Is "Repeal & Replace" A Huge Gift For Democratic Party ?

(Cartoon image is by Nick Anderson in the Houston Chronicle.)

The Republicans in Congress have been screaming for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) for years now, and claiming that they could replace it with a better plan. The problem, of course, is that they could not agree on any plan to replace Obamacare even though they had years to come up with one. It was really just a bit of political theater designed to keep their base happy, because they never expected to be in a position to actually accomplish repeal.

But they (and everyone else) got a surprise last November when Trump won the White House. Now they control the White House and Congress, and their base is demanding they do what they had been promising for years -- repeal Obamacare. So, after a few months of party infighting, the Republican leadership came up with a plan. It's not a good plan, and would result in at least 15 to 20 million Americans losing the health insurance they had gained through Obamacare (while doing nothing to control medical or insurance costs).

While this "plan" would be good for rich people (giving them a big tax break), it would not be good for most Americans -- and that includes Trump voters. Those benefitting from the repeal composed only 10% of Trump voters, while half of Trump voters were white voters without a college degree (the group that would be hit the hardest by a repeal). Are these people going to remain loyal to Trump (and the Republicans) after they lose their health insurance? Probably not, since that would put their families at risk.

I'm beginning to think the Republican's "repeal and replace plan" may be the biggest gift the Democratic Party has received since the Great Depression. And it really doesn't matter whether the plan is passed or defeated.

Nothing can bring voters to the polls as fast as a danger to their families -- and that's exactly what this plan represents. If the plan is passed, millions of angry voters will show up at the polls -- and they'll want to take that anger out on those who took their insurance away from them.

If the plan is not passed (and there's a decent chance it won't be passed), then a different set of angry voters will be ready to take their anger out on the Republicans -- the teabaggers in their party. They'll be ready to kick the incumbent Republicans out of office, and replace them with even more extreme right-wingers (making the party unpalatable to most Americans. Or they could even split off and form their own political party (splitting the conservative vote, and electing Democrats even in red districts).

The Republicans have put themselves between a rock and a hard place, and they don't have a clue as to how to fix that. I don't want Obamacare to be repealed, but whether it is or not, I am starting to enjoy the dilemma the Republicans have created for themselves -- and I am thankful for their "gift".

The Congressional Republican Caucus Of Incompetence

(This cartoon image is by Adam Zyglis in The Buffalo News.)

I'm not normally a fan of the columns of David Brooks, but I think his column on the GOP's House "Incompetence Caucus" is well worth reading. Here is that New York Times column:

The House Republican caucus is close to ungovernable these days. How did this situation come about?

This was not just the work of the Freedom Caucus or Ted Cruz or one month’s activity. The Republican Party’s capacity for effective self-governance degraded slowly, over the course of a long chain of rhetorical excesses, mental corruptions and philosophical betrayals. Basically, the party abandoned traditional conservatism for right-wing radicalism. Republicans came to see themselves as insurgents and revolutionaries, and every revolution tends toward anarchy and ends up devouring its own.

By traditional definitions, conservatism stands for intellectual humility, a belief in steady, incremental change, a preference for reform rather than revolution, a respect for hierarchy, precedence, balance and order, and a tone of voice that is prudent, measured and responsible. Conservatives of this disposition can be dull, but they know how to nurture and run institutions. They also see the nation as one organic whole. Citizens may fall into different classes and political factions, but they are still joined by chains of affection that command ultimate loyalty and love.

All of this has been overturned in dangerous parts of the Republican Party. Over the past 30 years, or at least since Rush Limbaugh came on the scene, the Republican rhetorical tone has grown ever more bombastic, hyperbolic and imbalanced. Public figures are prisoners of their own prose styles, and Republicans from Newt Gingrich through Ben Carson have become addicted to a crisis mentality. Civilization was always on the brink of collapse. Every setback, like the passage of Obamacare, became the ruination of the republic. Comparisons to Nazi Germany became a staple.

This produced a radical mind-set. Conservatives started talking about the Reagan “revolution,” the Gingrich “revolution.” Among people too ill educated to understand the different spheres, political practitioners adopted the mental habits of the entrepreneur. Everything had to be transformational and disruptive. Hierarchy and authority were equated with injustice. Self-expression became more valued than self-restraint and coalition building. A contempt for politics infested the Republican mind.

Politics is the process of making decisions amid diverse opinions. It involves conversation, calm deliberation, self-discipline, the capacity to listen to other points of view and balance valid but competing ideas and interests.

But this new Republican faction regards the messy business of politics as soiled and impure. Compromise is corruption. Inconvenient facts are ignored. Countrymen with different views are regarded as aliens. Political identity became a sort of ethnic identity, and any compromise was regarded as a blood betrayal.

