Showing posts with label TEA parties. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TEA parties. Show all posts

Friday, May 28, 2010

Are T.E.A. Partiers Hypocrites?

James Taranto in his "Best of the Web Today" column for the Wall Street Journal reported the following:

Some public figures, though, are so ridiculous that despite their lack of wit, irony and sarcasm, their vices and follies make their real-life utterances and actions hard to distinguish from satirical fiction. Such a man is John Kerry**, subject of a nonsatirical article by Paul Bedard of U.S. News & World Report titled "John Kerry Says Voter Anger at Washington Is Hypocritical":

Times are tough, especially among those still looking for good jobs, but Sen. John Kerry doesn't think Washington's to blame. In fact the former Democratic presidential candidate, concerned with the anger voters are aiming at Washington, says that his party and President Obama are doing a ship-shape job. . . .

"We've come back," he says of the nation, Wall Street, and the economy. "This is an amazing resurgence." . . .

"I think there's a comprehension gap," said Kerry. His point: While people may not be feeling the benefits of the bailouts and healthcare reform yet, Congress has been working with Obama to right the economic ship. Still, he sounded sympathetic to those kicked around by the economy. "There's a sense of some things unraveling" to them, said Kerry.

But he said that the D.C.-directed attacks are hypocritical, since many of those attacking Washington spending presumably want to keep their Social Security and Medicare and want Washington to play a big role in the Gulf Oil cleanup. "There's a huge contradiction on a daily basis," he said.

Maybe, he concluded, the Democrats should change their communications strategy "to better sell what we've done."

So, the everyday Joe who works hard his whole life, has part of his/her income taken from his/her paycheck, told that this is taken and kept in a trust for retirement living and health care, is now told by politicians that he/she is a "hypocrite" for being against government spending but wanting Social Security and Medicare benefits? Sorry, this doesn't fly. Social Security and Medicare are not bailouts. They are not "stimulus" spending. They are not kickbacks or earmarks.

Simply put, those two programs were passed into law ostensibly for the benefit in old age of those who paid into the system. Isn't bad enough one isn't garaunteed every penny one puts in? Now we are called "hypocrites." Sorry, this isn't hypocrisy. This is holding politicians to promises made to the American people.

But this is yet another way liberals shaft those who work hard all their life.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Defining the GOP?

"The Republican party in Washington today is no different than the Republican party that ran the Congress before," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, head of the Democratic House campaign committee, told the liberal Talking Points Memo.



Labeling their GOP candidates as being part of the Sarah Palin or Tea Party wing of the GOP will be the key element.




There is a danger to this strategy. First, it is primarily negative which turns people off. Things have to be really bad for a negative campaign to work—and then usually only against those already in power. To be in power and run a negative campaign would be a tip-off that either one has no ideas or that the ideas are unpopular and they need a subterfuge.



Also, the Dems would be assuming people think the Bush/Republican years were abysmal. Take away the start and the finish and Bush presided over a strong economy. I can see the GOP running ads saying that before November 2008 the economy was fine, then tanked after Dems took Congress. Sound bites and images with Chris Dodd and Barney Frank and their mortgage shenanigans could help the elephants beat the jackasses. The electorate could also enter the polls thinking, “Well, we didn’t have 10% unemployment with these people and we didn’t have extremists shooting up our bases or trying to bomb planes over cities.”



And trying to tie the GOP with Sarah Palin as a negative? Has any Democratic strategist seen Ms. Palin’s book sales? If she were truly unpopular, I doubt she would have sold that many books or have long lines at her signing tour events.



Sorry, I don’t see this as a winning strategy for Dems. But if they have unpopular ideas and refuse to change their policies, well…..