The Great Kansas (Libertarianism) Tea Party Disaster

[Derideo_Te]

I know that Vandalshandle posted this elsewhere but I believe that is deserves it's own thread.

The Great Kansas Tea Party Disaster

Extremist Republicans turned their government into a lab experiment of tax cuts and privatization. And now they may be losing control of one of the reddest states in the nation

By Mark Binelli | October 23, 2014

Four years ago, when Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback first took office, you might've wondered if these people, on some subliminal level, actually wanted to be humiliated by a filthy-minded liberal activist looking to add a new "santorum" to Urban Dictionary. As a senator and a failed presidential candidate, Brownback was already one of the nation's most prominent social conservatives, "God's Senator," in the words of a 2006 Rolling Stone profile. But Brownback turned out to be even more radical when it came to economic policy.

In 2012, he enacted the largest package of tax cuts in Kansas history, essentially transforming his state into a lab experiment for extreme free-market ideology. The results (disastrous) have reduced the governor to making appearances at grim strip malls like this one in a desperate attempt to salvage his re-election bid.

The larger problem, of course, is that Perry wouldn't even have to be here in Kansas if Brownback's economic plan had not already proved catastrophic. Back in 2011, Arthur Laffer, the Reagan-era godfather of supply-side economics, brought to Wichita by Brownback as a paid consultant, sounded like an exiled Marxist theoretician who'd lived to see a junta leader finally turn his words into deeds.

"Brownback and his whole group there, it's an amazing thing they're doing," Laffer gushed to

The Washington Post that December. "It's a revolution in a cornfield." Veteran Kansas political reporter John Gramlich, a more impartial observer, described Brownback as being in pursuit of "what may be the boldest agenda of any governor in the nation," not only cutting taxes but also slashing spending on education, social services and the arts, and, later, privatizing the entire state Medicaid system.

Brownback himself went around the country telling anyone who'd listen that Kansas could be seen as a sort of test case, in which unfettered libertarian economic policy could be held up and compared right alongside the socialistic overreach of the Obama administration, and may the best theory of government win. "We'll see how it works," he bragged on Morning Joe in 2012. "We'll have a real live experiment."

That word, "experiment," has come to haunt Brownback as the data rolls in. The governor promised his "pro-growth tax policy" would act "like a shot of adrenaline in the heart of the Kansas economy,"

but, instead, state revenues plummeted by nearly $700 million in a single fiscal year, both Moody's and Standard & Poor's downgraded the state's credit rating, and job growth sagged behind all four of Kansas' neighbors. Brownback wound up nixing a planned sales-tax cut to make up for some of the shortfall, but not before he'd enacted what his opponents call the largest cuts in education spending in the history of Kansas.

Being governor in the midst of a national economic crisis, then, handed Brownback the perfect opportunity to reinvent himself. "My focus is to create a red-state model that allows the Republican ticket to say, ‘See, we've got a different way, and it works,' " he told TheWall Street Journal last year. "We've got a series of blue states raising taxes and a series of red states cutting taxes. Now let's watch and see what happens."

Brownback exists in a class of his own, thanks both to the vainglorious scale of his project and the inescapable reality of its flop. And what must have longtime Brownback patrons like the Koch brothers most freaked out is how starkly his failure highlights the shortcomings of their own ideology.

Brownback's policies have been so unpopular, in fact, that a group of more than 100 moderate Republicans, nearly all of them former or current state officeholders, have publicly backed his Democratic opponent, state Rep. Paul Davis, who, until the race's recent tightening, had been leading consistently in polls. Calling themselves Republicans for Kansas Values, the moderates released a manifesto of sorts, which reads in part, "We are Republicans in the historical and traditional sense of the word.

Yet in today's political climate in Kansas, traditional Republican values have been corrupted by extremists, claiming to be agents of change. It is a faction which hides behind the respected Republican brand in an effort to defund and dismantle our state's infrastructure. . . . 

The policies [they] espouse are radical departures. . . . They jeopardize the economy and endanger our children's future with reckless abandon. . . . We reject their extremist agenda."

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-great-kansas-tea-party-disaster-20141023#ixzz3H6Qs5r1G
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Gov Brownback tried to turn Kansas into a "Libertarian Paradise"!

Instead it has become a complete and utter disaster.

So much so that even life long Republicans have switched sides to support a Dem for Governor.

If ever there was hard evidence that Libertarianism doesn't work it is right here in the red state heartland.

The quotes above demonstrate that there is nothing about Libertarianism that actually works in the real world. It has been tried and it has failed just as extremist Communism tried and failed. The evidence is all there but I am willing to bet that not a single Libertarian in this forum will be honest enough to admit to this epic failure.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Kansas is proof of what I've said before. You can't really appreciate how bad conservatism is until you see it in action, i.e.,

until you see what happens when conservatives actually get enough power to actually implement their lunacy.

 

[Mertex]

I can see it now.....it's Obama's fault.

 

[Statistikhengst]

I must say, the polling values all through the breadbasket states are maybe the REAL surprise of 2014 and I don't know of a single statistician who saw it coming.

Austerity on steroids just doesn't work.

 

[Derideo_Te]

Kansas is proof of what I've said before. You can't really appreciate how bad conservatism is until you see it in action, i.e.,

until you see what happens when conservatives actually get enough power to actually implement their lunacy.

