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Progressives are gonna have a lot of fun and satisfaction over the next two, four and eight years – although with each passing day and appointment, it doesn't appear as though much of it is going to come from Barack Obama.
More on that last bit another time. Meanwhile, the good stuff will be coming from the other team, for once. Now harmlessly out of power, their antics will have little impact in the real world. But, if schadenfreude is your game, you're gonna enjoy this.
The Republican Party had the absolute shit kicked out of it. And that was back in 2006. Then it was drowned, set on fire, hung, drawn and quartered, and hit by a freight train in 2008. These were not elections they won, or even barely lost. In 2006 they gave up control of both houses of Congress. The 1994 episode notwithstanding, that is not something that generally happens even once in a generation. George W. Bush, in perhaps the one truthful statement of his entire presidency, described it as "a thumpin'." He somehow neglected to also mention the cause for that thumpin', despite that it being someone with whom he is quite familiar. In 2008 they got stomped by similar proportions again, only this time they also lost the presidency too. And possibly (two Senate races are still unresolved) even the potential to filibuster as well. What's more, getting trounced twice in a row is an order of magnitude worse than simply getting trounced twice. That's another thing that rarely ever happens to an American political party.
If an atom bomb fell on their heads, it could hardly be worse for the GOP. As one of their former congressional leaders, Tom Davis, put it, as he retired in disgust, "The Republican brand is in the trash can. If we were dog food, they'd take us off the shelf." Right now, I'd say they'd be lucky to be dog food.
Some of these goofballs even seem to get it, though a lot of them don't. I've heard right-wingers running around saying that the problem was that the public was so stupid that it didn't realize Democrats were in control of Congress, and therefore actually took out their anger by punishing the wrong party! Nevermind that what that says about the elections their team won – how did those happen? Nevermind that the Democratic Congress never actually did anything, let alone anything remotely liberal, save for raising the minimum wage. What was there to punish Congress for? These people are walking around in a shell-shocked daze, completely disoriented. They look like nothing so much as the stunned, bloodied survivors lurching about the Middle Eastern marketplace scene, just after a terrorist bombing. This is the political equivalent of PTSD.
You get a sense that some people in the GOP do get it. Maybe Minnesota's Governor Tim Pawlenty, for example. Definitely David Brooks – who is about to change his ideological stripes for the second time in one lifetime – for another. Probably Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Dick Lugar and Arlen Specter as well, though I've not heard a peep from any of them. These are the few remaining sorta, kinda, center-right moderates in their party, and they're not stupid, and they're not suicidal. The first two, in particular, as senators from Maine, can see what's happening right on their doorstep. As of January, not a single congressional district in all of New England – once a GOP stronghold – will anymore be represented by a Republican. Remember when people like Ronald Reagan used to say "I didn't leave the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party left me"? Of course, he lied. (Surprised? Yeah, me neither.) It's now definitely true of the GOP, though. Remember Gerry Ford's Republican Party? Remember the mastodon? They roamed the planet at about the same time. Moderate Republicans of yore (some of them were even a bit liberal) stood by (silently) and watched (but also benefitted) as their party was hijacked by the likes of Reagan and Gingrich and DeLay and Bush. Nowadays, though, it ain't so great a ride anymore.
But here's the part where it gets really fun. These centrists are in the minority, absolutely dwarfed in power by the hard right, for whom the GOP is a wholly-owned subsidiary. They are so cowed, they don't even dare suggest that the party moderate its politics. I haven't heard a single Republican make a single suggestion along those lines since their drubbing, let alone before. I haven't even heard of a single prominent criticism of George W. Bush from within his party, despite that a few folks have admitted realizing that he dragged them over the cliff. The reason for this is that most everybody in the base and in elected office is on the same ideological page as Bush, and has been for a decade. Meanwhile, whatever few stragglers there are over on the left side of the far-right party, skirting dangerously close to sanity, are afraid to raise their heads, lest they be swiftboated, just like Bush did to McCain in 2000.
