Can Ryan’s Radicalism Shift the Focus off the Hunt for Romney’s Tax Returns?
Posted: August 11, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Psychopaths in charge, religious extremists, Republican Tax Fetishists, Tea Party activists, The Bonus Class, VAGINA MItt Romney, We are so F'd | Tags: Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Punditry, Radical 38 CommentsSo,what better way to take the focus off your own short comings and the way you hide your viewpoints and taxes than to appoint a
VP candidate that is sure to be a touch stone with the political press? That’s how I see the Ryan appointment. Romney’s positions are all over the place. Ryan’s are very much on record. Romney’s specific agendas and plans have been as translucent as his tenure at Bain and his tax returns. Ryan’s agenda is very much known. Ryan holds extreme views on abortion and all social issues as well as having introduced two extremely controversial and unpopular budget plans. What a way to change the conversation. Here’s a reminder of the extremist positions of Paul Ryan who still manages to be a media darling. This is from The Daily Beast today and was written by Michelle Goldman.
By now, you surely know, if you didn’t already, that Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick, wants to privatize social security and turn Medicare into a voucher system. You might have read that, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, his economic plan “calls for radical policy changes that would result in a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals.”
Less attention has been paid, though, to Ryan’s hard-right positions on social issues. Indeed, on abortion and women’s health care, there isn’t much daylight between Ryan and, say, Michele Bachmann. Any Republican vice presidential candidate is going to be broadly anti-abortion, but Ryan goes much further. He believes ending a pregnancy should be illegal even when it results from rape or incest, or endangers a woman’s health. He was a cosponsor of the Sanctity of Human Life Act, a federal bill defining fertilized eggs as human beings, which, if passed, would criminalize some forms of birth control and in vitro fertilization. The National Right to Life Committee has scored his voting record 100 percent every year since he entered the House in 1999. “I’m as pro-life as a person gets,” he told the Weekly Standard’s John McCormack in 2010. “You’re not going to have a truce.”
Indeed, Ryan exemplifies a strange sort of ideological hybrid that now dominates the GOP. On economic issues, he’s a hardcore libertarian who once said, “[T]he reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker…it would be Ayn Rand. And the fight we are in here, make no mistake about it, is a fight of individualism versus collectivism.” Yet when it comes to women’s control of their bodies, he quickly turns into a statist. “In the state of nature—the ‘law of the jungle’—the determination of who ‘qualifies’ as a human being is left to private individuals or chosen groups,” he wrote in a 2010 essay titled “The Cause of Life Can’t be Severed from the Cause of Freedom.” “In a justly organized community, however, government exists to secure the right to life and the other human rights that follow from that primary right.”
For anyone who wants to know how Ryan thinks, that essay is worth reading. It’s about 1,500 words long, but the word “woman” doesn’t appear in it once. Nor does the word “mother.” To him, a woman’s claim to bodily autonomy or self-determination doesn’t merit even cursory consideration. Here’s his analogy: “The car which I exercised my freedom of choice to purchase…does not ‘qualify’ for protection of human rights. I can drive it, lend it, kick it, sell it, or junk it, at will. On the other hand, the widow who lives next door does ‘qualify’ as a person, and the government must secure her human rights, which cannot be abandoned to anyone’s arbitrary will.”
Here’s the same source but an article written by Paul Begala who focuses on Ryan’s plutocratic upbringing. Today, it’s all about Ryan’s very public radicalism and his hypocrisy.
In selecting Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has doubled-down on the one thing he has never flip-flopped on: economic elitism. Romney, born to wealth, has selected Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, who was also born to wealth. As the former University of Oklahoma football coach, Barry Switzer, once said of someone else: both these guys were born on third and thought they hit a triple.
There’s nothing wrong with inherited wealth. Lord knows great presidents from FDR to JFK came into their fortunes through the luck of birth. But there is something wrong with winners of the lineage lottery who want to hammer those who did not have the foresight to select wealthy sperm and egg.
Finally, we have peered into Mitt Romney’s core. It is neither pro-choice nor pro-life; neither pro-NRA nor pro-gun control; neither pro-equality nor antigay. But it is pro-wealth and very anti–middle class. Mitt Romney has decided to go nuclear in the class war.
