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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsConversation w/ a Repub Bank President: "The GOP Congress is to blame for the lackluster economy"
SAT JUL 07, 2012 AT 10:43 AM PDT
My conversation w/ a Republican Bank President
byZacapoetFollow
..........
Yesterday I ran into Jim and his wife at Starbucks and they noticed my Obama 2012 button, though they didn't make a big deal about it. We talked about the jobs numbers, how things could be much better. And then Jim made a startling statement: "The GOP Congress is to blame for the lackluster economy."
His reasoning, which his wife agreed with, was that the Tea Party has taken over the agenda and they are creating so much uncertainty that business is leery of jumping into the investment pool. He went on to say that this November the Country has to get behind Obama so that the Tea Party can finally be marginalized.
In other words--his Party has to lose at the National level in order to reconstitute itself back to a reasonable facsimile of the America that works for the common good.
Jim and I discussed the need for infrastructure and how government spending now, while the private sector was deleveraging and investment was stagnant, would be the remedy to picking up GDP, until enough consumers were working and deleveraged and able to be self-generating.
Obviously, hearing this from a decent, conservative, reasonable man; a pillar of our community, made me feel that the message is finally getting thru. We on the 'left' must realize that ideological purity is not the path to electoral victory. Jim is voting for Obama because he represents the solid alternative, not because he wants to live in the Paris Commune.
MORE:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/07/1107218/-My-conversation-w-a-Republican-Bank-President
Gman
(24,780 posts)Along with the Bain attacks.
liberalmuse
(18,672 posts)True words. Sounds like a pre-Nixon conservative. They used to be decent human beings - but I don't think our kids will ever believe this.
JoeyT
(6,785 posts)"We on the 'left' must realize that ideological purity is not the path to electoral victory. Jim is voting for Obama because he represents the solid alternative, not because he wants to live in the Paris Commune. "
You can rarely get the concerned person to declare EXACTLY which groups we should abandon, marginalize, or turn against to win those people. Even when you can get them to point out the exact groups that should be marginalized, it's always a group they don't belong to that they want out of the way so they can focus on what's really important, which is the goals of the group they belong to.
I wonder which group ZacapoetFollow would be willing to hand her conservative banker? Women and their reproductive freedom? Gays and their civil rights? Minorities and their civil rights? The middle class? The poor? Which heads would he require for his support and how many would he/she be willing to give him?
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)msongs
(67,496 posts)attacking the repubs for wanting the economy to tank is a great thing to do. dems oughta try it in a unified and forceful all out way, for starters
BlueCaliDem
(15,438 posts)The common goal should be, get the Tea Baggers OUT of the House and OUT of our politics - and that includes Can'tor. The Dems can do it and they must. Enough of the catering to "their friends across the aisle". This is about getting out country back and to ensure that President Obama is not only reelected, but that he has a Congress he can work with so that Citizens United can get overturned (when he appoints the next three justices who'll replace Scalia, Kennedy, and Ginsberg) so moneyed corporations don't go to "their friends across the ocean" in order to buy out government.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)I'm an ex-Republican, but I became repulsed by them long before the teabaggers took over. If they lose in November ( and I believe they will ) the GOP will consist only of its "base": a small circle of intensely fanatical firebrands, which will turn off more and more of the public....which will make the GOP smaller and even more intensely fanatical...which will turn off the public even more.....which will make the GOP even more................................................