(I’m old enough to remember when Paul Ryan was the WI GOP’s idea of The Future.)
That is part of the problem Charlie. For all his boyish looks and pleasant demeanor, Paul Ryan was a Randian nightmare. He was one of the believers that it was always wrong to take from the deserving rich to support the country and society at large. Remember…
(I’m old enough to remember when Paul Ryan was the WI GOP’s idea of The Future.)
That is part of the problem Charlie. For all his boyish looks and pleasant demeanor, Paul Ryan was a Randian nightmare. He was one of the believers that it was always wrong to take from the deserving rich to support the country and society at large. Remembering “makers and takers”? Ryan and his ilk, Cruz, Rubio and all the rest, had convinced themselves that their supporters really wanted them to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. When I heard Trump’s speech in New Hampshire on the evening of the day he came down that escalator, and he told the crowd that unlike all the other Republicans, he would protect and enhance their Social Security and Medicare, I called a friend and told him that I wanted to go on record that Trump was going to be the GOP nominee. As the primaries wore on, I remember Cruz and Rubio complaining that Trump wasn’t a “true conservative.” What they didn’t get was that the GOP base weren’t “true conservatives” either.
Paul Ryan was the typical "I got mine, screw you," as his entire education was paid for by Social Security because his father died. Mitch, of course, with all his Chinese money, still wants to eliminate social security checks and throw seniors back in the gutter.
I read the Roadmap for America, or whatever it was called, authored by Paul Ryan. The hair stood up on the back of my head literally. It looked a lot like (with no apologies to Hayek) the Road to Serfdom. Us everyday types would continue to support the super-rich to live off our labor. The whole country would look like a company town, where the company store would take everything you earned. I can’t remember if Ryan did a lip-service repudiation of Ayn Rand’s ideas or not but he was all on board.
Spot on Hopehappens. As far back as Reagan (first president I voted for) there was never a big enough coalition for small government, low taxes, pull yourself up by your bootstraps Republicanism to consistently win. So the R's (e.g. Reagan) drew the evangelicals into the tent with cultural issues like school prayer, saying Merry Christmas and abortion (which is objectively the opposite of small government). Guys like Paul Ryan never really intended to make delivering on that cultural agenda a priority--just use it to win elections. That is why the people that the Trumpist base hates the most are long time Republican elites who they know have been using them for decades. And those elites know that too, which is why they are so afraid of Trump and their own base. It's probably also why a bunch of them don't band together to take Trump down. They know there is no strength in numbers when your own voters hate all of you--they just hate you less than the Dems.
Good points regarding the Trump faithful and Social Security. I never thought that the people who initially sided with Trump wanted to "privatize" Social Security or whatever. Paul Ryan and all of his Randian nonsense about economic freedom by eliminating Social Security and Medicare so that the elderly can be destitute, but "free". What rubbish!
Looked up the numbers to be more precise. 197.9 million people lived in Biden counties. 130.3 million in Trump counties. The 197.9 million produced 71% of GDP while the 130.3 million produced 29%. Doing the math, the average resident in Biden counties was 61% more productive that the average resident in Trump counties. Or if you prefer, the average resident in Trump counties was 38% less productive than the average resident in Biden counties.
I don’t disagree with that at all. My point is that in the event of a schism, the relatively unproductive red districts may be at a disadvantage. A disadvantage they won’t be prepared for because they have no idea.
They look at an electoral map and see that it is about 90% red and they are sure they are the majority of the country. They do not realize that all that red is mostly low density land.
Yes, exactly. I was even surprised by the data on GDP skewing heavily blue. Probably because I never really thought about it. But they should, because they’re the ones yapping about civil war.
I think there will be some logical economic consequences brewing surrounding severe abortion restrictions, but I wonder what the lag time will be.
They watch too much TV and do not realize what a hot civil war would mean. Apart from traumatizing themselves by murdering people, they don't understand that in the current "just in time, on demand" inventory system, the stores shelves will be empty of ALL merchandise in about three days. Stock up now..
(I’m old enough to remember when Paul Ryan was the WI GOP’s idea of The Future.)
