The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Rachel Maddow and the Politics of Stupid

Posted on | July 12, 2010 | 26 Comments

Why hasn’t the American public completely repudiated the policies of the Obama administration? At a time when the unemployment rate has been hovering near 10 percent for nearly a year, Obama’s job approval numbers are very near dead even, and Republicans are just barely leading on the generic ballot.

Why isn’t the administration’s abject failure on economic issues more apparent? The reason, I suspect, is that many independent voters are still willing to blame Republicans for these problem. The GOP has still not figured out how to undo Bush-era “brand damage” and Democrats continue to point the finger at Republicans (and those convenient proxy villains, Big Business and The Rich) for the nation’s economic woes.

It is only in this context of the GOP’s lack of credibility that Democrats can get away with advocating policies that obviously aren’t working and, really, don’t even clear a minimal threshold of common sense. Consider Rachel Maddow’s statements on Sunday’s “Meet the Press”:

Well, you end, you end up with the situation which again you’re back to choice vs. referendum because Republicans . . . can argue about how it’s all about spending, it’s all about debt. But it’s not just talking about the past to say, “When Republicans have had the reins, this is what they’ve done: two wars not paid for, prescription drug benefit not paid for, two tax cuts that mostly benefited the rich not paid for.” They put all that stuff on the deficit, $1.3 trillion sitting there as — in a deficit when Obama took over, after the previous Democratic president had handed him a surplus. If you talk about — if Republicans want to run as this fiscally responsible party, it’s neat, but it’s novel. It’s not how they’ve actually governed. . . .
I think that, I think that most Americans also, though, understand the basic arithmetic that when you’re talking about pushing tax cuts that do mostly benefit the wealthy and you’re simultaneously talking about getting tough on the deficit, you’re talking about a world in which math doesn’t work the way most people think it works. . . .
Tax cuts hurt the deficit. . . .
If you really want, if you really want a stimulus, do what we — what’s proven to work in stimulus, which is things like extending unemployment benefits, which is something that Republicans are completely blocking. . . .
It’s the most stimulative thing you can do.

What Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters notices here is the similarity between Maddow’s statement about unemployment-as-stimulus and Nancy Pelosi’s recent remarks. What I notice, however, is a message that cleverly muddles the policy picture in such a way as to make it appear that Republicans are actually worse than Democrats in terms of economics.

When Maddow says that various Bush-era policies were “not paid for,” she means only one thing: Taxes weren’t raised.

Notice how Maddow hammers on the idea that tax cuts are bad policy which increase the deficit and benefit the rich. I’d be interested to see how that kind of message plays with a focus group of independent voters, because I think it resonates much deeper than most Republicans understand. Conservatives are always talking about how we’ve “won the war of ideas,” but the fact that Democrats still believe they can win with such economic themes — utterly ignoring the supply-side revolution — means that the war of ideas is a long way from being won.

Of course, as the Obama/Pelosi/Reid “stimulus” spree illustrates, there is no such thing as a liberal “deficit hawk.” Like other liberals, Maddow talks about deficits only as an argument to raise taxes or reduce military spending. Domestic entitlement programs are sacred and cannot be subjected to any budgetary discipline, and certainly no liberal expressed any deficit-related concerns about ObamaCare.

Maddow and Democrats clearly believe that voters are too stupid  to notice these inconsistencies, and are counting on Republicans being too stupid to point them out. And I fear that they may be right on both counts.

Category: Barack Obama, Economics, NBC

Comments

26 Responses to “Rachel Maddow and the Politics of Stupid”

  1. Rob
    July 12th, 2010 @ 9:04 am

    Early morning post, eh?

  2. Rob
    July 12th, 2010 @ 5:04 am

    Early morning post, eh?

  3. crazyshoe
    July 12th, 2010 @ 11:25 am

    oh, yeah. it all goes back to the obama administration. that’s why all of this started in 2008-2009:

    http://roissy.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/the-graphs-that-bode-americas-downward-spiral/

  4. crazyshoe
    July 12th, 2010 @ 7:25 am

    oh, yeah. it all goes back to the obama administration. that’s why all of this started in 2008-2009:

    http://roissy.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/the-graphs-that-bode-americas-downward-spiral/

  5. Red
    July 12th, 2010 @ 12:09 pm

    Any thinking person at this point surely already knows that Maddow and co. are just mouthpieces for the administration and all social liberals at large. This isn’t news.I’m not sure that independents are the ones holding up conservative progress. Remember there are millions of people on the dole who are quite happy voting any which way the party tells them to. That’s what’s hindering progress. If much of America didn’t want big bro wiping their heinies and bringing them a fresh bottle to suckle this wouldn’t be an issue. Until people really make moves to end the reach of the big arm of the fed this will continue.That means putting down the remote.

  6. Red
    July 12th, 2010 @ 8:09 am

    Any thinking person at this point surely already knows that Maddow and co. are just mouthpieces for the administration and all social liberals at large. This isn’t news.I’m not sure that independents are the ones holding up conservative progress. Remember there are millions of people on the dole who are quite happy voting any which way the party tells them to. That’s what’s hindering progress. If much of America didn’t want big bro wiping their heinies and bringing them a fresh bottle to suckle this wouldn’t be an issue. Until people really make moves to end the reach of the big arm of the fed this will continue.That means putting down the remote.

  7. Red
    July 12th, 2010 @ 12:12 pm

    If more people would embrace people (and an attitude) like this, you would see real change.

