{GROAN}

Not nearly as impressive as the trick played by Republicans by creating a narrative wherein they are the party of limited government.

Help help I'm being oppressed, etc.

sigdiamond2000:
Another thing: Calling Doug Hoffman a "tepid, traditional conservative" is f*cking ridiculous. This author's either an idiot or purposely glossing over this guy's extreme social conservative beliefs.

David Harsyani is a local columnist in Denver who gets syndicated by Reason. And his typical column is always about whitewashing social conservatism. His standard column structure is typically something along the lines of: "I am a supporter of gay marriage and all, but I would reluctantly trade these people's rights for a repeal of the stifling and statist regulations that require pharmacists to be credentialled".

Marcus Aurelius: Can It Be? A Party for Capitalism?

It's called "Congress", and it costs businesses relatively little to get whatever laws passed that they want.

You seem to be a little fuzzy on the meaning of the word "capitalism."

Stalinist! Marxist! Communist! Socialist! Leninist! Fascist!

None of these words have any meaning, right? I'm pretty sure any word that ends in "ist" is just a pejorative. The "ist" means "you're a bad person and you should feel bad".

vygramul:
It's heading that way as both sides fling around the phrases with impunity.

Sounds like one o' them big words they teach at the Marxist indoctrination centers we call college.

madmann: Stalinist! Marxist! Communist! Socialist! Leninist! Fascist!

None of these words have any meaning, right? I'm pretty sure any word that ends in "ist" is just a pejorative. The "ist" means "you're a bad person and you should feel bad".

Pharmacist?

Good luck Dumb-o-craps. You can't change the fundamentals of the economy because they are so strong. McCain said so.

"The Greatest Trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world that global warming is real and that it needs government run healthcare."



/hot like a burning boat with no dope

GAT_00: You sound whiny

That sums you up, on a daily and painful basis.

Dusk-You-n-Me: He'll flip ya.

For some reason, one of the funnier lines in the movie.

/Leaving satisfied.

You know who else liked to purge his political party of those whose ideology was not pure enough? Stalin.

But I thought the right was calling the lefties in power of being Stalinists?

Oh, maybe the guys at reason misheard Stallingists as Stalinists, happens all the time...

GAT_00: You sound whiny and out of power.

That sounds hateful. Freedom of speech does not give you freedom to hate.

Calling your magazine "Reason" is also a pretty impressive trick.

Anyone notice how the 'other' guys are always more organized, more ruthless and trickier than your team?

Really. No matter what side you are on, it's the other guys who have their political mobilization shiat down, and your team is full of the hopeless do-gooders who only ever win, when they do, by the mere fact that they have better ideas, if ineptly put forward.

Trickery is the only way the other guy gets ahead, and they're damn good at it.

CitizenTed: BoTh sIDez aRe tEh baD.

So vote Republican!

/is that how it goes?

Dusk-You-n-Me: He'll flip ya.

Damn it! Beaten to the reference.

*shakes tiny fist in rage*

Someone wasn't pulling on their boot straps hard enough

-The rabid moron bunch hijacked one race, the other races were pretty solidly GOP leaning in the first place, so the wins for the Republicans there was no surprise.
-The new independents are people who were/are disgusted by the GOP, but have no other political voice to turn to. The band of 'moderates' in the political spectrum hasn't gotten bigger, no siree.
-We haven't had a Free Market version of Capitalism, and after a boom/bust trend of far too long with one big ass bust, we entered a Mixed Market. A few rules were loosened and, sure enough, grand rationalization for those rules have played out right in front of our eyes, not the other way around.
-The guy is a putz for not realizing the economic stance of both parties places a Capitalist oriented system on a rather high pedestal. One group just doesn't think of it as sacrosanct.

I hate Chevy: CitizenTed: BoTh sIDez aRe tEh baD.

So vote Republican!

/is that how it goes?

No, you forgot a Fox related outrage and possible some faux racism.

Wait...I thought attempting to fundamentally reconfigure the American economy makes one - simultaneously, mind you - a socialist, fascist, czarist and maoist

dr.zaeus: madmann: Stalinist! Marxist! Communist! Socialist! Leninist! Fascist!

None of these words have any meaning, right? I'm pretty sure any word that ends in "ist" is just a pejorative. The "ist" means "you're a bad person and you should feel bad".

Pharmacist?

Hey now! There's no call for language like that in here. Next thing you know, people will just be hollering out "Belgium*" without even any artistic merit.

*Or "fark", in the European version.

The author uses this bit of data to validate his opinion.

The percentage of independents describing their views as "conservative" has also grown, to 35 percent from 29 percent in just one year.

My opinion is that those 6% of people didn't want to admit to being conservative when W. was in office but now it's not so embarrassing.

Okay, I think I understand. Sharply turning the steering wheel to avoid a rapidly oncoming brick wall is most certainly a "radical" move. No matter the danger, moderates should always support inaction.

And upon reading the article, the author isn't as much of a WHAARGARBLer as the headline suggests. He's an intelligent but uninformed person. Like many new converts to the religion of fiscal conservatism, they think that it speaks for itself as an obvious solution to every problem. How do we fix healthcare? "Fiscal conservatism, duh."

Sorry, it doesn't work that way. We're facing a demographic and budgeting nightmare, and the momentum of staying the course will swamp both the public and private sectors. That isn't to endorse the Democrats' plan wholeheartedly, just to point out that a major structural rework of our economy is absolutely -- ABSOLUTELY -- needed. And it will require government input.

"The toaster is looking pretty rough guys, it's throwing arcs and shorting out half the time I try to use it."

"Don't you touch that toaster! It's been in the family for generations!"

"...it's a toaster...It serves a specific purpose. To make toast. If it no longer suits that purpose, it stops being a toaster and becomes a liability to the act of making toast."

"I used it this morning."

"And burned yourself, scarred the counter, and went through half a loaf of bread to get two pieces of half-way blackened bread."

"You're just a pansy! Real men manage!"

"Or we could just fix it."

"That's pansy liberal defeatism!"

"Look, I'll fix it. You don't have to do anything, just let me fix it and stop whining. I'm tired of it kicking over the circuit every other time I use it."

"I swear if you touch that toaster I'll throw a tantrum like you've never seen."

"If you feel that that's necessary I guess I'll just have to live with that then."

The rise of free-market populism

This dude is going to be really disappointed. Americans have never ever really liked economic neo-liberalism -- even when they vote for it unknowingly.

Half of those tea baggers don't know what they believe -- but even as a minority of pissed off populists, the amount of them that are free marketeers is a sub group of that minority.

Reason, what a bastardized word.