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We Need More Dick Cheney
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That’s right, Republicans. Listen to former Vice President Cheney. Don’t come up with new ideas.
While President Bush has exited stage right and refused to comment on his successor’s service, former Vice President Dick Cheney has shown no such reticence. That is fine with me. First, because I think the hoary old chestnut about former officeholders not criticizing their successors is more mythical than real. And, second, because the more the country sees former Vice President Cheney, the more they realize why they love President Obama.
Former Vice President Cheney (that “former” part never gets old, does it?) has some excellent advice for the Republicans: Don’t moderate. Don’t stand for change. Defend the status quo. Stay the Bush-Cheney course.
To be sure, the leftward movement is not uniform nor is it permanent. I recall laughing in 2004 when Karl Rove spoke of a Republican majority that would last 60 years. Karl was off by about 58 years.
Cheney gave his party this advice in an interview with an AM radio talk-show host in North Dakota. I am not making this up. Cheney has gone from ordering invasions, wiretaps, and torture to calling up AM 1100 in Fargo and saying, “Hey, Scott, Dick here. First-time caller, longtime listener!”
"I think it would be a mistake for us to moderate,” Cheney told right-wing talker Scott Hennen, the self-described “Chairman of the Common Sense Club.” This is about fundamental beliefs and values and ideas... what the role of government should be in our society, and our commitment to the Constitution and constitutional principles. You know, when you add all those things up the idea that we ought to moderate basically means we ought to fundamentally change our philosophy. I, for one, am not prepared to do that, and I think most us aren't."
That’s right, Republicans. Listen to former Vice President Cheney. Don’t come up with new ideas. Don’t move to the center as America shifts to the center-left. Don’t appeal to young voters—you only lost them by 34 points! Don’t appeal to Hispanics—you only lost them by 36 points! Don’t appeal to African Americans—you only lost them by 90 points! Women? Who cares? You only lost them by 14 points.
Listen to Mr. Cheney, Republicans. Don’t appeal to the majority. No, continue to craft your message exclusively for old white guys who voted in Congress against equal rights for women, against a resolution calling on the apartheid regime in South Africa to free Nelson Mandela, and against Head Start, against the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, against reauthorizing the Clean Water Act, and for bringing back slavery. (OK, I made up the one about slavery, but the rest are all true.)
As my longtime running buddy, James Carville, points out in his brilliant new book, 40 More Years, the party of Cheney didn’t just lose an election, they lost a generation. America is now a center-left country. Look at the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll. Support for gay marriage is surging. Just four years ago, only 32 percent of Americans supported gay marriage. Today marriage equality commands a plurality: By 49 percent to 46, Americans support it. And 53 percent say their state should recognize the gay marriages sanctioned by other states.
When I was working for Bill Clinton in the White House, just 22 percent of Americans supported legalization of marijuana; today 46 percent do—and the Republican governor of California is saying he wants to study legalization. In 2007—just 18 months ago—49 percent of Americans supported what conservatives called “amnesty for illegal aliens.” Today, 61 percent agree with this statement: “People have a right to live here legally if they pay a fine and meet other requirements.”
A Pew survey of culture and values caught the leftward trend in 2007. Pew found a strong increase in Americans’ support for what Cheney pillories as “big government.” In 1994, 57 percent of Americans agreed that “Government should care for those who can’t care for themselves.” In 2007 that number had surged to 69 percent. Pew also found the support for the principle that “Government should help the needy even if it means more debt” rose from 41 percent in 1994 to 54 percent in 2007.
To be sure, the leftward movement is not uniform nor is it permanent. I recall laughing in 2004 when Karl Rove spoke of a Republican majority that would last 60 years. Karl was off by about 58 years. President Obama has wisely rejected any notion of a permanent realignment, saying, “You know, politics in America changes very quickly and I'm a big believer that things are never as good as they seem and never as bad as they seem.” He’s right, of course. But it’s also undeniably true that the politics of Dick Cheney—and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity and Joe the Plumber and all the rest of the finest minds of the 12th Century—are the politics of failure and that the politics of Barack Obama are ascendant.