A weird contradictory mentality replaced traditional conservatism. Republican radicals have contempt for politics, but they still believe that transformational political change can rescue the nation. Republicans developed a contempt for Washington and government, but they elected leaders who made the most lavish promises imaginable. Government would be reduced by a quarter! Shutdowns would happen! The nation would be saved by transformational change! As Steven Bilakovics writes in his book “Democracy Without Politics,” “even as we expect ever less of democracy we apparently expect ever more from democracy.”

This anti-political political ethos produced elected leaders of jaw-dropping incompetence. Running a government is a craft, like carpentry. But the new Republican officials did not believe in government and so did not respect its traditions, its disciplines and its craftsmanship. They do not accept the hierarchical structures of authority inherent in political activity.

In his masterwork, “Politics as a Vocation,” Max Weber argues that the pre-eminent qualities for a politician are passion, a feeling of responsibility and a sense of proportion. A politician needs warm passion to impel action but a cool sense of responsibility and proportion to make careful decisions in a complex landscape.

If a politician lacks the quality of detachment — the ability to let the difficult facts of reality work their way into the mind — then, Weber argues, the politician ends up striving for the “boastful but entirely empty gesture.” His work “leads nowhere and is senseless.”

Welcome to Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and the Freedom Caucus.

Really, have we ever seen bumbling on this scale, people at once so cynical and so naïve, so willfully ignorant in using levers of power to produce some tangible if incremental good? These insurgents can’t even acknowledge democracy’s legitimacy — if you can’t persuade a majority of your colleagues, maybe you should accept their position. You might be wrong!

People who don’t accept democracy will be bad at conversation. They won’t respect tradition, institutions or precedent. These figures are masters at destruction but incompetent at construction.

These insurgents are incompetent at governing and unwilling to be governed. But they are not a spontaneous growth. It took a thousand small betrayals of conservatism to get to the dysfunction we see all around.

There Will Be A Divisive GOP Party War After The Election

The 47 Republican elected officials above have all disavowed the candidacy of Donald Trump. I doubt that will be the total list, especially if further lewd stories about Trump are released in the coming days (as is expected). These officials know they don't just depend on Republicans to be elected, but need Independent votes also -- and they see Trump as driving those voters away. They see Trump as damaging their careers, and the Republican Party.

The thinking is that once Trump loses, they can reclaim their party (and hopefully a large part of the general electorate). But that is a rather rosy picture, and probably bears little resemblance to reality.

They are overlooking the substantial part of their party composed of teabaggers. The teabaggers aren't a majority of Republicans, but they are a large enough part to nominate a presidential candidate (Trump) in a large field of candidates. And the Republicans cannot win anything without those teabaggers.

Who are those teabaggers going to blame if Donald Trump loses this election? They aren't going to blame Trump -- he is their super hero. And they aren't going to blame Clinton, because they believe she is beatable. They are going to blame the RNC and the elected officials who refused to enthusiastically back Donald Trump. They will be convinced that if those officials had gotten behind Trump they could have won. It's not true, but logic and reason have never been a part of the teabagger movement.

The Republican Party is between a rock and a hard place right now, and this will become obvious after the election. If the teabaggers retain control of the party, they will continue to lose national and most state elections. And if the establishment Republicans wrest control back from the teabaggers, there is a chance those teabaggers will break away and start their own political party.

I have not given that idea much credence in the past, but if the teabaggers blame establishment Republicans for Trump losing (and they will), I think there is a good chance that they just might do that.

There aren't enough of them to seize power nationally, but there are enough to ruin the Republican Party by leaving.

The Republicans are facing a political civil war, and the first shots in that war will happen fairly soon after the election.

It's Official - The Teabaggers Control The Republican Party

The Republican Party started this presidential nominating campaign with 17 candidates. On Tuesday night, Ted Cruz became the 15th candidate to drop out of the race, and on Wednesday the 16th candidate (John Kasich) dropped out. That leaves only one candidate -- Donald Trump. "The Donald" is now the presumptive nominee for president of the Republican Party.

That's right. Republican voters have chosen a candidate with no experience in politics at any level -- a reality TV star and billionaire real estate mogul -- a man who promises to bring jobs back to the U.S. while having his own products made in China (including his campaign swag). Trump has won the GOP nomination by making a lot of promises, but without revealing a single plan on how he would keep those promises.

But Trump supporters don't care that he doesn't have a plan. They only care that he seems to reflect the same anger they have over federal politics. They don't have any plans either -- only anger at the politicians (especially the politicians in their own party. They are the teabaggers.

