24th July 2010, 12:39 AM
(This post was last modified: 24th July 2010, 1:15 AM by A Black Falcon.)
Quote:You really are an idiot for spewing that kind of simple-minded leftist dogmatic propaganda. There is an incredibly vast spectrum of Republicans, as there is of Democrats. They range from financial conservatives to social conservatives, and all in-between; and that's only one axis of the spectrum. If you really believe that "Republicans think that you should only help the rich, not the poor," then there's no more point in discussing this with you.
Yes, there are many kinds of Republicans, but one of the few things that unites almost all of them is support for fiscal policies which are beneficial to big business, large corporations, and the rich, and opposition to policies which help the poor and middle class. Denial of that fact is pure political spin. And libertarians certainly aren't exempt, they want to rid us of burdensome government legislation that restricts corporations from being able to do anything they want. The results of such actions should be obvious, as anyone who heard Rand Paul say that the government should stop "picking on" BP should make very clear. Or that suddenly Republicans care oh so much about deficits, while they didn't care at all about them a few years ago when it was Republican priorities like more tax cuts for the rich that were building up our deficits to record levels... the transparency of their political opportunism is blatant. If they get power again, their current "fiscal discipline" thing will vanish in a flash, just as it did under Reagan and Bush. They're only complaining because it's Democratic priorities like propping up the economy, keeping us out of depression, and helping poor and middle class people that we're spending our money on.
This might be slightly exaggerated, but when it comes to members of congress, probably not, really. The only thing that's ludicrous is that anyone actually believes that Republicans care much about deficits, after their last several presidents have all ran up record deficits and national debts, while Democratic ones have been much more fiscally disciplined.
I mean, I know a few people in the Republican party really do care about the debt. The vast, vast majority though, all of the ones who marched in lockstep behind George W. Bush, do not.
For example, see the book "What's the Matter with Kansas?", which examines why Plains America votes Republican, strongly against their economic interests, in part because of cultural issues like gay marriage and abortion. Social conservatives and the business, etc. wing are the two major Republican branches, and the agreement between them basically seems to be that no matter which side individual people are on, the party as a whole is supposed to do both things... I know some social conservatives were annoyed at Bush for not doing even more than he did, but given how much he did, I don't know how good a criticism that is. So anyway, sure, some social conservatives probably don't care as much about the economic stuff... but when it comes to policy, that doesn't matter. The Republican party in congress always works as a unit, dissent is not often allowed... it isn't as democratic, but it does mean they get more done than the Democrats do...