Will they ever admit it doesn't work?

[guitar man]

For nigh on 27 years now, I have watched the neoconservative machine in action, ever since Regan launched Reaganomics, the great "trickle down" theory. It sounded good on paper, supposedly if we gave the richest big tax cuts, corporate welfare etc. and would just roll out the proverbial red carpet for the aristocratic class in this country, it would be good for all of us. I mean after all, they own the businesses, create jobs, build infrasturcture and so on and so forth, so surely, unencumbered by "excessive government", they could create a utopia beyond our wildest dreams.

But, in all the fervor and rush to kiss their diamond encrusted asses, an important question remained unasked by the architects of the great "trickle down" plan. The question: What if they don't? What if they just decide to pocket everything they can get their greedy paws on and to hell with the "common people"? Surely there would have been some caveat built in to the plan to avoid completely wrecking the economy, right? Wrong!

So here we are, 27 or so years later, somewhere along the way "supply side economics" replaced "trickle down", but it's still the same story. CEOs take hundreds of millions for wrecking companies and pop the ripcord on their golden parachutes. Bank failures, fuel prices, inflation, stagnant wages and the list goes on.

Now I turn on the TV and hear the same old tired rhetoric from the right wing politicians and pundits. "If we could just reduce taxes on the wealthy some more, eliminate the cappital gains tax, repeal the *death tax*.....my god if we could just eliminate taxes,regulations and accountibility for the billionaire class,WE'D ALL LIVE IN THAT SHINING CITY ON THE HILL!!" :eyes:

So I'm forced to wonder, when will the average republican voter finally wake up and get it? They love to harp on "wealth re-distribution", but in truth we have witnessed the greatest heist in the history of the world, with the "wealth re-distribution" running the other way. My gods, will they ever get it, or are they so blinded by their hatred of gays and fear of "godless liberals" that they will vote all of us into a hopeless, 3rd world plutocracy?

It sure seems that way. :(

[Liberal Veteran]

1. It actually does work....

But not in the way it's sold to the masses.

It was designed as a palatable way to sell a return to the economics of the Gilded Age (where massive sums of wealth would be gained by a handful of people and ensure a steady supply of peasants on whose back you will get rich).

[phantom power]

2. Will the voters ever admit it's not working for *them* ?

[Liberal Veteran]

7. I'd like to think so, but there is no shortage of Hannitized Foxbot Dittoheads who think....

...that a entertainer who sung her way to riches is an elitist whenever she dares to venture a political opinion, but the drug addicted entertainer hypocrite who hosts a talk show and signed a 400 million dollar contract and regularly hobnobs with rich and famous and politically connected is just "an average joe".

And sadly, they have been indoctrinated. Look long it took to for public opinion about Iraq to sour even when faced with empirical evidence that we invaded under false pretenses.

It is very difficult to fix stupid.

[guitar man]

3. exactly

yes, it is working very well for the Grey Poupon set. I still just cannot understand how they have kept the ruse sold to the "common man" for as long as they have. It's juat beyond me that so many are willing to suffer so much rather than admit they were wrong.....:(

[Kutjara]

4. It's like religion.

Just like the fundies who claim that, if you're prayers aren't answered, it's because you didn't "believe" enough, neocons attribute the manifest real-world failure of their faith to lack of ideological purity. It's little surprise that neoconservatism and conservative Christianity go hand in hand: they both rely on unquestioning belief in stuff that simply isn't true.

[guitar man]

5. touche

Great point, well taken. I just hope enough people will lose faith fast enough to start getting this thing turned around. I'm tired, I've worked my ass into the ground ever since I left high school trying to even come close to doing as well as my parents did and it's like a dog chasing his tail. Now I hear I'm just a big "whiner"....that MUST be the problem. :eyes: "sarcasm:

[caledesi]

8. Well said! NT

[DailyGrind51]

6. They have so many "useful idiots", regular working stiffs who have been

brainwashed by over two decades of indoctrination into believing that it is good for them, somehow. You hear these "megadidiots" calling Rush all the time. They are like the slaves who were relieved when "Massa" was happy, because he usually wouldn't beat them.:-(

[Vincardog]

9. They will admit to the economic reality as soon as they admit to the Failure of the War for Drugs

[unpossibles]

10. what's that saying about the two kinds of Republicans: the filthy rich and the gullible?

I call them the "Lottery Voters" - they vote against their own interest in the hopes that someday they too will be rich (and often times in the deluded belief they already are). They just don't get it. Try to point it out to them, and you are an elitist.

It's kind of brilliant, sadly, how the Reichwing Thinktanks have convinced people to distrust other information - just makes them easier to train.

Sigh.

I wonder how many people will, out of human kindness, donate money they cannot afford to Tony Snow's kids' trust fund?

[ThePowerofWill]

11. It goes farther back than Reagan.

Almost all Republicans after Lincoln, with the exception of Teddy Roosevelt had similar "business first" policy. After Lincoln till Wilson there was only 1 other Dem (Grover Cleavland) prez, and it got you the robber barons, and brought you the financial crisis of 1873, 1884, 1890 and 1896. . Teddy did his best to break them up, and stepped on a lot of toes. He was then shunned by the puke party. The Senate, House, and White House did not see overwhelming Repuke control again until Warren G Harding, with Coolidge taking over after Hardings death. This term of Repuke control brought us to the Depression. If you look at the past you can clearly see pukes are actually poison to the economy.

The Republicans are steeped in a tradition of corruption, cronyism, scare tactics, and big business give aways.