Eugene Robinson: The GOP’s Message Problem

[babylonsister]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_gops_message_problem_20111114/

The GOP’s Message Problem

Posted on Nov 15, 2011

By Eugene Robinson


Unemployment is at 9 percent, the housing market is moribund, “consumer confidence” is an oxymoron and three-fourths of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. So how is it that President Obama leads each of his likely Republican opponents in the polls? And why on earth is the gap widening rather than closing?

It’s simple: Voters are paying attention to what the GOP field is saying—not just the applause-line attacks on Obama but also what the candidates propose to do about the economy. The more they talk, the more discouraged the electorate seems to become.

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Their prescription for the ailing economy is familiar: tax cuts and deregulation. Nobody likes to pay taxes, and nobody enjoys having to follow a bunch of rules, but people aren’t stupid. They do recall that we tried these measures under George W. Bush and ended up with a crisis that almost plunged us into a second Great Depression.

According to polls, voters agree with the Democrats on major issues such as ending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and preserving Social Security and Medicare. They agree with Republicans that the government should spend less, but seem increasingly doubtful that any of the GOP candidates would trim the budget in an intelligent and compassionate way.

Michele Bachmann’s call to make Obama “a one ... term ... president!” doesn’t automatically get the big response it used to. Simply being Not Obama isn’t enough. The Republican candidates are trying to sell a bunch of old trickle-down economic policies without even dressing them up in new rhetoric, and it looks to me as if voters aren’t buying.

[unblock]

1. they're NOT selling the same old crap. what they're selling now is EVEN MORE EXTREME

shrub's tax cuts were absolutely ridiculous at the time and it was even more obscene to keep them in place once it became obvious we couldn't afford them (9/11 changed everything, except of course the tax cuts).

but along with the tax cuts for the rich, shrub at least threw a bone to those lower on the income tax spectrum, in the form of a maybe $300 cut. a cruel joke compared to the lexuses they gave to millionaires, but at least it was something.


today's republican proposals actually want to INCREASE taxes on many of the least fortunate while making the cuts for the rich permanent and in some cases making them even more obscene.


they've doubled down on the cruel and crazy.

[uponit7771]

2. They have to be holding their cards close to the chest, there's no way these guys are going to....

propose trickle down or trickle down light