A few months ago, on this blog, I said the nominee of the Republican Party would be one of three men -- Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, or Marco Rubio. And I said that the final nominee would tell us who really controls the current Republican Party. If it was the business establishment, the nominee would be Rubio. If it was the evangelical/conservative extremists, it would be Cruz. And if it was the teabaggers, the nominee would be Trump.

At that time, I said I thought the nominee would be Marco Rubio. I was wrong. The business establishment wing of the party might control the money, but they no longer control the party. In the last few days, it has become obvious that the Republican Party has now morphed into the Tea Party. The teabaggers now officially control the Republican Party.

I am a die-hard Democrat, but I do believe we need at least two viable political parties (if not more). And I find it sad that the once proud Republican Party -- the party that produced Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Dwight Eisenhower -- has now devolved into a shameful mix of anger, hate, and bigotry. This is a terrible day for this country.

"Bernie-Bros" Are The Teabaggers Of The Left

I have supported and voted for progressive ideas since the late 1960's (most of my life) -- and I am proud of that. But I must admit that I have been shocked by the actions of some progressives during this Democratic primary campaign.

I guess I have been naive, because I always thought that progressives operated on a higher plane than right-wingers. While right-wingers don't mind resorting to lies and unethical practices to further their policies and candidates, I thought we on the left didn't have to do that -- because we have the facts on our side. I was wrong.

Since 2010, the Republican party has been plagued by teabaggers -- people who demanded that all Republicans agree with them. And they have tried to run anyone who disagreed out of the party. Sadly, the 2016 campaign has shown that progressives have their own version of the teabaggers -- the Bernie-Bros.

I don't mean to paint all Sanders supporters with this broad brush. That wouldn't be right, because I believe it is only a small element among them that demands party purity. They don't believe anyone can be a progressive who doesn't believe as they do or support their candidate. And they are willing to do nearly anything to get what they want. They are willing to take decades old GOP lies, and pass them around as truth. They are willing to denigrate and make fun of those who disagree with them. They have accused the Democratic Party of cheating, and threatened to destroy it. And they are willing to throw their country under the bus by refusing to vote in November (if they don't get their way).

As I said, this is not true of most Sanders supporters. I believe most of them are good people, and will vote for the Democratic nominee in November (just as most Clinton supporters will do -- regardless of who wins the nomination). But there are that few (and they have been very loud) that don't understand that honest people can disagree -- and still coexist within the Democratic Party. They don't understand the history of the Democratic Party -- a history full of discord and disagreement that usually culminates in electoral unity. Will Rogers probably said it best, when he said "I'm not a member of an organized political party, I'm a Democrat".

It saddens me to see that the left has its own version of the teabaggers. Politics is the art of compromise, and Democrats are the big tent party (accepting members with many different views). The "my way or the highway" people are just damaging the party (and their candidate). The progressive purity that these people seem to want doesn't exist -- not even in their candidate. There is no such thing as a politician without warts.

I want all Democrats (and independents voting for Democrats this year) to vote their conscience. That is what I will be doing, and it's what we should all do. But don't be a teabagger of the left. When the primaries are over, and we have a nominee, it will be time to unite. It is just too important (for many reasons) that we keep a Republican out of the White House -- and elect as many Democrats as possible to Congress.

We Must Remember - Moderates Will Decide 2016 Election

(The image above is from wizbangblog.com.)

It has been evident for quite a while now that extreme right-wingers (i.e., teabaggers) think they are the voice of America. They are convinced that most Americans agree with their point of view -- and the only reason they have lost recent elections is because their candidates weren't extreme enough. And in their effort to see this come to pass, that are denigrating their own candidates that are not far enough to the right to please them.

There is emerging a similar view among progressives (i.e., extreme liberals). They are also convinced that they are now the voice of America -- and the ticket to winning the next election is to choose the candidate that is farthest to the left (the most progressive). And they are also denigrating candidates that are not far enough to the left to please them.

The teabaggers are strong in the Republican Party, and they will have a strong voice in choosing the Republican presidential candidate. And the progressives are a growing force in the Democratic Party, and they will have a strong voice in choosing the Democratic president. But the fact of American politics is that neither the Republicans nor the Democrats have enough party members to swing an election -- and teabaggers and progressives make up smaller groups than Republicans and Democrats do.

I am a progressive, and have been for many years now. I would love to think that a majority of Americans are progressives -- but that is simply not true, just as it is not true of teabaggers. There is a large group of voters that occupy the middle of the political spectrum, and are not members of either party. They are the Independents, and most of them are moderates.

Those moderates are the people who will decide who is our next president. That is the way it has always been in this country. America is a country that doesn't like extremes -- not extremes of the right nor extremes of the left.

