...would be to isolate the winner.
Now that David Frum's Republican Party has chosen a future of dancing mad and naked around a funeral pyre made of everything it ever claimed to believe, Mr. Frum would very much like Hillary Clinton to take the Democratic Party apart and refashion it into the kind of place where someone like, say, David Frum could find a comfortable sinecure.
Can Clinton Make Good on Her Opportunity?
Given her general election opponent, she has a historic opportunity to unite a grand, cross-party coalition.The Republicans have made their choice. Now the Democrats’ likely nominee faces a dilemma of her own: Run as a centrist and try to pile up a huge majority—at risk of enraging Sanders voters? Or continue the left turn she’s executed through these primaries, preserve Democratic party unity—at the risk of pushing Trump-averse Republicans back to The Donald as the lesser evil?...Those have to be exciting possibilities for the Clinton campaign. For a generation, national politics has been polarized into two unified blocs with minimal cross-over. The Trump nomination suddenly makes imaginable an election like 1964 or 1972, in which a divisive nomination by one party propels millions of voters across the aisle to the other. But the way to win a 1964 or 1972-like victory is to move to the center, to position the winning candidate as the safe choice......Can she seize the opportunity thrust upon her by the mistakes and delusions of her opponents. Does she think it worthwhile to try? Can she discipline herself to succeed? If so, the remaking of American politics so often talked of by her eloquent predecessor, Barack Obama, may prove one of the most unexpected accomplishments of this least idealistic of all presidential aspirants.
If last seven years have proven anything beyond any doubt, it is that is will be impossible to "remake American politics" so long as Mr. Frum's racist, xenophobic, paranoid and proudly pig-ignorant Republican party exists in its current state. No more 9/11-get-out-of-accountability-free cards can be issued, No more "tea party" rebranding scams can be permitted, Nothing short of razing the Party of Limbaugh to its foundations and driving the Pig People back into the political sewers will suffice.
Nothing short of a public acknowledgment that Liberals Were Right All Along will do.
If Mr, Frum really wants roll up his sleeves, join the rest of us on Team Rick and get his hands dirty working on that enterprise, welcome aboard. He can do like the rest of us have been doing for decades: pick up a (metaphorical) crowbar or grab a (metaphorical) ax or using his fucking teeth if necessary (video definitely not safe for work) --
-- and get on with the hard, thankless business of stopping the mindless beasts and monsters he helped unleash.
And after he spends a decade or so in the trenches publicly disavowing Hate Radio, Fox News and 80% of the GOP and defending Liberals who Were Right All Along, Mr. Frum may finally begin to notice a funny thing. That this reasonable, coalition-building, pragmatic, forward-looking party he longs to join already exists! It is called the Democratic Party and on any given day you can find Eisenhower Republican Centrist policy-wonks like Hillary Clinton and FDR Democrats like Bernie Sanders passionately contending over the shape and direction of the future.
But probably not. Mr, Frum does not strike me as a man for hard work. He seems more...
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in.
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to
So that when they turn their backs on you
You'll get the chance to put the knife in.
8 comments:
Mr. Frum might consider switching parties. Do you have a cushy position open for him where he would get to expound on what is wrong with Democrats in a highly-compensated and slavishly-referenced column each week? Where he could immediately slide into a position of influence and prominence in all of the cocktail parties? Where he would be regarded as one of the gate-keepers of the party, the intelligentsia, the Elders of the Tribe? Is there a way that he could immediately proceed to the front of the line ahead of all of these dirty sweaty functionaries who have been screaming in the desert for 40 years about the horrors that the GOP is unleashing on the US?
After all, THOSE people eat locusts and honey from wild combs they find in trees. Hardly suitable for Village soirees.
Umm, you don't have a position like that for him? He would need to get in line, and actually work twice as hard to make up for his history of lies and pretense leading the country into catastrophe after catastrophe?
Nevermind...
Frum and company know, or damned well ought to that there is no crossover middle anymore (if there ever was.) The people behind Jeb!, Carson, Rubio and Cruz cannot even contemplate voting for Hillary or Bernie..."scandal" "corrupt" "Bill" "dreamer" are all they need to justify it. And justification they must have. Lewinski was reason enough to not 'be able' to vote for Gore, Kerry couldn't get their support either, 'cause why, again? Obama certainly didn't in round one, or two. They might have said 'never Trump' yesterday, wring hands and vocalize concern about Trump today, but they will pull the lever for him in November. The machine is there, from county clerks to statehouse secs of state, AM radio and Fox are nation wide and setting the agenda. The money, the media and the propaganda of apathy are there. It will be close, and if it is close, they will steal it. Like always.
"I'm not an actor, I'm a movie star."
--Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole), 'My Favorite Year'
In a similar vein, Frum would protest, "I am not a political analyst, I'm a pundit."
I can't understand who Frum thinks is open to "centrism" in the GOP. The party long ago became a hard right sewer for the worst Americans and the most divisive ideology. Despite the Trump disaster, they still haven't shown the slightest indication of changing their policy positions on anything. IOW, Clinton moving to the center would, for them mean having to move hard right. Ain't gonna happen.
Good afternoon, Mr. Glass.
Hey, you never know. If Mrs. Clinton works with Republicans, they might wait FORTY EIGHT hours into her presidency before having a meeting where they plot to destroy her...instead of less than 24 hours, like with Mr. Obama.
Worth a shot.
Be seeing you.
After 40 years of Hate Radio, Fox Hate TV, "Chritiany" Broadcast Hate Networks, Hate Churches, lazy lying GOP politicians, and lying scumbags like Frum, and et voila! Everyone can just join hands, sing kumbayah and vote for Hillz and it's all cool, man?
Yeah, go pull the other one. Sounds like Frum, like his partner in crime Chunky Reese Witherspoon worshipping Douchehat, is looking for a freeloading handout from the Democratic Party.
Go get a job, ya lousy lazy lying slob.
Hrm....don't remember Reagan, Bush Sr., or Bush Jr. (much less any elected Republican) being advised/harangued/whatever by the courtier class over the need to "reaching across" and/or "coalition build," which is all code for legislate like a Republican. Of course, this may become less of an issue is liberals started showing up for midterms and supporting down ticket races.
I understand the media's need to maintain the illusion that repeated 60/40 Democratic electoral wins are "tenuous" requiring opposing party consent while Supreme Court stolen and mathematical squeakers wins are "mandates" for one (correct) party rule.
Frum needn't worry about HRC moving to the center. That is her normal inclination, especially in foreign affairs. She'll not budge on women's issues, but the rest is on the table.
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