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AP: Republicans can’t help ‘solve problems’ because voters expect them to vote conservative



We've come to expect this sort of rot from the Associated Press. The AP would tell you it is objective in its news reporting, but when it publishes an "analysis" like this one from Beltway automaton Charles Babington, you don't have to look very hard to see how the AP gives away its real biases.
The problem in Washington, Babington so helpfully explains, is that conservative primary voters are forcing House Republicans to vote like - gasp - conservative Republicans, which prevents them from playing a role in "solving problems." The House's recent struggles to handle once-routine tasks -- such as passing a bipartisan farm bill and raising the federal debt limit -- partly stem from the millions of Republican primary voters who elect representatives with stern warnings not to compromise with Democrats. It's also a reason that efforts to rewrite the nation's immigration laws face problems in the House, where Republicans quickly dismissed the Senate's bipartisan approach.

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The bias Babington reveals here is obviously a left-wing slant, but when you think about it, it's more troubling than that. According to him, passing a "bipartisan farm bill" and raising the debt limit must be good things to do because they have typically been routine. If only these nasty conservative voters would not object, Congress would continue performing these tasks in a routine manner. But decades of treating this sort of thing as if it were routine has led us to meager economic growth, high unemployment and soaring debt. Conservative voters are saying, "Excuse us, but maybe some of the things you've been doing for years have contributed to the problem and you should stop doing them." To a creature of the Beltway like Babington, that might as well be Urdu, since everyone knows farm bills are good things, and everyone knows raising the debt limit is a good thing. Who doesn't love more debt, you knuckle-dragging conservatives? Geez. As much as a left or right bias, Babington displays a bias in favor of being dumb and uncurious. If the mainstream media were doing its job, it would look at a nation beset by problems and wonder if we should continue doing things once considered routine. Not this guy, who is quite happy to assume that because we've always done it, we should always do it and no one should question it. During the Bush Administration, the AP celebrated its decision to practice "accountability journalism," which was supposed to mean they would tell you when elected officials didn't do their jobs. These days, rather than hold those in power accountable, the AP writes "analyses" that presume to hold you the voters accountable for daring to have a problem with what elected officials want to do. Babington only gives a few examples of how Congress could be "solving big problems" if only for conservative intransigence, and then spends the rest of the piece quoting political analysts on why the "problem" persists as it does. The whole piece is a useful look into the mindset of official Washington, which Babington of all AP writers personifies to a T. Whereas you and I see a rising up of citizens that recognizes the old way of doing things is not working and is leading to massive problems, Babington falls in with the Beltway crowd that is irritated beyond all measure with these hayseeds who interfere with the normal political order of things, and refuse to allow their representatives to become assimilated to the way things work in this town, son. Just so you know. It's not only elected officials and bureaucrats who wish you would go away. It's the establishment media, too. They all basically share the same assumptions about government, and they don't appreciate you coming along and challenging them.


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Dan Calabrese’s column is distributed by HermanCain.com, which can be found at HermanCain

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