curve in any capacity: education, income, etc.
I realize this is no consolation today, but this is basically a single-generation problem. In those 80 districts, with decreasing educational and occupational opportunities, most of their children are going to move away. With decreasing regulations, most of their agricultural lands will be bought up by large corporate farms. Some will be lost to energy companies for fracking or other dirty drilling, mining and mineral exploration purposes. Automation in those industries will lessen the numbers of employees they need, as well. The 2020 Census should show the beginning of their depopulation and the 2030 one will write their epitaph. These districts are built on sand, and their time is running out.
@10, 11 The irony is that these "hate the government" assholes are the most dependent on the government of any demographic group. If Social Security checks stopped due to the shutdown, the "suicide caucus" would be the murdered caucus in about a week. Their next town hall meeting would look like the penultimate scene in The Blues Brothers, with the cops replaced by rifle-toting rednecks.
I'd like to see that Goldy style analysis to this report, how many dollars raised vs. how many dollars spent. It could be an even bigger eye opener that the E.WA map.
@1, you're nuts if you think these guys want to stop at Hoover. Hoover was a commie socialist do-gooder who believed in government efficiency, and laid a lot of the groundwork for the New Deal -- tax increases, public works, etc. These yahoos don't believe in government at all; they don't want efficiency, they want to burn it down. If they have a presidential ideal, it's Coolidge or even McKinley -- even Teddy Roosevelt was a goddamn hippie who created the National Park System. These Tea Party assholes would drill for oil in Yellowstone if they could.
@13,
Their dependency on government is one of the reasons they're so angry at the government. I recall reading an interview with some geriatric republicans who were fully on the dole, but wanted government to end all those programs so "their kids and grandkids wouldn't have to suffer the same shame of being forced to take government handouts."
They mistakenly believe they're doing everyone a favor.
Call me clueless, but I still can't understand why the Republican leadership thinks the Tea Party is relevant. Can somebody give me a nutshell explanation?
What motivates the extreme right is not a great mystery, but it took 3 times as many GOPers to shut down government and impose further austerity.
The kabuki in DC keeps the focus on the debt rather than on gross inequality, and the next mid-terms are another year away during which corporate media has plenty of time to spread the blame around. Turnout during mid terms is also unlikely to produce any great change in congress considering the present status-quo dynamics.
Why wouldn't they do it if they can impose their politics of austerity and make you believe that tea-baggers are responsible for it?
@21 Because bloviating and demagoguery and political snakeoil is a powerful tool when dealing with ignorant voters. This being the case, any Republican that doesn't kowtow to the Tea Party is almost certain to lose a primary election when the Tea Party fields opponents and turns loose the full stupid. Basically, by moving so far to the right, and abandoning political moderates and the unlobotomized to the Democrats, the GOP has no choice now but to lock up the hard right-wing vote, and sow more unrest against the middle to try to grow that segment of the electorate. And that's where the Tea Party "movement" comes in.
The Tea Party has powerful and effective spokesmen, and a well-funded propaganda campaign, too. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and the rest of those trolls might just think they're making bank with this shtick, but they're helping fuck over their own party long-term and fucking the country short-term.
@15, Obama himself has called it "Obamacare". Since it will probably succeed (in the sense that it's law, people will adjust to it, and actually see advantages to it), he probably doesn't mind the law being closely associated with him. It will be his legacy.
What's disgusting and mystifying is that Ted Cruz, the darling of the tea party dumbshits, is not uneducated nor presumably stupid: he has a law degree from Harvard and was an editor on law review. There isn't that much difference between his early life and education and Obama's.
WTF? The GOP is getting everything they want out of this. They already have Obama and the Democratic party in DC using the Paul Ryan sequestration budget as the Dem starting point for budget negotiations. Watch, by the end of this Obama finally gets the Social Security cuts he's been openly offering since he came in.
The GOP is less concerned about Obamacare than they are about continuing to win, piece by piece. And they have and, given the total lack of backbone of our Democrats, they likely will.
Obama gave away the Bush tax cuts as an issue for nothing in return. oh sheesh, the only Dem achievement since 2008 is a health care program devised by the Republican party.
@28 it's a fair cop that the ACA is basically the 1993 Heritage Foundation healthcare offered-completely-in-bad-faith "counterproposal" to Hilarycare with the serial numbers filed off. But you know what that makes it? Hilarious.
@27 I'm guessing he also holds dual citizenship as a natural-born Canadian citizen. He can hop over the border and get single-payer should he ever need it.
Also, Cuba has one of the most comprehensive free national health and hospital systems. Thanks to his Cuban father, he's probably eligible for that, too. I'm sure they'd take him, just for the propaganda value.
# 10 I call this "The Numbers Solution," after the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament. The book is called "Numbers" because there was a census taken at the beginning and the end.
Because they were afraid to enter the promised land, they were doomed to wander in the desert for forty years.... until that entire generation died. Once they were gone, their children were able to enter.
"Obamacare" is swiftly undergoing a "Yankee Doodle" transformation. The Term "Yankee" and its derivatives were once derogatory terms used by British loyalists. The colonists ran with it, and being a "Yank" became something to be proud of.
If there's no federal government to enforce the laws they don't like, then maybe those laws will go away. Hey, if you believe in talking snakes, donkeys and pigs, you can believe anything!
(sorry)
Also, what Matt said.
/derp
PS. STOP CALLING THE ACA "OBAMACARE."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-…
Their dependency on government is one of the reasons they're so angry at the government. I recall reading an interview with some geriatric republicans who were fully on the dole, but wanted government to end all those programs so "their kids and grandkids wouldn't have to suffer the same shame of being forced to take government handouts."
They mistakenly believe they're doing everyone a favor.
The kabuki in DC keeps the focus on the debt rather than on gross inequality, and the next mid-terms are another year away during which corporate media has plenty of time to spread the blame around. Turnout during mid terms is also unlikely to produce any great change in congress considering the present status-quo dynamics.
Why wouldn't they do it if they can impose their politics of austerity and make you believe that tea-baggers are responsible for it?
The Tea Party has powerful and effective spokesmen, and a well-funded propaganda campaign, too. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and the rest of those trolls might just think they're making bank with this shtick, but they're helping fuck over their own party long-term and fucking the country short-term.
The GOP is less concerned about Obamacare than they are about continuing to win, piece by piece. And they have and, given the total lack of backbone of our Democrats, they likely will.
Obama gave away the Bush tax cuts as an issue for nothing in return. oh sheesh, the only Dem achievement since 2008 is a health care program devised by the Republican party.
Also, Cuba has one of the most comprehensive free national health and hospital systems. Thanks to his Cuban father, he's probably eligible for that, too. I'm sure they'd take him, just for the propaganda value.
Because they were afraid to enter the promised land, they were doomed to wander in the desert for forty years.... until that entire generation died. Once they were gone, their children were able to enter.
"Obamacare" is swiftly undergoing a "Yankee Doodle" transformation. The Term "Yankee" and its derivatives were once derogatory terms used by British loyalists. The colonists ran with it, and being a "Yank" became something to be proud of.