GOP: Getting Back to Base-ics?

Now, would someone in the corporate media care to discuss “Republicans in Disarray?”  Heaven knows it’s been a hallmark of coverage about issues within the Democratic Party.  As a former adherent of the GOP, and now as a complete outsider, I’ve had some rambling notions about what’s been happening since the 1980′s.  Here they are.

Ancestor Worship

The election of President Ronald Reagan was a significant one for the Republicans, and the popularization of the Southern Strategy by GOP activist Kevin Phillips continued into the decade.  The Republicans offered a home for the Dixiecrats, the gun lobby, and the “God, Guns, and Gays” wedge issue proponents who found succor within Republican realms.  His was the “Southern Strategy Fulfilled.”  All of this made it far easier for the beknighted President to advance an agenda that was blatantly anti-union, persistently pro-banking, and generally pro-corporate.   He was, however, not the consistent opponent of the New Deal some conservative would like to remember.

“Reagan increased payroll taxes in 1983. History records that, alarmed by spiraling deficits, he signed tax increases during six of his eight years in office. Even so, his administration tripled the national debt, to almost $3 trillion.” [Salon]

He pulled U.S. forces out of Lebanon after the Beirut Barracks bombing. He gave amnesty to undocumented immigrants.  He did not privatize Social Security, instead he raised the payroll taxes.   What he did do was to popularize some right wing ideas which advanced the corporate agenda (to break the social compact between citizens and their government) such as the “welfare queen.”  Reagan’s world was “Leave it to Beaver” without the unionized employees who made the show possible.  It was “Ozzie and Harriet” without any African American neighbors.  It was “See The USA In Your Chevrolet” without acknowledging the Eisenhower Administration’s grand public works project — the Interstate Highway system.  Reagan, instead, paved the route for the Bush and Rove show.

The Bush-Rove Bargain

The Show was abetted by the advance of right wing talk radio in the AM revival after the fairness doctrine was eliminated during the Reagan Administration in 1987.   The Reaganesque mythology of welfare queens was translated to the John Birch Society – Randian free market mythology, and further transmogrified into Compassionate Conservatism, proving  once and for all times that a snappy slogan exempts the speaker from having to provide any specific, cogent, or rational policy proposals on any given subject.  The spins, the twists, and the dog whistling created an environment in which the Oil Barons, the Bankers, and the CEO’s were the Blesséd Among Us, while the rest of the nation’s population would have to demonstrate their worthiness to receive the charity of the country.  If this is sounding a bit familiar, it should.

The Truth Tellers

One of the well documented features of the Romney-Ryan election efforts was the casual association their campaign had with the truth.  Nor did their campaign suffer from a surfeit of consistency.   Indeed, one of the highlights came when this quotation was captured: “I’m not familiar precisely with what I said, but I’ll stand by what I said, whatever it was,” Romney responded.” [RS]  How on Earth could a candidate get away with this?  Even worse, there was this comment from the Romney camp: “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers,” Romney pollster Neil Newhouse said at a panel organized by ABC News.” [HP]  The answer may well be that Governor Romney assumed that the Mythology of Reagan, the focus group centered conservatism of Bush, the fulfillment of the Southern Strategy, and the cynicism toward information from the media created by the GOP-Fox-Right Wing radio Echo Chamber, would all culminate in a successful election effort.

What Went Wrong?

Policy Matters.  Those corporate friendly policies of the Bush Administration which tended toward de-regulation, capital flight, and “creative” products to enhance investment revenues collapsed in a staggering heap circa 2007 and 2008.  We went from “Greed Is Good,” back to “Greed Is One Of The Seven Deadly Sins.”

Item – The vaunted and well publicized Supply Side Theory of economics proved illusory, in all probability because it was a hoax in the first place.  It may take the American public some time to understand the facts, but as of 2008 they were inescapable — low taxation did not, and never had, create economic growth in the real economy. No amount of spinning, theorizing, generalizing, or rationalizing can make this ideological theory whole again. Yet the Romney campaign persisted, enabled by the plutocrats on the Rove donor lists, the Club for Growth, the US Chamber of Commerce, and the bankers.

