Ohio--Is there something in the water in the state of Ohio? Is it a bad gene pool? Are human beings really this unimaginably--just wait, it can get worse--stupid? If you're a Republican who holds this utterly bizarre viewpoint that flies-in-the-face of accepted reality, you might be a victim of being an Ohioan and a Midwesterner who breathes through their mouth in public.
Austria doesn't have all of these excuses to hide behind, however, and since I assume that he can eat without stabbing himself in the face with his fork every time, so he must have been lying, the curse of the GOP, its wont.
The problem is, not everyone is as stupid as the GOP's core-base...well, what's left of it, meaning religious lunatics, racists, free market extremists, and others in the ranks of the hopelessly irrational and confused. Don't get me wrong, we have this kind of moron living in Indiana and other parts where completely irrational people live, right here in these here U-nited States.
Austria (not the country) spake:
"When (President Franklin) Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression," Austria said. "He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That's just history." ("U.S. Rep Austria blames Depression on Roosevelt," Columbus Dispatch, 02.10.2009)What's astounding is that freshman Rep. Austria told this to the editorial board of the Columbus Dispatch. But really: does anyone believe that FDR caused the Great Depression...really? I don't think so, not really. They might say that they do, but they don't, just like the flat-earthers and liars trying to prey on the truly desperate and ignorant poor, the subproletariat. Illiterate rednecks and Oakies. This is odd, since most of them don't vote...
But that's why Austria back-peddled the very same day:
"I did not mean to imply in any way that President Roosevelt was responsible for putting us into the Depression, but rather was trying to make the point that Roosevelt's attempt to use significant spending to get us out of the Depression did not have the desired effect. Roosevelt did not put us into the Depression, but rather his policies could not pull the nation out of the recession." ("Rep. Austria gets right with history: FDR didn't start Depression," Columbus Dispatch, 02.11.2009)Actually, he's wrong again--we were still in a Depression until we entered WWII. New Deal policies continued during and after the war, even after being under vicious attack from the Republican Party, the national Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers, etc., during the immediate postwar era and McCarthyism.
LBJ expanded New Deal programs significantly during his time in office, and the American dream as we know it was able to grow under the Bretton-Woods system. WWII took us out of the Great Depression? Fine, but that's also Keynesianism, military Keynesianism. We know from decades of an already bloated military budget that that route isn't going to work, and that there is no one panacea that's going to fix things.
If we weren't one of the most powerful nations on earth, this would merely be laughable, a real hoot. To some extent it is, but this moron can actually vote on legislation that affects us all, including the authorization for war.
Small wonder that we're still bogged-down in the Middle East in pointless occupation, our economy is collapsing thanks to a lack of proper oversight and regulation of the financial and business sectors, our schools, bridges, roads, and health care system are collapsing, we cannot compete internationally in business like we once did, when ethically challenged morons elect ethically challeneged morons. The mess we're in couldn't have happened without representatives like Steve Austria, the 6 trillion dollar man, a man barely alive.
The good news? These particular morons are becoming isolated demographically and by the objective, real world failure of their most cherished beliefs and ideologies. This is the end of Reaganism, the end of faux conservatism and neoliberalism. The game is over, and even a moral imbecile like Steve Austria understands that not only isn't history on his side, the facts aren't either.
This kind of desperation is symptomatic of a dying party, the Republican Party, a party without any identity, answers, or ideology left. But they all have one thing left from the good old days, after everything has been scraped-away by the events of this historical moment: bunch of hollow, self-serving arguments that a ten-year-old could deconstruct and dismantle in around 30 seconds flat.
If you don't like it in America, then go back to Austria, he'll steer you wrong. That'll learn 'ya.
"U.S. Rep Austria blames Depression on Roosevelt," Columbus Dispatch, 02.10.2009: http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/10/copy/caproos.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
"Rep. Austria gets right with history: FDR didn't start Depression," Columbus Dispatch, 02.11.2009: http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/02/11/copy/AUSTRIA_RECANTS.ART_ART_02-11-09_B8_0PCS8TG.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
One downside (and it is the only downside I can think of) of the Congressional shift to the left is that the only remaining Republicans are the ones towing the far right party line. As the moderate Republican voters increasingly vote Democratic, the remaining Republican voters are voting for people like Rep. Austria. Obama is going to have his hands full trying to reach bipartisan agreements. It just ain't gonna happen.
ReplyDeleteYou see no bipartisan agreements as a problem? ;0) I'm being sarcastic, yes, but only so far. As far as I and most people are concerned, conservative ideology is dead.
ReplyDeleteIf it were traditional conservatism, I'd be sad, but it isn't. Of course we should watch the money, insure that it's being spent constructively, but since when have Republican representatives worried about that in the last 28 years with our runaway defense spending?
Were it actually bringing some widespread Keynesian (military kind here, "barracks" Keynesianism)stimulus over the years in some way it might serve some reasonable purpose, but it's well known that it doesn't create many jobs and doesn't get money into the hands of the average worker, the lifeblood of the economy until recently.
I don't disagree with you, not really. But the real damage will be felt by the GOP's incumbents as they keep stalling things as things worsen, they have no answers at all and as you noted, in their desperation over their base eroding, they go to the wacko demographic. No other words for these people, sorry, they'd feel at home in Iran.
No, I think the damage will be felt most--politically--by the GOP, we might see their blessed demise here, and soon. There's even the chance that both parties will become so disgraced over this mess (since they made it) that both parties crash as things worsen, which is now a given.
With continued GOP obstructionism (since it's all they know), I can see them collapsing as a party. No tears are gonna be shed here.
The GOP is either poised to end, or to be a minority party for several decades which they accomplished the last time this happened. They're doing the same kinds of things in the face of an unprecedented economic crisis, basically nothing.
The public won't forgive them when they can barely eat every day.
Aside: You on Facebook? You should join! Tons of Adams folks on there, we had a mini-reunion at Between the Buns on Wed., it was fun. Derek Hayes, Bobby Brewer, Mindy Horlander, Wendi Hamman, my irreverent self, etc. ...