Those on both the right and left will tell you that Americans want change -- and I believe they are right. American voters are unhappy with the federal government right now, and they do want to see some change. But they don't want radical change in either direction. They want well-thought-out and incremental change to make this a better country -- they want moderate change. They like things as they are generally, but just want a better and moderate change to make things better.

Those moderates who will decide the next election (who dwell in the political center) will be looking at the candidates of both parties. And they will be asking themselves -- do the Democrats (Clinton or Sanders) or the Republicans (Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Bush) offer the moderate and reasonable change they want, or do they offer radical change? You can bet they'll reject the candidate they perceive as wanting radical change, and vote for the candidate offering moderate and reasonable change.

Extremists in both parties are "true believers", and they would have you believe this is the last chance to save this country. That's not true, and the moderates who will decide this election certainly don't believe it. As Democrats, we need to make sure those moderates understand that our candidate is the moderate voice of reason -- the candidate that can bring change without hurting the country. That's the only ticket to victory in the 2016 election.

Teabagger Support Has Sharply Declined In Last Five Years

This is a bit of good news for this country. A new poll shows that the teabagger support has significantly declined in the United States. That support was at its height in 2010, when about 28% of the general population said they supported the teabagger movement. But in 2015, that support has dropped to only 17% -- a drop of 11 points.

And it isn't just in the general population that the support has dropped. Among Republicans the support has dropped from 52% to 38% (a 14 point drop) and among those leaning Republican the support has dropped from 52% to 23% (a 19 point drop). There has also been a 21 point drop among conservative Republicans, and a 15 point drop among moderate Republicans.

However, don't take that to mean the teabaggers no longer have any power. They do -- especially within the Republican Party. About 38% of Republicans consider themselves teabaggers, and that's a big enough percentage to have an effect on who the Republicans nominate for president. And that 38% is enthusiastic. They will show up at the polls in large numbers (even if the moderate or establishment Republicans do not). They may or may not be able to elect a teabagger nominee (like Trump or Cruz), but they will surely move the eventual nominee far to the right.

This could be good for the United States -- that the teabaggers are still strong in the Republican Party. Because if they push the GOP nominee too far to the right, it will make it easier for the Democratic nominee to win. That's because the American electorate is pretty moderate (like that or not), and they don't like extremist candidates from the left or the right.

The numbers in the chart above are from a new Gallup Poll -- done between October 7th and 11th of a random national sample of 1,014 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

Congress Puts Government Shutdown Off Until Dec. 11th

(This image of Congress is from mashable.com.)

I guess you could say that the country has dodged a bullet. There will be no government shutdown today. Majority Leader McConnell finally blinked, and he and 31 other Republicans joined all Senate Democrats (and both Independents) in passing a continuing resolution that would continue to fund the federal government for about another 10 weeks. The vote was 78 to 20 (with two senators not voting).

That resolution reached the House of Representatives yesterday, and as expected, Speaker Boehner stuck his finger right in the eye of those who have caused him so much trouble -- by immediately bring the continuing resolution to the floor for a vote (without any provision to defund Planned Parenthood). The resolution passed the House by a vote of 277 to 151. All Democrats voted for the resolution, and they were joined by 91 Republicans.

This is not a good thing, but it is better than having the government shut down today. I say it's not good, because all they have done is to delay the shutdown until December 11th -- a date that would certainly ruin christmas for many federal employees.

Nothing has really been accomplished except for a delay. The same forces and arguments still exist, and you can bet the teabagger element will try again to shut down the government in December. They are playing a political game, and don't really care what is best for the country.

Trump Has Tapped Into The GOP Base's "Anger" Voters

(This cartoon is by Milt Priggee at miltpriggee.com.)

It has been a while since the major media has talked much about the teabagger element of the Republican Party -- but they have not gone away. They are still there and they make up a significant part of the Republican base -- and they are still angry.

They are angry that this nation has elected (and re-elected) a Black president. They are angry that immigrants (the non-white immigrants) come to this country and work hard at menial jobs to make a better life for their families. They are angry that by the middle of this century Whites will be a minority in this country. They are angry that minorities, women, and the LGBT community are fighting for (and starting to achieve) equal rights. And they are angry that the government uses a small portion of taxes to help the poverty-stricken and disadvantaged to have a better life.

These are mostly White people -- and what they are most angry about is the fact that the inherent privilege they enjoyed as Whites is beginning to disappear. They have no solutions for their perceived problems -- just an overwhelming anger, and they vote that anger (even when it is truly not in their best economic interests).

Many were surprised when Donald Trump entered the Republican race for the nomination, and began to climb up in the polls after expressing some rather hateful views, but we shouldn't have been. What he did was to tap into the lingering anger of the teabagger base of the Republican Party. He has given their anger a voice and a face -- and he has given them hope that maybe they could return to an America where White men ruled the roost (and didn't have to share rights and economic opportunity with others).

