# Powerful article! - "Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult" **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 4, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179 "2011-09-04T19:32:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/41 "2011-09-04T22:56:09Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > You are certainly entitled to your opinion but as you state it, I would suggest that your assessment is off-base if only for the simple reason that the “landscape” includes two parties (and assorted others), but his article makes little to no attempt at an objective “how’d we get here” critique of both parties. The only criticisms he can bring himself to make of the Dems/liberals are of the Brer’ Rabbit variety – they’re just too doggone nice to play hardball on tendentious political language! > > Really? Are those the only vices – being naively unable to play hardball – that the Dems have to answer for? A complete discussion of “the contemporary political landscape” would also have to involve the Democrats’ devotion to increasing the size of government spending (I know the GOP record of late is not any better), the corrupt thrall in which the unions hold the party, the intolerance of dissent on certain social issues (it’s a lot easier to be a national candidate as a pro-choice Republican than a pro-life Dem), and the questionable ethical behavior of one of their key congressional blocs ([Xoilac 365 Trực tiếp bóng đá - Link xem Xoi Lac TV #1 full HD](http://www.jackandjillpolitics.com/2010/02/nytimes-skewers-congressional-black-caucus-corruption/)). I’m not sure we read the same article. He takes the Democrats to task for offering the working class effectively NOTHING WRT their very real and valid concerns about their relatively declining standard of living, and in fact aiding and abetting this decline by calling these concerns foolish and overblown, and embracing industrial outsourcing with both arms. In many ways this arrogant foolishness by the Democrats created the voter groups that the Republicans are now quite effectively utilizing. > [@](#): > > The reader may think that I am attributing Svengali-like powers to GOP operatives able to manipulate a zombie base to do their bidding. It is more complicated than that. Historical circumstances produced the raw material: the deindustrialization and financialization of America since about 1970 has spawned an increasingly downscale white middle class - without job security (or even without jobs), with pensions and health benefits evaporating and with their principal asset deflating in the collapse of the housing bubble. Their fears are not imaginary; their standard of living is shrinking. > > What do the Democrats offer these people? Essentially nothing. Democratic Leadership Council-style “centrist” Democrats were among the biggest promoters of disastrous trade deals in the 1990s that outsourced jobs abroad: NAFTA, World Trade Organization, permanent most-favored-nation status for China. At the same time, the identity politics/lifestyle wing of the Democratic Party was seen as a too illegal immigrant-friendly by downscaled and outsourced whites.[3] > > While Democrats temporized, or even dismissed the fears of the white working class as racist or nativist, Republicans went to work. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/42 "2011-09-04T22:59:20Z")
Medicare fraud, yep there is plenty. Detroit just had a task force cracking down on Medicare Fraud. They just arrested 18 more people. They were doctors, owners of clinics, nurses and other health care providers who robbed Medicare of 14.8 million. The task force has arrested a total of 138 individuals for fraud. They are owners of clinics and professionals. So yep, there is fraud and it is being adressed like Obama promised. ---
**Author:** ![hocuspocusfocus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f07891/32.png) [@hocuspocusfocus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hocuspocusfocus)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/43 "2011-09-04T23:02:15Z")
Hong Kong - capitalist, free market You made reference to these countries: Singapore - capitalist, free market Australia - capitalist, free market New Zealand - capitalist, free market Switzerland - capitalist, free market Canada - capitalist, free market Ireland - capitalist, free market Denmark - capitalist, free market United States - socialist, not free market Bahrain - capitalist, free market No I have proved that those countries are better at capitalism and free market competition which create surpluses that they are then at liberty to spend on anything they want. And in those countries everyone works. I don’t see a Marxist/Socialist country in the list except maybe the United States under Obama where 50% of the working age population don’t work. 25% of whom want to work but do to Obama, can’t find a job. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/44 "2011-09-04T23:03:16Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > tldr. Could the OP at least summarize the salient points? It’s nice that you agree with the article, but why do you agree with it? Mostly this part > [@](#): > > As for what they really believe, the Republican Party of 2011 believes in three principal tenets I have laid out below. The rest of their platform one may safely dismiss as window dressing: > > 1. The GOP cares solely and exclusively about its rich contributors. The party has built a whole catechism on the protection and further enrichment of America’s plutocracy. Their caterwauling about deficit and debt is so much eyewash to con the public. Whatever else President Obama has accomplished (and many of his purported accomplishments are highly suspect), his $4-trillion deficit reduction package did perform the useful service of smoking out Republican hypocrisy. The GOP refused, because it could not abide so much as a one-tenth of one percent increase on the tax rates of the Walton family or the Koch brothers, much less a repeal of the carried interest rule that permits billionaire hedge fund managers to pay income tax at a lower effective rate than cops or nurses. Republicans finally settled on a deal that had far less deficit reduction - and even less spending reduction! - than Obama’s offer, because of their iron resolution to protect at all costs our society’s overclass. and this part > [@](#): > > 1. Give me that old time religion. Pandering to fundamentalism is a full-time vocation in the GOP. Beginning in the 1970s, religious cranks ceased simply to be a minor public nuisance in this country and grew into the major element of the Republican rank and file. Pat Robertson’s strong showing in the 1988 Iowa Caucus signaled the gradual merger of politics and religion in the party. The results are all around us: if the American people poll more like Iranians or Nigerians than Europeans or Canadians on questions of evolution versus creationism, scriptural inerrancy, the existence of angels and demons, and so forth, that result is due to the rise of the religious right, its insertion into the public sphere by the Republican Party and the consequent normalizing of formerly reactionary or quaint beliefs. Also around us is a prevailing anti-intellectualism and hostility to science; it is this group that defines “low-information voter” - or, perhaps, “misinformation voter.” The article was revelaton to me because I suspected all this, but here is someone from inside the clockwork, working for the Republicans saying the same things. