Political Commentary

The "Southern Strategy" pioneered by Nixon's people ended up costing the Republicans in the long run.

And with that strategy came a political philosophy that was totally screwed up in the head. Not only was the race card stupid in the long run with all of the demographic changes in this country, but the anti-government nonsense, which wasn't so much anti-government so much as anti-government for everybody but the very, very rich, currently Friedmanism, had been discredited before with the Great Depression. This country is repeating itself again, only this time there is a network of think tanks and propaganda media outlets to back the extremist philosophy which has been such a disaster.

Oh, the GOP will come back all right, especially if Obama fucks it up. I still am not sold on his alleged "intellect"; I don't really think he has it and will have to depend on Biden and others who know what in the hell they are doing in order to fix this mess. And even if Obama did have the acumen, the problems may be too huge to fix.

It took 40 years of GOP extremism to get to this point, and it will take many years, if ever, for the country to right itself.

Michael Lind, in his book Up From Conservatism, wrote about the same thing as Paul Krugman.

Campaign Follies. [Updated]

Now convince me, Obama supporters, your candidate is something other than a ringer for the GOP.

This guy is NOT, repeat NOT, a Democrat. Now he wants to expand "faith-based" programs:

Reaching out to evangelical voters, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is announcing plans that would expand President Bush's program steering federal social service dollars to religious groups and - in a move sure to cause controversy - support their ability to hire and fire based on faith.

Yeah, give these outfits federal money and allow them to discriminate. That's REAL progress.


[Edit: According to Lynn Sweet's column, Obama addresses the discrimination aspect and says groups would have to comply with federal anti-discrimination law:

The new partnership will not endanger the separation of church and state, so long as a few basic principles are followed. First, if an organization gets a federal grant, it will not be permitted to use that grant money to proselytize to the people it serves, and the group will forbidden to discriminate against them on the basis of their religion. And groups will be required to comply with federal anti-discrimination laws in their hiring practices—including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

Second, federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples, and mosques will only be allowed to go toward secular programs. And Obama will ensure that taxpayer dollars only go to those programs that actually work.

Regardless of the clarification, it's still dangerous pandering.]

This is supposed to be an attempt by Obama to appeal to the South's "evangelical" voters. They aren't going to vote for him no matter what. The AA vote isn't even the majority vote in that region, so he can just forget it.

Get a clue, Obama supporters: The GOP is now controlling BOTH of our major parties.