So keep calling in to those right-wing radio stations, Dick. I hear that there’s a big one in Alligator, Mississippi, that’s dying to hear from you. You can tell them all about how you were on the right side of history when you voted to support the imprisonment of Nelson Mandela. Oh, that one is true.
Paul Begala is a CNN political contributor and a research professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute. He was a senior strategist for the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign and served as counselor to President Clinton in the White House.
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calpoet
Absolutely right on, Paul. Everything Cheney says reminds us how lucky we are that that disastrous era is over and the country is on the road to recovery. He and Limbaugh have emerged as the main spokespersons for the party of the dead past...A perfect choice.
jobert
With all due respect, Mr. Begala, I disagree with you. I know it is tempting to gloat.
I am a lefty Democrat, but I don't agree with one party rule. I want the Republicans to be thoughtful and to provide a counter balance to Democrats. Otherwise, we will get sloppy and ruin our party the way they have hurt theirs. I care more about the country than my party, and unbridled power hurts everyone.
lmktacwa
Not sure I was able to get that Paul B was supporting the idea of one party rule. I, too, am a lefty-Dem and believe that a 2nd (or 3rd) party provides that counter balance you wrote of. I think the demise of THIS particular (R)-Party is a good thing. Its like, you know, the catapiller to butterfly thing. What may emerge is a new party that has shed its crystalis of HARD right ideology. Let the old (R) party shrivel. Let the hard righties keep their intolerant, self-rightious party. Its not a threat to our freedom and liberty anymore. (Thank God, and God willing it stays that way... pun intended). So, I dunno jobert, I kind of got something else out of Paul B's blog.
AND I'd like to add that I am so glad to finally hear (read) someone acknowledging the REALITY that America is a center-left country. How REFRESHING Paul!!!!! I'm so SICK and tired of hearing them say on Morning Joe how we are a "center-right" country. Nope. Sorry. NOT. Obama's victory was not only many points higher than Bush or Clinton, but it was over 50%. In my book, that means the shift has occured!!
Spasticula
I agree ...in theory. It would be better to have two intelligent parties. But... what do you think are the chances this stupid, stupid GOP can transform into a throughtful option that you or I could vote for?
mick719
I agree. There are many thoughtful Goldwater Republicans out there who are too timid to express it for fear of being roasted by Limbaugh and his ilk. They need to bust a move and show some courage to break the cycle of hard right politics. Jobert is right. It takes 2 strong parties to make Democracy function efficiently.
da47ve
I disagree liberal...Limbaugh is right (...er...correct)...when liberals lost past elections did they work hard to moved to the "center"? I'll answer it for you...look at who's president...the most left wing politico we've ever had....batten down the hatches liberal...we're coming after you...
VirginiaMom
In my left-of-center college town, when a GOPer ran for municipal office, the candidate described themself as a "Lincoln Republican" -- presumably to distinguish themselves from the rabid right wing loonies that have taken over the GOP, which is such a toxic label anymore. I agree with Jobert -- we need multiple viable political parties for healthy public debate. I'd like to see the resurrection of the Rockefeller Republicans, or perhaps the emergence of a strong libertarian party just to keep me and other lefty Dems honest.
pr54321
@da47ve
I don't know about a wholesale move to the center, but Bill Clinton was certainly just a hair left of center, and it is undeniably true that under Howard Dean, the Democratic party became much more inclusive of conservatives and moderates than it used to be. That's one of the reasons that the Democrats are currently winning elections.
pkimelman
Um, jobert and the rest, this was sarcasm. He was being ironic about it of course. Begala knows that the GOP will moderate, find new and real leaders again, and form the balance that the country needs.
