# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1091
**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:** [May 27, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21802 "2015-05-27T04:07:17Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Bell Curve author Charles Murray; [the hyper-rich should undermine American democracy and seize power by refusing to obey labor laws and filing thousands of frivolous lawsuits until the government is driven into insolvency.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/05/26/3662560/jeb-bushs-favorite-author-publishes-318-page-rant-democracy/) This isn’t a new idea. Lewis Lapham wrote an article – I wish I could find it online – explaining that many of the “improvements” Republicans add to bills empowering agencies, especially regulatory agencies, are intended to make it easy to tie up the agencies in knots with red-tape, mandatory responses to trivial complaints, etc. Then, when the agencies have been forced by inane GOP-imposed rules to a low-productivity mode, the Republiopaths complain that the agency is ineffective. (Wit hthe fix, of course, to lower its budget.) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21803 "2015-05-27T04:28:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I absolutely love this quote from the [linked article](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/05/26/3662560/jeb-bushs-favorite-author-publishes-318-page-rant-democracy/): > > > [@Ian Millhiser](#): > > > > In Murray’s narrative, Madison becomes a Lovecraftian deity — dead, but not entirely dead, and still capable of working ill in American society. In his house at Montpelier, dead James Madison waits dreaming. Ph’nglui mglw’nafh James Madison Montpelier wgah’nagl fhtagn! ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21804 "2015-05-27T04:35:26Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > Didn’t see this onw above, so here goes: > > [Kansas, again. Trying to figure out new ways to make sure the poor have no money.](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/21/kansas-has-found-the-ultimate-way-to-punish-the-poor/?tid=sm_tw) The tactic is to limit the amount of cash they can withdraw to $25 a day. yay… I think we beat this to death a couple of days ago, IIRC. Not sure if it was earlier in this thread or in another thread all of its own. ETA: [Here it is](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=753585), over in Great Debates, started almost two months ago. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21805 "2015-05-27T04:46:37Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > Ph’nglui mglw’nafh James Madison Montpelier wgah’nagl fhtagn! Come to think of it, “Montpelier” does kindasorta rhyme with “R’lyeh,” doesn’t it? (Allowing for the fact that neither name was ever intended to be pronounceable by human vocal apparatus.) ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21806 "2015-05-27T05:24:30Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Bell Curve author Charles Murray; [the hyper-rich should undermine American democracy and seize power by refusing to obey labor laws and filing thousands of frivolous lawsuits until the government is driven into insolvency.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/05/26/3662560/jeb-bushs-favorite-author-publishes-318-page-rant-democracy/) You can see the logic in the proposal, though; take power away from government, who are greedy and only out for themselves, and give it to rich people, who have all our best interests at heart. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21807 "2015-05-27T06:49:57Z")
Without us, who would they have to envy them? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21808 "2015-05-27T07:48:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I absolutely love this quote from the linked article: > > > [@](#): > > > > In Murray’s narrative, Madison becomes a Lovecraftian deity — dead, but not entirely dead, and still capable of working ill in American society. Schrodinger’s Founding Father. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2015, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21809 "2015-05-27T08:00:34Z")
Lindsey Graham’s deft hand at diplomacy in the [nuclear talks with Iran](http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/05/sen-lindsey-graham-iranians-pool-halls-are-all-liars): > [@](#): > > “Everything I learned about Iranians I learned working in the pool room,” he said. “I met a lot of liars, and I know Iranians are liars.” ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21810 "2015-05-27T09:46:24Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Lindsey Graham’s deft hand at diplomacy in the [nuclear talks with Iran](http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/05/sen-lindsey-graham-iranians-pool-halls-are-all-liars): > > > [@](#): > > > > “Everything I learned about Iranians I learned working in the pool room,” he said. “I met a lot of liars, and I know Iranians are liars.” I can’t fault his methodology. It’s exactly how I learned that senators from South Carolina are idiots. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21811 "2015-05-27T14:16:13Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > You can see the logic in the proposal, though; take power away from government, who are greedy and only out for themselves, and give it to rich people, who have all our best interests at heart. His mind is inhabiting a Terry Gilliam film-noir: the government is embodied by the inertial Mr. Helpmann, the befuddled Mr. Kurtzmann and the fiendish Jack Lint; caught up in it all, you and I are Sam Lowry; and he and the rich people are Harry Tuttle, who can rescue everyone and get things done properly if they can just avoid being swallowed up by bureaucratic paperwork. It is a sad, sad place for a person’s mind to live, not unlike being trapped in some kind of _Onion_-esque reality. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21812 "2015-05-27T14:37:58Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Lindsey Graham’s deft hand at diplomacy in the [nuclear talks with Iran](http://m.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/05/sen-lindsey-graham-iranians-pool-halls-are-all-liars): And they let him stay in the room when the grown-ups talk? ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21813 "2015-05-27T15:21:55Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > I can’t fault his methodology. It’s exactly how I learned that senators from South Carolina are idiots. You’re not using the methodology properly. You should have learned that \*Americans \*are idiots. ---
