Serious conservative Republicans in Brooklyn need to inform themselves about what's going on with the overall economy, locally, nationally and internationally; and they need to know how the handling of federal, state and local finances and financial policies impact the overall economy. With an eye toward those things, serious-minded Republicans in our area would be well-advised to read the recent posts of Larry Littlefield on the Room 8 blog. It doesn't matter whether individual Brooklyn Republicans might agree with what Littlefield has to say or not, just look at what the factual underpinnings of his arguments are and try to understand what he is getting at.
Republicans are losing the battle of ideas. It's not that they are being shouted down or ignored. It's that they are sounding like a bunch of salesmen trying to peddle something that people don't really need or want right now.
Republicans have to know that a big chunk the politics of 2012 and going forward was and will continue to be about economics and finance, and the place of government in all of that. By "economics" I mean more than than what flew or didn't fly in 2012, I mean real down to earth economics and how that drives the policy debates involving necessary services, government spending, the financing of government spending, taxation, government involvement in the non-governmental economy with funding and regulation, and tons of other things. "Finance" is more than just money, banking and investment; and "government fiscal policy" is more encompassing than having or not having a "pay as you go" budget in place.
Real down to earth economics is not pie in the sky slogans and notions about "building a middle class" or silly shibboleths of the right, like "not punishing the real job creators." Real down to earth economics is simple --- What are we going to DO to get the things we need. Real down to earth finance is equally simple --- How are we going to PAY for the things we need. The political side of those questions involve debates about whether government should have a hand in any of that, and if it should, what would that governmental hand be and who gets to play that hand.
The 2012 campaign was largely waged with a bunch of lies about the economy at large and the financing of government: For the Republicans it was free market and fiscal conservative sounding lies versus the Democrats' command economy and class-envy lies, and all that jazz was played out against a backdrop of commonly accepted lies about our economy and the finances of government. What nobody has yet recognized is that both sides are grounded in radical reactionary views of what they believe THE proper economic order should be. As recently as 2012, both sides were fighting and re-fighting early- to mid- 20th Century fights, which in turn reflected similar 19th Century dust-ups. Folks, a redux of 20th Century policy debates at this time is about as limited in utility as trying to restart in the 21st Century "20th Century" service with the New York Central train of that venerable name.
What is needed even on the very local level are Republicans with an ability to debate about contemporary economic and fiscal solutions -- short-run and longer-run -- for our current economic and financial problems, and those that will explode on the scene presently.. Going forward, it'll do Republicans no good to argue that the Democratic Party's class warfare campaign was no more than an unfair emotional attack on free-market capitalism straight out of Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" or that the Democrats' program and everything else out of the Krugmans and Galbraiths and Robert Reichs of the world is a wonky-sounding version of Harry McClintock's "Big Rock Candy Mountain". Republicans will need to be a little more conversant about contemporary economic realities than a few vague platitudes about "balancing checkbooks just like everybody else" (btw, a lot of people don't have checkbooks and lot of people that do have checkbooks don't bother to balance them). Also, and this is very important, everybody needs to understand what the phrase "kicking the can down the road" means; and once they do, just stop using that phrase, forever.
As stated above, a good start for serious economic conservatives, and conservative-minded Republicans locally, would be to read these three of Larry Littlefield's posts on the "Room 8" blog: http://www.r8ny.com/blog/larry_littlefield/closed_minds_some_additional_ideas_from_the_past.html : "CLOSED MINDS: SOME ADDITIONAL IDEAS FROM THE PAST" posted by Larry Littlefield, Sun, 12/09/2012 - 11:52am; http://www.r8ny.com/blog/larry_littlefield/the_new_cult_failed_republican_ideas.html : "The New Cult: Failed Republican Ideas" posted by Larry Littlefield, Tue, 12/04/2012 - 3:43pm; http://www.r8ny.com/blog/larry_littlefield/public_sector_austerity_the_unsaid.html : "Public Sector Austerity: The Unsaid" posted by Larry Littlefield, Sat, 12/01/2012 - 1:37pm.
The error bolg?
ReplyDeleteI assume that you are referring to the message:
Delete“Error 503 Service Unavailable – Service Unavailable – Guru Meditation: [#....]” that often appears at the Room 8 web page, or that often pops up there for individual bloggers like Gatemouth or Littlefield, or even for individual blogs.
Sometimes persistence in your efforts will be rewarded. In this instance, I particularly refer to the Larry Littlefield blogs mentioned above.
Also note that sometimes Gatemouth (also on Room 8) hits the nail right on the head with the Brooklyn GOP and its cast of characters, other times the G-man hits his own thumb with his Bang Bang Maxwell’s Hammer – in either case it’s a hoot.