The America they dream about is gone forever, but that just increases their anger. And we can be sure they will express that anger in the coming Republican primaries. Will they be able to elect a candidate who expresses their anger -- or at least push the GOP winner so far to the right that he will be hurt in the general election? That is the current fear of GOP leaders, and it is a definite possibility. They are afraid because they know that this anger does not represent the huge majority of voters who will show up for the general election in November of 2016.

And now they are faced with an even greater fear -- that Trump, after failing to win the nomination, will bolt from the party and run as an independent, taking many of these anger voters with him. They have a right to be afraid. Trump, and these anger voters, pose a problem for them -- a big problem.

Bush Has A Problem With The Far Right Of His Party

Let me warn you up front that this is not a poll of the whole Republican Party. It is a survey done by a Super-PAC -- the Game Changer PAC. This PAC is mainly composed of people on the far right -- ultra-conservative Republicans, Libertarians, and "small government" independents -- basically the people that felt comfortable in the teabagger movement.

They surveyed their supporters (2,226 of them) during the month of April of this year. And the chart above shows one of the more interesting results of that survey. Those results reflect which nominee would cause those on the far right to sit out the 2016 election, and not vote. The biggest loser in this was Jeb Bush, who about 60% of those surveyed said they would not vote if he got the GOP nomination.

This does not mean Bush won't get the nomination. He's still one of the leaders. But it does indicate that he has a serious problem with the ultra-right in his own party. This poses a dilemma for Bush. The Republicans can't afford for any of their voters to stay home in November 2016. I doubt if 60% will actually stay home, since these are pretty politically-active people -- but if only half that percentage followed thru and didn't vote it could hurt the GOP.

What will Bush do? Will he move even further to the right to please the far right (who make a substantial part of the Republicans that will be voting in the primaries) and lost moderate Independents in the general election -- or will he stand firm and hope he can bring enough establishment Republicans to his cause to win the nomination (betting that Walker, Christie, and Rubio don't take too many of them)? It will be interesting to see what he does.

GOP Folds In Congressional Game Of "Chicken"

(This cartoon is by Bruce Plante in Tulsa World.)

Democrats stood firm, and won the first big political battle in the 114th Congress. A clean Homeland Security funding bill has been passed by Congress on a 257 to 167 vote (with all Democrats present voting for the bill, and being joined by 75 Republicans). That House vote was to approve the Senate version of the bill, and it now goes to the president for his signature.

The large teabagger faction in the House had thought they could include two provisions in the bill (which would overturn President Obama's executive orders on immigration in 2012 and 2014), and the Democrats would be forced to go along with that. They didn't think Democrats had the backbone to stop the bill, which would put the Homeland Security Department in danger of being shut down for lack of funds.

They were wrong. Senate Democrats filibustered the bill last week, and were successful in getting the offending provisions eliminated. Those teabaggers also thought the American people would be on their side in the event of a shut down. They were wrong on that too. Polls had clealy shown that if that department was shut down, the people would be angry, and most importantly, they would blame the Republicans.

That left the House Republicans with only two choices -- pass a clean bill or anger the public by shutting down the Department of Homeland Security. Speaker Boehner chose the least offensive (to him) of those choices, and allowed the clean Senate bill to come up for a vote, and it passed.

The teabagger politicians are now angry (and 167 of them voted to shut down Homeland Security). They are now talking about unseating Speaker Boehner for allowing the clean funding bill to come up for a vote. I don't think they can or will do that, but even if they did, it wouldn't insure teabagger victories in the future. There will still be enough Democrats in the Senate with enough votes to sustain a filibuster, and a president in the White House who's not afraid to use his veto power.

GOP Ready To Shut Down Homeland Security Department

When the Republicans won control of both houses of Congress, new Majority Leader Mitch McConnell assured everyone that there would be no shutdowns of government. He either lied, or misjudged the insanity of the far right-wing of his own party -- because that is exactly what the Republicans are preparing to do (at least partially).

With their new majorities, the GOP thought they finally had the power to force the president and the Democrats to do what they wanted. And they decided to start by forcing President Obama to do away with two executive orders he issued -- the first in 2012 that exempted "Dreamers" (immigrant children brought here when very young and raised in the U.S.) from deportation, and the second in 2014 that exempted the families of those Dreamers from being deported.

The Republicans (and their xenophobic teabagger base) have never liked those executive orders, and they thought they now had the power to get rid of them -- and the vehicle they chose to do that with was the funding of the Department of Homeland Security. When the budget for 2015 was passed, the Republicans refused to include that department in the budget. Instead, they passed a separate funding bill in the House for Homeland Security -- a bill that included provisions to overturn both of the president's executive orders.

