Associated Press
Like Robert Schlesinger, I'm surprised by what Rep Tom Price (R-Ga.) finds surprising.
Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon from Georgia, who holds Newt Gingrich's old congressional seat and is seen as a leader of the most conservative House Republicans, said that, during a recent debate over taxes, "we talked past each other oftentimes as much as Republicans and Democrats talk past each other."
He explained how surprised he was when one of his colleagues from a Northern state told him that he favored a tax increase on millionaires. "It hit me that what he was hearing when he's going home to a Republican district in a blue state is completely different than what I'm hearing when I go home to a Republican district in a red state," he said. "My folks are livid about this stuff. His folks clearly weren't. And so we weren't even starting from the same premise."
Hmm. Tom Price has been in Congress for nearly a decade, and he's just now realizing that his constituents in a far-right Southern district have different priorities and beliefs than Americans in other districts.
It took a conversation with a Northern lawmaker, eight years after Price became a lawmaker, for him to realize that some of his colleagues hear "completely different" messages. Apparently, since 2004, he's proceeded under the assumption that every Republican lawmaker heard exactly the same sentiments from the folks back home.
I suppose it's better late than never, but perhaps this should have "hit" Price a little sooner?
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he is just so Price-less
:-) Yeah, and I'm surprised every day about how stupid some people are...
sure, surprised. really surprised.
Yeah, the northern Republicans are actual Republicans, while Price and the rest of his bunch are Confederate traitors. The South is in such need of another good smacking-around, this time without letting them off the hook like last time.
The old Confederacy still reigns in the South.
I wonder if he thwacked his forehead in realization.
Or pissed himself in utter terror. Forget how long he's been in Congress. If he's only now coming to the realization that other people can think different thoughts than himself, then he's been sealed under glass his whole life. He can't be enjoying his first contact with fresh air. I bet the high oxygen content stings.
Just the latest example of the GOP living in a bubble. They tend to navigate within their own circles, constantly reaffirming their convictions amongst each other. Because of this cloistering, they don't open themselves up the possibility that others may have differing opinions. It is this type of egocentrism that is going to doom the GOP if they don't get their collective heads out of their collective asses and start viewing the real world as it is, not as they wished it would be.
Yea, I wonder what his constituents are really livid about and why. I doubt very many of the people at his town halls are millionaires who would be impacted by the tax law changes proposed, and most would actually benefit from the president's policies. They are only "livid" because they have been fed the manure they get in their "bubble," which is constantly telling them that unemployment is a result of too much government spending, especially to moochers, in spite of clear evidence to the contrary. But, never let the facts get in the way of a good story.
I live in his district and also have the great luck in having his wife as my City Council representative. Mr. Price does not have Town Hall Meetings, at least those most would recognize. He has opted to have telephone conference meetings which are held randomly and are totally slanted in district representation. He truly lives in a bubble of his own manufacture.
Their bubble is affecting how this nation is run, though.
It's a very comfortable bubble, and (unlike the proles) he can afford it.
Yes, Rep. Price's district (my own block excepted) is affluent. But the area is increasingly cosmopolitan. In just the past few years, downtown Roswell has abandoned dusty knick-nack shops and tea rooms for trendy restaurants and edgy art galleries. And it's thriving. There's the possibility of change, definitely.
One idly wonders, does one not, just how many "millionaires" reside in Price's district?
Perhaps not quite as many as those on food stamps, medicade, and disability, fearful that teh gummint is going to come after their guns.
I doubt it's his district, I imagine it's his golfing buddies he's making these determinations from, those he associates with are the opinions he's listening to.
I've seen
fewno state reps walking around the poor sections of town in next door Alabama, taking a consensus of opinion. Can't imagine Georgia's are any different.That depends. Do you count the ones who are going to win the lottery this week?
While the GOP has gerrymandered the heck out of their districts, the reality is that if they have "poor" people in them, those are the very people working hard trying to live, and those that are on "public assistance/SS/Medicaid/Medicare" feel that the "moochers" are those "other people". Sad really, the very guy living in a run-down trailer park, with too many children, just barely making ends meet - that's the guy that's "Proud to vote Republican" cause he's too ignorant to realize that the people that' he's voting for are the very people screwing him - he fails to realize it's NOT his taxes that will be raised, or if he dies his children will NEVER pay an "Inheritance Tax" - but he believes "da gobbermint" is after him anyway!
