The Grand Old Jurassic Party

UPDATE BELOW

Today we take a look at what's happening, or has happened, in GOJP land on economic and social issues:   


Walker Wrecks Wisconsin as State Plunges to 44th in Private Sector Job Growth 

"Remember when Scott Walker promised 250,000 additional private sector jobs if only the voters would elect him Governor of Wisconsin? 

Well, they did, but he hasn’t delivered. 

Wisconsin has fallen again, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics report. They are now at 44 out of 50 states for private sector job growth from September 2011 to September 2012."

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"...Forbes named Wisconsin one of the worst states for business, somehow claiming that because they weren’t a “right-to-work” state they are flailing, when in reality, Walker’s union busting policies have had plenty of time to attract business, per the Right wing claim. But they haven’t."


In 1995, Texas lawmakers insisted on imposing "abstinence only" as the only standard for sex education in schools across the state:    

"The results have been devastating. 

In 1992, Texas had the ninth-highest teen pregnancy rate in the country. 

By 2008, it had jumped to third-highest. In other categories, the statistics are just as staggering today: 

Texas is ahead of the national average in teen births, repeat teen births and high schoolers who have had sex. 

The state lags behind the national average in high schoolers who have used a condom or birth control pills for their last sexual encounter. State taxpayers are left with a $1 billion annual bill for teen births. That’s just the beginning. 

Babies born to mothers ages 15 to 17 have poorer health, lower cognitive development, do worse in school and have higher incarceration rates. No wonder that, in a poll of bipartisan voters last month, 84 percent of Texans said they favored a comprehensive program that includes teaching abstinence but that also provides scientific-based information. 

That approach, abstinence-plus, has been previously endorsed by this newspaper. Rather than embracing the will of the public, state lawmakers, led by Sen. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, are using sex education to push an anti-abortion agenda that would lead to state intervention in local decision-making."





Food Stamp Use is Highest in Red States: The Truth Republicans Do Not Want You to Know


"Economists say that providing food stamps might be the most stimulative action the government can take. Tax cuts for the wealthy ranks around 12th. I'm not against tax cuts for the wealthy out of any disdain for the wealthy. 

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So, the question is, do Republican approaches work? Who do they work for? Do they work long term? 

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Charts of food stamp usage show that while a few Democrat-led states have high food stamp usage; food stamp usage is highest consistently across Republican states. 

What does that say about the Republican approach...the top down, trickle down theory of economics fails the poor. Under conditions where the poor were helped, one would expect that there would be less reliance on food stamps. People would receive short-term support, a little assistance getting on their feet, maybe some job training, or some assistance paying for community college and would be on their way. 

If the poor are uplifted even just slightly then they become tax payers rather than living off food stamps. 

Republicans are angry about food stamp usage because they have failed to uplift the poor in their states. The top down, trickle down, economic approach has broken social mobility in Republican led states. Republicans are angry because their failed economic approach leaves them with fewer tax payers and more people on welfare." 



Here is an astute analysis:


The Grand Old Jurassic Party
STEVE ERICKSON FEBRUARY 14, 2013

With its focus on ideological purity, the Republican species is on the brink of extinction.



"The Republican Party is a presidential election away from extinction. If it can’t win the 2016 contest, and unless it has bolstered its congressional presence beyond the benefits of gerrymandered redistricting—which is to say not only retaking the Senate but polling more votes than the opposition nationally—the party will die. 

It will die not for reasons of “branding” or marketing or electoral cosmetics but because the party is at odds with the inevitable American trajectory in the direction of liberty, and with its own nature; paradoxically the party of Abraham Lincoln, which once saved the Union and which gives such passionate lip service to constitutionality, has come to embody the values of the Confederacy in its hostility to constitutional federalism and the civil bonds that the founding document codifies. 

The Republican Party will vanish not because of what its says but because of what it believes, not because of how it presents itself but because of who it is when it thinks no one is looking."


And lastly, here's another reason why minorities don't like them. (Remember how the GOJP has claimed it must attract Latinos and make them feel welcome in their party?)   Now read below how a member of the House of Representatives, without a hint of embarrassment, refers to farm workers.  After all, where he comes from, this is probably an acceptable term for Latinos:


"Rep. Don Young (R-AK) used an ethnic slur to describe Mexican farm workers in an interview with a local station KRBD on Thursday. "My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said while discussing economic trends of the last few decades. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.” Young's "wetback" remark comes as the GOP is engaged in a large scale effort to win over Latino voters, who have been alienated by party members' anti-immigration rhetoric and policies in recent years."

UPDATE:
Note to the GOJP:  If you want to be seen as a more inclusive party, it's best that you don't call gay people "filthy."  

Geeeez!

Latinos are "wetbacks," gay people are "filthy," women who wish to have their health insurance include contraception coverage are "sluts," and African-Americans stay with the Democratic Party because they're too stupid to know any better?

And this Michigan Republican says gays are responsible for half the murders in cities!  Where do they get these idiots?  I mean, does the GOJP send out flyers asking for the craziest, dumbest people to join them and become leaders?  It certainly seems so.

Whew!  And they wonder why minorities don't go near this party.

Dumb is too kind a word.