Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Thom Hartmann — Conservatives: The New Taliban


Thom Hartmann goes on the rampage.

Conservatives: The New Taliban
Thom Hartmann | The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program | Op-Ed

7 comments:

JK said...

Tom, the thing I don't like about pieces like Hartmann's here is that by putting the bullseye only on Republicans and Conservatives, it gives the Democrats cover to subtly do real damage.

I'm becoming increasingly skeptical of any "Liberal" that doesn't take the time to blame Democrats where it's due.

Roger Erickson said...

Well said, JK. When you come across 2 group fighting, the worst thing to do is EVER take a side. The other side will just vow to fight YOU to the death, and harden their position.

Better/faster/cheaper - always - to be able to say: "Venimus, Vidimus, Perfecimus Eventus Accommodatos"

[WE came, WE saw, WE made a more perfect union.]

Tom Hickey said...

JK, I think it is a matter of proportionality.

I think that conflating the two threats is a tactical mistake. The right is really pretty clear about their ideology and politics. They are pretty simple for people that see such an approach as immoral and anti-democratic to attack.

The establishment on the left is much more devious. Most progressives cannot see that they are being taken for a ride.

To equate the two positions would be a tactical mistake. The duplicity on the left needs to be dealt with separately in my view, and I don't think that they are any less dangerous to distributed prosperity and democracy.

Ryan Harris said...

Stevenson and Wolfers had a nice piece headlining over at Bloomberg today titled, "Is Paul Ryan and Inflation Nutter?" While they aren't exactly Hetero-Economists, it was a nice stab at deficit hysteria.

dave said...

the republicans are batshit crazy, certifiably, ted cruz wants to shut down the government. having said that, it would be nice to see the dems fight for the safety net the way the repubs fight for tax cuts.

JK said...

Tom,

I'm not saying Liberals need to conflate the threats, but they need to at the very least mention in passing that Democrats do plenty of harm as well. And explain why. Otherwise it seems like an endorsement for whatever the Democrats do is good, and whatever the Republicans do is bad.

For example, consider the current issue with Drones and assasination of Americans. Do you remember the Bush years? Liberals would have been going nuts over this. But they aren't right now. Why? Because people like Thom Hartmann aren't making it a big deal. (Maybe Hartmann has made Drones a big deal, I'm not sure, just using him as a reference point).

Are people like Hartmann interested in Liberal values, or are they cheerleaders for the Democrats? That's what I'm getting at.

Dave: "it would be nice to see the dems fight for the safety net the way the repubs fight for tax cuts."

What makes you think that Obama and most of the Democrats actually want to fight for the social safety nets? Doesn't it make more sense to think: if they did, they would… ?

dave said...

good cop bad cop