**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:** [May 27, 2015, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21814 "2015-05-27T15:31:44Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > This isn’t a new idea. Lewis Lapham wrote an article – I wish I could find it online – explaining that many of the “improvements” Republicans add to bills empowering agencies, especially regulatory agencies, are intended to make it easy to tie up the agencies in knots with red-tape, mandatory responses to trivial complaints, etc. > > Then, when the agencies have been forced by inane GOP-imposed rules to a low-productivity mode, the Republiopaths complain that the agency is ineffective. (Wit hthe fix, of course, to lower its budget.) This is exactly what they do, in both their verbiage and their actions. They do things that on the surface appear to be good intentioned and for noble goals when in fact it’s just the opposite. Voter ID laws are an example. Another example is what has been done to the Post Office. The Post Office pension fund is required to maintain enough funds to be able to fund retirements for the next 75 years. This sounds very populist and pro-union, but it puts a major financial strain on them, which may be the intent. If the Post Office can’t handle it’s finances, well then let’s privatize! ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21815 "2015-05-27T16:31:22Z")
If this isn’t a SRIOTD, I don’t know what is: [**Rick Santorum Launching Second White House Run**](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOP_2016_SANTORUM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-27-11-16-46). ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21816 "2015-05-27T16:36:03Z")
Your vagina is not your own, in Wisconsin, at least. > [@"\[Scott](#): > > ([Scott Walker: Ultrasounds Should Be Mandatory Since They're 'A Cool Thing' | People For](http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/scott-walker-ultrasounds-should-be-mandatory-theyre-cool-thing-out-there))"]_The thing about that, the media tried to make that sound like that was a crazy idea. Most people I talked to, whether they’re pro-life or not, I find people all the time that pull out their iPhone and show me a picture of their grandkids’ ultrasound and how excited they are, so that’s a lovely thing. I think about my sons are 19 and 20, we still have their first ultrasounds. It’s just a cool thing out there. We just knew if we signed that law, if we provided the information that more people if they saw that unborn child would make a decision to protect and keep the life of that unborn child._ umm, “We”? ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21817 "2015-05-27T16:44:07Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > If this isn’t a SRIOTD, I don’t know what is: [**Rick Santorum Launching Second White House Run**](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_GOP_2016_SANTORUM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-27-11-16-46). He came in second last time. Usually, last time’s second place finisher is this time’s nominee. Usually. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21818 "2015-05-27T16:48:39Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Your vagina is not your own, in Wisconsin, at least. > umm, “We”? In Walker-world, vaginas are a shared asset. Which makes me wonder what happens at a divorce? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21819 "2015-05-27T16:50:19Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > He came in second last time. Usually, last time’s second place finisher is this time’s nominee. > > Usually. So, Santorum is #2? I thought they were different. ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21820 "2015-05-27T16:54:38Z")
Santorum came in #2? Wasn’t that a Dan Savage thing? ---
**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:** [May 27, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/21821 "2015-05-27T17:01:48Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Your vagina is not your own, in Wisconsin, at least. > > [QUOTE=Scott Walker] > The thing about that, the media tried to make that sound like that was a crazy idea. Most people I talked to, whether they’re pro-life or not, I find people all the time that pull out their iPhone and show me a picture of their grandkids’ ultrasound and how excited they are, so that’s a lovely thing. I think about my sons are 19 and 20, we still have their first ultrasounds. It’s just a cool thing out there. We just knew if we signed that law, if we provided the information that more people if they saw that unborn child would make a decision to protect and keep the life of that unborn child. umm, “We”? [/QUOTE] Sure. He’s personally paying for every mandatory ultrasound out of his own pocket. Didn’t you know that? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1090) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1092)