Thomas Friedman: The GOP's Same Ole, Same Ole

The Republicans are poised to make big electoral gains Tuesday, or so the experts tell us. We expect they will; it's a historic pattern in midterm elections.

But the GOP doesn't have much too offer, almost no ideas at all, despite its noisy protestations to the contrary.

That's AT's assessment, but it's also the assessment of Thomas Friedman, one of the pundits at the New York Times. Here's the opening of Friedman's column published Wednesday. It's long, but his thesis makes a lot of sense in the light of the GOP's empty rhetoric:

I confess, I find it dispiriting to read the polls and see candidates, mostly Republicans, leading in various midterm races while promoting many of the very same ideas that got us into this mess. Am I hearing right?

Let’s have more tax cuts, unlinked to any specific spending cuts and while we’re still fighting two wars — because that worked so well during the Bush years to make our economy strong and our deficit small. Let’s immediately cut government spending, instead of phasing cuts in gradually, while we’re still mired in a recession — because that worked so well in the Great Depression. Let’s roll back financial regulation — because we’ve learned from experience that Wall Street can police itself and average Americans will never have to bail it out.

Let’s have no limits on corporate campaign spending so oil and coal companies can more easily and anonymously strip the Environmental Protection Agency of its powers to limit pollution in the air our kids breathe. Let’s discriminate against gays and lesbians who want to join the military and fight for their country. Let’s restrict immigration, because, after all, we don’t live in a world where America’s most important competitive advantage is its ability to attract the world’s best brains. Let’s repeal our limited health care reform rather than see what works and then fix it. Let’s oppose the free-trade system that made us rich.