A Former Republican Insider Begs for Sanity by Thom Hartmann

[sinkingfeeling]

http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/13336-a-former-republican-insider-begs-for-sanity

“Things have changed so dramatically since the days when I first got involved with Republican politics,” says Bruce Bartlett, a former senior policy analyst for Ronald Reagan and executive director of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress. “The Republican Party was the Party of ideas and now it’s the Party of crazy people, ignorant Tea Party people – people who know nothing and are proud of it.”

Bartlett has a long history with the Republican Party serving as a staffer for former Congressman Jack Kemp and he also worked alongside Ron Paul, when the Libertarian icon first came to Washington, DC in 1976. Bartlett worked for Conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation and the CATO Institute, and he wrote columns regularly for Conservative publications like the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, and the National Review. As recently as just a decade ago, Bartlett was advising the George W. Bush Administration on economic matters.

Today, after thirty years of Reaganomics, Bartlett knows that more tax cuts and trickle-down economics isn’t the answer. “Reagan’s policies will not work today,” Bartlett told us. “Today, tax cuts will do no good whatsoever. It is the worst possible solution to any problem at all. We have a lack of aggregate demand. We need to be hiring people and building public works – that’s what the economy needs…I don’t believe in cookie cutter economics.”

Bartlett then jumped on Mitt Romney’s now infamous 47% comments. “Somehow they believe, as Ayn Rand did, the rich are like John Galt…they’re the only ones who are productive. All the rest of us are just lazy bums and moochers and they carry us on their backs,” he said. “And somehow this propaganda has penetrated millions and millions of ignorant fools in the Tea Party, who are the shock troops of this revolution.”

[denverbill]

1. "Somehow this propaganda has penetrated". Really? Somehow?

It couldn't be the vast right-wing media echo-chamber could it? It couldn't be Limbaugh screaming it hours every day, followed by Beck, Hannity, and all the other nutters. It couldn't be elected Republicans slavishly repeating the same tired talking points, in fear of the backlash that Rush would create if they didn't.

I appreciate Bruce's honesty, but I have a hard time believing he has no clue how this could have happened.

[Bill USA]

2. The Republican Party is the "Party of crazy people, ignorant Tea Party people. ...

[font size="3" color="blue"]People who know nothing and are proud of it.”

"There’s no question that Republicans hate democracy when it comes right down to it…It’s very common to hear Republicans say that people on welfare should not be able to vote,” Bartlett told us. He added: “They’re also basically racist. They don’t want anybody other than white people to be able to vote…I think one reason why they’re behaving so crazily is because they’re desperate."[/font]


None of the GOP Toadies of Corporate media will have Bartlett on the air. The media guerrilla Bill Moyers interviewed him last year. But don't expect Charlie Rose to have this heretic on his show.



Recommended!

[ROBROX]

3. THE GOP IS FULL OF FOOLS

This group will have to flush itself twice to get down the drain of history as another FAILURE.

AS THIS ORGANIZATION DIES IT WILL THRASH AND MAKE NOISES BEFORE IT IS PUT OUT OF OUR MISERY.