Item – The Republicans themselves, at least in the form of former House Speaker New Gingrich, recognized that they had a Financialist candidate in a race wherein the electorate was still reeling from the effects of financialist excesses.   American voters rejected the Supply Siders, in favor of a candidate whose economic policies emphasize growth not European style austerity, which seems to have done precious little for the Eurozone economic growth rate.

Item – the conservative complaints about immigrants being a curse upon the civil state were strident enough to cause Hispanic voters to express their opinions in the polling that mattered.  Opposition to the DREAM Act, calls for self-deportation, “papers please” legislation,” and charges that the Hispanic community was basically “unAmerican,” didn’t help expand the numbers for the Republican Party.

Item – That “rape thing” in combination with wholesale assaults on the Affordable Care Act, attached to radio ranting about “sluts” who take birth control pills, and associated with the most extreme anti-abortion rhetoric wasn’t good for Republicans either.  Only 15% to 20% of Americans believe that abortion should be illegal in all instances. [PR]  Proposing to adopt policies supported by 20% of the population doesn’t seem to be a constructive way to attract votes from the 46.2% of American women who are registered to vote. [Census]

Leadership 

Leadership matters.   Those not self identified members of the Republican Party have marveled at the importance attached to the opinions of the right wing radio ranters in GOP politics.  There have been several instances in which members of Congress, for example, sought to distance themselves from or disagree with radio commentator Rush Limbaugh — only to walk back their criticism almost immediately. Unfortunately for Republican politicians, Mr. Limbaugh’s misogynistic, racist, and otherwise radical offerings are associated with the fringe right not the moderate middle.

It is handy to have one’s own television network, but Fox News however helpful it seeks to be has done a poor job of informing its viewers.  Studies from the University of Maryland and Fairleigh Dickinson University both demonstrated that Fox viewers were the least well informed, and were often willing to accept obviously inaccurate information.  [HP] Fox’s response was to attack the Universities, not to deny the results of the studies.  The Republicans could be certain to count as theirs the votes among the Fox viewers, but while Fox draws about 604,000 per day [TV] it should be recalled that there are 112,806,642 people in the country between the ages of 18-44, another 81,489,445 aged 45-64, and some 40,267,984 over 65.   In slightly more stark terms, Fox is reaching 604,000 daily viewers out of 234,564,071 of those eligible to vote.

Item – An echo chamber can also be a trap.   From the outside it appears the Republicans can’t decide if they are a Party with its own radio and TV broadcasters, or if they are the operatives responsible for promoting the policies sought by  one television network, and a handful of broadcasters on AM radio.   The Party appears to be functioning without a national spokesperson — is the anointed one Rush Limbaugh? Senator John McCain? Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly?  Governor Mitt Romney? Senator Mitch McConnell?  What are we to think of a party that for two election cycles didn’t (or couldn’t) use the services of its most recent incumbent?

Having an incumbent in the White House is always an advantage, but President Obama is the acknowledged leader of the Democratic Party, and has secured the support of former President Bill Clinton, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senator Dick Durbin, Senator John Kerry, and the imprimatur of the Kennedy family.  GOP spokesperson may rail about the “Chicago” clique responsible for the Obama Campaign, but there’s no mistaking the fact that unlike the GOP there is a clear coterie of national Democratic leadership aligned with an incumbent president.

In Fine

Ancestor worship, focus group politics, and the narrowing perspective along polarized lines promoted by a self referencing media does not constitute a recipe  for long term success.  Self definition works better.  If the GOP is truly the Small Government Party, then the privacy invasive anti-abortion portion of the base will be disappointed.  If the GOP is the Party of Big Business, then eventually small business owners will come to define themselves separately from the mega-corporations and the bankers.  If the GOP is the Party of Social Conservatives then does it permanently constrain its membership to the 20% to 30% of voters for whom issues like abortion are primary considerations?

Perhaps the Party might want to look at Democratic efforts to realign itself after 1988?  There’s a template there should the GOP choose to follow it, but WARNING — it requires moderation.

