A guest post by Hiram.
Something that is really strange about Republicans is that as critical they are of the media, they seem to actually believe what happens on it is real. They elected Arnold governor of California because on some level, they actually believed he was the terminator. Republicans elected Donald Trump because on some level they believed he was the successful businessman they saw on his tv show.
This makes Republicans different from Democrats. As huge a fan I am and many of us are, of "The West Wing", no Democrat has ever thought Martins Sheen would make a good president just because he played a good president on TV.
I have been thinking a lot about the media and the Republican attitude toward it. It is amazingly ambivalent. As critical as Republicans are of media, it utterly dominates their thinking. Fox News, which is barely a news network at all, plays a huge role role in setting the tone for Republican thinking. But what is even more baffling is that how Republicans, despite their negative attitude toward media, love to take their candidates from it.
Republicans want government run like a business. Far enough, America has many hugely successful businessmen, men and women who built empires that created great wealth, not just for themselves, but also for those who entrusted them with their money. People like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos.
These guys did amazing things, and if you believed a great businessman has the qualities to be a great president, it would seem natural to choose a candidate among those guys or guys like them. But Republicans didn't do that. Instead they chose as their businessman president, someone who wasn't really a businessman at all. Someone who played a businessman in the media Republicans affect to despise. Someone who has lost far more money in his career than he has ever made for himself.
Why do Republicans think that way? Why do Republicans act that way? I simply do not know.
Something that is really strange about Republicans is that as critical they are of the media, they seem to actually believe what happens on it is real. They elected Arnold governor of California because on some level, they actually believed he was the terminator. Republicans elected Donald Trump because on some level they believed he was the successful businessman they saw on his tv show.
This makes Republicans different from Democrats. As huge a fan I am and many of us are, of "The West Wing", no Democrat has ever thought Martins Sheen would make a good president just because he played a good president on TV.
I have been thinking a lot about the media and the Republican attitude toward it. It is amazingly ambivalent. As critical as Republicans are of media, it utterly dominates their thinking. Fox News, which is barely a news network at all, plays a huge role role in setting the tone for Republican thinking. But what is even more baffling is that how Republicans, despite their negative attitude toward media, love to take their candidates from it.
Republicans want government run like a business. Far enough, America has many hugely successful businessmen, men and women who built empires that created great wealth, not just for themselves, but also for those who entrusted them with their money. People like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos.
These guys did amazing things, and if you believed a great businessman has the qualities to be a great president, it would seem natural to choose a candidate among those guys or guys like them. But Republicans didn't do that. Instead they chose as their businessman president, someone who wasn't really a businessman at all. Someone who played a businessman in the media Republicans affect to despise. Someone who has lost far more money in his career than he has ever made for himself.
Why do Republicans think that way? Why do Republicans act that way? I simply do not know.
33 comments:
"Fail Safe", a movie made around 1964 is offered on one of the streaming channels I watch. It stars Henry Fonda in the role of the president. Henry Fonda got those roles in preference to Ronald Reagan who was up for some of them because no one thought Reagan would make a plausible president.
--Hiram
After giving it some thought, I think it is simply that some Conservative celebrities are willing and interested into going into political office, where as apparently Liberal celebrities prefer to complain from afar.
I mean if George Clooney wanted to be a Senator or a President, I am pretty sure he could gain that position. The reality is that he would prefer to not do those jobs...
Maybe the Conservative celebrities want to put their time where their mouth is? Or they are power hungry like Trump? I don't know...
I think the bigger question is what type of people want political positions and why?
And what are they willing to do, say, etc in order to convince people to vote for them?
Someone like me would fail miserably since I tell people what I truly think, feel, etc at any point in time. And I would not over promise.
Where as Trump tells his supporters exactly what they want to hear whether he / they believe it at all. It allows them all to feel impassioned and connected.
I mean he promised HUGE unrealistic GDP growth and Deficit elimination. Now we have negative GDP growth and record deficits... So Trump just has to raise the promise to the next level... (and/ or blame someone else for his failure)
It was kind of like why Bernie supporters were so engaged and passionate. I mean there was NO WAY he could do the things he said in our divided government. However they all shared the lie and felt joy and energy.
I belong to a party, which for better, and often for worse in which people say what they think. I belong to a political party where 96% of the members do not agree on things. It's a pain, of course, but I belong to a political party that would never take Donald Trump seriously, not even when he was a Democrat.And, thankfully, I belong to a political party whose presidencies don't routinely end in national catastrophes. I belong to a political party whose members believe, contrary to ever Republican I talk to, that our country which is in the midst of the worst financial and economic collapse since the depression which incidentally was also presided over by a Republican president, is not better off than it was four years ago.
Republicans aren't interested in growth. They are interested in tax cuts. What they fail to understand is that tax cuts mean nothing without growth, and they mean far less than nothing when we plunge into a depression.
--Hiram
The DEM no disasters is likely mostly luck...
Carter: Kind of a disaster
Reagan: No disaster?
Bush: No disaster?
Clinton: Lucky to be during Tech boom. Good Luck?
Bush: Financial meltdown. Bad Luck?
Obama: Financial recovery. Good luck?
Trump: Idiot, but COVID 19... Bad Luck...
It is is a very natural thing for failed people to attribute failure to bad luck. What generally characterizes Republican failure is their willingness to shift responsibility to something else. Other people, and very often, bad luck.
--Hiram
Is that similar to you attributing Clinton and Obama success to their wisdom?
The internet, PC's, etc should maybe be attributed to Reagan's policies and not Clinton's?
Obama's "success" numbers wonderful in large part as to when he started.
Though I do agree that Trump is really AWFUL regarding claiming undeserved acclaim and blaming others for his failures.