Note that we are not a center-left or center-right country because the country is left leaning on some issues and right leaning on others, and even that changes constantly. The GOP found their mojo on hot-button social issues in the past with a partnership with the older evangelicals and conservative Catholics, but that generation is being replaced by more moderate or left leaning young people (who may still identify themselves as evangelicals, they just ignore the hate spewing from some of their leaders). I think many of them found that although it may feel good to hate and blame some other group for a while, it gets old and it does not solve the issues of their daily lives. Hannity and Rush and others blaming immigrants for every ill only works for a while. Fear of terrorism was strong stuff for a while, but it is losing its punch (the boy who cried wolf is Dick Cheney).
The other factor, which frankly worries me, is that many of the social conservatives accepted free-market concepts as part of the package, but lost that with the credit collapse. Now, they believe in this weirdly impossible concept of "small government" but want huge defense, social security, medicare, etc (think "Joe the Plumber" type inanity), and less taxes. Further, most have little understanding of taxes, so can be convinced to believe that their taxes will go up under Obama, which is just what the wealthy like Rush and Hannity want them to believe. But, eventually, they will figure it out. Then, the GOP can find its roots again.
DaveCarroll4
How about we just have another Party altogether, made up of moderates who can see straight... maybe have a "new idea" once in a while. Make the Ultra-Conservative Republican Party #3!
xbainx
Republicans always like to emphasize how much America supports them. They point to all the elections they have won in the last 50 years.
But JFK was assassinated, Then Robert Kennedy was assassinated. Then George Bush stole an election. And then the argument falls apart.
The Republicans can only get in power when they lie.
lmktacwa
HAH, not to mention:
Nixon (R) = Watergate
Reagan (R) = Iran-Contra
Bush/Cheney (R/R) = Torture, Warrentless Wiretap, Pre-emptive unsubstantiated War, etc, ad nauseum.
Looks like them (R)-types are corrupt sumbitches.
I love watching the same people who beat us over the head with "Patriotism" are the ones yelling "Succession!"- Ye-haw.
Yes xbainx, their record on all fronts is felonious and failed.
AnteBragd
lmktacwa
From an outside (non-american perspective) don´t get too convinced of the "moral superiority" of the Democratic party
Wilson (D)= Intervention in WW1
FD Roosevelt (D)= Military-Industrial Complex
LB Johnson (D)= Escalation of Vietnam
Clinton (D)= Bombings of Serbia
Obama (D)= Escalation of Afghanistan, continued illegal detention of POWs?
bobbyschrader68
Actually, this is a reply to AnteBragd Below (to provide some context/corrections to slight oversimplification of history)
Wilson - US intervention in WW1 helped decisively end a destructive war that killed tens of millions of people (unfortunately, Wilson blew the peace with a shortsided, isolationst Congress and American public - had the US been an active participant in the League of Nations and provided a proper counterweight to revanchist France and Britain, a less bitter peace could have been had with Germany)
FDR - Military Industrial Complex (you're off by a decade. It was an observation (quite self-revealing really) by Republican Dwight Eisenhower about mega industry/business that flowered under his administration in the 50s
LBJ - can't argue with you there
Clinton - Bombing of a nation state that supported the massacre of tens of thousands of Croats, Bosniak muslims that actually helped bring about the Dayton Accords
Obama - Afghanistan (too soon to judge whether this is a mistake or not - but country is a failed state; continued illegal detention of POWs - I direct you to the executive order he signed closing Guantanamo - he's trying to figure out where to send these people right now, as freeing them in the United States probably not the brightest idea.
MaliciousDisorder
I guess it worked for you, your alive..
drkaza12
xbainx; when I first saw Paul Wellstone in debate against Norm Coleman for senator of Minnesota I was so deeply impressed i was totally convinced he possessed the moxie to be President of the United States. To this day I question the validity of the plane crash, and will mention this whenever the opportunity is presented. Thank you xbainx.
GregersonA
question the validity of the plane crash?! i suppose then you'd also like to question the validity of the outcome of the recent fanken-coleman election.
oh, wait. probably not. your guy won, after all. right?
