Motley Moose – Archive

Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Lessons learned? Few and far between, my friends

I recall RNC Chairman Michael Steele saying a few months ago that the era of apologizing was over for his party.  Fair enough.  I don’t recall hearing very much in the way of apology prior to that, but that’s his call.  Still, that oddity has really stuck in the back of my mind.  The Republican Party has sadly decided to dodge the most valuable lessons of the Bush era, and instead is trying to avoid any and all pain related to their incompetent involvement in staggering stupidity.

And I swear, these folks honestly do not think they did anything for which they should apologize.

Ask your conservative friends where President Bush fell short.  They will tell you, nearly all of them, that he spent too much.  They will tell you that he never really did much for them on social issues.  The more intellectually honest among them will admit he could have been more agile, more competent in dealing with Hurricane Katrina.  Even then, though, they won’t own that failure, or any other failure.  These (often angry) conservatives will admit that President Bush had his failures but they seem incapable of associating themselves with those failures.

I know several (former, now) Republicans who voted for Barack Obama.  I wrote about them during the election season and immediately following.  They fled, mostly due to what Sarah Palin represented (though not due to her personally – the rot goes far deeper).  Yes, these folks were mad at the Republican party for “not being conservative enough.”  This is, of course, the rallying-cry of the Tea-Partiers.  They have that in common, I’ll admit.  However, every single “Obamacan” I know was even more incensed at the incompetence and anti-intellectualism of their grand old party.  

This has yet to change.  The Republican party leadership is absofuckinglutely terrified of their own base.  They’ve watched in horror as the debate over health care reform has devolved into some kind of sick joke.  They’ve seen a moderate Republican congressional candidate brought low by out of state Republicans.  People like Boehner, Cantor, and even McConnell aren’t blind.  They can see what damage these events have done, and will do.  However, they know that as their party has pared down in size the influence of this hardened core has only increased.

It will increase even more.  Read your RedState, folks.  They want closed primaries, and they will probably get them in some states.  As these conservative activists evict the moderate Republicans who voted for President Obama, well, the Tea-Partiers will have taken nearly complete control over their primaries.  You can guess what sort of candidates they will field.

It all comes back to the same problem that got them here.  The Republican party did not do much to keep President Bush honest.  The conservative base of the party was used by President Bush.  He did spend too much and he didn’t do much for them on social issues.  They’re right about that.  But by focusing on all the ways President Bush wasn’t conservative they fail to understand why we actually have a President named Barack Hussein Obama.

As a partisan Democrat I’m thrilled that Chairman Steele declared that they’re done apologizing.  It means that my party will rebound in 2012 from whatever losses it sees in 2010.  As a patriotic American I’m fucking terrified of what’s happening.  The Obamacans didn’t join the Democratic Party.  What they did do was leave the Republican Party without adult supervision.

These Tea-Partiers honestly think they didn’t do anything wrong.  Most of them don’t seem at all bothered by the war dead, the damage to the environment, the damage to our alliances abroad, the near-loss of one of our cities, or near-total destruction of our financial markets due mostly to a lack of regulation.  No, their taxes are too damned high and by God are they sick and tired of being goddamned sick and tired.

I won’t call them selfish.  Selfish suggests at least some awareness of self-interest.  No, these people are lashing out as they must.  They must stop President Obama!  He must fail!  If he succeeds then nearly everything the conservatives have believed, have fought for, have shouted ad naseum, nearly all of it will have been false.  Maybe their ideas can work.  But more damaging than the thought that their ideas might fail would be the harsh reality that ours can work.

These people think that the best way to get out of a recession is to freeze public spending.  They seem to think that Americans buying American-made cars by American-owned companies is somehow evil simply because the men and women who made those cars collectively bargained their contracts.  These people seem to think that government-run health care will somehow end freedom.  And no, I’m not exaggerating.  They will shout to the heavens that Ronald Reagan fought “socialized medicine” decades ago.  And yes, yes he did.

Mr. Reagan said that he didn’t want to tell his grandchildren about a time when people were still free, having lost those freedoms due to political change.  Governor Palin quoted his polemic during the campaign.  Palin seemed to ignore the fact that Mr. Reagan was warning us that Medicare would end private health care and destroy capitalism.  The man was flat-out wrong.  And here we are again.