They obviously thought the functions of this department was so critical (including Border Patrol, Customs enforcement, and airport security) that the Democrats (and the president) wouldn't dare to stop the bill, and let the department's funding cease (which will happen at the end of this month). They were wrong.

President Obama has said he will veto the bill if it reaches his desk. But it doesn't look like it will get that far. Senate Democrats have filibustered the bill, and it doesn't look like there is any chance of stopping that filibuster as long as the "poison pill" provisions are in the bill. The Democrats are demanding a clean bill -- without the provisions that would overturn the president's executive orders.

The Republicans have put themselves between a rock and a hard place. They must either pass a clean bill, or allow the Department of Homeland Security to shut down at the end of this month -- and neither option is acceptable to their teabagger base. Speaker Boehner could probably scrape together enough GOP votes to pass the bill with Democratic help, but that would just anger the teabagger members of his House GOP caucus -- and he is already having a very hard time trying to keep those members in line.

It's starting to look like that department will be shut down at the end of this month. House teabaggers say they are willing to allow that to happen, and Boehner says he is also willing to allow the shutdown. They still seem to think the Democrats and the president will blink first in this political game of "chicken". I don't.  I think the department will be defunded and shut down -- at least for a few days. Then the Republicans will fold and pass a clean bill. After all, this is one of their favorite government departments and they won't let it be shut down for long.

It's going to take some public anger (at least for a few days) to give Boehner the political courage to defy his teabagger element in the House, but it will happen. All the Democrats have to do is stand fast.

(The caricature above of GOP congressional leaders is by DonkeyHotey.)

This Is Bad News For Americans

(The photo above is from the New York Times.)

As if the Republicans taking over control of both houses in Congress wasn't bad enough, here's a little more bad news. We now learn that six of the most powerful eleven committees in the House of Representatives will be chaired by Texas Republicans -- all of them extremist teabaggers and corporate sycophants. These are all men who don't care what kind of damage they do to the country or its people, as long as they can try to blame it on President Obama.

The six are pictured above. On the top row (from left to right) are Michael Conway (who hates the Food Stamp program) who will chair the Agriculture Committee, Pete Sessions (a hyper-partisan incompetent) who will chair the Rules Committee, and Mac Thornberry (a corporate sellout) who will chair the Armed Services Committee. On the bottom row is Jeb Hensarling (who never met a giant bank he didn't love) who will chair the Financial Services Committee, Lamar Smith (an anti-science climate change denier) who will chair the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, and Michael McCaul (an anti-immigrant bigot) who will chair the Homeland Security Committee.

With these extremists in positions of power in the House, you can be sure no legislation will be brought forward to help hurting Americans. The only people they care about are rich Wall Street investors and bankers, and equally wealthy corporate executives. It's going to be a tough two years for most Americans.

Where Is The Teabagger Outrage Now ?

(The image of a teabagger above is from theliberal.com.)

There were two significant events that led to the uprising of the movement known as the "Tea Party" (i.e., teabaggers). The first was a $700 billion bailout of the giant Wall Street banks in the waning days of the Bush administration, and the second was the election of an African-American president.

There is nothing they, or their elected representatives, can do about the first. President Obama was re-elected to a second term, and will get to fill out the full eight years allowed an American president. But the second, preventing another bailout, is something that could be accomplished.

Ironically, it was Democrats who took action to prevent another Wall Street bailout. They did it by passing a Wall Street reform bill, that among other things, prevented the Wall Street banks from playing the stock market with their consumer's funds (which are federally insured). They could still gamble on the stock market, but they would have to do it with their own money -- which means they would lose their own money, and if they screwed up, it would take another act of Congress to bail them out (which would be very unlikely in the present political climate).

But in opposition to the stated wishes of their teabagger base (and most other Americans), the congressional Republicans opposed that reform -- and now they are trying to overturn that reform. A provision slipped into the budget bill would let those Wall Street banks use their customer's money to play the stock market.

This would be a huge boon for those banks. If they make money in the stock market, then they would get to keep all of it. But if they lose money, like they did in the past, the taxpayers would have to make up those losses -- because that customer money is protected by the federal government (through organizations like the FDIC). In other words, they would get an automatic bailout, without having to beg Congress for it this time.

My question is -- where is the teabagger outrage over this? Are bailouts OK when it is their own elected representatives that provide it? Their leaders have been bought off by the Wall Street banks. Why aren't the teabaggers raising hell about this? As far as I can see, all the opposition to this future Wall Street bailout (and it is just a matter of time before it happens) is coming almost exclusively from Democrats and liberals.

It just goes to show that the teabagger movement was never real. It was just a Republican Party invention, and never really had any true beliefs (other than to elect more Republicans). The teabagger base has been used and sold out by Republican leaders. Why aren't they outraged?

