The official GOP response is ludicrous. I can’t decide if it’s as insulting as when they promoted Micheal Steele to head of the RNC in the wake of Obama’s first term ascendancy in this “Hey, we have black people too!” Perhaps Bobby Jihndal’s response from a few years back with yet another stab at the “Hey, a brown republican!” can approach that buffoonishness. Rubio’s response last year seemed to be just a double down on the whole “What minority problems?” and had the added benefit of Rubio’s awkward thirst issues. So this year’s response coming from a woman Republican who's proven to be just as anti-women as her party peers is really no surprise.
The official GOP response was little more than a veiled autobiography sprinkled in amongst the same tired GOP talking points. A woman, born poor, instilled with conservative beliefs (like saving money!) pulled up by her own bootstraps to be a Congresswoman. A friend of mine commented that this was literally the exact same speech the GOP has been giving for the last three years. Three years is being generous.
In this vein, I am compelled to continue this “new conservative idea” thread of late. There has been no shortage to this, seeing as the right-wing pundit class has been scrambling to add something substantive to the lack of mainstream GOP ideas that have been coming out. Perhaps they had seen Mrs. Rodgers’ speech and have been spending recent weeks trying to trick people in to thinking that there are actual “new conservative ideas”?
It should come as no surprise that I think Rick Jensen is a boob. This kind of article bashing is lower than the low hanging fruit I typically deal with. I just can’t help it, and he just so happened to write something about conservative ideas recently. But not so much “new” ideas as “tried and tested” ideas that have withstood ridicule…and are gaining support.
But first, he decides to flog Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
You read that right, Mr. Jensen starts off an article supposedly about conservative ideas gaining support by trotting out a 2008 GOP boogeyman and flogging him for “bearing false witness” against his fellow (TEA Party) man. So again, these vaunted “ideas” are taking a backseat to more pundit class ankle biting.
Mr. Jensen then goes on to pull (probably straight from his ass) figures of TEA Party backed candidates that were black, and the “a least a dozen” TEA Party organizations with African-American leadership. Surely, they can’t be racists! See how progressive they’re being? And despite this claim that they are bigots, still the conservative “considerations” are “slipping in to the American consciousness”. Doesn’t that sound a tiny bit rape-y or at the very least nonconsensually invasive?
So he trots out the old “they’re gonna take yer guns” bullshit. Democrats supporting gun buybacks? Really? What year is this? He then references all these studies from newspapers, universities, and police departments that show that this concept doesn’t work. Yet, he doesn’t mention ONE by name. It’s all I’m ever asking for from right-wing pundits: just some names! Just one! Just like I’d like to see just TWO new ideas from the GOP right-wing. Just two…that’s all I really want.
This lack of named studies from anywhere is even more galling when he mentions U.S. Census and Bureau of Labor Statistics later on in the piece.
Going back to the original “gun buyback” bullshit, is this veiled racism that permeates the ENTIRE portion of this article. “Targeted police patrols”, “known criminals”, “specific neighborhoods”, just to name a few. This notion of a Minority Report system of “applying 911 calls research to deploy teams to “troubled areas” in advance of the next crime to prevent crime” is scary enough. I thought you guys were all about limited government? Oh, it’s not cool in the “white” areas…but “troubled areas” game on? And not even to speak of just where a city is going to get the money to pay for these deploy teams. Raising taxes? That’s bad! Hell, it’s not even thinly veiled racism, it‘s just good old right-wing double down on the fear of “them”.
Sensing that perhaps he may be called out for perceived racism, Mr. Jensen focuses on the
On a recent Real Time With Bill Maher, Carly Fiorina bristled at the notion that as a republican she had to defend her fellow party members when they said ridiculous things, as in the case of Mike Huckabee’s “Uncle Sugar” line. Sadly, in the age of the false equivalency, she has to. Propelled by her friends at Fox News, and the GOP right-wing echo chamber, you now have to answer for any one affiliated with your party. If the GOP isn’t going to admit it has a fractured party problem, then they indeed have to explain their more crazy side when shit starts spilling out of it’s gaping maw.
It’s clear that Mr. Jensen doesn’t represent the mainstream GOP and probably proudly boasts that notion. But he’s out there, spewing his veiled racist nonsense under the banner of the GOP right-wing. Sadly, as his article proves, the GOP still doesn’t have any “new” ideas; and if he’s going to write an article that attempts to prove that pro-gun and anti-minimum wage are strong ideas that need doubling down on, then the GOP right-wing has a lot more to worry about than “new” ideas.
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