Political Animal's Steve Benen: None Dare Call It Sabotage

[flpoljunkie]

November 20, 2010

NONE DARE CALL IT SABOTAGE.... Consider a thought experiment. Imagine you actively disliked the United States, and wanted to deliberately undermine its economy. What kind of positions would you take to do the most damage?

You might start with rejecting the advice of economists and oppose any kind of stimulus investments. You'd also want to cut spending and take money out of the economy, while blocking funds to states and municipalities, forcing them to lay off more workers. You'd no doubt want to cut off stimulative unemployment benefits, and identify the single most effective jobs program of the last two years (the TANF Emergency Fund) so you could kill it.

You might then take steps to stop the Federal Reserve from trying to lower the unemployment rate. You'd also no doubt want to create massive economic uncertainty by vowing to gut the national health care system, promising to re-write the rules overseeing the financial industry, vowing re-write business regulations in general, considering a government shutdown, and even weighing the possibly of sending the United States into default.

You might want to cover your tracks a bit, and say you have an economic plan that would help -- a tax policy that's already been tried -- but you'd do so knowing that such a plan has already proven not to work.

Does any of this sound familiar?

more...

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_11/026737.php

[impik]

1. This is one dumb country

[bigwillq]

13. You like the word dumb, don't you?

Hmm.

[pacalo]

2. Two glaring examples: the thugs are rejecting ideas that have been their own in the past

& they have publicly said they want to make Obama a one-term president.

The goal: make the public angry at Obama by sabotaging him.

Nothing new to those who have been paying attention; it's just that too many aren't paying attention. The ones who don't like Obama watch/listen to propaganda aimed at destroying Obama.

Obama is a brilliant man & he surely must know this as well as we do. It's what he does with that knowledge that will make/break him.

I hope he does what he needs to do. I don't think I could bear another thuggish regime.

[TobileStack]

3. re: economy

I don't know if anyone is sure how to fix the economy. It's easy to be persuaded into the wrong way, so I wouldn't assume intentional sabotage.

[pacalo]

6. Haven't you been keeping up with the improvements Obama has made already?

The problem is how massive a hole the boy king put this country in; fixing the economy in the condition inherited by Obama isn't going to be a quick-fix & the thugs know it. If you're paying attention to everything the thugs are saying publicly & watching their actions (shunning a traditional meeting between Obama & new leadership, for one thuggish sign of disrespect), there's no *assuming* it's sabotage. If the thugs don't cooperate, nothing will get done (they're hoping) & they're hoping the majority of people will be angry in 2012.

[patrice]

7. That's the crux of it right there; this is a nearly terminal wound that the GOP has inflicted & most

people don't know that and, of the ones that do, some of them are betting that it IS terminal, so they're going for whatever's "next" even though they quite likely do not have the political power to extract from that situation what they are promising others in heading into that particular struggle. Amongst the outcomes we have to consider is the possibility of Civil War II. Something that would make some people in this country quite happy, because they'll retain ALL of the power they currently have, only they will have a much easier time of setting competitors against one another, because each competitor will be weakened by internal divisions caused by secession.

You think we're all slaves now? . . . . !~

[pacalo]

9. Civil war isn't hard to imagine anymore, but I can still see an alternative

that is doable & would go along way in correcting the division. It would require cooperation of all the well-intentioned media, however. Fixed News needs to be marginalized & demoralized to the point no one would admit they watch it. This country's psychology is wrapped around popular trends; expose Fixed News for what it is, in the most damaging media blitz possible, then the fake news network will have turned off a hefty number of its viewers.

Fixed News & the Rush Limpballs are the crux of the division. More people rely on Fixed News than they watch C-Span's coverage of congress goings-on.

[patrice]

10. It seems as though I heard rumors somewhere about a new Progressive multi-media outlet. I for one

would GLADLY pay the $100+@mo I'm paying now for cable tv that I FUCKING HATE, for something that is true and good for everyone!!!

[pacalo]

11. I hope so! Even with that, putting a stop on FN's way of doing business is key.

[patrice]

12. Fully agreed! F*x Ewes is Seditious. nt

[Nancy Waterman]

4. I am so glad someone is saying this

Rec x 1,000,000

Economic sabotage by the GOP. Let this be the new soundbite that goes viral!!

From the article:

We're talking about a major political party, which will control much of Congress next year, possibly undermining the strength of the country -- on purpose, in public, without apology or shame -- for no other reason than to give themselves a campaign advantage in 2012.

[FrenchieCat]

5. That's the fucking truth, and nothing but!

Meaning of Republican

(as of January 20, 2009)

re·pub·li·can (r-pbl-kn)

....a major political party, which will control much of Congress next year, possibly undermining the strength of the country -- on purpose, in public, without apology or shame -- for no other reason than to give themselves a campaign advantage in 2012.

[patrice]

8. Sabotage and Sedition financed by TRANSNATIONAL Economic Royalty.

[Nancy Waterman]

14. kick

Everyone needs to read this and pass it on. Let the new narrative be about the GOP trying to make the country fail: economic sabotage and national security sabotage.