Paul Krugman just reflected something that I've been wondering about, and that also has me very concerned. We are very disgusted with the open and unapologetic extremeness of the Republican lies that flow from Romney and throughout the Republican party. It's sad that we've lost the journalistic aggressiveness of the past that would normally expose and ridicule such lies, and that we are now left with, report whatever they say and find an equivalent case from the other side.
The question is, why do they lie so much? Well, it's because they've got nothing! The Republican core beliefs have degenerated, because of the likes of crazy Tea Partiers and greedy Oligarchs, into a mishmash of impossible economic "arithmetic" and mean spirited social policies that would scare the hell out of most Americans if they truly understood what they were proposing.
We like to blame Romney's campaign staff for running such an inept campaign, which he most certainly is, but almost every Republican running for office is running a similar campaign of nonsense economic policies and mean spirited social proposals, completely hidden with lies and deception intended to manipulate an uninformed public and appeal to the most negative human emotions.
Here's how Paul Krugmans blog entitled sympathy for the doofus puts it, below the fold.
What, after all, does Romney have to run on? True, he hasn’t offered specifics on his economic policies — but that’s because he can’t. The party base demands tax cuts, but also demands that he pose as a deficit hawk; he can’t do both in any coherent fashion without savaging Medicare and Social Security, yet he’s actually trying to run on the claim that Obama is the threat to Medicare. On fiscal matters, doubletalk and obfuscation are his only options.
And no, Paul Ryan didn’t show that it can be done differently. His plan was, as I’ve documented many times, a fraud. Furthermore, he’s basically a Beltway creation; the Ryan legend was based on the desire of Washington type to anoint a Serious, Honest Conservative; expose him to the wider scene, and it all falls apart.
It is absolutely crazy to accept multiple opposing ideas at the same time, and yet that precisely defines the Republican party's economic plan. Accompany this with a war on everyone who isn't a rich white male, and you've got a great plan to become a minor party in America's political system. They have only one campaign strategy, lie your ass off and hope they buy into it!
But here's where my concerns are. They were able to convince the public and their own party that George Bush wasn't a true conservative! How is that possible? George Bush gave the conservatives virtually everything they wanted, from tax cuts, to a crazy Supreme Court, to 2 wars, to banning stem cell research... And I think we may have helped shift the blame of what was happening from the policies of George Bush to the ineptness of George Bush.
So now after Mitt Romney caved in and picked Paul Ryan, the conservative dream boy they were demanding, the conservatives are turning on Romney. They know he's on a losing path, and they're getting ready to blame his loss on his incompetent campaign rather than his Medicare proposals, or his tax cuts for the rich proposals, or his slashing government to the bone proposals... Even Cokie Roberts is saying the conservatives are getting ready to blame Romney's incompetent campaign.
We Democrats like to blame Romney's weirdness and his inability to remotely relate to normal human beings for his failing campaign. That may be true, but we repeat the mistake of blaming the man rather than the policies. There are a thousand Mitt Romney's and Paul Ryans waiting in the wings to run the next campaign of lies and deception. It's only a matter of time before a demagogue with charisma overcomes the blunders of a Romney or Bush. And as Bush demonstrated, it doesn't take a lot of charisma for a campaign of lies to fool the public into believing you'll fight for them.
If we make the conservative policies the reason for their failed campaigns, and loosen up a bit on the personal attacks of the candidates, we just might convince the public that it is conservatism itself that is the reason to reject the Republican party, and not the inept candidates. The public needs to understand that if candidates declare themselves to be conservative, they are a representative of the Oligarchy, will run a deceptive and dishonest campaign, and are a direct threat to the 99%, no matter who the candidate is.