For Obama's first two years, the Republicans were The Party Of No: Their strategy was simply to oppose whatever the Democrats proposed, particularly the health care bill. Rather than negotiate to try to modify the bill and introduce provisions more to their liking, the strategy was to oppose it in every possible way:
But after winning control of the House in the 2010 midterm elections (as well as state governor's mansions and legislatures across the country), the Party of No morphed into something else, fully embracing a far-right, Tea Party-driven, wealth-and-business-obsessed, social and fiscal conservatism that sits to the right of even Ronald Reagan.But after winning the House in the 2010 elections, their strategy changed.
But, as Jacob Weisberg astutely pointed out in Slate on Friday, to be a national Republican figure today, you have to embrace a litany of lies, distortions and flat-out factually incorrect positions. The GOP lives now, he says, in "a mental Shangri-La, where unwanted problems... can be wished away, prejudice trumps fact... expertise is evidence of error, and reality itself comes to be regarded as some kind of elitist plot."The GOP campaigned in 2011 as being concerned about jobs, jobs, jobs, and the provision of Obama's health care act that would cut $500 million from Medicare spending (that's right; they campaigned as the saviors of Medicare).
Simply put, if you are wealthy or a large corporation, the Republicans have nothing but hugs and kisses for you. But for the rest of us? The GOP only offers a stern "F you."
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