"It’s either holy purity, or you are anathema.”
Sound like anyone you know?
Actually, this is a quote from pissed-off Republican lobbyist and George W. Bush's former ambassador to Brussels, Tom Korologos who is one of many, cranky members of the Party of Personal Responsibility cited in a new column by Tom Edsall's entitled "Has the G.O.P. Gone Off the Deep End?"
For the uncharitable among us, the column is like tucking in to a ten-foot-long schadenfreude hoagie, trimmed with everyone from a former Tom DeLay aide to Bloody Bill Kristol, all weeping great big Burkean tears and bitching to beat the band about how the inmates have taken over the asylum.
Of course, what they're really furious about is that the monster they tinkered together to stomp Liberals to grue and carry them all to power -- a monster their betters has been warning them against building in increasingly panicked tones for years -- has now, in fact (as one long-forgotten wag once put it) and as predicted, kicked the lab door off its hinges and run amok. The Party of Lincoln is now Rush Limbaugh's gimp-suited plaything and has stacked Congress with enough deeply paranoid, face-defiant, lockstepping meatsticks that, as Ed Rogers, (a top aide to both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush) notes, to kill "the art of governing in Washington":
The G.O.P. House has between 20 and 30 members who are ideological purists who think every issue and vote is black or white. Combine that with the members who fear a primary from the right, and you have maybe 60 votes that are hard to get. We have lost the art of governing in Washington. In the Congress no one is able to make and execute long-term plans.
If you have five minutes to kill, I suppose you could go read Mr. Edsall's article here.
Or, if you have a lot more time on your hands, you could just re-read every fucking thing Liberals have been screaming about for the last 30 years or so. 30 years during which even whispering the idea in print that the Right might not be right in the head was to invite political jihad from Conservatives and derision and ideological exile by the mainstream media.
After which, if you're still feeling perky, you could follow up by metaphorically slapping the smirk right off of the next lazy, Both Siderist idiot who uglies up your immediate vicinity.
And now a bit of film which apparently no Conservative has ever seen:
After which, if you're still feeling perky, you could follow up by metaphorically slapping the smirk right off of the next lazy, Both Siderist idiot who uglies up your immediate vicinity.
And now a bit of film which apparently no Conservative has ever seen:
13 comments:
Driftglass,
I think there is one sentence you forgot in your assay of the shit-pile:
"And the ungrateful fucks stopped writing me checks!!!"
Thank you. Now I return to Minecraft. Carry on.
Mike.K.
No shit, Sherlock. Have the Republicans learned a lesson? Are they ready to get back to the business of governance? If so, is there anything decent citizens on the left can (or should) do to help?
Maybe the Republicans are beyond help or saving. Maybe they're locked in a death spiral, and there is no salvaging their party. What then? Will the Democrats split and fill the void with a coalition of the Blue Dogs and the reasonable Republicans?
Short answer: I have no fucking idea, but I do plan to enjoy establishment Republicanism's discomfiture just a weensy bit.
that is an awful lot of words to say "I told ya so!" but it really is all all can do at this point.
You are 30 years in exile because you don't understand the world. Stirling laid it out (American Thermidor thesis), and you just keep on whining. Good luck with that. The reactionary forces are here to stay, bitch. Get with the mother-fucking program.
Jeezuz effing tits. I mean, don't you guys read? Or do you filter everything through your own brand of beer goggles?
It's like you people are goddamned idiots, really. You never listen.
It's really quite straightforward, as they become more marginalized and less effectual they become more radicalized and vicious, like any cornered beast. But of course the Democratic party has moved so far to the right as to replace the old Rockefeller-type Republican party, with no party to its left now.
To Compound Fuckwit:
Jeezuz effing tits. I mean, don't you read? Or do you filter everything through your own brand of beer goggles?
It's like you are a goddamned idiot , really. You never listen.
...and you just keep on whining.
Good luck with that.
All sane conservatives are now Democrats. Let's take a look at the supposed conservative values of fiscal restraint, strong defense, and personal responsibility.
1. The GOP never actually cuts spending on entitlements, EVER. They just load them up with more goodies for the elderly. Democrats nominated Obama who has been pushing to roll back social security since before he was elected, wants cuts the GOP won't take, and is going to give us chained CPI. Carter and Clinton tried to slow the growth of social security as well and were thwarted. But the point remains for all the "fiscal responsibility" of the GOP, the only people who actually try to cut entitlements are Democrats. Of course this is leaving out the military.
But the point remains, if you want shit cut, if you want entitlements dealt with, if you want military spending dealt with, you vote Democratic.
2. Strong Defense. Let's get real, Democrats are just as hawkish as the Republicans, if not more. However Democrats tend to win wars and kill their targets. Republicans lose wars and see them as profit making schemes. Obama killed Osama, Truman nuked Japan, FDR put the Japanese in camps, Jackson gave the Indians what for. Democrats kill, Republicans blunder and brag.
3. Responsibility... when a Republican fucks up they double down, when a Democrat does they resign.
I'm a massive hawk (and I was in the military so it's not empty bluster) and support strong fiscal restraint. Which is why I've... always voted Democratic.
The purity monster they have built has sent everyone who's not batshit nuts running.
yes, the obvious reaction to this article is to wonder if the author has had a head injury for the last 20-30 years, since he's only noticing this now.
Overclock speedy, you forget that St. Ronald Reagan the Great went over to Eastern Europe, calmly took off his suit coat, rolled up his sleeves, and single-handedly busted commie heads from Leipzig to Moscow until they cried uncle and promised to give it up and do some neoliberal shock doctrine awesomeness instead. Reagan WON THE COLD WAR!!!
I will give GHW Bush some credit for running a competent military campaign and at least nominally caring about fiscal responsibility. Of course, he's far too much of a commie liberal squish to be a beloved GOP figure now, though.
It's like you're narrating your own life now, Compound F.
-- Nonny Mouse
I liked GHWB, and yeah he was competent.
But if you want a strong defense, entitlement cuts, a balanced budget, you want a Democrat.
Obama will have fixed the economy, cut social security, cut medicare, killed Osama, and made some social issues progress. All in all, I'm getting exactly what I wanted. I'm very pleased.
I've talked to a few people who think Bush Sr. got screwed over by the Republican radicals of his day, on account of breaking his "no more taxes" pledge.
I don't know if it's true, but it sounds damn familiar.
-- Nonny Mouse
Obama will have fixed the economy, cut social security, cut medicare, killed Osama, and made some social issues progress
Well, I guess 2 for 5 is something.
Post a Comment