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n--Y--joebloemax9090
JFK would have been a failed president had he lived. he had already had one of the worst first terms in history (vienna, berlin wall, bay of pigs, missile crisis, coup in south vietnam). It was only a matter of time that his personal scandals came to light and the image of camelot shattered forever.
RFK wasn't even going to be nominated. He was in third when he died. Humphrey had it locked up with all of the unions and bosses who used to decide the nominations. McCarthy's refusal to drop out after California cemented Humphrey as the nominee.
the myth of the kennedy brothers is one of the stupidest and most pathetic in all of political history. how you can talk about stolen elections in the same breath as JFK is quite amusing.
btw, both JFK and RFK were killed by liberals; Oswald was a marxist-leninist and sirhan sirhan was a radical palestinian who hated israel. got that? marxism and anti-israel, both are core sentiments of modern liberals.
DavidBarron
I agree with jobert. The Republicans need to have a civil war to decide whether they're going to be viable or whether the intellectual conservatives will split off and form a real opposition that doesn't have to rely on wedge issues to win.
jds8181
Legalization, Regulation, TAXATION.
It's time America had a rational discussion about the legalization of marijuana, and I'm overjoyed that Gov. Schwarzenneger had the political courage to say so. The three main reasons why I support LRT: it would bring much needed revenues to state and local governments, it would allow our local prosecutors to focus on more serious crime, and it would allow us to financially cripple Mexican cartels south of the border.
It's time America stop ceding a $60-100 billion (that's BILLION!) market to organized crime. Would it make much sense if someone came out and suggested we stop taxing all the corn and wheat producers, combined?! Certainly not. But that is essentially what we are doing. Through LRT, America can create jobs here in the U.S. and deliver much needed tax revenues to state and local governments that could be used to fund education or subsidize healthcare.
LRT would allow our prosecutors to focus their attention to more pressing concerns, like violent criminals. Currently misdemeanor simple possession cases are clogging our judicial system, and are burdening our parole officers who have to devote time to individuals who have done nothing more than the equivalent of going out for a few beers with friends. We need to alleviate the burdens on our judicial system so prosecutors are not wasting their time on a victimless crime.
And finally, LRT would allow us to cut the Mexican cartels off at the knees. Better yet, it would be like cutting them off above the waist. Currently marijuana is estimated to account for approximately 60% of the revenues for Mexican cartels. The supply will always be there because the drug trade is the most lucrative industry in the world, and only because we ensure its profitability through needless prohibition of a substance that is far less harmful to society than alcohol or tobacco. Think of the term "starve the beast."
Prohibition has failed. It's time to try another approach. Let's hope that Schwarzenneger's political courage will be contagious, and other politicians will follow his lead.
Zorkadork
jds8181, good post. You forgot to mention the current costs of incarcerating otherwise law-abiding citizens for cannibas-related offenses, which run approximately $40,000 per inmate. I don't know how many unfortunate people are locked up for these issues, but our prisons are already overcrowded.
On top of the dollars saved by, we will also become a more compassionate society. Much there is much work needing to be done. Change needs to be made on the Federal level, and those Federal laws override individual State's statutes.
I realize that my lucky fellow Americans who live in California will not be in favor of that last statement, because of their compassionate medical marijuana laws, which allow not only consumption, but those with medical problems to grow a couple of plants for their own use.
Here in Oklahoma, if such person were to try that plant growing thing, they would get locked up for life with no possibility of parole. Murderers get better treatment.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
dcbooknurse
If tobacco companies had any sense they would support the cause and then start growing legal marijuana. Much easier than growing tobacco.
MaliciousDisorder
You don't know Arnold, can't trust a thing he says..
kansas1946
And, second, because the more the country sees former Vice President Cheney, the more they realize why they love President Obama.
*******************************************
LOL. Ain't it the truth. I LOVE Dick, and Rush, and all of these boneheads because evertime they open their mouths, another Democrat is elected.
mignon79106
Just until enough people figure out what an empty suit the community organizer is, how over his head he is in this job, and the consequences of of his Marxist ideas come to bear. YOU just wait. It's only a matter of time.
