In the annuals of the history of the GOP the southern strategy is one of the most conniving and prolific strategies. In short the southern strategy made the cost benefit analysis that the GOP was never going to be able to capture a significant amount of the "Negro" (as used in a 1970 New York Times article) vote. With that in mind the GOP should just write off the African-American vote and utilize the innate hatred of whites towards blacks to the GOP's advantage. This started the GOP's move to be the Mad Lib of political strategy we know and love today. The GOP's Mad Lib has one single line BE AFAID OF _(INSERT GROUP HERE)_. In short this one Mad Lib line is the sum total of the political strategy that the GOP holds. They have used it for every SCARY group out there. The current move to the party of NO is just a continuation of this Mad Lib but don't fear (well, they want you to fear so do fear) this time it is much much deeper, just like a dog bowl. Here in Texas the Southern Strategy has been utilized pretty effectively by out large shouldered Governor in picking on Immigration; see the Mad Lib works for everything. With his large shoulders Perry has warned his fellow Texans that them sneaky brown folk are coming up to get us! or steal our jobs! or take or money! or something something something..... It all gets confusing when we have to be afraid of so many things.
Fear and the GOP go hand in hand just like fleas and dogs (I ain't calling the GOP dogs) they just go together, and when you wash em off they come back. It is hard to think when the GOP has ever tried to wash the fleas (read fear) off but one would hope that there has to be one instance but after thinking about it for a while and washing my dog a couple of times I still can't think of one but I am still optimistic that there is some instance somewhere and now old rusty is flea free, for a while.
With all this in mind (everything except the GOP being dogs because they ain't technically dogs but they do eat their young, puke and eat it (regurgitating talking points), they are know to travel in packs, but thanking fully I have yet to see one scoot across the carpet but I digress.... They are not dogs!!) GOP Mad Libs make the GOP a one trick dog show (still not dogs) they tie the GOP to a very large tree that they can never get away from. Their political rhetoric is simply a theme and variations or a simple series of fire hydrants, each one in a different place but you open it up and you get the same thing.
With this one single strategy the base of the GOP has been trained to certain dog whistles in dealing with its candidates (they ain't dogs either). A candidate must insert special key words that give a nod to the rest of pack that say hey.... Sniff my butt I'm a-ok. These dog whistles can rage from school vouchers to succession the trick is to make them so innocuous to the casual person but when used those who know what to listen for they will perk up and run to the front door scratching to get to the polls.
The easiest ways to counter this strategy is stay away from the tree and know how long the chain is. This is playing out with the T.E.A. Party; they are doing a pretty effective job of running a rut in the ground to let everyone know how long that chain is, all the right has to do is stay away from it but they don't, they climb into the dog house and try to bark louder. While the barking will always be there and like everyone knows at three in the morning a barking dog is so very annoying eventually they do stop. The left will always have to suffer the barking dog and it's hard to persuade the normal folk around us not run over to see the barking dog but everyone knows that them dogs don't hunt..... dogs dogs dogs.... Still not calling the right dogs.
Watson asked if his definition of revolution included violent overthrow of the government. In a prolonged back-and-forth, Broden at first declined to explicitly address insurrection, saying the first way to deal with a repressive government is to "alter it or abolish it."
"If the government is not producing the results or has become destructive to the ends of our liberties, we have a right to get rid of that government and to get rid of it by any means necessary," Broden said, adding the nation was founded on a violent revolt against Britain'sKing George III.
Watson asked if violence would be in option in 2010, under the current government.
"The option is on the table. I don't think that we should remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms," Broden said, without elaborating. "However, it is not the first option."
“Whether you are talking about a Nikki Haley in South Carolina... a Tim Scott... Pastor Broden here... there is a huge opportunity for us to show the other side of who we are and what we believe.”
SARAH PALIN, 2008 REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
"It’s an honor to support Stephen Broden to represent Texas’ 30th Congressional District. As a teacher and pastor he has made it his life’s work to support the good people of the Fair Park and South Dallas areas in the beautiful Lone Star State. His community leadership helped provide better economic and educational opportunities by supporting private sector efforts to empower the people there. Through his Fair Park Friendship Center, Pastor Broden has provided practical help to those in need, proving that private charities can do much more than government can. As a Commonsense Constitutional Conservative, he is committed to getting our country back to the founding principles of limited government and fiscal responsibility."
PETE SESSIONS, U.S. CONGRESSMAN, TEXAS DISTRICT 32
"Texas needs proven leaders like Stephen Broden in Congress to turn the Democrat tide of record unemployment, taxes, and debt that threaten our nation’s future. Stephen Broden’s conservative ideals and Republican principles would help restore fiscal sanity in Washington and build a brighter future for our community."