Teabaggers Are Very Strong In Texas Politics

The charts in this post are from the latest University of Texas / Texas Tribune Poll -- done between October 10th and 19th of a random sample of 866 likely Texas voters, and has a margin of error of about 3.33 points.

As the chart above shows, only about 32% of Texans think the teabaggers have too much influence over the Texas Republican Party, while about 48% think the influence is about right or too little -- with 20% saying the influence is about right and 28% saying the influence is too little (which is amazing since the teabaggers have been in complete control of the state party for years now).

The two charts below also demonstrate this influence. As the top chart shows, about 53% of Texans say they would prefer to vote for a Republican in their congressional district. But as the bottom chart shows, if the teabaggers had a party of their own about 25% would vote for it while only 22% would vote Republican (and the other 6% would have a hard time choosing between the two). The support for Democrats would remain the same (with only an insignificant 1% going into the unsure column).

It is easy to see from these numbers why all the Republican candidates in Texas pander to extremist elements. They know their party is controlled by the teabagger extremists -- and they also know that enough Texas Independents have been conned into believing teabagger politics is sensible and patriotic to give GOP extremists a natural advantage at the polls. Being a right-wing extremist might hurt a political candidate in many states -- but in Texas it is an advantage.

Democrats don't just need to increase their numbers in Texas -- but also need to do a much better job of showing Independents how the extremist positions of teabaggers are hurting the state and the nation.

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This dominating strength of teabaggers in the Texas Republican Party also helps to explain the favorite 2016 presidential candidate choices of Texas Republicans. The chart below shows that (and was determined by the same poll's query of 560 Texas Republicans, with a margin of error of 4.14 points). Note that the most extremist candidates do the best among Texas Republicans.

9th Circuit Tosses Marriage Bans And Cruz Panders To Right By Promising Amendment To Guarantee Inequality

(The photo at left was found of the Facebook page of the inimitable Juanita Jean -- owner of the world's most dangerous beauty salon.)

A couple of days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear 5 cases appealed from three Circuit Courts of Appeal -- letting stand the rulings from those courts that a state ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. After seeing that, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals saw no reason for more delay or discussion, and yesterday they issued a ruling that the state bans on same-sex marriage in Idaho and Nevada were unconstitutional. The court said:

“We hold that the Idaho and Nevada laws at issue violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because they deny lesbians and gays who wish to marry persons of the same sex a right they afford to individuals who wish to marry persons of the opposite sex, and do not satisfy the heightened scrutiny standard we adopted in SmithKline.” 

In addition to Nevada and Idaho, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals also covers Alaska, Arizona, Montana, California, Oregon, and Washington. Alaska, Arizona, and Montana still have same-sex marriage bans -- but I expect they will soon be declared unconstitutional by a U.S. District Judge now that the appeals court and the Supreme Court have made their positions clear.

There are still cases pending in some other Circuit Courts of Appeal, but I expect they will now be disposed on pretty soon. It looks like we may be finally nearing the end of the arguments over this equal rights issue.

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 Meanwhile, the Senate embarrassment from Texas, Ted Cruz, saw a political opportunity in the Supreme Court's refusal to hear those cases (and uphold the marriage bans). He promised to introduce a constitutional amendment in Congress that would guarantee the LGBT community could continue to be treated unequally in the United States. He said:

“The Supreme Court’s decision to let rulings by lower court judges stand that redefine marriage is both tragic and indefensible...When Congress returns to session, I will be introducing a constitutional amendment to prevent the federal government or the courts from attacking or striking down state marriage laws. Traditional marriage is an institution whose integrity and vitality are critical to the health of any society. We should remain faithful to our moral heritage and never hesitate to defend it.”

Of course, Cruz's silly amendment has absolutely no chance of actually becoming a part of our Constitution. It would have to get a two-thirds vote in both the Senate and the House, and then be ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states -- and it has less chance of clearing any of those hurdles than a snowball does of surviving in the Mojave Desert at the height of Summer.

But Cruz knows that. He is just playing politics. He wants to run for president in 2016, so he is pandering to the teabagger/evangelicals in his party -- because he knows they will have the biggest say in who the Republicans nominate in 2016. There is no depth to which Cruz will not stoop to feather his own political nest.

(The caricature of Ted Cruz above is by DonkeyHotey.)

Teabagger Support Has Leveled Out At 22-24%

All of these charts were made from information contained in a recently released Gallup Poll. The latest in this series of surveys was done between September 4th and 7th of a random national sample of 1,017 adults, and has a margin of error of about 4 points.