DocHumboldt
You forgot Dijon Eater, Teleprompter Reader, Socialist, Illegal Alien In Chief and a few other mindless slurs. Well, you did say Marxist at least.
Llplo99
mignon and dochum:
how you reach the conclusions that you do amazes me. Some of the world's most intelligent and successful people support and admire Obama and who are you? I wonder if you are upset that a successful black man upset your status quo because he became the most powerful person in the free world? Are you poor trailer trash? Is that the issue? I doubt you know enough to make the comments that you are making.
Kirbonicus
@mignon
You can keep screaming and spouting and crying all you want... it's obviously your right to do that... but it doesn't make it any more true.
And calling every liberal idea 'Marxist' with a negative conotation is like me calling, for example, the Branch Davidians 'Christians' with a negative conotation.
Whenever I've called out a particular fundamentalist Christian sect as being looney because of their core religion, their belief in Jesus' divinity, I am told by some it's not the message that's wrong, it's the interpretation and execution of the message that goes bad. Converely, how is it the Karl Marx was evil?
boatscain2003
Paul,
Dude, shut up! If you guys keep posting play books with what to or to not do to get back into power on here sooner or later enough Republicans are going to read one. I'm content to see just how far the old GOP will go down before they do some re-thinking to appeal to a more progressive American voting public.
ByeGeorge
GOP
Grumpy Old People
pjcarlin
With tans
EdinNJ
The idea that the Democrats will screw things up without a legitimate opposition party is just concern trolling. The fact is that the Republicans have damaged their brand so much that there are enough independents and right-leaning Democrats to provide all the moderation needed to govern effectively. You see it every day with the Blue Dogs and the red state Dems that in any other generation would be Republicans, but are no longer welcome.
At the rate we are going right now, where every day there is all this idiocy on the right about dijon mustard, tea bags, seceding from the union, global warming denial, etc. etc, eventually the sane, rational conservatives are going to form a 3rd party, and they will peel off the centrists to form a newer, more legitimate party.
flyoverland
Windbag
drkaza12
flyoverland
ibisko
the commentary and comments are eloquent and articulate.
being just a worker bee, my recollection was that:
initially, Obama was not embraced, defended or supported by the regular Dems.
he got his dough from cookie jars ,over the internet, and did
what was not supposed to happen:
he got old white republicans in the Midwest to vote for him,.
because he listened, and represented their desires.
cheney still is a domineering, autocratic bully.
the tail wagging the dog.
party, and by that, read personal interests, before
the public.
maybe it used to work ,in the"back in the day" arms business?
not being of service, or a representative of his constituents makes him a little tyrant.
Peter0000
Paul, Paul, Paul.
Still harping on the Bush administration to deflect attention from the incompetent and hilarious bungling of this new administration with a president who is still campaigning. See you at the 2010 voting booths Paul my boy. America is ready after little more than 100 days to clean out congressional dems and repubs alike. r/ An Independent American.
wrathhound
Yeah, Skippy. See you there.
maspring
Stop watching Fox News.
Seriously. Take a month away from it. I know it's fun to watch but it rots your brain.
For one month try a diversity of news sources including BBC, NPR, MSNBC and CNN. Mix in some New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
When you're month is over you can go back to watching Fox. You'll understand why Republicans are in the state their in.
jainthorne
Or better yet, take a month of not watching any news at all. Volunteer in your community, connect with family and friends, look after your health....then come back to the news and you will find that what you gained in the month beats anything you missed in the news.
DocHumboldt
God, do I ever want to tell my Mom to do this very thing. Well, except for the MSNBC, WSJ and CNN parts. How about the Christian Science Monitor, Reuters and Salon instead?
texmiahall
maspring....seriously I'm waiting for in the closet Sean's day at waterboarding. Can't wait, don't want to miss this.
jhub32
Cheney talking about a commitment to the constitution and constitutional principles--best joke I've heard in ages.
GREGORYABUTLER
Three words -
MAN SIZED SAFE
Thank you.
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