The Race To The Middle For 2008

Eagle Forum ^ | November 29, 2006 | Phyllis Schlafly

[A. Pole]

The middle class is not placated by feel-good talk that the stock market has climbed to a record high, or that unemployment is at a record low, or that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is growing. Unemployment statistics don't count the guys who lost $50,000 jobs in manufacturing and are now working $25,000 jobs in retail, and job-growth figures happily do count the wives who have been involuntarily forced into the labor force just to keep groceries on the table.

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[MNJohnnie]

Only problem is that is a pure lie. Nothing at all even remotely touching reality. Average wages in this country are UP $3.00 but of course that doesn't validate their emotion based opinions of the Economic Nationalists so they simply tune out all factual reality to cling to their failed dogmas of economic isolationism.

[roses of sharon]

Well since the middle class voted out their "enemy", and voted in their friends, what is their legislative agenda to bring back all the manufacturing jobs?

I couldn't tell by the article what their plans were.

[A. Pole]

Only problem is that is a pure lie.

And why would Mrs. Schlafly lie?

[JimRed]

...some disappeared in the tsunami of cheap Chinese goods as Wal-Mart replaced small businesses and left behind towns with empty streets and boarded-up windows.

Around here, whenever a small business closes it is almost immediately replaced by another one, usually some kind of yuppie shop.

[Hydroshock]

So free trade is now and I suspect it has been for a while a losing political position. If the republicans want to win they need to dump it asap.

[taxed2death]

"Only problem is that is a pure lie. Nothing at all even remotely touching reality."

Here in CT it is 100% accurate and spot on with the demographic that the writer is talking about.

[Alberta's Child]

Have Republicans realized that jobs were second only to the unpopular war as the issue of 2006 . . .

I challenge Ms. Schlafly to provide evidence to support this point. Everything I've read in the aftermath of the 2006 election indicates that the war in Iraq wasn't even the top issue in the minds of most voters -- and "jobs" (whatever that means) wasn't even among the top five.

[IronJack]

that perennial politician, ... Ted Kennedy

I usually refer to him as a "bloated gutwagon." Or "Souse the Orca." Perennial politician just doesn't capture the full effect of the drunken slob.

[raybbr]

Only problem is that is a pure lie. Nothing at all even remotely touching reality. Average wages in this country are UP $3.00 but of course that doesn't validate their emotion based opinions of the Economic Nationalists so they simply tune out all factual reality to cling to their failed dogmas of economic isolationism.

Up $3? From when? 1971? Prove your ass-ertions.

[Obie Wan]

Oh you don't know ? They're going to raise taxes on people who actually still have jobs , that's how they solve all our problems !!!

[A. Pole]

I usually refer to him as a "bloated gutwagon."

So do you think that he was wrong when he said: "People want to know who's on their side. Whether it's health care or wages or retirement issues, they want to have someone on their side."

Well, I guess you are right, if this was said by a fat Democrat then it must follow that people do not want their interests to be defended. The logic of Free Market Fundamentalism is overwhelming.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

The first wave of Baby Boomers is facing retirement. They will rapidly form the largest "entitlement class" in the history of the country. Politicians who offer to increase the Boomers' benefits from baloney sandwiches to steak and lobster will get elected. Politicians who call for restraint will lose. This will set the pattern for the next twenty years.

Watch, it's coming to a Nanny State near you.

[roses of sharon]

Specifically, how do Republicans dump free trade, what do they put in its place, how long will it take, and how soon can factories be built with workers making an excellent living?

Since the middle class enemies were defeated, specifically, what do our friends in Congress have in mind to accomplish these goals, fast?

[alloysteel]

Is the middle where we want to be? Dwight Eisenhower was a strict middle-roader in the years 1953 to early 1961, and we saw the politics of compromise and "containment" take the lead. For all the kindly and avuncular face he put to his Presidency, Eisenhower was adamant is not drawing out worldwide Communism into a face-to-face fight, and we were saddled with that curse upon the world for perhaps 30 years longer than we ought to have endured.

Now a similar situation is developing in the confrontation between our values (which, oddly enough, are now partly comprised of some of the few remaining legacies of world socialism) and those of the Islamic world caliphate. Make no mistake, that is not a religion, it is an IDEOLOGY, transcribed from the words of a murderous schizophrenic madman, that would make Charles Manson look like a jovial and highly respected Boy Scout leader.

And we are supposed to compromise with these people? The Reds were reasonable and interested in self-preservation, and THEY were a bear to deal with. How are we supposed to deal with people who show up at meetings with a bomb belted around their waists, with their thumb poised to detonate the device the moment negotiations are not going their way?

[IronJack]

Tie up that horse, Tex. I don't believe ANYTHING Ted Kennedy says, including "Good morning."

But whether Tubby said it or not, I agree that people want to know who's "on their side" (whatever that means). It's just that I don't believe for one split second that that is the Democrats. There's too much evidence to the contrary.

On the other hand, canceling our involvment in GATT, NAFTA, CAFTA, and the rest of the AFTA-birth wouldn't bother me in the least.

[hedgetrimmer]

what do they put in its place,

They reinstate the Constitution, and everything else will follow.

[roses of sharon]

These politicians don't work in a vacuum, their constituents vote the into office.

Politicians are just men, normal human beings, who act legislatively according to the wishes of their voters.

It is your fellow Americans who choose our financial, governmental, and cultural way of life.