tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post2464660549393668326..comments2023-10-24T09:06:30.200-04:00Comments on No More Mister Nice Blog: Steve M.http://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-59194898540382213732013-11-20T11:05:55.950-05:002013-11-20T11:05:55.950-05:00Who are we talking about? Compassionate conservati...Who are we talking about? Compassionate conservativism was always aimed at suburban white women and quasi democrats--it was a ploy aimed at allowing them to vote for Republicans without feeling like they were voting for Scrooge and Banker Potter rolled into one. That voting block is done, finished, over. They either have zero interest in AA civil rights and the welfare state or they are too busy fighting to keep their own jobs and their own SNAP and UI benefits to care about imaginary black addicts.<br /><br />I'm not arguing that racism is finished--I'm arguing that racism as a cause of action is baked into the 27 percenters, and not particularly relevant to female white voters who could swing Republican or Independent. They just don't care about it.aimaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03956073425680585780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-5906413686302286012013-11-20T10:24:24.022-05:002013-11-20T10:24:24.022-05:00They either don't have time for this shit or t...<i>They either don't have time for this shit or they are actually aligned with the interests of the beneficiaries of the welfare state even if they remain racist themselves. </i><br /><br />They may be aligned. But do they think they're aligned?Steve M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-36253520209427380312013-11-20T09:56:34.727-05:002013-11-20T09:56:34.727-05:00I think the main difference we disagree is not ove...I think the main difference we disagree is not over <i>what the strategy is</i> but how effective it will be. There's no denying that Ryan is on his rehabilitation road and that the press, because they are bored and want to see a conflict and a horse race on the Republican side, will lap it up. Absolutely. Ryan has no choice but to try to rehabilitate himself after the disasterous link up with Romney and Romney's enormous gaffes in re the "47 percent takers." <br /><br />So Ryan is going to go to the well that the Republicans have used a million times before: welfare as the new slavery, welfare and poverty as the result of addiction/personal failings, private charity, a kind of "middle class-cloth coat" version of Republicanism, the continued cry that Obama and the Dems haven't done enough for the black community. One reason he has to do this is that anything else commits the Republicans to a 100 percent win of the white voter. They have to at least make a play for Blacks and hispanics to shave off a few points or they have to suppress all those votes and take 100 percent of the white vote to even have a prayer of winning.<br /><br />And the press, of course, is eager to have something to cover and skinny, compassionate Ryan makes a good foil for fat, agressive, Christie.<br /><br />But as to whether it will go over with the voters? That I doubt, for the reasons I suggested above. Sure, it may play with the tea party elderly. But those people are a given as voters. The imaginary suburban security mom, or compassionate soccer mom? Those people are basically ceasing to exist. They either don't have time for this shit or they are actually aligned with the interests of the beneficiaries of the welfare state even if they remain racist themselves. Ryan is fighting the last war with the last war's weapons. By the time this makes any difference--in the next presidential election--its going to be as useless to him as the photo op of him washing pans at an already cleaned soup kitchen.aimaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03956073425680585780noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-24856086967875712082013-11-20T09:41:15.941-05:002013-11-20T09:41:15.941-05:00Whenever I think that poor whites might support De...Whenever I think that poor whites might support Dems, I remember that poor non-slaveholders were fervent confederates.<br /><br />As far as Jack Kemp is concerned -- he's now the shorthand for "Republican who at least gave lip service to the poor." Not for any real policy.Peter Janovskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07590229306105292675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-4752842142920068102013-11-20T07:13:02.185-05:002013-11-20T07:13:02.185-05:00What the MSM needs to realize, is that when "...What the MSM needs to realize, is that when "Privatizing" Ryan talks about "addressing" poverty, is that he's got nothing original to say - and that his recommendations will, if not increase poverty, make the conditions for those in poverty, worse.<br /><br />And that the female and minority "expert's" on his side are nothing but Judas's and Quisling's - who are banking on being able to keep collecting their pieces of silver for life by selling out people who are just like them, but didn't sell out, because they either didn't know how, didn't have the necessary skills, or just plain-old had something inside of them that kept them from selling out - I believe the term for that, is a "CONSCIENCE!"Victorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06609452382111686086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-16846556658370619572013-11-20T05:01:22.604-05:002013-11-20T05:01:22.604-05:00""liberals organizations like the Democr...""<i>liberals organizations like the Democratic Strategist and Third Way</i>""<br />I will admit I've never heard of "The Democratic Strategist" - but, far from being "liberal" or a "liberals' organization" isn't the whole <i>point</i> of the Third Way to find a middle ground, to solve policy questions in ways both sides like?Warren Terrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00107628114662676334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-37854437990185047832013-11-19T23:43:47.650-05:002013-11-19T23:43:47.650-05:00There's a slave, enslaved by his own arrogance...There's a slave, enslaved by his own arrogance and incompetence, who wasn't emancipated by Lincoln - but he does live in a big house that Lincoln lived in !Irvhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07634792243846422285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-58854863145916426482013-11-19T19:27:20.852-05:002013-11-19T19:27:20.852-05:00I'm not sure. It seems to me that as long as s...I'm not sure. It seems to me that as long as some of the population is doing moderately well, the message "And <i>they</i> want to take what you've got!" has some appeal (in the usual form or in this "compassionate" form). Remember, polls show that the teabaggers are somewhat better off than average.Steve M.https://www.blogger.com/profile/11963290427258439242noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3856837.post-49655043639022710702013-11-19T19:04:01.872-05:002013-11-19T19:04:01.872-05:00I really think this ship has sailed. The problem f...I really think this ship has sailed. The problem for a "starve the beast" strategy is that a huge proportion of white people are hanging on by their fingertips--now on snap and medicaid and UI. So who Ryan thinks he's impressing is beyond me. Sure: those whites are still racist but they don't care if he's a compassionate conservative (which is all that talking about black poverty is about--pretending to compassionate conservativism). They never cared--that was always a head fake for the imaginary soccer mom. But you know what soccer moms are worried about right now? Not how much black people are making off of food stamps but how little they are getting now that they are staring down the barrell of multi year unemployment.<br /><br />There is no comfortable, racist, middle class to appeal to anymore. People are just keeping their upper lip above water. And they are turning to government to help them. Ryan is going to have to do a lot more than compassionately go "eye to eye" with some addicts while white mothers and children are thrown off of SNAP.aimaihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03956073425680585780noreply@blogger.com