Paul Ryan, the darling of the New York–Washington media elite, is almost certainly not the most qualified person Romney could have picked. Unlike governors like Chris Christie or Tim Pawlenty, or a former high-ranking White House official like Rob Portman, Ryan has never run anything larger than his congressional office or the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. The elite love Ryan because he speaks for more cowardly members of their class; his stridently anti–middle class policies are music to their ears.
You will often hear people who ought to know better dress up Ryan’s savage economic priorities with euphemisms. Ryan wants to “fix” Medicare. No, he doesn’t. He wants to kill it. Saying Paul Ryan wants to “fix” Medicare is like saying the vet wanted to “fix” my dog Major; that which used to work very well no longer works at all—and Major is none too happy with the procedure.
Ryan’s budget is the fiscal embodiment of the deeply evil, wholeheartedly selfish so-called philosophy of Ayn Rand. In fact, Ryan has described Rand as “the reason I got involved in public service,” and reportedly makes staffers read her works.
Think about that. As my buddy James Carville has said, what would all the Best People say if Nancy Pelosi made her staffers read, say, Margaret Sanger? Or if Barack Obama made interns study Das Kapital? Sure, a few months ago, facing Catholic protestors at Georgetown University, Ryan said he renounced Rand. But as the national Catholic weekly, America, wrote, he did not change the substance of a single policy. Some renunciation. It seems to me Ryan has renounced Rand’s politically incorrect atheism, not her morally bankrupt philosophy of Screw Thy Neighbor.
So, how long will the focus be on Major’s neutering rather than poor Shamus who was strapped to the top of a car for 12 hours?
How long will the focus be on Paul Ryan whose life is an open book compared to the secretive and snaky Willard?
Was this part of the strategy of picking Paul Ryan. Was this an attempt to get the focus off of the car elevators, the dancing horses who get bigger tax deductions than most people’s children, the you don’t get to see my taxes stand, the insults to Japan and Britain and the highly botched tour abroad? Is this all about appeasing the base and getting the punditry to chase a less important bone?
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I would imagine that’s what it was about, though securing his base still seemed to be Rmoney’s prime directive. I don’t think it will work since the Obama campaign can probably walk and chew gum simultaneously.
His only hope seems to be if they can suppress minority voters in swing states with things like voter ID laws and get their radical white right wingers and religionists out in droves.
IMHO, this is a desperation pick. Romney knows he’s losing, so he had no choice but to go “bold”–actually he’s acceding to the will of the Koch Brothers and the other rich crazies. In the process, Romney is giving up control of his campaign and his presidency if elected. Ryan will be seen as the important part of the ticket, because Romney has no clear ideology of his own. Now he’s married to Ryan’s.
It’s not going to work, because Ryan is not that popular even in Wisconsin, where his approval is at 38%. Even if Ryan gives Romney a point or two advantage in Wisconsin, Obama is probably still going to win there. But they are going to lose Florida once Ryan’s plans for Medicare are publicized. Romney can’t win without Florida. I guess he’s gambling that old people will only care about themselves and not for their children and grandchildren. I think he’s wrong.
I don’t think this will take the focus off Romney’s taxes for long. Obama’s campaign would be crazy not to keep harping on that, and Ryan’s agenda will force Romney to stop beating around the bush and actually take some specific positions on issues. He can’t distance himself from the Ryan budget otherwise. He has already endorsed the budget, so it will be assumed that he’s embracing Ryan’s entire agenda. That is going to amp up the “class war” to a fever pitch.
I think this is a bone that the punditry will chase for awhile. They may be thinking that if they can get the village to go off on a tangent it will give them a chance to change the narrative at the convention and focus on the Obama hate. I hope you’re right. But, I have a feeling this was to try to take some heat off of Romney’s gaffes, secrecy, and multiple weaknesses for awhile. The punditry loves Ryan. For some reason, they think he’s clever and the liberal meeting love to hate on him. I think this is an attempt to distract as long as possible and appeal to the base for the convention push.
Yes, the pundits love Ryan, but this changes Romney’s entire strategy. Up until now, he has done everything he can to avoid taking positions. Now he is saddled with the most extreme positions possible. He can’t back off much, because he is on video endorsing the Ryan budget as well as extreme views on abortion and birth control.
