Op-ed: The Politics of Spite

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Op-ed: The Politics of Spite
8
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 9:09am

Krugman makes some excellent points.


http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/05/opinion/05krugman.html?em


There was what President Obama likes to call a teachable moment last week, when the International Olympic Committee rejected Chicago’s bid to be host of the 2016 Summer Games.


“Cheers erupted” at the headquarters of the conservative Weekly Standard, according to a blog post by a member of the magazine’s staff, with the headline “Obama loses! Obama loses!” Rush Limbaugh declared himself “gleeful.” “World Rejects Obama,” gloated the Drudge Report. And so on.


So what did we learn from this moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty 13-year-old.


But more important, the episode illustrated an essential truth about the state of American politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for America.


To be sure, while celebrating America’s rebuff by the Olympic Committee was puerile, it didn’t do any real harm. But the same principle of spite has determined Republican positions on more serious matters, with potentially serious consequences — in particular, in the debate over health care reform.


Now, it’s understandable that many Republicans oppose Democratic plans to extend insurance coverage — just as most Democrats opposed President Bush’s attempt to convert Social Security into a sort of giant 401(k). The two parties do, after all, have different philosophies about the appropriate role of government. (Me: TG that didn't happen to SS.)


But the tactics of the two parties have been different. In 2005, when Democrats campaigned against Social Security privatization, their arguments were consistent with their underlying ideology: they argued that replacing guaranteed benefits with private accounts would expose retirees to too much risk.


The Republican campaign against health care reform, by contrast, has shown no such consistency. For the main G.O.P. line of attack is the claim — based mainly on lies about death panels and so on — that reform will undermine Medicare. And this line of attack is utterly at odds both with the party’s traditions and with what conservatives claim to believe.


Think about just how bizarre it is for Republicans to position themselves as the defenders of unrestricted Medicare spending. First of all, the modern G.O.P. considers itself the party of Ronald Reagan — and Reagan was a fierce opponent of Medicare’s creation, warning that it would destroy American freedom. (Honest.) In the 1990s, Newt Gingrich tried to force drastic cuts in Medicare financing. And in recent years, Republicans have repeatedly decried the growth in entitlement spending — growth that is largely driven by rising health care costs.


But the Obama administration’s plan to expand coverage relies in part on savings from Medicare. And since the G.O.P. opposes anything that might be good for Mr. Obama, it has become the passionate defender of ineffective medical procedures and overpayments to insurance companies.


How did one of our great political parties become so ruthless, so willing to embrace scorched-earth tactics even if so doing undermines the ability of any future administration to govern?


The key point is that ever since the Reagan years, the Republican Party has been dominated by radicals — ideologues and/or apparatchiks who, at a fundamental level, do not accept anyone else’s right to govern.


Anyone surprised by the venomous, over-the-top opposition to Mr. Obama must have forgotten the Clinton years. Remember when Rush Limbaugh suggested that Hillary Clinton was a party to murder? When Newt Gingrich shut down the federal government in an attempt to bully Bill Clinton into accepting those Medicare cuts? And let’s not even talk about the impeachment saga.


The only difference now is that the G.O.P. is in a weaker position, having lost control not just of Congress but, to a large extent, of the terms of debate. The public no longer buys conservative ideology the way it used to; the old attacks on Big Government and paeans to the magic of the marketplace have lost their resonance. Yet conservatives retain their belief that they, and only they, should govern.


The result has been a cynical, ends-justify-the-means approach. Hastening the day when the rightful governing party returns to power is all that matters, so the G.O.P. will seize any club at hand with which to beat the current administration.


It’s an ugly picture. But it’s the truth. And it’s a truth anyone trying to find solutions to America’s real problems has to understand.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 11:43am

It's things like this that makes me absolutely a RW hater. I saw Laura Ingraham chanting "RIO", "RIO", with a huge grin on her face, celebrating the fact that Brazil got the Games and not Chicago. How disgusting is that? Rush and Coulter also leading cheers for the USA NOT getting the Games. It never ceases to amaze me to what levels of hate these people will stoop to in order to make our president look bad. Obama flies over for a couple of hours to help pitch America's bid and gets this kind of hate, yet Bush spent days during his term trying to do the same thing and that was just fine??


