GOP Candidates to Struggling Americans: 'Let Them Eat Cake'

Hey, want to get really, really angry? Here you go:

I don’t have facts to back this up, but I happen to believe that these [Occupy Wall Street] demonstrations are planned and orchestrated to distract from the failed policies of the Obama administration. Don’t blame Wall Street, don’t blame the big banks, if you don’t have a job and you’re not rich, blame yourself! [...] It is not someone’s fault if they succeeded, it is someone’s fault if they failed.

That's GOP rising star Herman Cain, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, making what in any sane world would be a "major campaign trail gaffe." We don't live in any sane world. Forget the insane conspiracy theory of a White House "orchestrating" protests that lay a lot of blame at the White House's door. Instead, concentrate on the "let them eat cake" part that blames unemployment on the unemployed, financial problems on the struggling, and implies that anyone who isn't rich is a failure.

ThinkProgress:

...Cain’s claim about the unemployed is especially heartless and uninformed. There are simply not enough jobs to go around, with 4.32 unemployed people for every job opening in the country. So even someone looking hard for a job will have a difficult time finding one. Moreover, Cain fails to understand the astronomical income inequality in the U.S. and the negative effect it has on economic growth.

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More Like the Wisconsin 14, Less Like the Blue Dogs

If what's happened in Wisconsin tells us anything, it's that the power of the Tea Party has been grossly overstated. If Republicans did well in the last elections, it's because Democrats and dem-leaning Independents stayed home, disappointed by the constant capitulations of Democratic leadership and the Obama administration. Polling always shows that compromise is popular, but this is generally true only in the abstract; show someone an actual compromise -- you know, where they give up something they want -- and they don't like it. As I pointed out in a conversation recently, there are no statues to heroic centrists in public squares. The middle of the road, in actual practice, is only popular with pundits. Well, those and politicians with no real convictions.

But conviction isn't enough. Wisconsin Republicans have convictions and those convictions have made them about as popular as a stubbed toe. Yet, they're inarguably Tea Party convictions. If the Tea Party is a popular movement, then why isn't it -- um -- popular?

There's a lesson here for Democrats: be about something. No one other than a Broderist pundit or a TV talking head is impressed by anyone's centrism.

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