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GOP R.I.P.
As Speaker of the House, Gingrich wasted four years talking aimlessly about “normal Americans.” Then, after he failed against Bill Clinton with the silly ploy of using Monica Lewinsky and her Inspector Javert, Ken Starr, Gingrich fled to Fox TV to ramble harmlessly about “moral tone” and his enemies, “the very small counterculture elite.” Gingrich’s talking points have attracted imitators over the last decade, chiefly the Gingrich mini-me Karl Rove and Rove’s carny creation of George W. Bush.
There is much to explicate about Rove and Bush in the White House—their fearful temperament, their petty theories of governance, their inability to shoot straight so that, at firing at the lunatic bin Laden, they hit the cretin Saddam Hussein. But in terms of the death of the Republican Party, there is nothing original. The Rovian Bush midway was followed by the cartoon candidacy of John McCain, who spent months imitating both Popeye the Sailor and Sarah Palin’s Uncle Sam. That McCain didn’t claim to be more than an aviator, and that Palin didn’t claim to be more than a moose hunter, demonstrated that neither had need of, nor interest, in the Republican Party’s history or meaning.
What about the Republican Party right now? Isn’t it on radio and TV claiming to be the party of fiscal responsibility and American power? Bypassing the stupidity of these claims, I am on radio, on what is called right-wing radio, and it is easy for me to see that my loudest colleagues, who compulsively repeat the cant of Conservatism for Dummies, are not sincere students of the Republican Party but rather barkers, hookers, establishmentarian jesters, cultists, and, in the worst instance, just thatch-headed whiners. Fox News is a parade of wet-eared Republican office holders, yet there is usually just one each allowed of the categories the Democrats own in multitudes: a Jewish-American, an Asian-American, an African-American, a Hispanic-American. Then there is the beauty pageant of fast-talking, rude Fox blondes—if they are not all the same woman in mood swings—who stridently mock the Democrats, yet have almost nothing to say about the Republicans, as if the party was a disappointing ex or mother’s latest beau.
The party’s death 76 years ago was never more obvious than over the last six months of the financial crisis. The Democrats sensibly blamed the feckless, bootless Bush administration for the collapse of the markets. Tongue-tied Bush and dyspeptic Cheney defended themselves with grunts and sarcasm before they surrendered to Congress by sending out the plutocrat Hank Paulson with a plan called TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program). A breathing Republican Party would have brought out the flintlocks, boarded the windows, and settled down for a defense of the republic. Instead, the Republican leadership in the House and Senate rushed to grab the pork bribery and vote with the Democrats. John Boehner, Roy Blunt, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and Judd Gregg distinguished themselves as dhimmis and were later rewarded by the victorious Democrats by being granted parakeet cages for offices in the new Congress. The House Republicans now boasts that they voted a goose egg against the stimulus package, but this was just the twitching of the corpse. The truth about the House Republicans—cowards, sycophants, and snobs just like 1930’s lot—is illustrated by the fact that 85 of them voted for the ludicrous AIG bonus-confiscation bill written on the back of a parking ticket.
The Republican Party’s death doesn’t really threaten anyone, and I puzzle why Democrats and independents who vote Democratic spend words and worry debating the look of the corpse. We few Republicans with long memories wander around the cemetery admiring the tombstones and enjoying the rain. I can hear you doubting that this could truly be the end. The final stage of grief is acceptance.
John Batchelor is radio host of the John Batchelor Show in New York, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
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If you're a grandson of the Republicans who marched with Sherman, you're more of a Democrat than a Republican. The names and labels have been changed. In the old days, the Southern Democrat was the most conservative of all Americans and Lincoln was the moderate-liberal.
As for the newer version of the Republican Party that we've been living with for generations, the demise had much less to do with the economy and more to do with (a) the Christian right's attempt to force its religion on the country via the ruling Republicans and, (b) the self-absorbed arrogance that led to first-strike wars and the adoption of torture as a legal tool, all the while sneering at the rest of the world. [Full disclosure = I am a Christian, but not from the religious right.]
The economy would probably not have done you in. This and all governments know that if you give "the people" enough morsels and circuses to keep them from revolution, they will work in your factories for crappy wages and diminishing benefits. They will ensure that you not only remain rich, but acquire more and more riches every year, and they will do so with little or no complaint because you have them convinced that without you they would have nothing. The best recent example of this is the mega-millionaires who destroyed the economy, but require huge bonuses to keep them in their jobs because ..... the whole thing will fall apart without them. They cannot be replaced. It's a new version of the same story, but people buy it in every generation.