Losers, losers, losers. Haters, haters, haters!! I wish they'd spend more time organizing more "tea parties". At least it distracts their attention long enough to stop the hating, if only for a day or two. Some of our citizens actually think it's a good thing to bash and

Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 11:56am
Sore losers. They lost the White House, Congress and now are resorting to the only thing they can think of--it's too bad because there are legitimate issues that the country needs help on and this cheering against the US only makes them look foolish. Wait 50 years and see how history judges their immaturity. What do you expect from people who openly wish the President of the United States harm/dead? How embarassing that they can't formulate arguments based on fact and reasoning and instead have to create lies to prove their point? But, I also have to say, I've read some good articles from Kathleen Parker, Michael Gerson, George Will, Charles Krauthammer about civility and the lack of it. I may not agree w/ what they say but they think. Getting riled over this stupidity doesn't take brains.










Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 2:20pm

It makes me sad because I used to think of us as all being Americans; and if you're an American you try to root for your country no matter who is president. You want to see your country be successful, not see it fail.


Since January I've seen and heard so many hateful, hurtful and absolutely disgusting displays of un-American behavior. The gloating over not getting the Olympics in Chicago is despicable. Not that I care whether the Olympics came to Chicago or not, but to see that as a failure of the president is simply assinine.


The hate-filled and un-American actions that have come out of the Republican side of this country have turned me away from them forever. They couldn't pay me enough to affiliate myself with them. Their arrogance and deliberate manipulation of national issues and their continuous demeaning of the president is inexcusable.


It's one thing to disagree with the president. It's one thing to not even like the president. It's another to pray for his death and wish for his failure. To see a president fail is to see our country fail; so as far as I'm concerned Republicans want nothing more than to see this America collapse.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-20-2007
Tue, 10-06-2009 - 2:55pm

I heard something just last evening on CNN I believe. They were discussing this very thing about how terrible and hateful things have become simply because the right want Obama to fail so badly they don't even care if the entire country goes into a deep, deep depression so they can point a finger at the left and say it was "their" fault, not ours.


The discussion then went back to Sept. 11th of 2001, and how every American, be it Repub. or Dem., were 100% behind George Bush the day he was pictured alongside that firefighter holding his bull horn amongst the rubble and total destruction of the Twin Towers. I can truthfully say I was proud to call myself an American, and I damn well didn't care what political party I was affiliated with right then......I, like millions of other Democrats, stood firmly and proudly behind the broad shoulders of George W. Bush. Patriotism oozed from the pores of each one of us, joined together for a common cause.....fighting the bastards that would do this to our nation. Even though the deaths of nearly 4000 people can never be minimized, it did give us a golden opportunity, and that was to forever unite us as American citizens, bipartisanship would finally have a foothold for all of us to be able to work together for the common good of all. Well, how did that all end up I ask you? Miserably. I blame the neo-cons completely for doing whatever it took to make the wedge between the 2 parties even wider than it was prior to 9/11. How could things change so quickly and so definitively in such a small amount of time? Sad.

Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 10-07-2009 - 9:15am

I think it's sore loser taken very close to a dangerous level. I also think the media is a driving

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Avatar for ddnlj
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 10-07-2009 - 9:24am

Sadly, that sense of being American didn't last long. About the time the last piece of concrete from the WWC was carried off, that's about when our sense of "community" dwindled away.


Sadly, too, we began to recognize that our patriotism was exploited. As Bush began showing what an utter failure he was, many Americans felt like their loyalty to the country had been used to emotionally fund his personal agendas.


And even more sad is that fact that thousands of lives have to be lost before we'll put down our own selfish wants and desires come together as a country.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 10-07-2009 - 11:56am

"..millions of Republicans are lower middle-class working people who believe in God and country and never realize that Republican politicians woo them as constituents........"


This is what I don't get voting against one's own interest. There must be

 


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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Wed, 10-07-2009 - 12:00pm

"...their loyalty to the country had been used to emotionally fund his personal agendas."


Oh yes big time!


 


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