Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Right Wing Getting Organized In Wisconsin

I remember initially hearing about this sort of coalition-building after John Gard first lost a Congressional race to Steve Kagan in 2006.

Some GOP activists had simply counted on the GOP and the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and other large groups to raise enough money to buy ads and fuel campaigns, but now they feel out-organized at the grassroots.

Which is correct.

The problem is, or the reality is, that at the grassroots, people are not buying what the Right is selling on basic quality-of-life and fairness issues - - health care reform, environmental or conservation protections, and re-regulation of financial institutions.

People are sick of predatory practices and partnerships between big government and big business, exemplified by the Bush administration's entire two-term disaster.

Furthermore, getting people stirred up over immigration or gay marriage or abortion rights - - GOP, right-wing playbook material - - may make a shrinking GOP base feel good, but it's going to take more than tired ploys to win elections.

2 comments:

  1. "People are sick of predatory practices and partnerships between big government and big business, exemplified by the Bush administration's entire two-term disaster."

    Uh, James, what do you call the Obama administration's relationship with GM, Chrysler, and the banks via TARP?

    Pot, meet kettle.

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  2. To The General:

    TARP was created by Congress and the Bush administration prior to Obama's presidency.

    As i read it, TARP has had some successes, and is a long-term effort to get bad assets off the books of banks that were allowed to behave with rogue-like greed duing the Bush presidency, when regulations was disregarded.

    Obama's relationship w/ GM and Chryser is an effort to save what can be saved, through loans and standards for performance.

    I expect we'll see a smaller GM and merged Chrysler: a down-sized US auto industry, but perhaps with new companies or subsidiaries or brands.

    The Bush era was all about CEO power and self-enrichment, whether on Wall Street or in industries like oil, from which Bush and Cheney came.

    There is simply no comparison w/ Obama.

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