Ex GOP lawmaker says Republicans are not rational, not conservative and have 12-year-old thinking & It's Time to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans with Mickey Edwards 3DEZ15

Here is another republican who is fed up with his party's decision not to participate in  governing our nation as the loyal opposition, but instead to serve the 1%, wall street, the bank-financial cabal and the military-industrial complex. Former representative Mikey Edwards (R OK) joins Mike Lofgren in condemning republican /tea-bagger obstructionism in our local, state and federal government. The current slate of 2016 republican presidential candidates don't offer any change in this attitude, in fact it seems to have become the main party position. If the republicans win the presidency in 2016 Americans will experience increased curtailment of our constitutional civil liberties and civil rights, more government intrusion in our personal lives, increased economic inequality ans insecurity and the further degradation of our environment, national infrastructure, education, and the social safety net. While it may seem an extreme statement to some, if one really looks at the rhetoric of the republican leadership and the republican presidential candidates it seems their goal is to impose the same kind of repressive government the people of russia, saudi arabia, iran and the prc as well as most of the Third World now suffer under. They are determined to make America a theocratic plutocracy. God help us! From +Daily Kos followed by a video of Mr Edwards discussing American politics from UTCV / University of California Television. The political revolution we need is being offered by Sen Bernie Sanders I VT, go to his campaign website for more information and FEEL THE BURN.....

Ex GOP lawmaker says Republicans are not rational, not conservative and have 12-year-old thinking

By Leslie Salzillo  

Thursday Dec 03, 2015 12:41 PM EST

In a segment of the Bill Moyers Show, Moyers interviews former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards. The honesty is refreshing.

Moyers describes Edwards as a believer of compromise and bipartisanship, but Edwards has fears about the current Republicans and feels the Party has lost the conservative principles. He talks about how Republicans today follow party leaders, follow campaign contributors, and often sign pledges to block a bill even before even seeing it. He says when he was in Congress he would vote based on three things:

1. Listening seriously to constituents (maybe not always agreeing, but listening)

2. Thinking about and learning about issues, getting as much information as possible

3. Following the Constitution

Edwards says lawmakers making a pledge to do anything but that—is undercutting the whole purpose of being part of the government.

Republicans boast they have never raised taxes—in over 20 years. Moyers calls it “disquieting” and brings up the fact that during those years Republicans led us into two wars without asking us or telling us how we'd pay for it, they paid vast expenditures to fight terrorism, and gave big tax breaks to the top earning and richest Americans. Edwards says the above decisions are certainly not conservatism, and they are not “rational.” He points out it's childish to think we can spend without paying. But U.S. lawmakers are signing all or nothing pledges on issues like immigration and taxes rather than asking if they serve the people and the Constitution. He says money plays way too big of a part in our political system today, from both sides, and there's no control over it.

"I would get rid of political action committee money, political party money, labor union money, and corporate money … I would go down to small amounts that are instantly reported, and all transparent. I think we have to do that because it is the money pouring in — what comes out at the end is not representative of what the American people want. You know, the system gets skewed by these 'super influences…'"

Edwards also talks about how money is intimidating candidates and thus:

"… We've created an incentive system that gets you knocked off in your primaries, unless you are willing to be intransigent and to say, 'I will never compromise.'"

He later adds:

“Well, the fact is, the idea that, ‘No, I’m not ever going to do this, no matter the circumstances, no matter if we’re at war or whatever ...’— it’s a 12-year-old kind of thinking.”

Also in the interview, the former lawmaker says he feels a big part of today’s political problem is that Americans are not getting as involved before voting as they should, and they are exposed to extreme positions. The American people now tend to talk only to people who think the way they do and are not open to a civil conversation with people on a different side.

"And we have Mitch McConnell the Republcan leader in the Senate who says, 'What my goal is, is to make Barack Obama a one-term president.' They're supposed to be leaders not party hacks."

Moyers asks, "So we have created a political system the rewards in intransitives?"

"We created a system that says, 'We reward incivility. We reward refusing to compromise. We punish people who compromise and are civil and get along with the people on the other side of the isle. So why are we surprised that's all we get? In everything in life, you get what you reward." Edwards ads, "We need to do a better job of teaching civics. We need to do a better job of teaching critical thinking."

Here is the video from the show:

Mickey Edwards on How Conservatives Have Lost Their Way

Published on Jan 3, 2013

Bill is joined by former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards, a founding father of modern conservative politics who now fears the movement has abandoned its principles. Edwards explains why both political parties require radical change, and shares his perspective on Grover Norquist and anti-tax pledges. "It's not conservatism, not rational, not adult," Edwards tells Bill. " It's a 12-year-old's kind of thinking."

Edwards chaired the Republican Policy Committee, was a founding trustee of the conservative Heritage Foundation, and served as National Chairman of the American Conservative Union.

​We're glad to see that the “best” of Bill Moyers is still being published on his site. The much-loved journalist retired in January 2015, after 44 years of writing and broadcasting.

Mickey Edwards was a Republican member of Congress from Oklahoma from 1977 to 1992, serving as a member of the House Republican Leadership and as a member of the Appropriations and Budget Committees. After leaving the Congress, he taught for 11 years at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was the John Quincy Adams Lecturer in Legislative Practice, and for five years as a lecturer at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Maryland Law School and at Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School.

It's Time to Turn Republicans and Democrats Into Americans with Mickey Edwards

 

Published on Feb 7, 2013

(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma Mickey Edwards argues that American government has become dysfunctional because we've created a political system that rewards intransigence and incivility and punishes cooperation and compromise. We've allowed political parties to manipulate our elections and even our governing systems for their own partisan advantage. He says to fix the problem and get government working again, we have to change the political system itself. Series: "Walter H. Capps Center Series" [2/2013] [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 24417]