Failure As Fertilizer

Hey Ryan,

By the coverage this week, it seems as if the media believes there might be some teachable moment or redemption narrative for the GOP.

With the 24-hour news cycle (and guys like us) constantly stewing over what's next for the GOP, it seems as though the conversation has been accelerated in the Repub Halls of Shame, with clamoring pseudo-luminaries professing to shy away from the spotlight while stepping in front of it.

Pawlenty's comments were, as per usual with Repub "visionaries", interesting on the surface, but most likely just show. Sure, he tried to steer his party into a direct confrontation with health care and away from big business. But he still used words like "formula" and "viewed", which suggest the GOP is still wrangling over message rather than substance.

While he talks, for example, about health care and big business, Pawlenty seems to think they're entirely separate issues facing the GOP, when, in reality, they're inseparable.

Think about how many health problems are caused in this country by the deregulation of industries. If the a Republican government feels such a responsibility to big business (or, in their words, "job creation") that it has to deregulate, shouldn't that same government also feel a similar (if not more) responsibility to take care of the citizenry it puts in harm's way through those leash-loosening moves?

They should but they don't, because we're not ATM's of campaign cash...at least not for GOP candidates. And why is that? Could it be because, I don't know, they're message doesn't really resonate in a crisis? Could it be because they've cried wolf on so many issues only to do nothing about them?

Or, maybe it's because the Republican Party has a long history of corruption going back to Watergate. Maybe now, finally, voters are seeing what GOP policies really do to the country when they're put into practice. Maybe people are starting to realize that going all the way back to Nixon's Administration, that the GOP has never really given a damn about health care, except when it can be used as a moneymaking tool.

But, now that they're on the losing end for the second time in two years, guys like Pawlenty have decided that they have to tackle this issue head on because "[i]t's one of the most pressing needs for our country." Well, welcome to the party, Mr. Pawlenty. Did you bring any ice?

Saying health care is a "pressing need" is not much in the way of insight and it's a far cry from having the tools to fix it, especially when your answer to the problem is a sham tax credit that barely covers half of the average insurance policy combined with (you guessed it) deregulation that erases state borders and stricter laws for the insurance industry.

You see, the problem for the GOP is not to stop being "viewed as a party of the rich". It's to...stop being the party of the rich. The same goes for Dems in Congress, too.

There are plenty of articles out there about how Obama bought the election with his massive fundraising efforts and his refutation of the public campaign finance. But, when your average donation is $86, you might be looking at a new model for campaign finance, one that establishes a more direct connection between candidate and constituent. And what could be more "public" than that?

Pawlenty and Jindal may be on the level, but until they show up with policies that protect the people who vote them into office, I won't be convinced...not when Pawlenty is still using tired Rovian jargon like "formula for a majority." That's sort of talk is obsolete, just like John McCain and Sarah Palin and the lying, backstabbing, insidious campaign they just finished...well, I guess she's still running it.

Retooling the package without changing the product is over. Wrapping unmitigated stupidity up in feminism and a $150,000 costume won't solve a single problem facing our nation in the 21st Century.

According to a lot of conservatives, there must have been a glitch in the last eight years...a stretch of time in which criticism from guys like Pawlenty and Jindal was pretty hard to come by. They say the Bush Regime's tactics were against true conservative ideology. But, frankly, it's all we voters have to go on right now. To us, the Bush Debacle is the new face of the Republican Party. But people like Pawlenty can't change that image with a message shift. They have to reassess their core values and their penchant for chasing symptoms when it would be much more effective to treat the sickness.

In essence, they've got to stop pissing on people's heads and telling them it's raining.

Charles