Wynn Joins the P.I.T.Y Party

Poor Steve Wynn — the Nevada gambling mogul isn’t getting the respect he deserves! To hear him tell it:

“I’ll be damned if I want him (President Obama) to lecture me about small business and jobs,” he told Ralston. “I’m a job creator. Guys like me are job creators and we don’t like having a bull’s-eye put on our backs.”

“I can’t stand the idea of being demagogued, that is being put down, by a president who hasn’t created any jobs and doesn’t even understand how the economy works,” he added.”  [LVSun]

Stephen Colbert had some well chosen words for this attitude, and offered a solution — the formation of the Protecting Industry Titans and Yachtsmen, or the P.I.T.Y. Party.  Evidently, Mr. Wynn is seeking membership.

The moguls like Wynn  certainly are getting touchy these days.   Mr. Wynn is sounding ever so much like hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman, from Freeland’s article, and Colbert’s satire:

Cooperman argued that Obama has needlessly antagonized the rich by making comments that are hostile to economic success. The prose, rife with compound metaphors and righteous indignation, is a good reflection of Cooperman’s table talk. “The divisive, polarizing tone of your rhetoric is cleaving a widening gulf, at this point as much visceral as philosophical, between the downtrodden and those best positioned to help them,” Cooperman wrote. “It is a gulf that is at once counterproductive and freighted with dangerous historical precedents.”  [New Yorker]

Excuse me for a moment — as a member of the 53% who did pay federal income tax in 2011, but whose vehicles must do without their own elevators, I have to ask: When did getting your itty-bitty feelings hurt preclude you from making sound business decisions in your own interest?

First, what happened in the recent recovery which might have exacerbated the sense that the 0.1% were raking in far more than might be expected for any small element in the overall economy?

Chrystia Freeland captured the trends in two paragraphs back in 2011:

“Before the recession, it was relatively easy to ignore this concentration of wealth among an elite few. The wondrous inventions of the modern economy—Google, Amazon, the iPhone—broadly improved the lives of middle-class consumers, even as they made a tiny subset of entrepreneurs hugely wealthy. And the less-wondrous inventions—particularly the explosion of subprime credit—helped mask the rise of income inequality for many of those whose earnings were stagnant.

But the financial crisis and its long, dismal aftermath have changed all that. A multibillion-dollar bailout and Wall Street’s swift, subsequent reinstatement of gargantuan bonuses have inspired a narrative of parasitic bankers and other elites rigging the game for their own benefit. And this, in turn, has led to wider—and not unreasonable—fears that we are living in not merely a plutonomy, but a plutocracy, in which the rich display outsize political influence, narrowly self-interested motives, and a casual indifference to anyone outside their own rarefied economic bubble.”  [Atlantic]

BUT, don’t mention any of this or they’ll get their feelings hurt?

Note that both Cooperman and Wynn perceive themselves as members of the focus group formulated Job Creators category.  If one remains hermetically sealed in one’s “rarefied economic bubble,” then this might be understandable.

Thus within the confined realm of their “narrowly self-interested motives,” excluding the needs of any around them, Wynn and Cooperman are free to indulge in the level of self pity necessary to excuse their opposition to paying a mite more in taxes to support the interests of any others. Or, that other 99%.

Secondly, “it’s all about me,” isn’t necessarily a good philosophical foundation for business practices.  Note the arrogance of Wynn’s articulation, “Guys like me are job creators and we don’t like having a bull’s-eye put on our backs.”    Mr. Wynn should know better.  What happened to his business in the wake of the Housing Bubble collapse?

Visitor volume, reported as 54,267,549 for Nevada in 2008 dropped to 49,731,901 in 2009.  It dropped to 49,684,782 in 2010 as the Recession deepened.  [NVRA]  Airport travel, convention attendance, visitor volume, all those statistics Nevadans watch carefully were down.  People de-leveraging from household debt, and especially those who lost jobs, don’t answer Nevada’s siren songs.  Those people are included in a group commonly called CUSTOMERS.

If too many customers are too financially strapped to play with our fancy lights and whistles money grabbing machines or to play at our flashy green tables then Mr. Wynn’s operations decline — back to the bad old days of the Bingo Parlor in Maryland?

