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the republican front-runners in virginia. sort of an unusual dynamic with virginia these days glowing a deep red in terms of who's in control at the state level. republican governor bob mcdonnell very openly wanting to be considered as a vice presidential candidate for the republican nominee even. so republicans are doing very well in virginia on one hand, but president obama's doing very well there overall. it is a strange dynamic. president doing well but republicans totally in charge. what happens in that circumstance, what happens in virginia now, tells us as much as any presidential candidate's platform about what republicans are like, about what republican governance means, what republicans stand for in 2011. virginia republicans' first act after last month's election, what they put at the top of their legislative agenda, once they took total control of the state government, was this. house bill number 1, banning all abortion in virginia and outlawing hormonal birth control. like for example, the birth control pill.
signatures for recalling governor scott walker in wisconsin. look at how the republican party is wielding its power in trending blue virginia. look at occupy youngstown, saying this is their priority, that they will stand up for this, that even if no other level of politics in this country can stop this one foreclosure maybe they can stop it in their own town. joining us now is chris hayes, the host of "p up with chris hayes," which az saturday and sunday mornings on msnbc. chris is also editor at large ever "the nation" magazine. chris, good to see you. >> great to see you. >> i have been waiting to see what's going to happen in the republican race for president and in congress, and in all of this i keep coming back, actually, to the occupy movement, what's happening in places like youngstown. do you think that is a result of political processes, or are we at the point where what's happening in the streets is sort of the cause of political processes too? >> that's fascinating. i do think it has caused a change in the national political conversation.
this country. a majority of republicans. republicans in the poll. >> are you seeing politicses politicians behave in a way that reflects a desire to meet that concern? >> what's amazing to me is how unresponsible republican state level officials are and how much they're responsive to all of their ideological priors, all of the interest they promised fealty to before they got into office and how little trimg of the sails they did. rick scott seems to be perfectly happy to plow along at 25%, doing all these things that are wildly unpopular. and i think there's a different set of incentive structures on the right, partly because of the way the money works, partly because of the ideological cohesiveness of the base. but what we have not seen largely is course corrections. the closest we've seen is john kasich, after being voted out in ohio issuing a somewhat humble and apologetic statement. but that's really the closest we've seen. what we've seen is republican sxhajts republican governors
republicans in the poll. >> are you seeing politicses politicians behave in a way that reflects a desire to meet that concern? >> what's amazing to me is how unresponsible republican state level officials are and how much they're responsive to all of their ideological priors, all of the interest they promised fealty to before they got into office and how little trimg of the sails they did. rick scott seems to be perfectly happy to plow along at 25%, doing all these things that are wildly unpopular. and i think there's a different set of incentive structures on the right, partly because of the way the money works, partly because of the ideological cohesiveness of the base. but what we have not seen largely is course corrections. the closest we've seen is john kasich, after being voted out in ohio issuing a somewhat humble and apologetic statement. but that's really the closest we've seen. what we've seen is republican sxhajts republican governors pursuing a pretty hard right ideological agenda and not trimming their sails in response to the backlash that's been precipitated.