  8. Red
    July 12th, 2010 @ 8:12 am

    If more people would embrace people (and an attitude) like this, you would see real change.

  9. Brian O'Connor
    July 12th, 2010 @ 12:15 pm

    But she’s so HOT, I’ll believe anything she says.

  10. Brian O'Connor
    July 12th, 2010 @ 8:15 am

    But she’s so HOT, I’ll believe anything she says.

  11. steve in tulsa
    July 12th, 2010 @ 12:46 pm

    The last republican budget had a deficit of 167 billion and unemployment at 4.6. That was 2006. Then Democrats took over writing the budgets. 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 budgets are democrat budgets. Obama did not INHERIT the economy; democrats built it brickk by brick. Democrats refused any recognition that Freddie and Fannie (Community Re-investment Act) were going bankrupt and and would cripple the economy. Time and time again, McCain, Bush, Bill Frist, many people said the recession was coming and democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd kept anyone from stopping the recession they were causing.

    Obama and the democrats own this economy. And they have screwed it up completely. Here we are are after four years of democrat control with the deficit over ten times the last republican deficit and the real unemployment at 16% and in places it is 40%. Thank democrats.

  12. steve in tulsa
    July 12th, 2010 @ 8:46 am

    The last republican budget had a deficit of 167 billion and unemployment at 4.6. That was 2006. Then Democrats took over writing the budgets. 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 budgets are democrat budgets. Obama did not INHERIT the economy; democrats built it brickk by brick. Democrats refused any recognition that Freddie and Fannie (Community Re-investment Act) were going bankrupt and and would cripple the economy. Time and time again, McCain, Bush, Bill Frist, many people said the recession was coming and democrats Barney Frank and Chris Dodd kept anyone from stopping the recession they were causing.

    Obama and the democrats own this economy. And they have screwed it up completely. Here we are are after four years of democrat control with the deficit over ten times the last republican deficit and the real unemployment at 16% and in places it is 40%. Thank democrats.

  13. Bob Belvedere
    July 12th, 2010 @ 1:07 pm

    Bob Belvedere [aka: Confusedius] say:
    If you want to know what the those on the Left are doing in a particular situation, just look and see what they’re accusing the Right of doing. You’ve heard of ‘The Big Lie’, this is ‘The Big Deception’.

    Confusedius also say: Girl named Madcow have dung for brains.

  14. Bob Belvedere
    July 12th, 2010 @ 9:07 am

    Bob Belvedere [aka: Confusedius] say:
    If you want to know what the those on the Left are doing in a particular situation, just look and see what they’re accusing the Right of doing. You’ve heard of ‘The Big Lie’, this is ‘The Big Deception’.

    Confusedius also say: Girl named Madcow have dung for brains.

  15. So why don’t we just fire everyone and all get unemployment? | The Daley Gator
    July 12th, 2010 @ 10:22 am

    […] 12, 2010 by Gatordoug I mean since brilliant minds like Pelosi and Maddow think unemployment is so stimulative! It is only in this context of the GOP’s lack of credibility that Democrats can get away with […]

  16. Red
    July 12th, 2010 @ 3:05 pm

    Yeah, I’m with Daley Gator. Let’s all be $$$unemployed$$$.

  17. Red
    July 12th, 2010 @ 11:05 am

    Yeah, I’m with Daley Gator. Let’s all be $$$unemployed$$$.

  18. THE OTHER MCCAIN: Rachel Maddow and the Politics of Stupid | The Right Sphere - Conservative Blogs, Columnists, News and Opinion
    July 12th, 2010 @ 11:29 am

    […] R.S. McCain brings the hammer down on Rachel Maddow and Republicans being unable (or unwilling?) to undo the “brand damage” Democrats use against Republicans continuously despite the lack of credibility of the Democrats as well. Why hasn’t the American public completely repudiated the policies of the Obama administration? At a time when the unemployment rate has been hovering near 10 percent for nearly a year, Obama’s job approval numbers are very near dead even, and Republicans are just barely leading on the generic ballot. […]

  19. paul mitchell
    July 12th, 2010 @ 5:48 pm

    I find that it is always easier to illustrate these things with professionally rendered graphics..

  20. paul mitchell
    July 12th, 2010 @ 1:48 pm

    I find that it is always easier to illustrate these things with professionally rendered graphics..

  21. paul mitchell
    July 12th, 2010 @ 5:49 pm

    There is a link embedded in my last comment on “with professionally rendered graphics.”

  22. paul mitchell
    July 12th, 2010 @ 1:49 pm

    There is a link embedded in my last comment on “with professionally rendered graphics.”

  23. kansas
    July 12th, 2010 @ 8:11 pm

    I haven’t heard one Republican point out that the Democrats have been in the majority since 2006. You wanted Democrats, you’ve had them for 4 years now. How’s that tasting?

  24. kansas
    July 12th, 2010 @ 4:11 pm

    I haven’t heard one Republican point out that the Democrats have been in the majority since 2006. You wanted Democrats, you’ve had them for 4 years now. How’s that tasting?

  25. Kojocaro
    August 1st, 2010 @ 10:06 pm

    look crazyshit the dems were in control of congress so please lay off the weed before you post

  26. Kojocaro
    August 1st, 2010 @ 6:06 pm

    look crazyshit the dems were in control of congress so please lay off the weed before you post