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Saturday, August 17, 2013

Follow like Sheep Republican Voters like their "Leaders!" Taking the "people" out of "We the people."

I've never been able to figure this one out: 

Republicans are outraged over Democratic policies that have supposedly made citizens dependent on government, all the while they are determined to elect "leaders" who will make all their decisions for them. 

These rugged, gun toting, constitution thumping individualists have never been happier than when their government does things for them, with little or no input from the public. Republican politicians act outside popular public opinion polls that also include their own conservative voters.  

We see proof of that everyday, from gun laws to money in politics. And nowhere did we get a reaffirmation of that "follow the leader" mentality than at a recent ALEC get together. 
Raw Story: "They don’t want people involved in the political process." Writing about her experience at The Progressive magazine’s website, Representative Chris Taylor, a Democrat, describes her experience inside the “ALEC universe:” 
Taylor: "One guy I was talking to, who was from one of these right wing think tanks was saying we need to curb Obama’s reckless power with these administrative regulations, and he wanted a federal constitutional amendment saying Congress has to approve federal regulations. I said, I don’t think most people are going to want to amend the Constitution for that. I don’t think that ignites people. Maybe it does on the far right, but most people don’t really care about that.

And he said, 'Oh, well, you really don’t need people to do this. You just need control over the legislature and you need money, and we have both.' That sentiment was underscored so many times to me, that they don’t want people involved in the political process, or in the policy process." 
The Democrats could take a lesson from this, at least when it comes to fighting and repeating our agenda often to everyone within earshot, and to businesses lobbyist with similar interests. At least until we get the money is out of elections:
Taylor: “I was really impressed by their infrastructure. I mean, we would never duplicate something like this on the left because, first of all, we would never take instructions from corporations, but the coordination that they have between these policy think tanks, the money and the legislators, in terms of just driving an agenda, it’s incredible. I've never seen anything like it. I’m fascinated by it because I've never seen anything like it from the left. So they've had incredible success."
In a real free market system, tort reform would be considered a manipulation of the market. And isn’t that what Republicans continue to whine about; special favors, picking winners and losers, blah, blah, blah.
Taylor: "They've had 71 bills introduced just this year that make it harder for most people who are injured to access the courts. We've certainly seen that here in Wisconsin. That was one of the first things that Walker did when he came in was push this tort reform through."
You have to wonder what companies are afraid of when they provide their valuable services or products. 

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