Opposing Conservative Views

Maybe Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are stealing each scripts from each other. In an article published on Sunday in The New York Times, the increasingly popular Beck says the U.S.A. is “on the road to socialism.” Limbaugh, of course, can barely let an hour, let alone a show, pass without accusing President Obama of the never-defined "socialism." Yesterday, offended by the firing of CEO Rich Wagoner by the President, Rush asked "Is Hugo Chavez able to possess this man and go out and make speeches?" and exclaimed

This would have been a tipping point, I think. He would say the country that we've always known is over. He would probably say, "Son, capitalism, as we've known it, is over. The line has been crossed."

Unfortunately, someone forgot to inform a former Republican presidential aspirant of Barack Obama's resemblance to Karl Marx.

I think a lot of people expected the president just to cave, write a check, and just hope for the better," Romney said Tuesday morning on CNN. "I think he's expressing some backbone on this....

That's something I think he should have said months ago. There were a number of us who said bankruptcy or a bankruptcy-like process was something that was needed to get GM and Chrysler on their feet again."

Romney hasn't gone liberal or populist. When he authored this op-ed in The New York Times in November, 2008, the former Massachusetts governor (expressing views he still holds) advocated "new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers." The United Auto Workers, recognizing the sorry state of the domestic auto industry, has been negotiating benefits downward for several years now; and retraction of pension payments and health care for workers already retired represents a promise not kept. Still, it is interesting to hear a member of the Republican right who, apparently unlike most of the conservative talk show hosts, does not offer a demonization of others as his only contribution to the issue. And to find that neo-liberals and conservatives can find common ground in blaming workers.