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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

The Republican Rump – We're Losing the Patient

This is simply depressing to watch.  They don’t get it.  They really don’t.  The Republican Party has apparently decided that moderation in the pursuit of victory is no virtue, and that fanaticism in the pursuit of ideological purity is no vice.  Anybody been watching the RNC Chairman race?  Michael Steele is as close to a “moderate” as there is in that race.  And hey, nothing against Steele (he seems a decent chap), but he makes the point.

I read RedState and still post there openly as a liberal.  It gives me some perspective as to what the Republican activists are thinking.  I think I’m more frightened now than I was just prior to the election.  They’re even more out of their minds now!

It’s a simply logical fallacy.  They lost.  John McCain wasn’t ideologically pure and he wasn’t willing to (quite) bring the roof down on Barack Obama.  Therefore, in order to win they must be ideologically pure and willing to bring the roof down on their opponents.

That’s it.  That’s the lesson.  Unfuckingbelievable.  No soul-searching, no existential quandary, nothing more than a simple calculation that decency and heterodoxy are alien and dangerous.  It’s like they’ve decided that pissing off their moderates wasn’t enough.  They really want them gone.

The Obamacans I know mostly voted for Obama out of disgust with what the Republicans have been saying and doing for the last few years.  They’re apparently set on accentuating the worst of that.  It’s simply amazing.  

They’re becoming a regional rump party.  There are nearly zero elected moderate Republicans in Congress.  The fewer of them they have the less of a fusion their decision-making becomes.  It’s just a cacophony of bullshit, bile, and belligerence.

Please remember how sad this looks, folks.  Our turn will come.  Please show more common sense and more grace at that time.  Nobody wins when one party collectively loses it’s goddamned mind.


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/ 16 Comments

16 comments

  2. Peter Jukes

    …needs a decent opposition. If the dems don’t have some effective and reasonable Republicans to question legislation, and keep them honest, the net effect will be more strife WITHIN democratic ranks.

    Why do I think this?

    My experience of Labour’s crushing landslide against the Tories (after 18 years in opposition) while joyous, was rapidly tempered, by the fact the Tories went into self destruct mode for six years. From the pragmatic party of the centre right (famously known as ‘a conspiracy to gain power’) the Tories had become ideological, extreme, and particularly crazed about issues like sovereignty and Britain’s place in Europe. They chased each other up their own a***s in the pursuit of ideological purity.

    The net effect was, Labour won three victories in succession, but in the absence of an effective opposition, got lazy, and worse – created its own internal opposition. Hence the split between the Blairites and the Brownites replace the traditional two party split for ten years.

    The electorate will probably punish Labour for that, but the odd thing is, since the Tories under David Cameron have become a lot more effective and threatening, Labour has discovered a new found sense of unity, especially between Brownites and Blairites

    Sorry for the long domestic history, but I hope there are lessons to be drawn. I seem to be on a bit of British promo trip at the moment.

    Book your flights with BA, and I can point y’all to some great hotels!!

  3. nrafter530

    they really haven’t been there since the 1970’s. Even those two years when Clinton had a Democratic Congress, conservatives held most of the power there.

    We have now the most liberal government we’ve had possibly since the 1960’s

  4. GMFORD

    After Nixon I registered as a Republican because I was worried about not having two parties. But, while I still think two parties is a good idea, I came to realize that the GOP is not a party but rather organized crime.  It must be eliminated.

    Perhaps a new party could rise from the ashes with some kind of platform that actually has relevance to Americans.

    As for Palin, the Republican leaders love her because she is like Bush.  She’s a complete airhead who will deliver canned speeches while a shadow government (some combination of corporatists and imperialists) actually makes decisions and runs things.

  5. creamer

    turned into a philosophy of no government. At least on a domestic level that means eliminating or making ineffectual as many social programs as possible. Apparently conquering the world to spread this agenda is also part of the plan.

     On the surface it looks to be an incredibly selfish, brutish approach to governing. When we examine it more closely, we find it is just that.

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