He knows exactly what he's doing

The International Business Times thinks that Rick Perry has made some mistakes early in his Presidential campaign:

Rick Perry Hits the Campaign Trail Stumbling

The IBT says:

"It's early in the 2012 presidential race, but if Gov. Perry is trying to show that he's qualified to lead an enlightened, diverse, complex society amid a period of economic, social, and technological change, he's doing an awful bad impression."

But that's not what he wants to do. Perry wants to lead an enlightened, diverse, and complex society to a different perceived destiny. He wants to change its path drastically. In this destiny, diversity is discouraged, enlightenment is not seen as an attribute, and complexity is undesirable. What is desired in this vision of destiny is simplicity, both in thought and action; conformity to the same code of moral rules and regimens; and a reversal of the "Great Society" in which Americans worked together to reduced societal ills.

In this vison of destiny, societal ills are the fault of those who suffer them the most, and they are the same ones who have to work the hardest to alleviate their suffering -- and not at the expense of those who aren't suffering.

Essentially, Perry wants to turn back the clock. Decades. And that's what he perceives the Tea Party wants to do, too.

Here's what Deval Patrick says:

"It is now clear that the Republican strategy is to drive America to the brink of fiscal ruin and then argue that the only way out is to cut spending for the powerless. Taxes — a dirty word thanks to [Grover] Norquist’s “no new taxes” gimmick — are made to seem beyond the pale, even as the burden of paying for our society shifts disproportionately to the middle class and working poor. It is the height of fiscal folly. It is also not who we are as a country."