Robert Reich:
Tonight’s Republican Debate: The 19th Century or the Stone Age?Tonight a bevy of Republican presidential hopefuls hope to emerge as finalists...
Nonetheless, listen tonight (if you can bear it) for anything other than standard Republican boilerplate since the 1920s — a wistful desire to return to the era of President William McKinley, when the federal government was small, the Fed and the IRS had yet to be invented, state laws determined worker safety and hours, evolution was still considered contentious, immigrants were almost all European, big corporations and robber barons ran the government, the poor were desperate, and the rich were lived like old-world aristocrats.
In the late 1950s and 1960s, the Republican Party had a brief flirtation with the twentieth century. Mark Hatfield of Oregon, Jacob Javits and Nelson Rockefeller of New York, Margaret Chase Smith of Maine, and presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon lent their support to such leftist adventures as Medicare and a clean environment. Eisenhower pushed for the greatest public-works project in the history of the United States — the National Defense Highway Act, which linked the nation together with four-lane (and occasionally six-lane) Interstate highways. The GOP also supported a large expansion of federally-supported higher education. And to many Republicans at the time, a marginal income tax rate of more than 70 percent on top incomes was not repugnant.
But the Republican Party that emerged in the 1970s began its march back to the 19th century. Ronald Reagan lent his charm and single-mindedness to the charge but the foundations had been laid long before. By the time Newt Gingrich and his regressive followers took over the House of Representatives in 1995, social conservatives, isolationists, libertarians, and corporatists had taken over the GOP once again.
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...A Perry or Bachmann wouldn’t just take us back to the 19th century. They’d take us back to the stone age.
From the live blogging...
Daily Kos:
6:32 PM PT: Rick Perry "tips his hat" to President Obama for getting Osama bin Laden. But he says he'll give more "propes" (his pronunciation) to Navy SEALs. (edited)
6:32 PM PT: Bachmann slams the debt deal super Congress that John Boehner created because it might cut military spending. More proof that Republicans aren't against spending...just against spending on people they don't like.
6:35 PM PT: Bachmann says it was a mistake to go into Libya (even though not a single boot was on the ground). I guess that's part of her $2 gas strategy.
6:36 PM PT: There's 10 minutes left in the debate. I'm not sure any video moments really stick with me so far, but substantively, I think that exchange between Romney and Perry on Social Security is going to be a big deal over time. It was by far the biggest policy difference in the debate.
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TPM:
9:25 PM: I think Michele Bachmann just said that Ronald Reagan wouldn't allow any mix of tax increases with spending cuts because the actual Ronald Reagan made a 3:1 deal. In other words, because Ronald Reagan did do it, "Ronald Reagan" would not do it.
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9:01 PM: I think Ron Paul just said that 9/11 was caused by excessive government regulation. And let's not forget the Ron Paul classic from earlier in the debate: we don't need an FAA. The
private sector should take over air traffic control.
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9:12 PM: Email just sent out by Romney campaign: "PERRY DOES NOT BELIEVE SOCIAL SECURITY SHOULD EXIST"
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8:38 PM: Ron Paul: You cut me off before I got a chance to explain my ridiculous hypothetical!!! ... Ron Paul: I supported Ronald Reagan forever. I just attacked him after he stopped being Reagan. Or Something.
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9:40: Gingrich says he will fire the Fed chairman “tomorrow.” Which the President can’t do.
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9:17: Bachmann complains that immigrants don’t know American history, despite her own
frequent flubs of the subject.
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9:11: Via Politico’s Jonathan Martin — Rick Perry is wearing a
boy scout lapel pin. Scouts honor.
9:09: Rick Perry calls President Obama an “abject liar” for saying the U.S. border is secure. But
Perry is the liar this time.
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Edited to reflect update to original D-Kos post.
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