To be fair we are talking about the extremist conservatives. And you absolutely correct that they have to be in power to appreciate just how insane their ideas really are in reality.

 

[NYcarbineer]

Kansas is proof of what I've said before. You can't really appreciate how bad conservatism is until you see it in action, i.e.,

until you see what happens when conservatives actually get enough power to actually implement their lunacy.

To be fair we are talking about the extremist conservatives. And you absolutely correct that they have to be in power to appreciate just how insane their ideas really are in reality.

I disagree. How often do you hear self-described conservatives express any reservations about an extremist wing of their cause?

 

[Statistikhengst]

But wait a minute. Is extreme Conservative then the same as Libertarianism, with respect to the OP title?

 

[Derideo_Te]

Kansas is proof of what I've said before. You can't really appreciate how bad conservatism is until you see it in action, i.e.,

until you see what happens when conservatives actually get enough power to actually implement their lunacy.

To be fair we are talking about the extremist conservatives. And you absolutely correct that they have to be in power to appreciate just how insane their ideas really are in reality.

I disagree. How often do you hear self-described conservatives express any reservations about an extremist wing of their cause?

They were doing it in that article and quite vehemently too. I know that it is a long read but really worthwhile in my opinion.

 

[Mertex]

I've not seen much difference between Libertarians and modern day Tea Party conservatives.

 

[Derideo_Te]

But wait a minute. Is extreme Conservative then the same as Libertarianism, with respect to the OP title?

Does it matter?

For clarification purposes there is classic conservatism that has all but become extinct amongst elected Republicans. It has been replaced by the Tea Party brand of extremist conservatism that is indistinguishable from Libertarianism when it comes to implementation.

 

[Statistikhengst]

But wait a minute. Is extreme Conservative then the same as Libertarianism, with respect to the OP title?

Does it matter?

For clarification purposes there is classic conservatism that has all but become extinct amongst elected Republicans. It has been replaced by the Tea Party brand of extremist conservatism that is indistinguishable from Libertarianism when it comes to implementation.

In some ways, I think it does matter. Pure Libertarianism is definitely not hateful of gay people, because Libertarianism is for complete liberty and privacy in the bedroom.

But on social issues, Libertarianism pure is for the dismantling of as much gubbermint as possible. I think you are referring to this component of Libertarianism.

 

[Derideo_Te]

But wait a minute. Is extreme Conservative then the same as Libertarianism, with respect to the OP title?

Does it matter?

For clarification purposes there is classic conservatism that has all but become extinct amongst elected Republicans. It has been replaced by the Tea Party brand of extremist conservatism that is indistinguishable from Libertarianism when it comes to implementation.

In some ways, I think it does matter. Pure Libertarianism is definitely not hateful of gay people, because Libertarianism is for complete liberty and privacy in the bedroom.

But on social issues, Libertarianism pure is for the dismantling of as much gubbermint as possible. I think you are referring to this component of Libertarianism.

I am referring to extreme conservatives that embrace Libertarian economic principles that have been demonstrated to be an utter failure in KS.

 

[Statistikhengst]

But wait a minute. Is extreme Conservative then the same as Libertarianism, with respect to the OP title?

Does it matter?

For clarification purposes there is classic conservatism that has all but become extinct amongst elected Republicans. It has been replaced by the Tea Party brand of extremist conservatism that is indistinguishable from Libertarianism when it comes to implementation.

In some ways, I think it does matter. Pure Libertarianism is definitely not hateful of gay people, because Libertarianism is for complete liberty and privacy in the bedroom.

But on social issues, Libertarianism pure is for the dismantling of as much gubbermint as possible. I think you are referring to this component of Libertarianism.

I am referring to extreme conservatives that embrace Libertarian economic principles that have been demonstrated to be an utter failure in KS.

Yes, I can agree on that point immediately.

 

[initforme]

But some from Kansas will continue to vote for that kind of trainwreck. They want more. More for the wealthy that is.

 

[Truman123]

That's one hell of an article.

 

[Dot Com]

Kansas is proof of what I've said before. You can't really appreciate how bad conservatism is until you see it in action, i.e.,

until you see what happens when conservatives actually get enough power to actually implement their lunacy.

To be fair we are talking about the extremist conservatives. And you absolutely correct that they have to be in power to appreciate just how insane their ideas really are in reality.

I disagree. How often do you hear self-described conservatives express any reservations about an extremist wing of their cause?

yep. Just ***crickets*** from them but when was it any different in the last 40 years

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

But wait a minute. Is extreme Conservative then the same as Libertarianism, with respect to the OP title?

He seems to think so, but no, it isn't. Libertarianism has not been practiced in Kansas so the OP is a fail.

 

[Truman123]

But wait a minute. Is extreme Conservative then the same as Libertarianism, with respect to the OP title?

He seems to think so, but no, it isn't. Libertarianism has not been practiced in Kansas so the OP is a fail.

Didn't read the article, did you?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

So the OP is using Republican, conservative, and libertarian interchangeably. These are not the same thing. Tax cuts alone are not evidence of libertarianism or free markets, so what are we really talking about here?

 

[CrusaderFrank]

The more you post the same crap, the truer it becomes. That's just how Liberalism works

Scott Walker getting recalled too