In most democracies, after you see a spanking of the magnitude the Republicans just brought down on their own head – let alone two in a row – you can pretty safely expect an ideological civil war among the ranks of the spankee party. That would definitely be happening now in the GOP, save for one minor technicality: wars require two sides to fight them, and there is effectively only one side within the party today. I doubt seriously there will be a Republican civil war, but if there is, I guarantee it will be a short one. Look for the "Mission Accomplished" banner to be flying over the Focus on the Family building, and this time they won't be kidding. But it would be a pyrrhic victory that would make Chicago in 1871 look like a Boy Scout weenie roast.
A recent survey showed that amongst Republicans, 59 percent want the party to become more conservative, as opposed to 28 percent who want it to remain where it is, and only 12 percent who prefer to see it move toward the middle. This is an amazing set of statistics. It's even more amazing when you consider that, among the general population, the party has hit its lowest favorability rating ever, down to 34 percent now, six percent less than a month ago, with 61 percent of the public now holding an unfavorable view of the GOP. And those numbers come directly on the heels of a presidential election cycle, presumably when any party is best able to market itself. They just spent half a billion dollars telling you how great they are, and what their money bought them was a six percent decline in favorability. Ugh. That's a real bad sign if you're a political party. Less so if you're a submarine, of course. I'm not sure how you can read those numbers as anything other than catastrophic for the GOP. When you add in the massive shift among voters toward Democratic Party registrations, it gets even worse. And when you then consider the especially high tendency to abandon the GOP among new young voters, who are likely to keep their affiliations for life, it looks a lot like the China Syndrome of partisan politics – a meltdown so bad it could go right through the Earth's core and out the other side.
And no wonder. Everything about these guys is wrong. Consider the composition of the Republican Party right now. It houses three major tendencies, with some degree of overlap among them, but also some friction over whose agenda will get the priority attention of the party. First are the fiscal conservatives who, while nevertheless having a mass following for some of their ideas, are basically just Wall Street masters-of-the-universe robber-baron types. They run the party, are always first up to get their policy toys, and always get everything they want, which is pretty much just money. Boatloads of it. Especially yours. John McCain complaining about the idea of redistribution of wealth? You gotta be joking. How did the guy ever keep a straight face? Thirty years ago, the wealthiest ten percent of Americans brought home one-third of the national income each year. Since Reaganism-Bushism came to town, that number has been jacked up to one-half (hey, just like it was in the fun 1920s!). Wanna know where all that money came from? See that empty space in your wallet?
Of course, if people actually ever voted their own interests, the party of ten percent of the population would lose every election in sight. That's where group two comes in – the social conservatives. These are the really scary monsters among a crowded house full of them. These people long ago turned pro. They tend to be existentially frightened down to their bones, and cling hard to the assurances provided by religion and an ideology which seeks both to block all manner of change and, especially, to keep womenfolk and brown people in their place. Of course, the kleptocrats and their operatives laugh at the Jesus Freaks behind their backs. But never to their face. (You think I'm making this up? Both David Kuo and John DiIulio said so – and they both worked in the Bush White House.) Why should Karl Rove and his ilk pretend to respect the social conservatives? Because these are the shock troops who allow the ten percent to win elections they otherwise never could. And the price is dirt cheap too. When the GOP controlled both Congress and the White House recently, did you notice them outlawing abortion? Mandating school prayer? Criminalizing homosexuality? Nope, nope and nope. They didn't do squat for the holy rollers, other than appoint justices to the federal bench who are supposed to do all these things, but haven't either.
Last are the neocons – wee Kid Charlemagnes, one and all – out to conquer the world, or at least all the parts with oil underneath them. Like the plutocrats, the neocons need the storm troopers of the religious right to provide the votes, intimidate the opposition, justify the unjustifiable in the name of our lord, and produce the bulk of the cannon fodder who will march off to war, no questions asked. The religious right is especially useful for the neocons because of the obsession that the holies have adopted toward Israel in the last decades. Sometimes it's hard to know who's using whom, since the End Times that the crossketeers have in mind for the circumcised set is not exactly a pretty picture (it has something to do with masses of sinners writhing in pain – before burning in Hell – while all the nice folk float up to heaven to joyfully strum their harps all day and claim their prize of whatever is the Christian equivalent of 72 virgins – 72 guilt-trips for masturbating, perhaps?).
