It has become conservatives’ equivalent of handshakes at a union hall. Professing aversion to government and venom toward taxes before the right-wing rank-and-file is a set piece of Republican presidential primaries. Though a gimmick, the anti-tax, anti-government message resonates with donors and diehard GOP voters and has become a badge of the seriousness, even suitability, of the party’s presidential aspirants.… return to article
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Reader Comments (3)Page 1 of 1 pagesHans really nails it in this article. If the GOP spin machine fails, and it is certainly sputtering, Republicans will be hard-pressed to invoke Lyndon Johnson as standard-bearer of the enemy tradition. Not only must the GOP account for the reckless war spending Hans details so well, but Republicans have an extra little secret that will haunt them soon. Since the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994, the Republicans have maintained a self-serving mini-Great Society in the US south. Not school funding, mind you, or anything that might actually resemble the LBJ domestic budget. But as the religious right has emerged as the final reliable source of votes for the GOP, Republican congressional leaders have created a make-believe economy in the south through the use of earmarks. While many areas of the south remain depressed, those with large numbers of GOP voters have been served a steady diet of congressional pork since 1994. Some commentators have said that after Gingrich took power, the south became a big-government program. When the earmarks stop or slow under the current Congress, there will be nothing to show for the spending, as nothing was done to improve infrastructure, health care, education, or anything else that might have benfitted working families in the south. So, an expensive war, tax cuts for the rich, and some pork contracts to buy votes in the last GOP stronghold. What a proud legacy. Matt Simon
Posted by hazmatt on Mar 6, 2007 at 9:21 PM Is the party of Lincoln going the way of the Edsel? One can only hope.
Posted by luminous beauty on Mar 9, 2007 at 11:23 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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