Just because it works...

(Tony Auth)

This comic really struck me, because, like all great political cartoons, it shows the essence of the situation. Republicans are fuming because this goes against their ideology. It doesn't matter if it worked or not, they believe what they believe.

And likewise, it doesn't matter that everything they pushed during the Bush years turned out disastrously, either. What are you going to believe, the evidence or what you really, really want to believe? Republicans are firmly on the side of faith-based thinking. That's why they haven't changed their positions one iota since then.

Slashing taxes on the rich didn't pay for itself any more than the war in Iraq did. The wealthy didn't invest their windfall in jobs for Americans. What they did invest went overseas. At home, it created record-breaking deficits and bubbles in real-estate and arcane financial instruments, leading to the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression.

But Republicans still have their faith in trickle-down economics. Evidence means nothing to them. Just because something works - or doesn't work - that's no reason for them to change their minds, right? After all, they can't be wrong. They believe!

Democrats are different. Despite all the idiotic propaganda from the right about Barack Obama being a "socialist," he's actually a moderate pragmatist (as Republicans know quite well). Assuming office when the economy was spiraling ever downward, with no bottom in sight, Obama simply couldn't afford to let our domestic auto industry collapse - and take other industries down with it. America couldn't afford it.

This had nothing to do with ideology, nothing at all. President Obama had to throw a lifeline to one of our biggest industries - just as we already had to the banking sector - in order to keep our economy from complete collapse. And it worked. The downward spiral stopped in its tracks, and if unemployment is still way too high (since the stimulus package turned out to be too small), at least we avoided another Great Depression. And General Motors reorganized successfully, issuing stock to pay back the American taxpayers.

You couldn't have asked for better than this. But Republicans are fuming. Their faith may be completely misguided, but it's still strong. They're like the Taliban in that way.