Hi Dave,   
      
   On Sat 2012-Mar-17 05:33, Dave Drum (1:18/200) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
    RW> YEp, but note Matt Taibbi's piece in Rolling stonefor February 16 about   
    RW> Romney's meltdown in South Carolina.  HE stated in that   
    RW> column that Paul was the only one who even looked like he   
    RW> might hold his own in a head to head against Obama.  The   
    RW> wack jobs the Republicans are putting up (political insiders all) don't   
    RW> do nearly as well.   
      
   I neglected to put the magazine name in originally.   
   Corrected that error in case anybody's interested.   
      
    RW> NOt that i"m a fan, but one wonders if they aren't listening to some of   
    RW> the real concerns voiced by all the folks who join the tea party or   
    RW> occupy.  Don't they (the leadership of the Republican party) grasp this   
    RW> at all?   
      
   DD> Well, the tea baggers have been co-opted by the oligarchs as window   
   DD> dressing for their own feather the nest agendas. As for the "Occupy"   
   DD> movement - the 1% seem to think that if they ignore it and chip away   
   DD> at the edges that it will fade away. They may be right. It worked   
   DD> for Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, didn't it???   Bv)=   
      
   That's as I see it, but I'd really think if Iwere in a   
   position of leadership in the Republican party I'd be   
   thinking about the real reason that the oligarchs have been   
   able to coopt such a movement as the tea party, or create   
   such a smoke and mirrors thing in teh first place for JOe   
   sixpack to buy into.  Average folks are very unhappy with   
   what's happening in Washington and they're just not grasping this.  I know a   
   hell of a lot of people under 50 who are   
   totally disengaged from this process, because they feel it   
   can make no positive difference in their lives.  As soon as   
   they're too old to be considered good cannon fodder they're   
   just given the one finger salute.  But, you have a lot of   
   younger folks within the occupy movement, and a lot of   
   oldsters in the tea party thing both saying basically teh   
   same thing to the folks insdie the beltway which is   
   "straighten this crap up!"  Some I know who really went   
   beating on doors and pushing for Obama in '08 are very   
   disillusioned at this point, Mr. Hope and change hasn't   
   given them much change they could believe in, or even change from their dollar.   
      
   DD> They are out of touch or they wouldn't be (current) Repuglicans.    
      
   YEah I know, but that's waht I really don't understand.  Has the current   
   Republican party become so blind to this that   
   they've lost touch with what it really meant to be a   
   conservative in the days of Goldwater et al?  Tehy really   
   don't grasp that there's a vast pool of dissatisfied   
   citizens out there who don't see the point in the bottomless bailout pit for   
   Wall street crooks and fat cats gaming the   
   system at their expense.  A viable third party which   
   actually discussed fixing essential infrastructure and   
   putting people back to work could really go somewhere.  Many of us are qutie   
   uncomfortable with both major parties these   
   days.  I'll probably vote major party this time, while I   
   hold my nose.   
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)