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/45 "2011-09-04T23:05:31Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > More college graduates identify as Republicans than Democrats… Then why do they [vote for Democrats](http://todayilearned.co.uk/2011/04/27/us-college-graduates-prefer-democrats-to-republicans/)? ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/46 "2011-09-04T23:09:14Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > In a voluntary military this is a red herring but fine, active duty military get the vote along with landowners and federal taxpayers. I have a better idea: all citizens get to vote! I am well aware that the GOP would like to restrict the vote and are resorting to a variety of devious schemes to accomplish this, but nevertheless there is no debate among serious people of restricting the vote to the demographics you mention. Your view seems specious to me. Poor people don’t have ‘skin in the game’ and therefore shouldn’t get to vote? Are you serious? This line of thinking has nothing to do with how our system is set up. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/47 "2011-09-04T23:10:01Z")
> [@hocuspocusfocus](#): > > No I have proved that those countries are better at capitalism and free market competition which create surpluses that they are then at liberty to spend on anything they want. And in those countries everyone works. I don’t see a Marxist/Socialist country in the list except maybe the United States under Obama where 50% of the working age population don’t work. 25% of whom want to work but do to Obama, can’t find a job. Singapore - socialized medicine Australia - socialized medicine New Zealand - socialized medicine Switzerland - socialized medicine Canada - socialized medicine Ireland - socialized medicine Denmark - socialized medicine United States - private medical care Bahrain - socialized medicine ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/48 "2011-09-04T23:11:15Z")
> [@Omg\_a\_Black\_Conservative](#): > > Well, yeah they have skin in the game. They don’t want to lose their benefits. Well yeah, if you want to take one sentence out of context and totally misinterpret what I was saying. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/49 "2011-09-04T23:15:57Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > More college graduates identify as Republicans than Democrats while the reverse is true for high school dropouts. Cite? “Preferring McCain” is not the same as “identifying as Republican” but using that proxy the [first Google hit](http://www.gallup.com/poll/106381/obama-education-gap-extends-general-election.aspx) shows results exactly opposite to your cite-free claim. ---
**Author:** ![hocuspocusfocus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f07891/32.png) [@hocuspocusfocus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hocuspocusfocus)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/50 "2011-09-04T23:16:19Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Detroit just had a task force cracking down on Medicare Fraud. So yep, there is fraud and it is being addressed like Obama promised. BDD, Detroit did it, not Obama’s deaf, dumb, and blind FBI and $14.8M is 5000 times smaller than $60B Bush’s FBI estimate. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/51 "2011-09-04T23:22:01Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Then why do they [vote for Democrats](http://todayilearned.co.uk/2011/04/27/us-college-graduates-prefer-democrats-to-republicans/)? That is an indirect comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/52 "2011-09-04T23:22:43Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > That is an indirect comparison. Which is still a better cite than you provided. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/53 "2011-09-04T23:25:06Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Cite? > > “Preferring McCain” is not the same as “identifying as Republican” but using that proxy the [first Google hit](http://www.gallup.com/poll/106381/obama-education-gap-extends-general-election.aspx) shows results exactly opposite to your cite-free claim. 2008 was an abberation where several strongly Republican states such as Indiana and Virginia went Democrat. It is absurd as arguing for example Massachusetts is a conservative state because it went for Reagan in 1980 and '84. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/54 "2011-09-04T23:26:52Z")
Are you going to provide any credible support for your claims, or just hang them out there like air biscuits? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/55 "2011-09-04T23:33:24Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Are you going to provide any credible support for your claims, or just hang them out there like air biscuits? [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html](http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html) > [@](#): > > No High School (4%) > 49% > +10 > 50% 0% > H.S. Graduate (22%) > 52% > +3 > 47% 0% > Some College (32%) > 54% > +3 > 46% 0% > College Graduate (26%) > 52% > +1 > 46% 1% > Postgrad Study (16%) > 44% > +0 > 55% 1% ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/56 "2011-09-04T23:33:27Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And an occassional veiled innuendo about the patriotism of those who question is not beneath them. I THOUGHT they were up to something along those lines when they started calling us “traitors” in the rollup to the Iraq war. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/57 "2011-09-04T23:35:50Z")
> [@Huerta88](#): > > But they are. They’re getting away with having the same vote that people who pay federal income tax do in federal elections. . Do you propose devastating taxes for the poor, or disenfranchisement? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/58 "2011-09-04T23:39:29Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html](http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/states/US/P/00/epolls.0.html) Justg what I thought; that is a very dishonest interpretation of that poll. Since post-graduates favor Democrats (by a large margin), you have ignored them, even though they are also college graduates. If you factor in the post-graduates, those with a college education identify as Democrats 51% to 48%. ---
**Author:** ![hocuspocusfocus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/f07891/32.png) [@hocuspocusfocus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hocuspocusfocus)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/59 "2011-09-04T23:44:49Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > United States - private medical care United States -OBAMA CARE, payoffs, exemptions, corruption Be not afraid. Here sir, Your number is 106. Farout man! cough, hack, moan. Ding, Calling number 7, calling number 7. Oh crap! ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2011, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179/60 "2011-09-04T23:45:11Z")
> [@hocuspocusfocus](#): > > I don’t see a Marxist/Socialist country in the list except maybe the United States under Obama where 50% of the working age population don’t work. 25% of whom want to work but do to Obama, can’t find a job. I honestly can’t tell if this is satire or you are actually that misinformed. You honestly believe that we have 50% unemployment? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/powerful-article-goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult/595179.md?page=4)