I live in his district. the only reason he hears only one side on any issue is because he refuses to hear any dissenting views. he holds telephone town halls at inconvenient times, so he can say he listens, while avoiding facing actual voters who might disagree with him. He gets re-elected with 70% of the vote, so he desn't care what anyone else has to say.
Governor Scott Walker holds town hall meetings. You have to pay or be invited to get into them. I always thought town hall meetings are supposed to be where anyone can get in without paying. A friend of mine told me that when George W Bush was running they started to have town hall meetings. So they could showcase Bush they only invited those who were republican or paid to be there. Then they would televise these meetings and Americans were fooled into believing he knew what he was talking about. Little did Americans know these were well orchestrated.
Bush won with less than a million votes. Consequently, he was given carte blanche power to put his policies in place.
Obama won by 5 million votes. He can't even get conservatives to vote for their own ideas.
Point being this. The winning side has the right to govern as they see fit. Conservatives are blocking this 230 plus year policy. A legally instituted government has the absolute right to govern as they see fit.
Amen!!!!
what am I missing here..isn't the government ELECTED? aren't the senators and reps ELECTED? foolishly perhaps I was always of the impression that they were hired help, ELECTED TO SERVE the people....they aren't there to govern as they wish...they are there to SERVE
Actually Bush lost the popular vote for his first term (but won the 2nd) but nobody screamed and hollered like the pubs did when they thought Obama lost with the popular vote.
Most of his constituents are strongly against raising taxes on millionaires? I doubt it.
Even though Price has finally listened and heard of this difference, it won't actually make any difference to Price or his constituents. They'll simply categorize the northerners as "unpatriotic" and set about trying to convince them that they (the Southern contingent) are right and millionaires need more tax breaks.
All Northeast Republicans are Rinos. Any republican that disagrees with the extreme southern conservative agenda is a Rino.
My Husband is a proud Rino who hasn't voted for a Republican Presidential candidate since GHB. His reason the Republicans have not fielded a Republican candidate since then, they have fielded extreme religious based candidates which do not best represent the true values of the Republican Party. He still votes for some local Republicans who are Republicans in the best sense. Socially moderate (towards the center right) while fiscally sound (again center right). The funny thing is that according to my husband the fiscal policies of President Obama are more in keeping with Republican principles than Democratic.
He is waiting for the moderate Republicans out there to break off and form their own party without all the religious stuff stuck to it. He believes that his own personal views on social matters are just that personal, and forcing one religious belief on a whole country is wrong. He personally believes abortion is wrong, but it's not his choice. I ask why he doesn't become an independent (I am one) and the answer is that in NY he would not be able to vote in the primaries and this way he can at least try and get a sane person. (or at least the sanest)
Before the election CBS Sunday morning had two commentators give the definitions of conservative and liberal. Ben Stein gave the definition of conservative. The definition does not match the current republican party. The republicans and those that vote for them need to look up the definition of conservative. Then they need to ask themselves is this republican candidate a true representation of conservatism. @Mousesj it looks like your husband knows that definition.
Catherine: Price and his bunch are not conservatives. Richard Hofstadter defined them 50 years ago:
"It can most accurately be called pseudo-conservative -- I borrow the term from the study of The Authoritarian Personality published five years ago by Theodore W. Adorno and his associates -- because its exponents, although they believe themselves to be conservatives and usually employ the rhetoric of conservatism, show signs of a serious and restless dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions"
“Their political reactions express rather a profound and largely unconscious hatred of our society and its ways -- a hatred which one would hesitate to impute to them if one did not have suggestive clinical evidence ... The pseudo-conservative, Adorno writes, shows 'conventionality and authoritarian submissiveness' in his conscious thinking and 'violence, anarchic impulses, and chaotic destructiveness in the unconscious sphere…… The pseudo conservative is a man who, in the name of upholding traditional American values and institutions and defending them against more or less fictitious dangers, consciously or unconsciously aims at their abolition.'"
Extrapolation of myopia still leaves one partially blind! -Kevo
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," these folks live in the shadows of their reality.