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"just"????? Surely there must be other reasons, such as...hmmm...perhaps lots of people disagreeing with the GOP, it's policies, what it stands for, its philosofies, etc.
or do you mean that the Republics lost "just" because they were greedy, cruel and politically clumsy- such trifle flaws, that are but a mere waste of the time it takes to mention them!
"The Democrats win just because the Republicans have disqualified themselves as leaders with their greed, cruelty, and surprising clumsiness."
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Correction to youor correction: It was Javert.
As an independent that has voted more times for Republicans than Democrats I would wholly agree with the thesis of the article. The Republican Party is dominated by the likes of intransigent zealots like Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and Laura Ingraham. The Republican party used be a party of fiscal restraint, smaller government and less intrusion of your life by government. It has forgotten the majority of the silent middle value population. These people are as bad as the current group of ultra liberals like Maxine Waters, Pete Stark, Dennis Kucinich, John Conyers, Charlie Rangel, Nancy Pelosi and Chris Dodd. Why can't we elect a government that has middle of the road values such as personal responsibility, you get everything in life through hardwork, a good education and being kind to people; and the government is not the solution. The America of today wants immediate satisfaction, take no responsibility, blames some one else for their problems and wants something for nothing. These aren't Republican or Democratic issues; they are a change the values that made America the envy of the world.
As a yellow dog Democrat, I always get nervous reading articles like this as a harbinger that the beast will resurrect, Jason like, with the arrival of the next Pied Piper that the gullible electorate will follow further down the primrose path to oblivion as they always do.
So do I, I just look at the NYState election and shudder. Where were the Independents? Voting for the republican. Dems sit back and get far too relaxed for me. I want the bloody awful republicans voted out of existence then I shall sit back a little more relaxed.
It became evident to me in 2004 that the Republicans were on fumes and about to crash and burn. No one believed. But it was clear that all they had was fury and fear and that lasts only so long. Governing is about pace and responding to complex problems with verve and intelligence. It's just a plan fact that you have to pace yourself, which is to say act like an adult and not a child stomping its feet when there's a disagreement. During Ws first term, I remember there was a lot of talk that he was the new Reagan. Certainly, W wasn't the return of Ronald Reagan. The Republican idea of Reagan today isn't even Reagan. "Reagan" today, a mantle every conservative likes to appropriate, is merely a vanity mirror of "greed, cruelty, and surprising clumsiness" that they pick up and preen in front of out of insecurity, which the base responds to like a dog whistle.
You might say W's election was the clearest sign of the Republicans nearing demise. It's too bad they burned down they country on the way out the door.
But as for why Dems are poking the Reb's corpse with a stick? Hey, we've seen slasher horror flicks. Just making sure it's staying down. I suggest a dead check, a couple of bullets to the head. You can't be too careful.
We should probably wait a few years to see if the GOP is really dead, don't you think? The Whig Party didn't just crawl into the darkness, it was torn apart by a very divisive issue, slavery. I don't see anything on the current political horizon that resembles the looming catastrophe of 1861.
Besides, the problem has never been the GOP, the problem is voter ignorance and ideological groupthink. You can change the name of the party from the GOP to the Freedom Party or the Liberty Party or some such garbage, but as long as there's a solid block of Americans who willfully embrace hysteria and demagoguery, nothing will ever change in this country.
Both parties are ripe ready to reinvent themselves. The Dems, nearly have destroyed the US with their Multi-Trillion Dollar "socialistic programs" - Obama apologizing for America? Why, because he knows he just bankrupted our country - took away our freedom to make our own business decisions by having the EU (European leaders) decide what CEO salaries should be.
Like the phoenix rising from the ashes, so will the GOP.
You should inform yourself before posting such LUNACY.
Venus
You are a turd.
scathing commentary -- but if I read or hear one more person make a claim that the US Army "survived the Hitlerites from Omaha Beach to Berlin," I'm gonna lose it.
It was the Soviet Union that fought the Battle of Berlin -- the US and the rest of the Western Allies wisely stayed out of that fight. (good thing, too: the Red Army lost 100,000 men in that battle)
If you're going to use historical examples, at least get your facts somewhat straight.
