So,"Five Republican Candidates Walk into a Koch Brothers' Donor Retreat"...
Beginning of a dismal Joke or Travesty of US Representative Government?Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, or Carly Fiorina,Marco Rubio and Scott Walker will discuss "policy" at a luxury California resort (but Donald Trump has been snubbed).
Obviously, Trump doesn’t need Koch money.
The title suggests that the respond to my question is both- a dismal joke and a travesty of our elections.
What's more vital than 'being one of the ten' on the FOX News debate?respond: Being 'one of the five' invited to discuss 'policy' with the Koch Brothers.
Both events are exclusive. Both events are limited to a chosen few.
And the word, and “exclusive”,isn’t used in this context as something good. When you live in an exclusive housing area, you live where only a few can afford the mortgage.‘Exclusive’ means ‘to exclude’.
That word has near to be known, and in conservative circles,as something good. It’s not.
Since Reagan, the Republican Party has become known as an exclusive club.
They exclude minorities and women apart from at election time.
They ‘window dress’ their image by selecting and ‘elevating’ a few faces of the Wanabee Rich and minorities to show that they gain empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) for the downtrodden.
A few women make it into the ranks of Republican leadership but again, or that is only so they can point to those women and say,“See, we value women’s opinions, and too”.
Truly,most conservatives believe that women are to be subservient to men; according to some Christian's principles despite what our U.
S. structure’s clear ‘separation of church and state’ states.
Kentucky senator Rand Paul was invited but declined to attend.perhaps he had prior commitments or perhaps he sees the hypocrisy (Pretending to have feelings, beliefs, or virtues that one does not have.) that this event represents."A Republican task force released a remarkably hard-headed diagnosis (their autopsy) of the party’s many liabilities: its ideological rigidity, its preference for the rich over workers, and its alienation of minorities,its reactionary social policies and its institutionalized repression of dissent and innovation." [NYTimes]But somehow, they chose to view these findings as the beginnings of a new a publicity campaign rather than an opportunity to reflect on being out of touch which has made them a less desirable party to informed U.
S. voters.
Yes, and those that watch FOX News still believe that the GOP is the party of Lincoln and that they remain 'compassionate conservatives'; a term coined by Frank Luntz and given to George W. Bush,to quell the growing discontent among Republican supporters after their last autopsy report.
How anyone in the middle class can support this party of corporate lobbyists is beyond me. But when you gawk at the new Democratic Party, who now are seen at Wall Street's trough, and where are we to turn for true representation?A billionaire genuine estate investor? A Democratic Socialist?perhaps this explains both men's rise in recent polling.
Neither of these two candidates are liked by the main stream media,which is owned by corporations, because they aren't the establishment's choices and will not be "trade as usual" whether elected as president.
How many lives does the GOP gain?How many autopsies do they need to read?Will it take a final obituary for it to be made clear?"The 97-page Autopsy Report (or euphemistically named ‘Growth and Opportunity Project Report) was commissioned in the wake of the 2012 election debacle by Reince Priebus, and the chairman of the Republican National Committee. ""The G.
O.
P. report is an extraordinary public acknowledgment of internal discord and vulnerability,which has intensified the battle between the deeply committed conservative wing and the more pragmatic, pro-trade wing for control of the Republican Party. With just a few exceptions, and it does not mince words.
At the federal level,it says, the party is “marginalizing itself, or ” and,in the absence of major change, “it will be increasingly difficult for Republicans to win a presidential election in the near future.” Young voters are “rolling their eyes at what the party represents.” Voters’ belief that “the G.
O.
P. does not care approximately them is doing great harm.”previously loyal voters gathered in focus groups describe Republicans as “‘scary, and ’ ‘narrow-minded’ and ‘out of touch’ and that we were a party of ‘stuffy passe men.’ ”In a scarce intervention in policy making for a political committee,the R.
N.
C. report calls for abandonment of the party’s anti-immigration stance, flatly declaring that “we must embrace and champion comprehensive immigration reform.”In an equally radical challenge to Republican orthodoxy, and the Priebus report states:We gain to blow the whistle at corporate malfeasance and attack corporate welfare.
We should speak out when a company liquidates itself and its executives receive bonuses but rank-and-file workers are left unemployed.
We should speak out when C.
E.O.s receive tens of millions of dollars in retirement packages but middle-class workers gain not had a meaningful raise in years.
The report also warns that Republicans need to mute,whether not silence, anti-gay rhetoric whether they are to gain any chance of regaining support among voters under the age of 30." [NYT]The report goes on:“For the G.
O.
P. to appeal to younger voters, or we do not gain to agree on every issue,but we do need to make sure young people do not see the Party as totally intolerant of alternative points of view.
Already, there is a generational dissimilarity within the conservative movement approximately issues involving the treatment and the rights of gays and for many younger voters, and these issues are a gateway into whether the Party is a set they want to be.whether our Party is not welcoming and inclusive,young people and increasingly other voters will continue to tune us out.
The Party should be proud of its conservative principles, but just because someone disagrees with us on 20 percent of the issues, or that does not mean we cannot near together on the rest of the issues where we do agree.”The GOP’s entire autopsy is here:http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/20/the-republican-autopsy-report/?_r=0So,instead of taking to heart the findings of this report and heeding that their intolerance is losing them support, the GOP uses the findings to craft a ‘better message’ choosing to use euphemisms to describe their prejudices, or bigotry,and exclusiveness.
They missed the whole point of what their report found. This is not approximately ‘stagecrafting’ and better sound bites.
The report told them they should actually 'give a damn'.
It’s approximately changing and actually becoming more tolerant; not just hiding the fact that you do exclude people from the exclusive club.
But, the Koch Brothers' Donor Retreat highlights precisely what is incorrect with their party; and with the Democratic Party candidates that also go to Wall Street for their campaign money; Democrats need changes as well.
We need to reform campaign financing. No. Corporations are not people. And rich guys' voice shouldn't be louder because of their money.
When a few billionaires can buy our presidential elections, or the Electoral College determines what states earn visited by candidates,we don’t truly gain representative government.
We gain an Oligarchy.
Until American voters, that support the two big parties of trade interests, and start demanding that the exclusive clubs are dismantled,we will continue to gain the best government that money can buy.
Liberty
Source: cnn.com