If the Republican Party's message during the midterm elections could be distilled into one word it that it has been campaigning against it would be: spending. The Republicans have been campaigning against spending without identifying any particular spending they would actually like to reduce. Except there is one particular program that they have been campaigning against: the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Otherwise known as the stimulus.
In February of 2009 Congress passed the Recovery Act and President Obama signed it, with the intent to prevent the Great Recession from turning into the Great Depression 2.0. While Republicans have criticized the Recovery Act for being ineffective, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report that stated that the stimulus raised the gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7% and 4.5%, lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7% and 1.8%, and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million. Not exactly as ineffective as the Republicans claim. However, over the last year and a half the Republicans have consistently criticized the stimulus as ineffective, and the economy's achingly slow recovery coupled with persistently high unemployment has contributed to the public's overall negative view of the stimulus.
But, while the Republicans openly opposed the Recovery Act in Congress and criticized it in public, many of them worked behind the scenes to secure funds from the stimulus for their own districts. The Center for Public Integrity reported this week about a expansive letter writing campaign, where Congressional Republicans who voted against the stimulus sent letters to federal agencies requesting stimulus funds for projects in their districts. The Texas Observer reports that of the 22 Congressional Republicans from Texas, at least 16 officially requested stimulus funds from federal agencies.
When the GOP picked Pete Sessions to chair the NRCC, residents of the gerrymandered 32nd congressional district wondered, "Has the Republican Party completely lost its mind?" We broke out the popcorn, sat back, and waited for the GOP to implode. Pete Sessions' latest lapse in judgement: backing a candidate who likes to dress up as a Nazi.
The loony fringe of the Texas GOP continues to fall all over itself standing by their big sugar daddy, BP. Louie Gohmert took extremism to a new level when he compared President Obama's demand to BP for $20 billion to who else but Hitler.
Is there a head doctor in the house? President Obama's demands for accountability and responsibility from BP seems to have driven the Texas GOP stark raving mad.
There they go outing themselves again. Republicans are the ones that are easily led idiots who will believe anything a demagogue says. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are perfect examples. And as I recall, W. whined about how much easier it would have been to rule as a dictator instead of a democratically elected President.
Latinos, once a semi-swing group of voters, now have swung overwhelmingly for President Obama and the Democratic Party, and younger Hispanics are moving to the Democrats in even greater numbers:
The numbers speak for themselves:
68% of Latinos approve of Obama’s job (compared with 48% of overall respondents and 38% of whites)
Latinos view the Democratic Party favorably by a 54%-21% score (versus 41%-40% among all adults and 34%-48% among whites).
The GOP fav/unfav among Latinos is 22%-44%.
Latinos think Democrats would do a better job than Republicans in protecting the interests of minorities (by 58%-11%), in representing the opportunity to move up the economic ladder (46%-20%), in dealing with immigration (37%-12%), and in promoting strong moral values (33%-23%)
Wanted to post a quick note about a subject that I think warrants a lot of attention, but about which I have yet to see a post.
Former Assistant United States Attorney and Assistant Dallas County District Attorney Rafael De La Garza announces today that he has switched parties and filed for the Democratic nomination for Criminal District Attorney of Collin County. Earlier this morning, Mr. De La Garza submitted to the Collin County Republican Party a certificate of withdrawal of his previously submitted candidate filing for the Republican nomination for Collin County District Attorney.
(From the press release, via the Quorum Report)
Yes, it's a story about a party switcher. But this time, it's a local official switching from the GOP to the Dems. What's most significant, of course, is that this is happening in Collin County.
Despite repeated campaign promises to always be in the District on weekends, Pete Sessions is working overtime today to kill health care reform.
His latest outburst on the House floor drew "a burst of chatter" in the room, kind of like it does in bi-partisan settings here at home when Sessions gets stuck for an answer and says the first thing that comes to mind, usually a tangent about "socialism" or "Nancy Pelosi."
In his latest gaffe, Pete Sessions defended the insurance industry's practice of charging higher rates to women, comparing the practice to charging higher rates for smokers. Transcript over the jump...
(Really? Huh. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Pete Sessions was one of the first members of Congress to co-sponsor John Boehner's bill, H.R. 3571, to cut off Federal funding to "Any organization that has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency."
The bill was intended as a "de-fund ACORN" measure, but Democrats figured out right away that the broad wording of the bill could also cut funds to a long list of military contractors, effectively defunding the "military industrial complex."