These people haven’t learned a damned thing about losing, apparently.  Why be contrite when you can simply rationalize away your problems?  Our GDP grew 3.5% last quarter.  Ford turned a billion dollar profit.  Home prices are stabilizing.  The Dow was over ten thousand rather recently.  We see all these signs of stabilization and perhaps recovery.  What do these people want to talk about?  Socialist/fascist/nazi/communist health care.  Inflation of all things in a time of deflation.  Deploying four more divisions to Afghanistan when we can’t afford it.  Defending Medicare whilst simultaneously trying to end it.

To quote the Great Communicator:  there you go again!

These people aren’t fit to govern yet.  I hope we stay in power long enough for them to find some adults.


12 comments

  1. Reaper0bot0

    I know I’ve rambled on a bit.  It’s late, and I’ve not blogged for quite some time.  I got married two weeks ago, and prior to that I was too caught up with work.  Winning made me complacent, and I know I’m not alone.  I hope my desperate shock at the tea-partiers can make me angry enough to do my part again.

  2. fogiv

    I recall RNC Chairman Michael Steele saying a few months ago that the era of apologizing was over for his party.  Fair enough.  I don’t recall hearing very much in the way of apology prior to that, but that’s his call.  Still, that oddity has really stuck in the back of my mind.  The Republican Party has sadly decided to dodge the most valuable lessons of the Bush era, and instead is trying to avoid any and all pain related to their incompetent involvement in staggering stupidity.

    In other words:

    Photobucket

  3. Kysen

    I second John’s congratulations on your marriage.

    I also second his seconding of your rant. I think that Michael Steele was unintentionally honest when he said that there would be no more apologizing from ‘his’ party. He did not, however, promise that there would not be things that OUGHT be apologized for. Douchenozzle.

    Tomorrow I vote for Mr. Creigh Deeds…there is not a chance in hell of him winning, but if I do not vote I can’t in good conscience bitch about McDonnell for the next few years. We are in for a dreadful stretch here in VA. /sigh

    McDonnell is going to win, however, it is not in any way any sort of ‘gauge’ by which to measure how Obama is doing thus far in his Presidency. McDonnell is going to win because VA for the past 30 odd years has elected a Governor from the opposite Party of the serving President….and because Creigh Deeds is boring as sin and a horrid campaigner….and because having our gubernatorial elections in an off year insures that the turnout will be low which means fewer young folks and minorities (the folks that saw Obama into office here in VA). I believe that the actual percentage of people who plan to vote for McDonnell that previously voted for Obama was hovering around only 5%. Not exactly a great wave of revolt against him, eh?

    I am rambling…it is late…hope you and yours are happy and healthy. Is good to see ya round these parts again.  ðŸ˜‰

  4. Marriage just kicks ass.  I can’t begin to say how much, but you probably already have an idea.

    I hope you/we stay in power long enough for them to find some adults, too.  I’m the least tightly-attached to the Right – I separated from the herd a year or two before the election – but I know many who are honest-to-god Republicans who fit what you describe: Tired, tired, tired.  Not any less in support of frugality, personal responsibility, and – in some cases – religion, but neither are they ignorant or foolish enough to want to support Alaskan blogger Sarah Palin and the Barking Birthers.

    I, for one, would love to enthusiastically vote for a Republican presidential candidate.  But that person will not (zero chance) present themselves in 2012 and I’d bet a thousand dollars won’t in 2016, either.  Hopefully the political right will be shamed into sanity by 2020.

  5. HappyinVT

    (now that they’ve taken a break from the tussle with Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald) that did make me stop and think.

    Those moderate Republicans have to have some place to go.  Does another party split off from the Republican party or do they vote Democrat?  If they vote Democrat does that mean that the Democratic candidates will be more moderate as well and then we end up with more Lincolns, Nelsons, Bayhs, Shulers etc?

  6. creamer

    One was a picture of corpse’s stacked up at Dachau with some reference to socialized medicene.I’m really not sure how rationaly I would act if I was presented with that in person. Boehner spoke to the tea baggers and said he didn’t see any objectional signs.

     I really try to accept everyone where they are, and aknowledge that the possibility that I might be wrong on different issues.  I find the minority leader’s behavior unacceptable. If the party leadership is aligning itself with theese dumb-ass rednecks then why should anyone beleive that this isn’t the prevailing thought of anyone who calls themselves a Republican or a conservative?

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