Oh, and BTW, my dad actually did fight the hitlerites -- in Italy, geting wounded twice in the process -- and were he still around, he'd be the first to call bullshit on historical ignorance like this...
A very astute analysis of what went wrong. GOP greed and subservience to Wall Street opened the door wide for what followed, a European-style socialism eager to subsume the country in what is called the "international community." Only when there are small degrees of difference between us and the rest of the world -- quaint national customs and the like will be permitted -- will the left be satisfied. George Bush nailed the coffin shut for the Republican Party.
VenusMuse - aka idiot. Please don't comment anymore. You are clearly out of your depth when it comes to intelligent, reasoned reponses to intelligent, reasoned articles.
Great commentary. I think it would be good for this nation and the GOP if more conservatives who felt like you spoke up and distanced themselves from the black helicopter crowd. The problem is, I don't know if anyone will be able to hear you over the screaming of those barkers, hookers, establishmentarian jesters, cultists, thatch-headed whiners, and wet-eared Republican office holders you refer to. Instead of putting emphasis on intelligent, rational discourse, we've become a nation that gives a megaphone to those who can say the outrageous things in the loudest possible fashion. There are ideas and beliefs in conservatism that I think the majority of Americans believe in, but the GOP is unfortunately becoming known less for that and more for being the party of the tinfoil hat-wearing crowd who are running out to the gun store to stock up because they think Barack Obama is going to try to declare martial law and put them in FEMA-run concentration camps.
I've seen this guy here several times. He appears to be a bi-coastal apologist who couldn't pick up a station out here in flyoverland. The fringe has hijacked both parties who are manned by members of the professional political class and ruled by the Lords or political royalty. Obama has taken the Democrats to such extreme territory that this may be the tipping point where real people take back the process and send the professional political class looking for real jobs. I think we see where partisans who only lust for power have taken us.
fly-
You think
The Democrats
Are in extreme territory?
You are
Very easy
To impress.
What is going to rise from the decomposition of the Republican Party is a Centrist Party, focused on the Constitution, which is essentially a conservative blueprint to limit government authority and protect individual liberty, a more radical notion today than in the 18th century. Why try to reinvent the GOP? With all its baggage, it deserves to go. And please let all the pseudo-Christians go with it (emphasis on pseudo).
So the GOP is dead?
I thought it was the "Republicans Smell Weakness in Obama"? http://tinyurl.com/cghkxr
That's what JB said here about 45 days ago?
I'm sorry but the cynic in me sees JB up to his old chameleon tricks taking positions that serve his career more than reflect his true thinking.
I guess JB is either betting that the "barkers, hookers, establishmentarian jesters, cultists, and, in the worst instance, just thatch-headed whiners" either don't know how to use The Google or that he and they will soon be parting ways and that he needs to do an ideological makeover to land the next gig.
If JB is so down on Fox, why does he go on it so often and publish those appearances on his web site so often? http://tinyurl.com/d57gzu
It is so refreshing to hear a true republican recognize that this is not the party of Lincoln, and in fact it has failed to live up to its true ideals for many decades. There was a time I could respect republicans. That started to decline during the Reagan years. Then they started to show the beginnings of the neo-con cancer that has infected the party and made it a blight on our nation. Obviously electing (and I use that word loosely) the idiot Bush and his band of pirates and pilagers truly was the high water mark of the descent into darkness by the republicans.
Ding dong the witch is dead! Oh, but she has an evil twin sister, oh my. As long as there are evil greedy people who care more for money than people, wrap themselves in the flag and tell us that those who don't agree with them are unpatriotic, who are blindly sefl-righteous to the point they would bring down the republic to satisfy their own naked greed, then there is a danger the neo-con republican party will re-emerge. As long as these base people exist in any significant numbers then I will hedge my bets. Let's hope that their demise continues. Listening to their idiotic and arrogant ramblings is certainly doing more to insure their party continues to be marginal than any other factor.
My great-grandfather didn't get to march with Sherman because he was marching with Phil Sheridan, and my father was born practically on the banks of the Republican River in souhwestern Nebraska, a GOP-founded state.
Their brand of Republicanism would be unacceptable and even offensive to today's Republican Party.
Lo, how the mighty have fallen!
