Immediately after Mitt Romney's middle-abandoning selection of Paul Ryan as running mate, the National Republican Congressional Committee issued these guidelines for spinning Ryan's plan to destroy Medicare and other entitlements:
"Do not say: "˜entitlement reform,' "˜privatization,' "˜every option is on the table,'" the National Republican Congressional Committee said in an email memo. "Do say: "˜strengthen,' "˜secure,' "˜save,' "˜preserve, "˜protect'" [Alex Isenstadt, "GOP Memo: 'Don't Say Entitlement Reform'," Politico, August 13, 2012].
Add to that list another euphemism: modernize:
We will save Medicare by modernizing it....
...Republican Governors and state legislatures are ready to do the hard work of modernizing Medicaid for the twenty-first century....
[The telecommunications industry] needs, and deserves, a more modern relationship with the federal government....
Better partnerships will help us to... modernize and improve the Indian Health Service... ["Reforming Government to Serve the People," apparent draft from Republican National Committee 2012 party platform,posted by James Hohmann and Tony Romm, "RNC Posts Platform on Website," Politico, August 24, 2012 ].
The Republican vision of the modern world, of course, is one of complete privatization, where corporations can rule us unchecked by the democratic will we express through government.
This unconfirmed platform plank draft shows an obsession with getting rid of old musty government artifacts and replacing them with shiny new corporate models:
The Federal Communications Commission is "not a good fit" for regulating the Internet, because the FCC was created in 1934.
...mail delivery from the era of the Pony Express cannot long survive.
We must bring the 130-year old Civil Service system into the twenty-first century [RNC, 2012.08.24].
Yes, yes, shine on, future, gleaming like the Reardon Metal sculpture on the cover of an Ayn Rand novel! While we're at it, let's "reform" that parched old Constitution as well, which after 225 years cannot possibly address the needs of the glorious twenty-first century.
But here's the scariest quote from the GOP vision of the plutocratic century:
Constructive regulation should be a helpful guide, not a punitive threat [RNC, 2012.08.24].
America, America, where government is just a suggestion, and you can do whatever you want, as long as you have the money to do it.
it's just so hard to say something nice about those people. how about: republicans don't just hate the Earth, they just hate.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh8W8CsfK38
one of my favorite montana bloggers beat me to a post about Ohio and its Republican operatives stealing recent presidential elections with Karl Rove's instruction: very chilling. here is the democracynow! broadcast: the GOP will stop at nothing to dissolve democracy in the US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R66EiLxdvHc&feature=player_embedded
What more does Romney need to do to pander to the Taliban wing of the GOP? Secretary of Health and Human Services Todd Akin.
Cory, "stacking the deck" is another contributor to ensure they run the entire operation in the future. I believe that is what they have done in South Dakota at all levels of government. To ensure they have a monopoly on control, they take their time (when they have the opportunity) in staffing each government entity with politically like-minded people. These people stay in these positions for most of their careers and are not elected.
When I say "they" I mean the GOP.
"Despite #Romney's dad born in Mexico, him spending Vietnam war in France, keeping millions in Switzerland/Caymans Obama is the "Outsider."" â€@BlackCanseco
I wonder how much they spent focus group testing various words before they landed on "modernize." The local Tea Party types hate the idea of public-private partnerships, so they have to come up with some other terms which the can use for the same crony capitalist policies. The party is made up of modernized fraud and fakers and people who are too dumb to figure out when they are being conned.
Larry: brilliant!
Donald: agreed. Such language reeks of focus-grouping. But I think the GOP still talked about public-private partnerships in that document. Heavens forbid anyone slip some logical-consistency pills into the punch at the Tea Party.
GOP votes to cut funding for National Weather Service as Isaac looms:
http://www.politicalmontana.com/?p=426