That is part of the problem Charlie. For all his boyish looks and pleasant demeanor, Paul Ryan was a Randian nightmare. He was one of the believers that it was always wrong to take from the deserving rich to support the country and society at large. Remembering “makers and takers”? Ryan and his ilk, Cruz, Rubio and all the rest, had convinced themselves that their supporters really wanted them to eliminate Social Security and Medicare. When I heard Trump’s speech in New Hampshire on the evening of the day he came down that escalator, and he told the crowd that unlike all the other Republicans, he would protect and enhance their Social Security and Medicare, I called a friend and told him that I wanted to go on record that Trump was going to be the GOP nominee. As the primaries wore on, I remember Cruz and Rubio complaining that Trump wasn’t a “true conservative.” What they didn’t get was that the GOP base weren’t “true conservatives” either.
Paul Ryan was the typical "I got mine, screw you," as his entire education was paid for by Social Security because his father died. Mitch, of course, with all his Chinese money, still wants to eliminate social security checks and throw seniors back in the gutter.
I read the Roadmap for America, or whatever it was called, authored by Paul Ryan. The hair stood up on the back of my head literally. It looked a lot like (with no apologies to Hayek) the Road to Serfdom. Us everyday types would continue to support the super-rich to live off our labor. The whole country would look like a company town, where the company store would take everything you earned. I can’t remember if Ryan did a lip-service repudiation of Ayn Rand’s ideas or not but he was all on board.
Go back farther and read the Contract with America from Newt, who is still around....
Spot on Hopehappens. As far back as Reagan (first president I voted for) there was never a big enough coalition for small government, low taxes, pull yourself up by your bootstraps Republicanism to consistently win. So the R's (e.g. Reagan) drew the evangelicals into the tent with cultural issues like school prayer, saying Merry Christmas and abortion (which is objectively the opposite of small government). Guys like Paul Ryan never really intended to make delivering on that cultural agenda a priority--just use it to win elections. That is why the people that the Trumpist base hates the most are long time Republican elites who they know have been using them for decades. And those elites know that too, which is why they are so afraid of Trump and their own base. It's probably also why a bunch of them don't band together to take Trump down. They know there is no strength in numbers when your own voters hate all of you--they just hate you less than the Dems.
Good points regarding the Trump faithful and Social Security. I never thought that the people who initially sided with Trump wanted to "privatize" Social Security or whatever. Paul Ryan and all of his Randian nonsense about economic freedom by eliminating Social Security and Medicare so that the elderly can be destitute, but "free". What rubbish!
Oh little Eddie Munster....he used to be so cute.
It was especially hypocritical coming from Ryan, who lived on Social Security survivor benefits following his father's death.
Hypocrisy is a Republican superpower. That and projection as well.
Hypocrisy + shamelessness = MAGA
Yeah. I missed shamelessness. That is definitely in there as well.
Democrats need to go louder with details like that; constantly expose the hypocrisy of Republicans. There’s so much material!
The people that vote republican don't actually care and won't ever listen to it because it comes from Democrats and is fake news.
They aren't the target audience.
"makers and takers"
71% of GDP is produced in counties that voted for Biden. 29% in Trump counties.
Pretty misleading statistic. Biden counties have a lot more population which is why they have more GDP.
Correcting for this to put productivity on a per capita basis, the ratio is about 60-40 which still is a pretty stark difference.
Looked up the numbers to be more precise. 197.9 million people lived in Biden counties. 130.3 million in Trump counties. The 197.9 million produced 71% of GDP while the 130.3 million produced 29%. Doing the math, the average resident in Biden counties was 61% more productive that the average resident in Trump counties. Or if you prefer, the average resident in Trump counties was 38% less productive than the average resident in Biden counties.
Yet the low population counties have way more political pull than those high population counties.
That's not misleading.
That's the truth.
I don’t disagree with that at all. My point is that in the event of a schism, the relatively unproductive red districts may be at a disadvantage. A disadvantage they won’t be prepared for because they have no idea.
They look at an electoral map and see that it is about 90% red and they are sure they are the majority of the country. They do not realize that all that red is mostly low density land.
Yes, exactly. I was even surprised by the data on GDP skewing heavily blue. Probably because I never really thought about it. But they should, because they’re the ones yapping about civil war.
I think there will be some logical economic consequences brewing surrounding severe abortion restrictions, but I wonder what the lag time will be.
They watch too much TV and do not realize what a hot civil war would mean. Apart from traumatizing themselves by murdering people, they don't understand that in the current "just in time, on demand" inventory system, the stores shelves will be empty of ALL merchandise in about three days. Stock up now..
That doesn’t change the implications.