Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Presidential politics What's wrong with Iowa? UPDATE
Posted by Max Brantley on Wed, Dec 28, 2011 at 7:05 AM
Rick Perry's evolution on abortion tells you something about the voter segment represented by the Iowa Republican caucus participant.
He now declares he opposes abortion in rape or incest (rape by a family member) and when a woman's life is merely "at risk." Only solid proof that an abortion would save a woman's life — as opposed to merely preventing dreadful harm — is enough to justify abortion for Rick Perry. He credits his transformation to the anti-abortion movie that is the latest Mike Huckabee family commercial project.
Previously, Perry said he would allow abortion in cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is at risk. He said he changed that view earlier this month after the Huckabee film screening."When the lady who was in it was looking me in the eye and saying, 'You need to think this through,' she said, 'I am the product of a rape' and she said 'my life has worth,'" Perry said. "It was a powerful moment for me."
ALSO: This article notes how Republican candidates pack religious messages into their Iowa ads. (The Mike Huckabee cross, remember?)
UPDATE: And speaking of Iowa caucuses, read on for Gene Lyons' column this week on the process. He thinks as much of Iowa GOP caucuses as I do — largely meaningless and a "marketing device for cable TV news channels' it's "American Idol" for the politically obsessed." As for the candidates? Well, you can imagine.
Pardon me if I fail to join the crowd handicapping next week’s Iowa GOP caucuses like race track touts peddling betting tips on the Kentucky Derby. To begin with, I have no clue. Except on the sports page, I normally skip articles speculating about what might happen tomorrow. Damned if I’m going to start writing them.
Also, who cares? History teaches that Iowa Republicans have a particularly poor record of supporting the eventual presidential winner. In six contested GOP primaries dating back to 1976, Iowans have gotten it right exactly once. They chose George W. Bush in 2000—definitely nothing to brag about.
In essence, the Iowa caucuses amount to a marketing device for cable TV news channels; it’s “American Idol” for the politically obsessed. Their secondary function is to introduce cosmopolitan news correspondents to the homespun wisdom of Real Americans in places like Ankeny, Iowa, a Des Moines suburb where John Deere tractors are manufactured.
A Washington Post reporter found a grandmother there he thought epitomized Iowa voters’ inability to make up their minds. First, she liked Texas Gov. Rick Perry on account of his advertised piety. Then she watched Perry’s hilarious impersonation of a stoned cowboy during the umpty-seven GOP debates, and switched to The Girl with the Faraway Eyes, as Esquire’s Charles Pierce calls her, also due to her religiosity. Alas, Michelle Bachmann “has kind of an annoying voice,” so grandma changed to Newt for a few days before seeing a TV report of US troops pulling out of Iraq, taking no casualties as they went. God, she believed, had protected them in spite of gay marriage, abortion, consumerism and greed. And if God hadn’t given up on America, how could she? So she dropped “the smart one” (Newt) in favor of the holiest candidate of all.
“It was just this big epiphany,” she said. “We’ve got to vote for Santorum! That’s all there is to it.”
If Santorum’s lucky, his newest supporter won’t learn that he has bitterly criticized President Obama on the grounds that very far from following God’s plan, by leaving Iraq the U.S. has “lost the war.” He’s also keen on attacking Iran, a nearby country several times larger than Iraq. Anyway, who knows? Maybe the nice lady in Ankeny—whose vote counts every bit as much as yours, mine, and Lady Gaga’s—would be down with that, although in my experience it’s the rare grandmother who’s enthused about pre-emptive bombing strikes.
Besides, what’s alarming about the GOP contest isn’t the indecisiveness or poor reasoning processes of Iowa voters. It’s the dismal quality of the choices they’re offered. Is this the best one of America’s two major political parties can do? You’ve got to wonder what would happen if they put “None of the Above” on the ballot. With the possible exception of Mitt Romney, there’s not one among them you’d hire to run a Walmart—a difficult job requiring mastery of a million details and an ability to manage people. Of course, if you did hire Romney, you might wake up to find he’d fired all the employees, spun off the grocery operation, and sold the building to Dollar General for a fraction of its value and a player to be named later.