Anyhow, these three groups form the predominant strains of the Republican Party in our era. Because they share in common a mutual preference for jackbooted, S&M style authoritarianism, and because the scared-shitless social conservatives have a compulsive, pathological need to be deceived in every respect, they have kept themselves amazingly disciplined, despite actually having rather separate agendas. There has been some jockying for legislative priority and some occasional tensions between the camps. By and large, though, the other two camps have so far only needed to throw the religious right the occasional Supreme Court justice to keep them satisfied. That was their absolute bottom line, though. When Bush tried to put up the very-conservative-but-not-conservative-enough Harriet Miers, it was a bridge too far, and his base went all apoplectic on him. That was the end of Harriet, to be sure, but really, that leg of the party – which does all the envelope-licking and church carpool-driving – gets little else from their laughing masters.
I don't see a lot of evidence that this rather amazing coalitional discipline is cracking up (ramshackle, cacophonous Democrats – who, despite probably going to be much better at it this time than they were under Carter or Clinton, nevertheless – can only be jealous), or that these will be the faultlines within the regressive movement in the coming months and years. There is clearly some division within each of the three camps. The smart money figured out months ago which party was going to be ruling Washington in 2009, and since they couldn't care less which set of minions they buy at any given time, Wall Street investments – er, campaign contributions – have been going to Democrats in record amounts this year. The religious right is actually dividing a bit along generational lines, and the younger cohort is particularly interested in environmental issues, not to mention being, one senses, a bit embarrassed by the sexual obsessions of the Jerry-atric Falwell set. Hard to blame them for that. Meanwhile, many of the neocons - anxious to remain relevant and continue getting talk-show bookings (as if the mainstream media ever found a regressive so wrong on the issues as to deny them a megaphone) have jumped ship somewhat after the debacle of Iraq blew up in their collective faces.
But I think the real divide within the party will be strategic and ideological, though it won't be deep, and it probably won't last long. A few Republicans will try to soften the party's message a bit, to make its image kinder and gentler – to play George H. W. Bush to the others' Ronald Reagan, John Major to their Maggie Thatcher. That ain't gonna happen. The GOP is wholly owned by radicals who would much rather see the party die than reform, as the above-referenced poll data make eminently clear. Like the Blues Brothers, these people are on a mission from god. Literally. Only, it's not funny this time, and the soundtrack totally sucks. Any potential reformers would have to pry the battered party loose from the grip of the cold, dead fingers of these die-hards, but the pragmatists have neither the numbers nor the will to get there from here. Who would you bet on in an alley fight – Kärlsreich Röve and his Gang of Waffen Swiftboaters, or a nice guy named Tim from Minnesota?
The McCain-Palin ticket explains the entirety of the GOP's problem now, just in the form of the two personae. He was always a pretty regressive guy, then he morphed himself into an even more regressive guy to run for the Republican nomination, and still he couldn't make the cranky Christians at the base of his party happy. On most days, they actively disliked him. On his best day, they were merely bored to death by the old geezer. "War hero? Big Deal. What have you done for me lately on protecting blastocysts from those evil, genocidal, liberal mass murderers? We'll swiftboat you in a heartbeat if you're even a micron to the left of party dogma, just like we did to you in 2000."
By the same token, the ticket never came alive until Sarah Palin was added to it, and that says just as much about the party as does its reaction to McCain. I doubt Sarah Palin is dumb, but she was, quite simply, completely uninformed about the political issues of our time. She has simply been quite literally focused on other things these last thirty years, while you and I were tuning into and caring about and working on the great foreign and domestic questions of the day. She's basically a very ambitious beauty contest competitor now operating in the realm of American politics instead, perhaps the one domain anywhere that could actually be more vacuous than her former gig. True, you don't have to do the swim-suit competition, but sometimes there are even more humiliating rituals to endure. For example, you're expected to actually know the names of the newspapers and journals you're pretending to be reading. I mean, how demeaning is that?