This is going to drive everyone who can’t stand Obama to vote for him. No one can plausibly claim now that Romney being elected would help the Dems in the long term. If this ticket wins, the writing will be on the wall, the Overton window will slide over further and all of the conservatively-inclined Dems will be more than happy to capitulate to the political realities. The idea that somehow the worst case scenario is going to give rise to a new class of motivated, squeaky-clean warrior Dems when the entire political class is designed to mitigate against this potentiality is nonsense.
War on women goes full frontal assault.
To both these privileged white males — women are merely baby makers. Two of the most extreme males in their hatred of women. Expect a full on war. Also this is a class war and these two will widen the gap between the 1% and the rest of us. The middle class will lose even more ground — but the white male conservatives don’t give a damn.
The patriarchy has just gotten more extreme — meanwhile earth is burning. So this pick will also be supported by the deniers.
Both of these guys make my skin crawl –they both have a high degree of icky nasty slimy — sort of like the snake oil salesmen.
Snark follows:
Plus one looks like a vampire. It is said that some species of Vampire can take a little bit of sun. Can Ryan be seen in a mirror?
/snark
I have a stock pile of copper washers — round copper — and I feel the need to pound.
For bloggers our mission needs to be — where are Romney’s tax returns.
So far, the only pundit love I’ve seen is from Will Saletan in Slate but he’s the definition of a useful idiot anyway. Candy Crowley was a surprise when she said it seemed like a suicidal campaign move.
They don’t have to love him. They just have to talk about him and ignore Romney’s short comings and secrecy and idiot statements to our allies.
My comment actually is in reply to northwestrain regarding war on women.
Ryan was one of the 64 co-sponsors of the Sanctity of Human Life Act(H.R. 212, Jan.7, 2011), which declared that each human life begins with fertilization, at which time every human has all legal and constitutional attributes and privileges of personhood.
Exactly right, seriously!
I hope you are right about the Romney tax thing BB, that has to stay in the forefront as well.
This choice really highlights the stupidity of the Dem position that Dems should meet the Repubs halfway. What is the least bit conciliatory about the selection of Ryan and Ryan’s hardline views? Rightward we all go, I guess, until most of the 99% fall off the cliff. Then who will supply the money for the 1% to steal and gamble away?
I can answer that one, All services the government turned over to private corporations, fire, police, post office, prisons and we are going to need a lot of them, just think of the possibilities. Not to mention the new and improved renters across America. Also, the new and heavily advertised CREDIT CARD!
But people can’t pay their credit card debt today, and a large number have lost their jobs and homes, so privatizing will do nothing, although I see where you’re going with the prisons, sadly.
Yes I could have explained that better, on the debtor’s prison front, but just think of all the ways middle class and the poor will now live.
I found this part of “The Legendary Paul Ryan” article chilling.
In 2005, Ryan spoke at a gathering of Ayn Rand enthusiasts, where he declared, “The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand.” Ryan has listed Rand’s manifesto, Atlas Shrugged, as one of his three most often reread books, and in 2003, he told The Weekly Standard he tries to make his interns read it. Rand is a useful touchstone to understand Ryan’s public philosophy. She centered libertarian philosophy around a defense of capitalism in general and, in particular, a conception of politics as a class war pitting virtuous producers against parasites who illegitimately use the power of the state to seize their wealth. Ludwig von Mises, whom Ryan has also cited as an influence, once summed up Rand’s philosophy in a letter to her: “You have the courage to tell the masses what no politician told them: You are inferior and all the improvements in your condition which you simply take for granted you owe to the effort of men who are better than you.”
Yes, individualism vs. Collectivism, so put us in charge of the government. It makes perfect sense.
Excellent question – once the entire country becomes a serfdom, who do they think will be able to pay the taxes? They cannot go back to the Robin Hood days with the tax collectors out with armed guards appropriating every cent and all their crops – or can they?
I am very concerned about this – as a Canuck I have no right to chime in, but if the U.S. goes down the tube, so does the rest of the hemisphere.
