This is good in every way. It gets more crazies out into the spotlight so that the official GOP position is that they're fucking nuts and it forces the rest of the GOP to swing hard to the right and isolate themselves even further from the majority of the country.
Sure, it allows the Dems to cozy up even further with the corporate interests who openly bribe them at the expense of everyone else due to the "Ha ha, what the fuck are you sushi-eating, tree-hugging bitches going to do about? Vote for our opponents?" factor, but I'm a rich white guy so that doesn't actually put me out any.
But you have to worry about being too cozy to corporate interests as well. After all, they're part of the establishment, and Cantor wasn't noted for his distance from them either.
[...]
Wait. After years of arguing for tax breaks, deregulation, and the ability to spend unlimited amounts of money bribing elected officials,
now you complain about corporate influence? For fuck's sake, you and every other rightist argued and voted and sometimes even donated money to make this happen, and now that you've proven successful, you're going to complain about your own success? What did you think would be the result of everything you argued for?
Obligatory: what's so great about communism? Why do you hate America? Why do you hate our freedom? [/conservolibertarian]
It was the Democrats who voted overwhelmingly for the TARP bail-out after Republicans had defeated it. It was Democrats who voted overwhelmingly to keep the Export-Import Bank when Republicans tried to abolish it. Of course we need to de-regulate because it is big business that writes the regulations, and they do so in their favor. But I'll give the Democrats some credit here. It was the Carter Administration that finally abolished the Interstate Commerce Commission. It was the Carter Administration that de-regulated the Savings & Loans. It was the Carter Administration that ended price controls on oil. And it was Ted Kennedy who led the fight to de-regulate the airlines. Those were all very good things.
The ICC was created way back in 1887 to regulate the railroads, and the first thing it did to protect the consumer was to INCREASE the price of railroad fares. It hasn't changed much since. When Ted Kennedy got his de-regulation of the airlines bill through Congress, airline fares plummeted. Almost all the airlines in operation back then have since gone bankrupt. They couldn't compete when they had to lower their fares. Government regulation is costing the consumer bundles.
Even if I accept your claim that TARP was mostly or entirely the Democrats fault (pure nonsense, but we can ignore that for now), are you saying that the massive influence corporations have over our government is entirely due to TARP? You can't possibly be that out of touch with reality.
You and all the other rightists argued passionately for policies that would amplify corporate influence over government. For the past several decades, you and the vast majority of other rightists voted, wrote letters to the editor, donated money to political campaigns, volunteered for rightist causes, and spewed bumper sticker arguments at the water cooler in order to promote policies that made increased corporate influence over government inevitable.
You deregulated. You defunded regulatory agencies. You insisted that we allow unlimited political bribes (excuse me, "campaign contributions") made in secret. You insisted that corporations be allowed to donate money to political campaigns, even in states where such a thing was illegal. You demanded lots of tax cuts so that very wealthy people and large corporations would have more money to corrupt the political process. You insisted that we had to do these things in order to be "more free."
So now you have been successful. All the things you wanted have come to pass, but we should not accuse you of having any part in increasing corporate influence over government because... TARP? Seriously?
TARP is a symptom, not the disease. It is not what caused what we see today, it is the inevitable result of all the things you demanded for the past several decades.
Why would you work so hard for so long to make something happen, then complain when it happens? Your response makes no sense.