When you live in the echo chamber long enough, the reverb is bound to smack you in the head.
This is the real problem with most Republicans. They don't have the faintest idea what anyone other than the most right wing people say. Empathy, or understanding about anyone else is not anything they even consider appropriate.
Are all the constituents in Tom Price's district filthy rich to be livid about taxes? Must be some neighborhoods!
Another idiot who lives in the Republican "bubble"! Mentally limited, and with nothing intelligent to say , they look at you with dim comprehension of what they are doing to this country.
Actually, he lives in the Confederate Bubble.
Takes a little longer for southern boys.
350 years and counting and they still have their heads up their asses.
So, wait a minute, we're not all Lemmings that follow the leader off the [Fiscal] cliff?
Another I hear you but I am not listening?
He lives in a very affluent district, made up of people with "new money", many of whom moved south from the NE to take advantage of less expensive housing, better weather, and business opportunities. The type who say "I got mine and you obviously are too lazy to get yours". At least that's my POV as a native, liberal Southerner.
No sir. His district is relatively poor. But they embody the ignorance that is the cornerstone of Georgia politics.
Tom Price does not represent a a district that is relatively poor but one that is quite affluent. His problem is he doesn't talk to his constituents. They are well educated and have good jobs but they fear for their children's safety from gun violence, worry about losing their jobs, the cost of health insurance, college and retirement. He now fears the Tea Party.
I hope he runs for the Senate against Paul Braun. They will fall all over themselves to see who can go farther to the right. Meanwhile maybe a real discussion can take place about what his constituents want when people run to fill his Congressional seat.
Here is another message the Congressman missed. Barack Obama was re-elected by the majority of the voters and those voters rejected your party's social, foreign and domestic and economic policies. So stop trying to force your failed ideology on the rest of us and get with the program of job creation that will help the people in your district and the rest of the nation. I am quite sure there are some decrepit roads, bridges, electrical grids and sewer systems that need to be upgraded or rebuilt. So pass legislation in the House to make that happen.
As for that huge government spending, please explain to us where most of the money is going. Is it paying the interest on the money we borrowed to pay for the two wars that begin under Republican rule? You know, the wars that began while taxes were being cut, taxes that could have paid for the wars. Or would it be the tax cuts that took $ trillion away from the government treasury over a ten year period, tax cuts that had no spending off-sets adding trillions to the debt and deficit?
C'mon Congressman, tell us.
I don't believe him. This is no revelation on his part. He's not a complete idiot and has known this ever since he became an adult. This is called "covering your ass" for your past crappy actions.
Is our legislators learning?
The arc of the clue-by-four is long, and sometimes takes a while to impact.
Perhaps you could get Ed Rendell on your show to espouse the beliefs by the zillionaires how SS and Medicaid need to be "reformed" (cut, cut, cut) because we cannot have those programs on the backs of the billionaires.
Rachel you disappoint. MSNBC has Rendell on TV adnauseum to do the bidding of the rich lobbyists that he represents. i have tuned out msnbc for the time being. I am sooooooo extremely disappointed.
As a Transplanted Northerner who is (a cliche) Jewish and a Democrat and a woman, his epiphany does not ring true. Could there be a real challenge on the horizon for his seat? I love the south, and would never move back to the north, but the entire southern psyche is differently oriented than those in the North. Not that they are bad, but I disagree with most of what they say. And yes, they are still fighting the war of northern aggression, really...
Well stated.
Not the War of Northern Aggression, the War of Southern Treason.
TC, it's called sarcasm.
The problem with the GOP is the same problem conservatism has in general and why it always has been doomed to fail: you can't admit that you're wrong, because that means you might have to change, and change is anathema to all that conservatism stands for.
But the world change whether you like it or not, so as a conservative, you're going to spend your entire life being wrong.
These people lives in an alternative universe in which 20% of the population controls the other 80%, because the other 80% are so stupid that they vote for the 20% to screw them.
Well in this World we live in with I phones, Blackberry, Cable TV it is difficult to get the other 80% to vote to cut their own heads.
It's the world the South has lived in for 350 years. Ol' Massa runs things, and the dumbasses go fight and die for him, secure in the knowledge Ol' Massa is good and makin' sure they live better'n the nigras.