Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years

[fascisthunter]

Two Santa Clauses or How The Republican Party Has Conned America for Thirty Years

by Thom Hartmann

This weekend, House Republican leader John Boehner played out the role of Jude Wanniski on NBC's "Meet The Press."

Odds are you've never heard of Jude, but without him Reagan never would have become a "successful" president, Republicans never would have taken control of the House or Senate, Bill Clinton never would have been impeached, and neither George Bush would have been president.

When Barry Goldwater went down to ignominious defeat in 1964, most Republicans felt doomed (among them the then-28-year-old Wanniski). Goldwater himself, although uncomfortable with the rising religious right within his own party and the calls for more intrusion in people's bedrooms, was a diehard fan of Herbert Hoover's economic worldview.

In Hoover's world (and virtually all the Republicans since reconstruction with the exception of Teddy Roosevelt), market fundamentalism was a virtual religion. Economists from Ludwig von Mises to Friedrich Hayek to Milton Friedman had preached that government could only make a mess of things economic, and the world of finance should be left to the Big Boys – the Masters of the Universe, as they sometimes called themselves – who ruled Wall Street and international finance.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

[fascisthunter]

1. kicking for Hartmann's article

[mopinko]

2. just listening to thom on the way home. he was explaining this on his show.

love, love, love thom. a firmer grip on history you are not going to find.

[jazzjunkysue]

3. Incredibly direct, simple explanation of the repubican rape of our country.

"In reality, his tax cuts did what they have always done over the past 100 years – they initiated a bubble economy that would let the very rich skim the cream off the top just before the ceiling crashed in on working people."

I just saved this to my hard drive.

Thom Hartmann for president.

[Raineyb]

4. It would be nice if the economic team would read this

But I won't hold my breath.

Regards

[snot]

5. K&R -- this is a really great article!

[jazzjunkysue]

6. Last week a DUer posted about The Game. This is The Game.

It's real. Damn.

DU keeps me ahead of everything.

I love you guys! :hug:

[Kaleko]

7. K & R

[fascisthunter]

8. a great quote:

"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt , a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

[dkofos]

9. Great read. People need to know how they've been played for the last 30 years.

[Cardiff]

10. Great article!

It made me mad though.