They’ll build an empire abroad and keep us all in debtor’s prison so we can’t complain
Many if not most pension funds have been looted in one way or the other — so retirement will mean extreme poverty for the majority of baby boomers.
0bama is Republican lite — and he has been threatening since 2008 to radically change both Social Security and Medicare.
As far as I’m concerned we will be watching the right wing candidate — from both parties dancing around the real issues.
0bama will not change radically into a real liberal — so forget that daydream. He is what he is — out for himself with no real vision for the future.
Then Mittens and Vampire Ryan do have a plan for the future — starve granny and gandpa and punish women. Oh and we must not forget their plan to given even more money to the 1% who are bank rolling their campaign.
In my thinking, it’s the real reason we didn’t get a Medicare for All fight, was they spent two years on health care compromises, Remember the Public Option? We all know that the Democrats we have now are not JFK or LBJ. And it’s the reason for their (the democrats) defense now is “Fix Medicare and Social Security” and not a scream of “Republicans are going to take away your Social Security and Medicare”. Because the truth is the democrats want to fuck it up too. What’s really wrong with it is, our elected officials spend the funds out of your insurance program and wouldn’t fund Medicare, to many wars and defense spending (more private company’s). Besides the tax payers pay “their” retirement and health care. Really aren’t we left with, just stab yourself if the republicans win or suffer slowly if the democrats will? I mean come on, Bill Nelson’s ad against Connie Mack in Florida says “He wants to change Medicare as we know it”. REALLY? How about he wants to Kill Medicare. And in Florida, that’s the best you can do.
Noam Scheiber in TNR. I can root for this pundit to be correct.
Just One Reason to Pick Ryan: Blame the Loss on Conservatives
Joseph Cannon:
So my major party choices are reduced to:
1) The convener of the Peterson “Catfood” Commission, or
2) The economically illiterate author of the Medicare-killing austerity “budget”.
I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be deciding whether to be starved by a Republican or a Republican masquerading as a Democrat.
Just try and get Rmoney to 270 without Florida, it’s next to not possible. The Miami Herald: Ryan could be a drag on Mitt Romney in Florida
Well, Florida elected a thief of Medicare. Nothing surprises me anymore.
He stole from the government, not the recipients. That’s not the same thing as taking away health care completely.
Also, the Cuban-American thing. I won’t hold my breath about the media pointing out his past stance.
Well, if you put it that way, He, He. A-OK.
The Cubans already know about Ryan’s embargo issues. 🙂
Just what I wanted to read.
PoliticalWire: How Ryan Makes Romney’s “Tax Problem” Worse
Oh if only – one can dream can’t one? I fear that the people who support this dynamic dudsome don’t read and investigate – glory be show me the fainting couch. They take their marching orders from the Rushes, Savages, Sunday pontificators and the RNC – corporatocracy central (the Dem establishment is also in CC, however it remains to be seen who will get the train and who will be left behind at the station)..
This is really OT but it just makes me sick.
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2012-08-09/news/a-woman-was-held-in-jail-because-authorities-thought-she-was-illegal/
I hope she sues their asses off~
Chris Matthews had a 2-hour special Hardball on this aft. where he dealt with the Ryan ascendancy.
What interested me was the sick look on Matthew’s face during the entire two hours. He is worried. He kept asking how the country will vote dem when two-thirds of the country thinks the country is on the wrong track.
I was not happy myself to hear the news this morning. But I have to admit that the speeches by both men in Virginia this afternoon were very well delivered. Especially Romney. He was the big surprise. Very passionate delivery. Matthews pointed out that neither man used a teleprompter. Later I did see teleprompters standing there, and I think Ryan did use it. But it certainly did look as if Romney spoke extemporaneously. And in all honesty it was a barn-burner, really well-delivered. I have heard Obama give a strong speech or two, but not without the prompter.
Time will provide further illumination.
By the way if my rants, were understood. This link is just great.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/plank/106029/ryan-romney-vp-budget-cuts-medicare-medicaid-voucher-tax-cut
I haven’t seen much on this, and am wondering why Mittens decided to splash his news on a Friday night, and not on a Mon/Tuesday……The polls were showing him behind, so that figured into the time frames……but something else besides being on the brink came into play… another leak, is that what snapped him into doing it on Friday?