Who doesn’t understand how the economy works?

If those who consider themselves the Elite excavate their own custom designed bunkers in which only their economic needs really count, and bombard the political system with their avaricious ideology, then it won’t be too long until the customers they require to sustain their operations evaporate.

Income inequality trends were in place prior to the Recession, as illustrated by this graphic from the Congressional Budget Office:

Income increased by 275% for those in the highest quintile, by 65% for the next highest group, by just under 40% for the next 60% of the income earners, and 18% for those in the bottom quintile. [CBO]

Notice that since 1982 the percentage of wealth accumulating to the top 1% of American income earners has increased, and increased rather dramatically since 2002.

Now it’s time to ask the obvious question:  If wealth accumulation trends continue, and it appears that they have during the recovery period –

“In 2010, average real income per family grew by 2.3% (Table 1) but the gains were very uneven. Top 1% incomes grew by 11.6% while bottom 99% incomes grew only by 0.2%. Hence, the top 1% captured 93% of the income gains in the first year of recovery. Such an uneven recovery can help explain the recent public demonstrations against inequality. It is likely that this uneven recovery has continued in 2011 as the stock market has continued to recover. National Accounts statistics show that corporate profits and dividends distributed have grown strongly in 2011 while wage and salary accruals have only grown only modestly.”  [Saez pdf] (emphasis added)

– then how do the ultra-rich intend to keep their businesses profitable?  Especially in Mr. Wynn’s case, the casinos being essentially entertainment retailing?

One of the time honored ways to determine if a business is in trouble is to see if it is gaining a larger share in a declining market.   Obviously, if a declining number of people have the financial capacity to spend their discretionary income on entertainment, then this doesn’t bode well for entertainment establishments.   Pursuing economic and taxation policies which precipitate further contraction in wealth accumulation among a majority of the population isn’t conducive to creating an expanding market for anyone’s products.  The President appears to have grasp this point, Mr. Wynn and Mr. Adelson perhaps not so much.

Job Creators

Moguls do not create jobs.  Moguls, and other businesses owners, hire people.   If they have a lick of sense they do not hire anyone they don’t need.  Another time honored rule of personnel management says:  If you don’t need Cousin Harry don’t hire him.  Nothing will drive any business into the ground faster than an inflated payroll — especially when it threatens to morph into the  family tree.

For the umpteenth millionth time — staffing levels should only be increased when the current employees cannot make or provide the goods and services demanded by the customers, with an acceptable level of customer service.

Demand is what creates jobs.  For all the self-congratulatory posturing of the economic elite, if no one is buying the vehicles, purchasing the furniture, or spending a night with the slot machines — there will be less demand and with less demand comes the natural restrictions on hiring.  The old Supply Side Hoax was never more than an artificial justification for greed.  It certainly isn’t the way to keep an economy growing.  The President understands this, some of the touchy moguls not so much.

Perhaps someone would like to procure one of Mr. Colbert’s Million Dollar Certificates, suitable for framing, telling Mr. Wynn that at least one person likes him?

Coffee and the Papers: From the Ridiculous to the Whatever

** Nevada politics is nothing if not highly entertaining.  Consider this pithy summation of the Nevada GOP’s leadership issue:

“The Republicans, pounded by Democrats in critical races the last two cycles, have a reasonable chance to win the state for Mitt Romney, hold onto John Ensign’s Senate seat and take over the Legislature’s upper house. And the glue holding that all together — the man charged with raising money, attacking Democrats and articulating GOP principles — is a Laughlin constable and former strip club lobbyist found guilty of ethics transgressions by two tribunals and whose odiferous city land deal has revolted everyone (except the folks at Roundheels Central on Stewart Avenue), including a conservative think tank on Tuesday.  Come on, folks. This must be a joke.”  [full story Las Vegas Sun]

Well, let’s see now, there seems to be a bit of history.

