Wait a minute.

Isn’t that vineyard parable kind of communist? I mean, everyone who worked got paid the same even though they worked different amounts of time. Shouldn’t that piss off the modern right wing GOP?

LC, I thought the exact same thing when I read it.  But when I thought about it further, I realized that fundies might identify more with the laborers who only worked one hour.  They might use this as justification for paying executives much more money for doing about the same or even much less work than the employees.  Or they might see it as justification to cheat the system and make as much as they can while doing as little as possible.

Catgirl,
Good point.

Now that I think about it, this could be justification for “God gives out rewards unequally, so you poor people shouldn’t complain that I was chosen” or something.

LC,
I think this parable is just like every other part of the Bible.  People will interpret it whichever way suits them the best.  Liberal Christians like my mother would see it as a call to help the poor and “undeserving”.  It would inspire her to work at a soup kitchen, or pick up the slack for a sick coworker.  Selfish fundies will see it as an excuse to feel entitled to getting more for doing nothing.

“Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?”

Isn’t that kind of Libertarian/Objectivist?

Of course, what catgirl said.  What people see in the bible says much about them, and very little about the bible…

The GOP apologized for something?  When?  Where?  Why didn’t I get the memo?

Those of you who live outside of Washington know what I’m talking about.

And don’t get him started on those who live in San Francisco! They actually speak a whole other language and have their own flag and anthem and everything!

zzzz….

This is pathetic. Making a “comeback” takes a lot of work. It means finding new messages based on the current, new state of the electorate. It means organizing on the ground. It means actively recruiting new candidates from places you didn’t look before.

I don’t see Steele or any other Republican institutions making that kind of effort. Instead they’re focused on trying to co-opt the tea parties and creating PR kerfluffles to win a weekly news cycle or two in the hopes that this will magically turn into electoral success in 2010 and 2012.

Instead they’re focused on trying to co-opt the tea parties

Close, but it’s rather well-documented that they invented the tea parties.

What ideas do they have?  They’re going to do what they’ve been doing.  Obstructing while whining about socialism and high taxes.  The truth will never enter into it.  They’ve got to convince people that Democrats are EVIL and that the only moral thing to do is vote GOP, and they have to do it without using any facts.

They have two ideas—1. cut taxes 2. create theocracy.  I have yet to hear anything else out of any of them.  It’s all “taxes are too high and going to support black people, perverts are not in jail and sluts are not being forced to give birth, and as long as this is allowed to continue God will hate us.”

Is there an idea out there?

those of you who toil in the vineyards

Isn’t that where The Grapes of Wrath are stored?

I’m pretty sure that’s the only song they’re allowed to use without getting sued by the artist, it being <strike>communist</strike> public domain and everything.

I’m listening to Steele speak now, and even though all of it is lies, evasions and half-truths, he comes off pretty well.

I suspect he got some help with this speech from Frank Luntz, mouthing all the proper Republican talking points, and even pretending to care about the suffering of the American “little guy”.

Lots of flowery rhetoric, but the Republican agenda, a continuing transfer of wealth from the poor and the middle-class to the rich, remains the same as always.

And until the Republican leadership actually realizes that most Americans are on to their bait and switch routines, their popularity will continue to plummet…

They have two ideas—1. cut taxes 2. create theocracy.

Well, these plans demonstrate the two major groups of Republicans.  One says “We need to cut taxes”, and then says “how can we use theocracy, gays, immigrants and war as a means of securing this corporate feudalism?”.  The second says “I like Jesus” and then says “duhhhhhhhh!!!” a lot.  Think of them as Pavlovs and the Dogs.

When I first read that, I thought the “vineyards” line might be about, say, Americans that work in actual vineyards or some sort of figurative reference to people who labor.

I thought it was confusing because everyone KNOWS that (in Republican minds) illegal immigrants have stolen all the good fruit-picking jobs.

those of you who toil in the vineyards, spending time in communities,

I focused more on the “spending time in communities” bit, which to me comes off as the same condescending BS of “the regular people, who I will pretend to be part of” we hear from Republicans and elite pundits all the time. Only people who are completely insulated from regular people would think “spending time in communities” is even something to be conscious of. To the rest of us, that’s just living our lives.

The Republicans, just as Fark says of Hollywood, are out of ideas. Their base is dying, both literally and figuratively.

Toiling, spending time in the communities?

Why, that sounds shockingly likebeing a community organizer. Didn’t they have a problem with those?

I’d heard the parable before, but not, I think, all of it (or perhaps another version?) and had taken it to be an early call to pay a Living Wage. Those hired last were paid a full day’s wage because the vinter knew they had had no other work that day and needed to buy the same food and all as the other workers.

“Those of you who live outside of Washington know what I’m talking about. Those of you who actually attend Lincoln Day dinners, county party events, and tea parties…those of you who toil in the vineyards, spending time in communities, in diners, barber shops, and coffee shops where real every day people can be found…you know it is real.””

Wow, Steele. Way to say “Fuck you!” to everyone who works in our three-letter agencies.

Real Every Day People, indeed.

The ERA of Republicans apologizing for their mistakes?

ERA? I’ve got food in the fridge from before this era began that hasn’t gone bad yet.