This is probably a more correct measure...
I am still leaning towards a DEM President and a split Congress are best.
Mostly because of the National Debt Disaster
I am still leaning towards a DEM President and a split Congress are best.
A Republican Congress will block a Democratic from effectively addressing the pandemic. We cannot afford a legislative stalemate at this time.
--Hiram
Is that similar to you attributing Clinton and Obama success to their wisdom?
Democrats are committed to making government work, which is something we need during times of crisis. We have a president now who disclaims responsibility for government in the midst of crisis, the classic Republican view. Thankfully, that hasn't been as disastrous as it could be, because governors, both Democratic and Republican are working around him, in a classic Democratic approach to governing.
--Hiram
To you it is a "legislative stalemate", I call getting to the best answer... :-)
We will have to agree to disagree that "Democrats are committed to making government work".
From my perception they are dedicated to turning it into a "high paid make work" project. :-(
I call getting to the best answer... :-)
Stalemate produces an answer? But no, Republicans will be obstructive as they were in the Obama years. Indeed, Republican obstructionism is the best argument I know of for voting for Republicans.
--Hiram
They just approved $3 TRILLION in bailouts...
I am pretty sure that is not a stale mate.
Now some serious wrangling and negotiation will need to happen before money is spent. Hopefully.. :-)
I am pretty sure that is not a stale mate.
That could happen because a Democratic house was willing to cooperate with a Republican senate and a Republican president. If the president had been a Democrat, the emergency measures that have been passed would not have happened. The Republican response would have been what Republicans project on Democrats when they accuse us of rooting for failure for political advantage.
Republicans are the party that wants to shift responsibility, especially for tough decisions. That only changes in times of national panic such as the financial crisis at the end of the second Bush presidency, and now during the pandemic as the president and Republicans seek to move responsibility to the states and their governors.Trump blames Obama. If Democrats win the White House, Republicans well then blame the Democratic president.
--Hiram
There was no more basic and illuminating demonstration of the difference between the two parties as when President Trump refused responsibility for response to the pandemic and Cuoumo in few and blunt words, accepted it. The Republican attitude toward problems is that some magical force will solve them, the states, markets, or in Trump's case the healing showers of April. There are times they right, but Republican administrations end in catastrophe because in real and terrible crises, they are so abysmally wrong. But yes, I know, Clinton fooled around. I suppose, in it's way that was a crisis too.
--Hiram
I am not sure I see them as different as you do...
However the GOPers continued increasing of the National Debt is one thing I see as abhorrent about them.
Responsible adults do not cut their income without cutting their bills.
However the GOPers continued increasing of the National Debt is one thing I see as abhorrent about them.
Republicans are committed to lowering taxes. The national debt is of concern to them only when a Democrat is president.
--Hiram
Sadly that seems to be the truth. :-(
Just saw this article in the Washington Post.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/11/republicans-have-already-decided-trump-is-going-lose/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
Things like deficits and fiscal responsibility are talking points for Republicans only in Democratic administrations. What this article suggests is that Trump is now a lame duck, and that in political terms we are already in a Democratic administration. What that means is that Republicans have reverted to positioning during Democratic administrations, that anything they do to improve things generally only serves to help Democrats. And it is something I have always been afraid of. Would Republicans work with a Democratic administration? Would they work with a President Biden and Democrats in Congress as Democrats in Congress have worked with Republicans and President Trump? Recent history isn't encouraging.
--HIram
Hiram,
You definitely live in an interesting alternate universe...
"Would they work with a President Biden and Democrats in Congress as Democrats in Congress have worked with Republicans and President Trump?"
Please remember that Congress investigated Trump, Impeached Trump, Shutdown the government to get spending increases, etc...
I certainly hope the GOPers can do better...
Though I agree doubt that they will. :-) :-(
Please remember that Congress investigated Trump, Impeached Trump, Shutdown the government to get spending increases, etc...
But they cooperated just fine on responding to the pandemic. It's only when it became clear that Trump in all likelihood would be defeated, did cooperation from Republicans in Congress stop. Trump is an awful human being, but that shouldn't for a moment mean that Democrats shouldn't deal with him. We do not dispute the fact that he is the president, the clear and undisputed choice of the 538 Americans in the electoral college who, in their wisdom, thought he was the best person for the job.
--Hiram
Here I thought it was the GOPers and Trump who cooperated just fine when the DEMs wanted money for various things in the bailout programs...
Here I thought it was the GOPers and Trump who cooperated just fine when the DEMs wanted money for various things in the bailout programs...
Sure, because a Republican is president. Fixcal responsibility has never mattered to Republicans when a Republican was in the the White House. The concern now, is that with Trump pretty likely a loser in November, Republicans have shifted to their the Democrat in the White House which means obstructionism to set up wins in Congress in 2022.
Republican presidents will cooperate with Democrats during crises. They worked together very effectively in the financial crisis of 2008. But the lesson Republicans took from that was that end result was the election of Barack Obama, and eight years of a Democrat in the White House, which would have been longer had the winner of the popular vote had been elected.
--Hiram
Please remember that I fully support gridlock in Washington. Without it spending increases and/or tax decrease. And the national debt goes up, up, up. :-(
Just curious...
What are all these things that you want the government to pass / mandate?
A stimulus package would be nice. And should we pay for all that health care? Or should we just stick the health care professionals with the bill, those, of course, who survive.
--Hiram
And where do you plan to get all that money from?
The same place we get the money for tax cuts for the wealthy and our bloated defense budget.
Moose
Please note that US Defense spending is at ~5% of GDP.
Same or significantly less than it has been since 1940.
What percentage of the budget? And how has that changed over time? or has it?
Moose
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