February 12, 2012:  “Early last fall, when Florida Republicans defied the national party and moved their presidential primary to January, Nevada Republican Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian issued a defiant statement.  “No matter what, we will not allow this disruption to interfere with our goal of creating a presidential caucus that will be the pride of the Western states,” Tarkanian said. “This situation gives Nevadans the opportunity to showcase our ability to adapt and establish our state as a major player in national politics.”  [Las Vegas Sun]

February 5, 2012: “Unable to control how its county parties count and report results, state Republicans were scrambling Sunday to explain why, almost 24 hours after most caucuses ended, the votes still have not been counted. [Politico]

January 5, 2012: “The head of the Nevada Republican Party, Amy Tarkanian has announced her resignation.  Thursday, Tarkanian sent a statement announcing her resignation since her husband is considering a run for Congressional District 4.” [News2]

April 24, 2010:  Sue Lowden proposes “chickens for checkups” health reform plan. [C&L]

November 16, 2009: “Dr. Chris Comfort replaces Sue Lowden, who resigned Sept. 30 to launch her campaign for the GOP U.S. Senate nomination and try to unseat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in next year’s election.”  [NNV]

And so it goes.

**  The Political Animal notes the activities of ALEC, right wing legislators, and national Republican leaders to enact vote suppressing laws, but “…a less well-known phenomenon might be called “bankrupting the vote,” as states and localities (particular cities with heavily Democratic electorates) struggling with fiscal crises simply can’t afford to adequately staff and administer elections. “  Read the full report here from Reuters.

** Heaven Forefend we’d actually pass a transportation bill wherein states and construction contractors would have a realistic expectation of long term infrastructure improvement projects.  “Also look for the House and Senate to start reconciling their differences over federal highway funding. Last week, the House passed an extension of highway programs through the end of the fiscal year, HR 4348. In March, the Senate approved a two-year extension, S 1813.“  [NRDC]

** There’s a report from the VA’s Inspector General that isn’t getting half as much publicity as it deserves.   “The Department of Veterans Affairs’ mental-health care system suffers from a culture where managers give more importance to meeting meaningless performance goals than helping veterans, according to testimony before a Senate committee Wednesday.”  [WaPo]

“Contrary to VA claims that 95 percent of first-time patients seeking mental-health care in 2011 received an evaluation within the department’s goal of 14 days, just under half were seen in that time frame, the report found. A majority waited about 50 days on average for a full evaluation.”  [WaPo]

From the report summary:

“VHA does not have a reliable and accurate method of determining whether they are providing patients timely access to mental health care services. VHA did not provide first-time patients with timely mental health evaluations and existing patients often waited more than 14 days past their desired date of care for their treatment appointment. As a result, performance measures used to report patient’s access to mental health care do not depict the true picture of a patient’s waiting time to see a mental health provider.”

The full report is available in PDF format here.

** It’s really very hard to get beyond House Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) comment that a “good” way to finance the reduction in student loan interest rates would be to take the money from the Affordable Care Act’s provisions for cancer screenings for men and women, wellness education programs, and immunizations for children, which he said was a “Slush Fund.”   HHS Secretary Sebelius has more to say here.

**  Did we know that when Nevada Representatives Amodei  (R-NV2) and Heck (R-NV3) voted for the Ryan Budget that they voted in favor of locking in the doubled interest rate for student loans?  We do now.

** Thus much for “Listening to the Generals.”  The GOP controlled House of Representatives rejected the Pentagon proposal for the next round of BRAC (base realignment and closure) Commission recommendations. [The Hill]

**  One of the more interesting characterizations of the upcoming presidential race from the President’s interview with Rolling Stone:

“I think the general election will be as sharp a contrast between the two parties as we’ve seen in a generation. You have a Republican Party, and a presumptive Republican nominee, that believes in drastically rolling back environmental regulations, that believes in drastically rolling back collective-bargaining rights, that believes in an approach to deficit reduction in which taxes are cut further for the wealthiest Americans, and spending cuts are entirely borne by things like education or basic research or care for the vulnerable. All this will be presumably written into their platform and reflected in their convention. I don’t think that their nominee is going to be able to suddenly say, “Everything I’ve said for the last six months, I didn’t mean.” I’m assuming that he meant it. When you’re running for president, people are paying attention to what you’re saying.”