Man, Liberals Still Don't Get It

As exemplified today by this article from Talking Points Memo, generally assumed to be a major source of sense in the left wing blogosphere:

"The Heritage Foundation Might Be Shedding Some Of Its Crazy Soon...

In its first year under former senator and tea party godfather Jim DeMint, there was a growing consensus -- and concern -- that the foundation once renowned for its intellectual rigor might now be more of a political advocacy outlet than a home for scholarly research, albeit of the conservative variety...Heritage's most recent hire could mark a potential return to normalcy and respectability for the foundation.

The new man is Stephen Moore, most recently of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, who is joining Heritage as its chief economist. He has previously worked at Heritage in the 1980's, the Cato Institute, and Club for Growth before spending the last nine years at the Journal."

"It absolutely portends a change over there at the Heritage Foundation," (some jerk at the Cato Institute) said. "Talk in D.C. is very cheap, but when people start shifting their staffs that shows they're aligning with a different position, that actually means something."

"Steve Moore going to Heritage reflects a return to normality."

Okay, let's get to the nonsense nested in this comment.  First of all, the Heritage Foundation has never been " renowned for its intellectual rigor."  It has always been nothing but one more Conservative lie factory.  Second, the man who is touted as bringing a spirit of moderation to the Heritage Foundation has the following resume:  The Heritage Foundation itself, the Koch Brothers owned Cato Institute, the Club for Growth, one of the most strident pro corporate and anti-regulation groups in the country, and the Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal.  The notion that he is a moderate is ludicrous.

Finally, and most importantly, here is what the people at Talking Points Memo really missed:  2014 is an election year.  Every election year, Republicans pretend to be moderates.  Then after they have conned people into electing them, they enact as much piggish legislation as they can, until the next election draws close, when they start again with the phony moderation.  This has been going on for decades- how can people not understand it at this point?  The Republican party is owned by the very rich, and it is going to continue to serve their interests at the expense of the rest of us.  Any behavior that seems to show something different is nothing but a smoke screen.  It's long past time that the rest of us abandon any shred of doubt about that.

Comments

Grung_e_Gene said…
Eagle

This----> "Then after they have conned people into electing them, they enact as much piggish legislation as they can, until the next election draws close, when they start again with the phony moderation."

should be told to every Liberal who thinks Christie is just the type of Guy's Guy who can transcend left/right and who imagine someday soon the come-upance for 30 years of Ultra-Reactionary Screw the 99% over to enrich the 1% is nigh.

Republicans succeed because they understand there is no long term in politics, only short term. Winning now always is the best strategy because of the harm and damage they can do will be forgotten by the time demographics change enough.
(O)CT(O)PUS said…
"Republicans succeed because they understand there is no long term in politics, only short term. "

Let me rephrase that. Republicans win because Democrats are milquetoast. Republicans win because they treat elections, not as a contest of ideas, but as an act of war - minus the shooting - with every high ballistic con and subterfuge they can throw at it.
Magpie said…
The other day I had a surreal moment when the Heritage Foundation popped up in my local news, here where most people have never heard of it:

“One of America’s best known conservative thinktanks has named Australia as the world’s third most free economy, outranking the US after the debut of Obamacare.”

The WTF?:
We have high minimum wage, universal single payer health care and a highly regulated financial sector. If any of these things were attempted in the US they’d go apoplectic with screams of ‘socialism’. Just one more illustration that the Heritage Foundation not only is a lie factory but they cannot even keep their alternate reality consistent to itself.

Expecting that groups like this will somehow have an epiphany of reason or ethics is foolish in the extreme. It is like eating poison mushrooms on some vague hope that the batch you picked just might happen to be, somehow, okay.
Cirze said…
Krugman made short work of this nonsense today.

His blog is almost magical for calling out the wankers.

Love ya,

C

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