But this same, embarrassingly ignorant Palin might as well have been the Second Coming incarnate for the reaction she produced among Republicans. They couldn't have cared less about the corruption and the numbed mind and the messy family life. "She's a Christian! She didn't terminate a pregnancy! She kills non-human living things with rifles! And, she makes us feel better about our pathetic selves because she seems just like us." If it seemed like Palin could have been or done or said most anything and still won the passionate support of these folk, provided she was correct on what passes for religious morality these days (i.e., sexual repression), that's because indeed she could. There didn't seem to be the slightest embarrassment over this embarrassment of a candidate, and they adored her like it was some sort of gaga teen lust for the mentally disturbed. Beatlemania comes to the asylum. And, of course, anyone who attacked her was part of some sort of liberal/socialist/secular/media/whatever evil cabal, sent by Satan to tear down The Holy Barracuda, champion of the emotionally needy, patron saint of the massively insecure. Rarely can I remember seeing such a scary display of mass ignorance and hysteria in American politics, a domain where scary happens about as regularly as sunrise. Watching her political rallies during the campaign, all of a sudden I got Limbaugh. Not to mention Jonestown.
But rarely, also, have I seen the dilemmas of a political party condensed so nicely into the form of two individuals. What does it say about your party when a regressive like John McCain goes out of his way to whore himself into becoming even more regressive – abortion, immigration, torture, you name it – and still winds up despised and ignored by the party faithful for his unacceptably Milquetoast tendencies? What does it say when a buffoon like Sarah Palin, a would-be Il Duce in a skirt – only even more comical – can say and do and be anything idiotic and cringe-worthy, and column after column of the loyal troops will still adore her, perhaps even more so, marching off to war in her name? What it says to me is that this party is going nowhere ideologically.
And, therefore, that it is going nowhere politically. Except perhaps south. Figuratively, for sure, probably literally as well. This is not a party that is going to allow itself to modify its positions on abortion policy, guns, gays, economics, stem-cell research, foreign policy, immigration or any of a hundred other passionately-held ultra-regressive issue stances. The Tim Pawlentys of the world can try all they want (and I doubt they'll even do that), but this is a rock that will not be moved. Except possibly further to the right. The folks who own the party now – the result of a Faustian bargain made between the kleptocrats and religious kooks – are not going to let go of it. I guarantee you they'd rather stay pure on their issues and see the party die than make any compromises for electability. If there is going to be any movement whatsoever, it will reflect members' belief that the party needs to become even more regressive, even more repressive, even more medieval. These people want more Terri Schiavo, not less, more Matthew Shepard, not less, more Elian Gonzalez, not less, more Kenneth Starr, not less, more Charlton Heston, not less, more Antonin Scalia, not less, more Iraqs, not less, and more Enrons, not less.
Which is great news for the world, since even in way-backward America, that stuff is already no longer selling – in a big way. What could be better than the belief among the faithful that they are losing elections because they are not regressive enough, rather than the truth – which they probably actually perceive, but are too frightened to face – that just the opposite is the case? Imagine you were on a sinking ship and decided that it might be a good idea to bail water... into the boat. Imagine your house was on fire and you thought the best solution to your crisis was to douse the flames with... gasoline, not water. For once in my life, I couldn't possibly agree more with the radical right about what they should do next.
And following this path, it won't take them long to slip into a political coma, either. I mean, how many gang-bangs, knee-cappings and drive-by shootings in a row can you endure before your pulse finally throws in the towel just stops showing up for work? Going to the electorate with a "Bring back the good old days of the Bush era" message is absolutely my idea of what the GOP should do in 2010 and 2012. Oh, god, please. I just can't believe it happens also to be theirs as well. Maybe they're right, after all, and there is a god. How else can you account for them doing the dirty work of eradication and garbage collection for us? For evil taking itself out?
