Asking:
This is the party that preached fiscal discipline and then cut taxes in time of war. This is the party that still wants to put the torch to Social Security and Medicare. This is a party that, given a choice between Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, would choose Ronald Reagan in a heartbeat.
Why is anyone still listening?
But having already answered:
(Congress, under the control of the Democrats, should never have allowed this to happen, but the Democrats are as committed to fecklessness as the Republicans are to tax cuts.)
So, he mentions that the Democrats are incompetent but still wonders why people listen to the GOP.
A chance to speak in generalities.
The Dems have horribly unpopular radicals social issue problems in their party. Keeping abortion legal, not particularly unpopular. Gay marriage? Always a loser in every where and vote, except for in rare instances in State Supreme Courts. Their bad social policy leads them into quagmire situations at home and abroad, by implementing social policy abroad that is seen as cultural attacks, like birth control and abortion, and at home, lead to stagnation through the use of bad programs, like some kinds of welfare. They love to keep programs that don't work and add new ones. And then there is they hypocrisy, which exists in both parties. McCain would have been a huge change for the GOP, as far as trusting the federal government in policy is concerned, but that didn't happen. In the Democrats, it presents differently. Democrats want abortion rare, a popular opinion, but promise to fund it and make it more accessible, which are horribly unpopular positions that contradict their objective. Obama promises to cut millions out of the federal budget to help decrease the defecit, but then he tries to pass this huge stimulus package that is packed with cuttable political goodies (hint: if you're going to cut pork and worthless programs out of the federal budget, here's a good place to start). Although, this huge bill might be his way of attempting to buy legislaturer and political capital to fund the rest of his campaign, under the cover of it being economic stimulus. Meanwhile deriding making it political. Which always sounds to me like blaming the other party for something he's covering up... Maybe not intentionally, but amounting to that.
The GOP likes to cut popular programs that work and distrusts government so much that they hate to implement large popular programs and make them work. I don't understand what is so unpopular about saving health care money with a barely regulated universal health care system. Instead, they take the risk of having the Democrats deal a blow with an unpopular anti-social rationed, over regulated, abortion funding health care nightmare (in keeping with their inability to make sound social decisions).
Art:
The Republican are like a cracked mirror, in perhaps 3 or 4 pieces. But the Democrats are like a shattered mirror.
The Democrats bleed people into the GOP because of the way they carry out business, from bad social policy to supporting every activist that stands for 'change,' no matter how that change affect and effects society or how much it costs. If the GOP is for the rich guy, the Democrats are for the poor guy, in the class warfare. It's only fair that you acknowledge as much.
For the GOP:
Perhaps the saddest thing is that we live in a society that expect a lot from the government, but says that you are a sucker if you pay for it.
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I suppose, you could say that this bill is the first challenge to Obama's promise of keeping the government lean in lean times, and actually acting in a less partisan political way, and expecting the legislature to do the same. It seems pretty challenging to combat the legislature, especially as a Dem, but Bush easily and handily accomplished the task. If he really wants to do what he said, he just needs to hold out until the Dems cave.
No, I think the only chance Republicans have is to stick with our traditional values and principals, and stay away from the mushy middle.
