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Originally Posted by roachboy
the right has a brand identity problem. almost every aspect of their ideology has been pulverized by the realities that conservative ideology hath wrought. confronted with a clinton-style centrist in obama, they reverted to clinton-period form and began to systematically lie about obama's politics. because that's how those paragons of personal responsibility roll. when they're in trouble strategically, start lying. do it early and often. lather rinse repeat. you know the drill.
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I think this sums up well the current situation the right faces. If they know any better, they know that Obama's taking a page out of Clinton's book of politics is going to cause them serious problems with regard to how the public views Democratic vs. Republican perceptions of effective governance, especially with regard to the economy from 2008 and onward.
So you have Democrats in power having done what they could to prevent an economic collapse now trying to do what they can to steer the ship to gentler waters. However, with the recent surge in Republican power, the GOP has an opportunity to either a) enable Obama as a Clinton-style centrist appropriator or b) become obstructionists in both communication (media propaganda) and practice (stop or undo Democrat initiatives). Unfortunately, the way the Republicans (as you would say, comrade) "roll" is to be destructive rather than above board. I guess they too learned from Clinton's playbook and wish not to let that sort of thing happen again. It's just unfortunate that the only alternative seems to be steeped in reactionary politics.
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thanks to the conservative-dominated supreme court decision that corporate persons are people too and that those person's free speech "rights" are compromised by campaign limits, and thanks to infighting amongst the reactionary set which presumably didn't find michael steele to be fascist enough, the tea party way born.
palin (tm) is simply a figure-head used by the right to keep the teabaggers mobilized.
this as the momentum they putatively had going into the last elections was dissipated by reality--the tea party elected versions of the same old same old reagan-period milty-freidmany degenerates. and the money people wouldn't have it any other way.
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I think the so-called obsession over Palin is more a concern over a wider scope of American politics. It's not just about Palin; it's about Palin, the Tea Party movement, the Republicans doing their best to raise Reagan from the dead. It's an interest in watching how neocon neolibs flail about with this recent economic upheaval and the political fallout thereafter.
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what it reveals, however, is more interesting: the right can't respond. if they loose initiative in a news cycle environment, they collapse. they are only adapted to the funhouse where their's are the only voices. this is a very basic weakness. the way to adapt to that would be to impose an authoritarian media environment.
conservative incompetence should save us from that.
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I'm disappointed in American conservatism these days. Do you think it's maybe because it's shifted too far right and has left too much of the "conservative proper" behind?
As a contrast, just recently, PM Harper marked his fifth year as a minority leader. It's the longest minority government in Canadian history. There are a number of factors at play as to why this has happened. Minority governments don't normally last very long, most often not even lasting a full four-year term. Harper's staying power, however, has a lot to do with being a shrewd politician. He happens to be intelligent and knows how to play the limits to get what he wants within what's reasonable given the political environment.
Canadian conservatism differs from American conservatism in that no matter how crazy Canadian conservatives might appear to be, they always seem to be rooted in reason and accountability. Although I disagree with their politics, I must say I respect their approach to politics. They're not perfect, and they often do things that I strongly disagree with, but at least they do it in such a way that doesn't test my perceptions of reality.
As a Canadian, what I see in the U.S. has entertainment value. The kind of shit that happens south of the border just doesn't happen here. I do primarily have an interest in American politics, given that America plays such a huge role in Canadians lives; however, I tend to see much of what goes on and watch as though it were some kind of reality show.