Watching Rachael Maddow right now and loving it.
Between the Bondage Strip Club that RNC donors' money paid forfor Michael Steele and company and the Michigan Militia Loons the FBI just arrested, I'm just shaking with anticipation at the impending implosion and self destruction of the Republican party. Ill put my piece on the table right now: I predeict that the high point of the Republican party came when Brown beat Coakley. From then to November to 2012, it will only get worse for them. At this point I see very little good down the road for them.
See... The crazies are achieving enough of a critical mass to form a third party. THAT would kill the Republicans. Bye-bye. GONE. And if the Republicans make more of a push to embrace these loons? That will alienate more moderate. And THAT will also kill the Republilcan party. To their left? Rock. To their right? Hard Place.
How did this happen? Well... that's what happens when you ride a tiger. You go really fast, and eveyone get sout of your way, but it you fall off, it MAULS and EATS you.
Keith Olberman nailed it the other night in his special comment.
And then there was THIS PIECE from the NYT that really sums it all up.
Amazing that I saw the Reagan Revolution and I'll see the demise of that same party, by the very people that elected him.
And the worse things get NOW, the better the futrue looks. IMHO.
It was a good show. I had been wondering for a while how it was possible all these different people across the media kept on predicting the exact same landslide in favor of the Republicans despite problem after problem within the party. But in the end, what happened, at least for me was CNN hired Erick Erickson. I refuse to watch now and have totally switched away from that joke of a news outfit. I much prefer the FACTUAL REPORTING and commentary from MSNBC, but had avoided it in an effort to minimize my echo chamber exposure. Fortunately for me and my sanity, the implosion of many factions of the Republican party have pushed me away in disgust. But only because of most of the media's refusal to own up to and report that very implosion.
ReplyDeleteThis is supposed to be a left wing dominated media? Laughable I say, laughable.
(just to clarify, I barely get my news from television, but when I do, MSNBC has replaced CNN on my favorites button)
Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Grover Norquist and others thought that they had a long-term winning strategy. That's why Rove talked about a permanent Republican majority. That's why Rush Limbaugh thinks he's invincible, because their plan worked really well for the first decade or so.
ReplyDeleteBut, as so often is the case, the rightwing turned out to be shortsighted. They won in the short term, but their strategy was not a long term one. Rove was thrilled that he was able to 'force' George W Bush to be elected. After all, he told people that he could promote virtually anyone into that position, and sure enough, he did. But he never thought about what damage to the brand promoting someone as incompetent as George Bush would do to their long-term goals.
These fools just don't get it. It's all about them and it's all about their short-term gains, to the detriment of the American people. There are still a deluded 25%, and that's a problem - we need to find a way to bring them back from the dark side, which is why MMFA and Obama scold and mock the rightwing noise machine.
The Republican party as a national party imploded back in 2008; it became essentially a collection of regional factions. Every region had its favored candidate, and few overlapped (the hardest-core Republican stronghold, the deep south, voted for Mike Huckabee!). It was a story almost entirely lost in the din of the Democratic party primary fight.
ReplyDeleteBy a few months into Obama's administration--in another little-reported story--self-identification with the Republican party hit an historically record low. It has significantly rebounded since then, as the Democrats' decision to prolong, prolong, prolong the health-care fight reenergized them.
I think only small teabagger factions will ever leave the party proper. The Quinnipiac poll, just last week, showed, again, what most of the shamefully few polls on the subject have already demonstrated--74% of self-identified teabaggers also self-identify as Republicans or Republican-leaning "independents." 60% of teabaggers say they have a favorable opinion of the Republican party vs. 82% who say they have an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic party. The teabagger "movemment" was merely an astroturf campaign--it grew only because it became a haven for Republicans who were too ashamed to call themselves that (that's also why self-identification as "independents" in polls grew, and why the corporate press has been shameful in presenting independents as turning against the Democrats, when, in fact, all that happened was that a huge contingent of Republicans started calling themselves "independents").
Even now, as that same poll showed, only 13% of the population self-identifies as teabaggers. That's enough to wag the dog, when it comes to the reduced Republican party, but not enough to really matter in most places. They have no real electoral clout. Texas just demonstrated that. The state is a teabagger stronghold, and all over it, dozens of teabagger candidates challenged incumbents. Ron Paul, often falsely presented, by the press, as beloved by the "movement," faced no less than three teabagger primary challengers. The results? He crushed all of them. That's exactly what happened all over Texas. Number of incumbents unseated by teabaggers: Zero.
What they can do is seriously foul up the GOP in close states and districts, as they did in NY23. They're ideological jihadists--hate "RINOs," in fact, far worse than they hate Democrats. I suspect they won't do most of their damage to the GOP by launching third-party challenges; their influence is, instead, going to be used to drive the party proper as far to the right as possible, which will alienate the public in exactly the way you describe.
Republicans are, indeed, trapped between a rock and a hard place, and they've put themselves into this position by playing to the least stable elements of their base. They aren't going away, but they aren't a functional national party right now. Think about it: If Republicans had to pick a presidential candidate right now, who would it be? There isn't a living soul who could nationally unify them now.
The choir sounds great today! LOL
ReplyDeleteThank you all for your comments!
On the other hand, Republicans' strongest ally is the idiot in the White House. Bush was a complete imbecile who had a fantastic political team behind him. The Obama is the opposite, a really smart guy who can't play the game of politics worth a shit, and comes across as some half-wit neophyte who not only has no understanding of contemporary politics but is incapable of learning from experience, as well. It's genuinely astonishing to me that he could go through something like the health care fight for nearly a year and then emerge NO wiser from it.
ReplyDeleteThat's what I was writing about last night over on my own blog. It's a story that's had me smacking forehead since before he was sworn in, and it just keeps getting worse. Its as if the Obama sits around with his advisers every day and tries to figure out new ways to actively alienate his own base. He's the one who has resuscitated the Republicans from their record low status, and he's their best hope for future electoral wins.
As I predicted, he received no bounce at all in the polling as a consequence of that awful health bill, and, in a new poll out this morning, 50% now say he doesn't deserve reelection. He's had the smell of a one-termer for some time, now, in fact. Since his election, he's been systematically killing any enthusiasm his own base may have for reelecting him, and yesterday, he was out doing it again. The only way I can imagine him getting a second term is if time runs out before his string of monumental fuck-ups provides the other side with a credible candidate to unseat him.
I'm sorry, but (surprise, surprise) I don't share your judgement about the President. I'm sure some of it has to do with how differenlty we feel we about the health care bill, but after Brown beat Coakley, NOTHING was supposed to happen, EVER AGAIN. And withing a month we have health care reform? I don't want to turn this into a debate about the HC bill, but I DO think he knows a thing or two about politics.
ReplyDeleteWe'll see how it goes from here. Two years from now, I might sound just like those people that were insiting that Bush knew what he was doing, and that it was all part of some grand plan. Now... we all know better, and history is NOT on the side of that then optimistic appraisal of the situation. But I still believe that Obama will deliver what I voted for him to. Maybe not waht YOU were expecting, but so far my own level of disappointment is pretty small. Count me among those who APPROVE of the President, and believe VERY STRONGLY that he should be re-elected.