i do think there's also a connection between the degree to which people feel alienated from washington, they feel like the system is dysfunctional, they feel like it's broken and the degree to which they're willing to invest in these local actions. i think we got very swept up in national politics, i think during the bush administration, particularly around the war, because that was the defining political moment i think in the last 10 or 15 years in terms of when people really got galvanized on the left. and wars can only be stopped at the national level. and i think so much of the infrastructure that was built and so much of people's political consciousness that came about in 2003 and 2002 in the run-up to that war was so focused on national politics, it's taken a very long time to get people to sort of remember -- or the people that became politicized during that moment to get them to remember about local politics, about how much effect you can have at a local level. and i do think as people find washington more and more sclerotic and dysfunction a.m. there's more of a hope in doing things like the folks at occupy youngstown because it has this more immediate and palpable
connection between the degree to which people feel alienated from washington, they feel like the system is dysfunctional, they feel like it's broken and the degree to which they're willing to invest in these local actions. i think we got very swept up in national politics, i think during the bush administration, particularly around the war, because that was the defining political moment i think in the last 10 or 15 years in terms of when people really got galvanized on the left. and wars can only be stopped at the national level. and i think so much of the infrastructure that was built and so much of people's political consciousness that came about in 2003 and 2002 in the run-up to that war was so focused on national politics, it's taken a very long time to get people to sort of remember -- or the people that became politicized during that moment to get them to remember about local politics, about how much effect you can have at a local level. and i do think as people find washington more and more sclerotic and dysfunction a.m. there's more of a hope in doing things like the folks at occupy youngstown because it has this more immediate and palpable effect. >> do you think we're starting
>> are you seeing politicses beha politicians behave in a way that reflects a desire to meet that concern? >> what's amazing to me is how unresponsible republican state level officials are and how much they're responsive to all of their ideological priors, all of the interest they promised fealty to before they got into office and how little trimg of the sails they did. rick scott seems to be perfectly happy to plow along at 25%, doing all these things that are wildly unpopular. and i think there's a different set of incentive structures on the right, partly because of the way the money works, partly because of the ideological cohesiveness of the base. but what we have not seen largely is course corrections. the closest we've seen is john kasich, after being voted out in ohio issuing a somewhat humble and apologetic statement. but that's really the closest we've seen. what we've seen is republican sxhajts republican governors pursuing a pretty hard right ideological agenda and not trimming their sails in response
unexpected half million signatures for recalling governor scott walker in wisconsin. look at how the republican party is wielding its power in trending blue virginia. look at occupy youngstown, saying this is their priority, that they will stand up for this, that even if no other level of politics in this country can stop this one foreclosure maybe they can stop it in their own town. joining us now is chris hayes, the host of "p up with chris hayes," which az saturday and sunday mornings on msnbc. chris is also editor at large ever "the nation" magazine. chris, good to see you. >> great to see you. >> i have been waiting to see what's going to happen in the republican race for president and in congress, and in all of this i keep coming back, actually, to the occupy movement, what's happening in places like youngstown. do you think that is a result of political processes, or are we at the point where what's happening in the streets is sort of the cause of political processes too? >> that's fascinating. i do think it has caused a change in the national political conversation. i do think there's also a
unexpected half million signatures for recalling governor scott walker in wisconsin. look at how the republican party is wielding its power in trending blue virginia. look at occupy youngstown, saying this is their priority, that they will stand up for this, that even if no other level of politics in this country can stop this one foreclosure maybe they can stop it in their own town. joining us now is chris hayes, the host of "p up with chris hayes," which az saturday and sunday mornings on msnbc. chris is also editor at large ever "the nation" magazine. chris, good to see you. >> great to see you. >> i have been waiting to see what's going to happen in the republican race for president and in congress, and in all of this i keep coming back, actually, to the occupy movement, what's happening in places like youngstown. do you think that is a result of political processes, or are we at the point where what's happening in the streets is sort of the cause of political processes too? >> that's fascinating. i do think it has caused a change in the national political conversation.
restaurant unless you ask for it. we will have to sneak in salt packets and i'll get a ticket for putting salt on my food. i like salt. i like a lot of salt. that's between me and my doctor how much salt intake i have. let me ask you this. we know obama said republicans want dirtier air, dirtier water and they don't pay their fair share. but three multiple choices for obama are republicans uninformed, out of touch or unresponsible? here's what i mean. >> last night at the republican debate, some of the hopefuls, they hope to get your job, they defended the practice of waterboarding, which is the practice that you banned in 2009. herman cain said, quote, i don't see that as torture. michele bachman said that, quote, it's very effective. so i'm wondering if you think they are uninformed, out of touch or irresponsible? >> that's a multiple choice question, isn't it?