Posts Tagged ‘republicans’

How’s that “Republicans are the party of the Rich!” Meme working out?

Posted: August 2, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news
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Two stories that hit the nail on the head here. First Charles Lane in Slate on the new $41,000 Volt:

And that’s my problem with the Obama administration’s energy policy, or at least with his lavish subsidies for the Volt, Nissan’s all-electric Leaf (likely sticker price $33,000), and Tesla’s $100,000 all-electric Roadster: Where does the federal government get off spending the average person’s tax dollars to help better-off-than-average Americans buy expensive new cars?

The newest car in my driveway is 10 years old. The local one man garage I use is overwhelmed by business because people can’t afford new cars. How much less a $41k model. I wonder who is going to by that Volt? Lane answers:

How rarefied is the electric-car demographic? When Deloitte Consulting interviewed industry experts and 2,000 potential buyers, it found that from now until 2020, only “young, very high income individuals”—those from households making more than $200,000 a year—would even be interested in plug-in hybrids or all-electric cars. This “small number” of people will provide “nowhere near the volume needed for mass adoption.” They will be concentrated in Southern California, where weather, state regulations, and infrastructure are all favorable to electric vehicles—”adoption is already being popularized by high-profile celebrities.”

Yeah that’s the Tip O’Neill demographic isn’t it? Speaking of Tip today in the Boston Globe:

DEMOCRAT JOHN Kerry sets sail in a $7 million yacht built in New Zealand. Republican Scott Brown hits the campaign trail in a GMC pickup truck with 200,000 miles on it.

From Newport, R.I., where Kerry’s “Isabel’’ was berthed before heading to Nantucket, to Rhinebeck, N.Y., where Chelsea Clinton was married in a mansion modeled after Versailles, today’s Democrats are looking more like Louis XVI than Tip O’Neill.

It is the Boston Globe and Vennochi goes on to bash the GOP as phonies, but I didn’t see a lot of rich people at the tea party in Boston in April did you, Joan or did you skip that gathering of the Hoi Polloi?

The republicans have (and lets be fair, it has been partly by default) become the party of small business, you know the guys who actually those regular joes that the democrats used to love so much. On occasion I still hear old Roosevelt Democrats call Republicans the party of the rich, and the democrats the party of the working man. If they still believe that it’s only because they just haven’t been paying attention.

Update: Slashdot (via Glenn) includes the Lane Story and a revolt takes place in comments.

I should be happy about this

Posted: July 20, 2010 by datechguy in employment, opinion/news, personal
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since it will mean 17 weeks grace and at least 2 months more of bills being paid before the hole begins why am I worried about this?

Democrats have stripped the unemployment insurance measure down to the bare essentials for Tuesday’s vote, which is a do-over of a tally taken late last month.

With West Virginia Democrat Carte Goodwin poised to claim the seat of the late Robert Byrd, two Republicans will be needed to vault the measure over the filibuster hurdle. Maine GOP moderates Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are expected to provide the key votes to create a filibuster-breaking tally on a key procedural test.

Sweetness and light points out the GOP position:

As we have repeatedly said, the Republican opposition was on two points. One, that the benefits should be paid for, as is required by Mr. Obama’s imposed ‘PAYGO’ rules. Such as using some of the unspent ‘stimulus’ money in Mr. Obama’s ‘stash,’ which was indeed supposed to go for such things as unemployment benefits.

I won’t deny the money will be very helpful but there is nothing wrong with paying for this, after all every one of you who is working or running a business is paying for those benefits I will receive.

At the Huffington Post the very idea shocks them as evidenced by the headline:

Unemployment Extension: The GOP’s Unprecedented Deficit Demands

They are right about the history, but the scandal here is that the demands are unprecedented. Perhaps if they had been made decades before there would be more money available for relief.

Has Scott Brown spilled the Tea?

Posted: July 17, 2010 by datechguy in opinion/news, tea parties
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No question has produced more e-mail for me than Scott Brown’s vote on the Banking bill.

I personally think it is a huge mistake but I’m already on the record saying that my 80% friend is not my 20% enemy so I’m willing to give him a pass for now. Others in the Tea party are less forgiving as 150 people in Worcester protested him today.

I remember the enthusiasm for Brown just six months ago running with no other democrat drawing partisans to the polls and he managed to win by 5. If this is the attitude among those willing to still vote for him then he has big trouble coming up if he keeps on this path.

Update: Looks like these columns were a few months early

Old Habits die hard

Posted: June 8, 2010 by datechguy in oddities
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Last night was kinda busy for me as I had a Knights of Columbus and a Madonna Della Cava meeting scheduled at the same time. (The feast is on the August 15th). We finished at the Knights just in time for me to catch the tail end of the meeting concerning the festival.

After the meeting one of the members that I was close to expressed utter shock that #1 I liked Sarah Palin and #2 I was a republican. It is something I’ve run into on occasion although less these days as more and more people are on the net and are exposed to different points of view.

This is what happens when you try to paint people who don’t have the “approved” set of beliefs a particular way. It leads to such an insulated situation that when you see the reality, it comes as a shock and a half.

It also illustrates to me how history bends over time. She remembers the democratic party of her youth, she remembers the days when democratic were not ashamed of believing Catholics, when Unions actually made a difference in the lives of workers. Those days in my opinion, are gone.

It took me 12 years for my presidential vote to go from Democratic (Mondale) to republican (Dole) and a further 6 years before I changed my registration. It took more than half a century for my mother to be weaned from a party that thinks she is a racist/bigot/homophobe hick and has taken her for granted for years. It may take my friend another 20 years to see what I’m seeing or maybe she will never agree with me on politics at all.

Either way that’s ok, but I doubt she will ever be able to keep that same world view of republicans again.

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