Even the former Massachusetts governor appears only intermittently in touch with the visible world. Recently he described himself as an advocate of “the opportunity society” and his putative opponent as follows: “President Obama believes that government should create equal outcomes. In an entitlement society, everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort and willingness to take risk. That which is earned by some is redistributed to the others. And the only people who truly enjoy any real rewards are those who do the redistributing—the government.”
In short, Obama’s a communist. And the evidence for this preposterous claim? Certainly nothing the president has ever said or done. Obama favors a return to Clinton-era tax rates, a time of balanced budgets and growing prosperity. A multi-millionaire like Romney would find his marginal tax rate on income over $1 million had risen from 35 to 39.6 percent. I believe he can afford it. True, Obama’s health care reform is mildly redistributive, but then so is Romney’s Massachusetts insurance plan it so closely resembles. For that matter, Social Security’s mildly progressive too. But then candidate Romney wants to privatize that. And, oh yeah, bomb Iran.
Or pretends to believe these things, anyway, and none too convincingly. Hence, the confusion we observe.
The GOP’s larger problem is that following upon the 2008 financial crisis, Barack Obama’s election stunned and frightened a significant fraction of the GOP base. Psychologists call it “projection,” the habit of attributing one’s own darkest motives and fears to others. Rather than govern, Republican leaders went with it.
This dreadful spectacle is exactly what they deserve.
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Comments (8)
Showing 1-8 of 8
Anything for a christian vote even ones integrity. As I have said before foreign religious terrorist of any stripe scare the living hell out of me but what I'm most afraid now are our own home grown terrorist using christianity as a shield to hide their own radicalism.
The American christian terrorist -- you know the one that will execute a prisoner without a thought or a incested raped woman who only takes a morning after pill.
If this is the yahoos who plan to live in heaven in some fantansy afterlife send me to hell....
like
dislike
What about the quality of life for a rape victim/survivor who has to carry a constant reminder of her assault?
I'm not saying every rape victim/survivor should abort the fetus if she ends up pregnant by rape but it should be her CHOICE to do so.
I don't know of any statistics about it, but it seems to me that the percentage of anti-choice men is a lot higher than the percentage of anti-choice women. It reminds me of a conversation among some mothers that I overheard. They were debating whether it was more difficult to rear boys or girls. One woman ended the argument with, "Boys are definitely easier to raise than girls, because boys can leave it where they put it and girls have to bring it home with them!"
And this:
Iowa GOP moving vote-count to 'undisclosed location'
http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2011/12/iowa-gop-moving-votecount-to-undisclosed-location-108812.html
Maybe our Republic friends can help me.
Why oh why wasn't Jeb Bush drafted to run?
Isn't the third time always charmed?
Stop letting "Christian" self define- IRA was not Catholic, Taliban not Muslim, Klan is not Protestant and so on. Terrorist is a terrorist. Thupers who hate, snake handlers, flat earthers. Don't willing allow them appropriate legitimate labels.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Snakehan…
Republicans are like Jr High girls afraid of the Mean Girls' rath.
They go along trying to be cool then whenever they are caught not being mean to the targeted girl they are set upon and threatened with not being allowed to sit at the Mean Girls table.
Some regulation is needed ------ DEATH!
Maybe just one little tax increase ----- DEATH!
In-state tuition for kids living in the state over a decade ------- DEATH!
Some path to citizenship --------- DEATH!
Utter the phrase Holiday Tree ------- DEATH!
Stimulus lowered unemployment -------- DEATH!
And on and on and on......
Till finally the girls become aware that the Mean Girl TeaPartiers are really just scared self-loathing shallow bitches.
That is what we are beginning to see occur now.
""Why oh why wasn't Jeb Bush drafted to run?""
Because the Thuglicuns know the bush name is still too tainted by failure and apathy - remember that 'swift' federal response after Katrina? They know they've lost 2012 and are grooming him for 2016, when they hope that they've wrecked the economy enough with obstructionism to make us nostalgic for the 'good old days' and pull the lever. The Democrats need to start picking someone now instead of waiting for the 2015 convention.
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