The whole article is about what the Republican party ISN'T. It wasn't Reagan or Nixon, it wasn't Bush, Gingrich or Rove... well, what is it then? And are we supposed to care? Most of the people alive today only remember those people. If you are such a historian, then explain what you think a good Republican is, other than your grandfather. If the Republican party died out in 1933, then what is the point of your article? Become relevant.
VenusMuse,
I think you have a thin understanding of socialism out of knee-jerk fear of a cliched communism. Obama" apologized" for dragging Europe and the rest of the world into ruin, both economically and in Iraq. BTW, the reason we're starting to see something of a rebound on Wall Street (check Bloomberg) is because Obama had to make a necessary deal with the devil, i.e. Wall Street, the very essence of capitalism, to open up the credit flow so that investment begins again and people in small and big town America can get their jobs back. As for his other "socialists policies" that he recently passed, He promised every single one of them during the election. It's hardly a plot or a surprise, much less some deviant turn toward the dark side. He won. He has the votes in congress. His popularity is through the roof. It's an investment in the future, like taking out a loan to go to college. Suck it up. That said, my guess is that you're a young, under 30, fighting the good fight for the GOP. By all means. But if you're going to help it get its act together at least try to think reasonably about how that will be done rather than falling in line with hysterical talking points. For a fear clues read some William F. Buckley jr., the intellectual founder of the modern conservative movement who rebuilt the party last time. Buckely was man of courage and broad insight, who I didn't agree with, but who would tie Limbaugh to a tree in a backyard until he learned to stop pissing on the party.
Good luck with the rebuilding and try not to hit each other with hammers to often . . .
You got the wrong party in your statement, VenusMuse. It's the Republicans who have almost bankrupted the countries with trillions in debt. They have racked up trillions in debt since Reagan, in peace time, in bull markets, in periods of huge economic growth, they have spent, spent, spent. The only break in our huge run-up of debt since Reagan was Clinton, who actually cared about trying to balance the budget over the huge opposition of the Republicans who actually argued that "debt is good." What Obama has spent during a financial crisis, is a small fraction of the debt Republicans built up. They have been slowly bankrupting us for almost 30 years. And as for "socialist," it was a Republican Administration that gave over a trillions in public welfare to bankers, insurance men and car companies, with no strongs attached. Obama is spending money for actual projects that result in tangible products like bridges that won't collapse, improved hospitals and telecom infrastructure. That is capitalism -- you pay for a product or service -- as opposed to the pure socialism of the Republicans who give free money to already rich bankers.
flyoverland I have read many of your posts, and while I suspect we may disagree on many things I suspect we also have come common ground. I heartily agree with your observation that being governed by professional politicians is in large part responsible for many of our nations problems. We have career politicians who don't make decisions for the overall good of the people, but rather to further their own narrow political aims. I sometimes wonder if the bipolar political dialog we seem to have in this nation doesn't serve their cause. Keep us arguing about Dem vs Rep talking points so we can't get focused on the real problem, an entrenched governing status quo that seeks to further its own interests over those of the nation at large.
I think we can all agree VenusMuse is dellusional. It's a shame she takes up space on this blog when she has nothing of any substance to say. You can sum all his/her posts up as "I'm right and you're wrong, but don't ask me for any details please!" She is obviously a Limbaugh and Hannity fan, and probably even a member of the Savage Nation.
The G.O.P. is dying for many reasons but mostly it is that hypocrisy, Hate, Divide and conquer @ all costs game plan has come back to bite them. We can tit for tat and say that ALL politicians are evil but the G.O.P. has truly set a new standard. I am a life long Democrat but live on Oregon where we used to have moderate REAL world Republicans that received votes from all persuasions, but unfortunately to be a Republican today with any power one must kiss the back side of the likes of FOX news and Rush Limbaugh.
What's the Matter with Kansas is probably the most astute commentary of what the G.O.P. base is and how the like of Rove milk it all the way to the bank, errrr bankrupt I mean.
Venus Muse is a "Typical" wing nut that the G,O,P. calls the BASE; this truly small minority of the party has destroyed it. If it does RISE again it will not be powered by ignorant rubes like Venus.
Your article includes excellent root cause analysis. However I was disappointed that you did not include a prescription for success. Your article suffered since it lacked a conclusion.
Hopefully you plan a Part II that would answer the question of what the GOP needs to do. It may be entitled "GOP Can Rise from the Dead"
Thank you.
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