It shows that support for the teabagger movement (created and funded by rich benefactors like the Koch brothers) had its strongest support back in 2010. Since then it has been losing support, although that support seems to have now leveled off at between 22% and 24% since late 2012. The good news is that's not enough support to allow a teabagger candidate to live in the White House.

The bad news is mainly for moderate Republicans. Because while 24% is not enough to win a national election, it is plenty enough to control what the Republican Party does (and who it nominates) -- since most teabaggers are Republicans. That means the Republicans are very likely to keep promoting right-wing extremist policies, and will likely nominate a right-wing extremist as their presidential candidate -- and that will continue as long as the teabaggers control that party.

This is good news for Democrats. Americans have shown they like moderate candidates -- extremists scare them.

I also thought another part of the survey was interesting. It showed just who the teabaggers are, and is illustrated in the charts below.

Party ID In The United States (And Teabagger Approval)

These charts were made from a recent YouGov Poll conducted between July 26th and 28th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, with a margin of error of about 4 points. I don't have much to say about it, except that when it comes to political identification most people today prefer to call themselves Independents. They are angry with both political parties. But more Americans continue to identify as Democrats than Republicans. And the teabagger support remains very low.

The Teabagger View Of GOP's 2016 Presidential Hopefuls

This chart was made with information from a recent YouGov Poll -- conducted between July 26th and 28th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, and has a margin of error of 5 points.

I found this survey interesting, because it has become very apparent that the teabaggers (along with their evangelical cohorts) are going to have a big voice in who the GOP presidential nominee is going to be in 2016. In fact, they may well have the final say in who is chosen (since they control the Republican Party in many, if not most states).

Keeping that in mind, this chart should make Democrats very happy. The teabaggers are happiest with the most extreme Republican hopefuls, and least happy with those viewed as being a bit more moderate (Bush and Christie). This makes it very likely that the 2016 GOP nominee will be their most extremist candidate in modern times -- a candidate that is unacceptable to the majority of Americans.

The "Red State" South Has Half Of All Uninsured Americans

This is a rather staggering statistic -- that nearly half of all Americans without health insurance live in one region of the country (the South). In September of 2013, before Obamacare was fully implemented, the South had 41.5% of uninsured Americans, but in June of 2014 that has risen to 48.9%.

While enough states in the three other regions of the country covered many of their poorer residents by expanding Medicaid, the solidly red states of the South did not -- and when you combine that with the fact that the South has a higher percentage of people living in poverty (or working for a very low wage), it means the South now has millions of people living without health insurance (or any chance of getting it anytime soon).

This should not surprise us. The Republican officials in the South, like the national GOP officials, run their GOP-controlled governments for the benefit of the rich and the corporations. They don't care about the poor (or even the middle class). They oppose the minimum wage (and refuse to raise it), believing employers should be able to pay as little as possible to workers (even if that is a poverty wage). They also believe health care is a product to be sold to those who can afford it, instead of a right of all citizens.

This prompts a question -- why do the people of the South (many of whom are poorly paid or in poverty, and have no health insurance) continue to elect Republicans to political office? Why do they keep voting against their own economic and health interests? There are two facets to the answer -- race and religion.

Regardless of what you may have been told (or just want to believe), there are still a lot of racists in the South. They abandoned the Democratic Party when President Johnson got the civil rights laws passed in the 1960s -- and the Republican Party welcomed them with open arms. And since that time the Republican Party in the South has championed policies that are anti-immigrant and anti-minority, giving those racist voters (who have morphed into the teabaggers) the illusion that a white-dominated America is still a possibility.

But the racists alone cannot control the Republican Party. They need the help of the religious fundamentalists, who control religion in the South. These fundamentalists are upset that their religious views are not elevated above those of other Americans. And the Republican Party has been effective in convincing them that they are the party of christianity, and fooled them into believing they can re-introduce teacher or administrator-led school prayers and force the teaching of creationism as science.

The teabaggers and the evangelicals together dream of replacing out democracy with a white fundamentalist christian theocracy -- and the Republican Party has convinced them that they can make that happen. The crazy part is that they could elect Republicans from now until doomsday, and that still would not happen. The First Amendment protects all religions (and those without religion) equally, and would prevent the establishment of any religion above all others. And the Fourteenth Amendment, along with the demographic population changes happening in the U.S., insures that the future of this country will be a multi-racial and multi-ethnic democracy -- and dominance by whites (even where it still exists) is going to be eliminated.

In other words, a majority in the South votes against its own economic and health interests for a pipe-dream -- an illusion kept alive by Republican propaganda. There is hope for the South though. Just like in other parts of this nation, each new generation in the South is less racist and less religious than the one that preceded it -- and someday the racism and religious bigotry that currently triumphs, will no longer make Southerners vote against their own best interests.