Omaha beefs
by digby
According to Charlie Pierce, Nebraska is likely to replace Ben Nelson with a young, certified Tea Partier who will probably end up calling Jim DeMint a liberal. Not that it matters to me, really. Nelson was captive of the same people who are going to elect this extremist and I doubt it will alter the outcome of much Democratic legislation. (Recall, even after all the sturm und drang over the healthcare bill, he voted against it in the end.)
But this race in Nebraska is a real barn-burner. Pierce’s piece is all good, but this gets to the heart of the issue:
The second question, and the last of the night, was about income inequality.
Don Stenberg said the greatest thing about America was that everybody has a chance to “rise up.”
Jon Bruning said he hoped your kid will have a chance “to be the next Mark Zuckerberg and invent the next Facebook, or to be the next Bill Gates…. That’s the special thing about America.”
Deb Fischer said she was opposed to “class warfare” and that we should be discussing “the real issues, like the mounting national deficit.”
And that was pretty much it. In case you didn’t notice, none of them actually acknowledged that people might be having a hard time of it out there, except for Stenberg’s kids who are spending too damn much of their money on beer and video games. The other night kindly Doc Maddow mentioned that she doesn’t believe that Republicans actually think there are women who have trouble getting paid what their work is worth. Here, it is plain that none of these three people actually believe that there are enough uninsured Americans, or underpaid Americans, for them to care about.
That’s the Republican party: You can believe us or believe your lying eyes. The only Americans who aren’t doing just fine are lazy parasites.
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