'Blame the right people' for the financial disaster

[Craig234]

Fern, on the one hand I appreciate some things about your post - the effort and the basic structure to raise issues of straw men and other flaws.

But unfortunately, you are far worse at the flaws in your response, IMO. I don't feel like taking the time at the moment for a detailed response, but I'll give an example or two.

On the straw man side, for example, you repeatedly misrepresent his position. For just one example, he makes an analogy about the tax policy leading to encouraging speculation with 'it being like a gambling operation where the house edge is removed'. That would leave the investor with a 50-50 chance - but you misrepresent his position as saying the investor 'cannot lose' - a 100-0 chance, not what he said at all.

You also post a lot of ideology that's tedious to debate yet again.

For another example of just inaccuracy in your points, you describe Grover Norquist as "an unelected 'talking head'" in criticizing him being assigned a leading role.

That's a terrible misrepresentation - he belongs on the list, Hartmann was right.

Norquist has been called the most influential right-wing figure in Washington for many year, at his peak during that period. For years before and after the deregulation passed, he's chaired a weekly meeting at his anti-tax organization headquarters that's the central planning meeting for the national conservative movement - 150 leading conservatives are invited to set the political agenda, with standing participation from representatives from Bush (even before he was a candidate for President), Cheney, Karl Rove, Congressional leaders, think tanks, media, and a variety of conservative interest groups and lobbying firms, where the purpose is to all agree on the 'message' and agenda week by week.

The meeting has been valuable to the White House because it is the political equivalent of one-stop shopping. By making a single pitch, the administration can generate pressure on members of Congress, calls to radio talk shows and political buzz from dozens of grassroots organizations. It also enables the White House to hear conservatives vent in private ? and to respond ? before complaints fester.

"It really provides a forum where a lot of people with ideas and concepts can talk and have an exchange of views and get organized on various issues," Cheney said in an interview. "It's a very positive influence."

Through the Wednesday Meeting, senior White House officials got their first heads-up about a brewing conservative revolt over a little-noticed comment Bush had made during the campaign endorsing mandatory caps on carbon dioxide emissions. Weeks later, the president drew environmentalists' ire by reversing himself and rejecting the idea of such limits.

..."It is enormously helpful to have a united Republican Party and a united center-right coalition behind the president as he moves forward on his agenda," says Karl Rove, Bush's top strategist, who has known Norquist since both were active in College Republicans.

Here's an example of his influence:

When he was 14 years old, Norquist says, he thought about the value of branding the Republican Party with a simple message: No new taxes. Sixteen years later, as head of a new group called Americans for Tax Reform, Norquist created the Taxpayer Protection Pledge: "I pledge to the taxpayers ... that I will oppose and vote against any and all efforts to increase taxes." Period.

Now, 210 House members, 37 senators, 1,200 state legislators and seven governors have signed The Pledge, which is seen by some as powerful politics and by others as a campaign stunt that ties lawmakers' hands.

Norquist's goals don't stop with taxes.

Tucked under the blotter on his desk is a slender gray sheet of paper with a dozen or so timelines plotted in his cramped penmanship. The chart starts with 1980 and extends to 2050.

Norquist starts a timeline when a party or president endorses a proposal and ends it when the goal is enacted. Welfare reform, for instance, started in 1980 with Ronald Reagan's endorsement and was completed in 1996 with Clinton's signature. National missile defense and a free-trade zone through the Americas are now underway.

...Some conservatives find him, frankly, a little hard to take ? although it's a sign of his clout that none will say so on the record.

This sort of deregulation is exactly his Libertarian agenda - and he shares the blame for that deregulatory agenda being so pushed. Your dismissal of him was inaccurate.

 

[sapiens74]

I'm all for blaming the right people



We the People....