Quote: (08-13-2012 08:56 PM)Brian Wrote:
The right hasnt moved as far right as you say. Things have gotten so out of whack that whenever someone says "I dont think we should spend more then we make consistently w/o any plan to change it" you are labeled as a radical right wing tea party racist. Thats all most "right wingers" want - spend what you make. Apply the same logic to the country that you do to business and personal expenses.
There is some truth to what you're saying in that people on the left sometimes use charges of racism to smear conservative economic arguments. That being said, there is a certain amount of actual racism on the right. I used to defend the tea party movement, but you can only see so many pictures of Obama as a pimp or as a monkey before you put two and two together.
The problem with the tea party is that it started as a largely libertarian movement (I know some of the people who were organizers of the 2009 protests), but then quickly grew to include a large contingent of white populists. It may be true that most right conservatives just want to spend what we make, but they also tend to elect leaders who are completely dishonest about what we're spending. So you have a movement that fosters this "OMG brown people are taking our country and our jobs and bankrupting up by collecting welfare." In truth we're being bankrupted by out of control defense spending and an unsustainable system of middle-class transfers.
Republicans are slightly better on entitlement reform and Democrats are slightly better on cutting defense spending, but neither party is really serious. They do just enough to keep their partisans happy while the whole system keeps chugging along towards insolvency.
I do think that Paul Ryan is somewhat sincere about fiscal reform. We'll see how that holds up now that he's on a national ticket.