Carl Hitchens - tracking the self …
Carl Hitchens - tracking the self …
2013
GOP presidential hopefuls seek to distance themselves from Romney
By Alexander Bolton - 08/14/13 07:12 PM ET
“Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other likely 2016 GOP presidential candidates are sounding populist themes in battleground states, trying to distance themselves from Mitt Romney’s 2012 campaign.
“Cruz, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) have been reaching out to working-class voters as they visit states like Iowa and New Hampshire, in the belief that Romney's bid fell short because he did not try hard enough to win over that segment of the voting public.
“Santorum declared at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, that it’s time for the party to abandon the dictum that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats…’
“President Obama has just said that's a bunch of conservatism that doesn't work. And this whole notion that a rising tide lifts all boats, all that is is a ‘you're-on-your-own’ economy, and we don't need a ‘you're-on-your-own’ economy. We need a ‘we're-in-this-together’ approach. We need socialism, he says,” Limbaugh told his listeners.
"Rising tide." Yeah, right. Do Limbaugh and ilk seriously think that Kennedy's rising tide proverb referred to the selfishness doctrine promulgated by radical, right wing ideologues? Seriously, do Messrs. Cruz, Paul, and Santorum, think we don't get their disingenuous "break" from Limbaugh?
Kennedy was not ideologically disposed to ignoring the less-privileged for giving preference to the wealthy to raise up the entire nation. Kennedy's view of poverty was a far cry from the narrow Tea Party populist ideas
promulgated by this cabal of loons and corporate toadies. The literal tide they represent is a storm surge of retrograde, repressive ideology designed to drown equality and upward mobility for the masses. The
transparency of their motives is only second to their arrogance to think we don't get that the appeal for this self-destructive approach to "nation building" is white-segregationist terror over the prospect of real equality.
The historical "Separate but equal" segregational practice of the "good old days" is the unifying rallying point of current white militancy for returning to the old status quo, which didn't do much for average white people, much less people of color.
Carl
GOP Makeovers
8/15/13