If they only knew. You practically have to get as creative as Salvador Dali, and twice as twisted, to invent some obscure demographic category in which the GOP is not slipping badly, even as we speak. (And this, despite that their opposition, the Democratic Party, is about as exciting as last week's leftover Malt-O-Meal.) How about over-sixty white male born-again church-attending evangelical pickup-driving Merle Haggard-listening NRA-member deer-hunters with less than a high school education living in Appalachia? I'm pretty sure the Republican Party still rocks with them crackers. Otherwise, though, it's a helluva stampede going in the other direction. Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Jews, Catholics, suburbanites, the West, the Midwest, New England, the Mountain states, men, women, the middle class, the working class, the wealthy, young people, middle-aged people, high school grads, college grads, postgrads, moderates, new voters – all these folks are abandoning the GOP with a vengeance. Hard to imagine why, too – what with two endless and botched wars, one drowned city, a doubling of the national debt, torture, Constitution-shredding, international loathing, exacerbation of global warming, skyrocketing energy costs, shrinking paychecks, healthcare disarray, and now a depression that would warm Herbert Hoover's cockles. As if that isn't a record to be proud of! Oh well. People can be so fussy sometimes in their political expectations.
So what happens now, given that the only two directions available to the GOP are down and to the right? My guess is that they marginalize themselves into a regional party, playing well for national elections in the Bible Belt, and that's about it. That's a grim path to go down, to be sure. The few remaining moderates of the party will not look forward to suffering the same fate as Lincoln Chaffee and Chris Shays, two members of Congress well-liked at home, but not well enough to get past the (R) after their names on the ballot. Rather than be handed a pink slip by voters, they'll start defecting, further isolating the extremists within the GOP, and further solidifying their control of the sinking party. The situation could remain like this, with the Democrats dominating nationally and the Republicans winning only the South in presidential elections, decreasingly attracting candidates for down-ticket positions anywhere else, and decreasingly attracting voter registrations, a process which has already begun in a wholesale fashion among 18-29 year-old voters.
But such a scenario also opens up a substantial political vacuum, particularly as the Democrats are likely to inch themselves a bit back to the left, at least in Congress. This condition would practically scream out for a new political party to rise up on the center-right and become what the Republicans once were, before the Reagan-Bush hijacking. And if that happens, it could be only a matter of a few election cycles before - losses leading to defections, leading to more loss and more defections – the Grand Old Party becomes the Gloriously Extinct Party, one that you can only see in museums anymore, right next to the exhibit on evolution. That may seem like a leap, but it isn't. It isn't so much that the Republicans are unpopular that is their problem as it is the lethal combination of being unpopular and completely resistant to any remedies to your unpopularity. The far right owns this party. They are not letting go.
And I thank them for that patriotic duty and sacrifice for America. Because, after all, what could be a better service to this country than for the regressives to neuter themselves politically, and destroy the political party that has brought to America and the world so much unspeakable damage?
Bravo, Lunatic Fringe. Bravo.
71 Comments so far
Show AllWhile this may be an interesting analysis, maybe one should step back and look what the other party has done or not done over the same time period. I'll give the Obama team a chance, but with the same old players that created their own havoc while working for Clinton...what will folks be saying about the Democratic Party in 8 years?
All I'm saying is, the Dems need to look in the mirror before they start making judgments. There was a lot of complicity and hand-wringing going on.
The Repuks have been trounced? By whom? Their spineless spouses? It's only theater! Both are puppet parties, controlled by Likud. When will DMG wake up?
What's the matter with Kansas? Indeed. Here's to the GOP wandering in the wilderness for 100 years or so. Unlikely, but to live perchance to dream?????
I know a great rant when I hear one.
Dear Mr. David Green,
"it doesn't appear as though much of it is going to come from Barack Obama" you say. Oh how wrong you are. Barack Obama is the best thing to happen in this country in 25 years. Sorry you can't see that. You would rather sit on your ass and write cynical editorials.
The people who really care about this country are supporting Barack because we know we must unite, work and sacrifice to turn this mess around. We are preparing to do whatever he asks us to do to help. Here's some advice for you: either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
the problem camp is not the opposite of the solution camp. Rather, to label a thing as a "problem" is to plant the seed of the "solution" within that thing. We suffer from this 'us or them' mentality, this habit of painting divisions onto the world. wisdom means breaking this habit.
You better start Uniting behind Robert Gates and the Iraq War then.
"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?" -Epicurus
perceptionexperiment November 27th, 2008 2:41 am: You better start Uniting behind Robert Gates and the Iraq War then.
Gates now works for Obama and he'll do as he's told. Besides, it's been said that Gates privately thought the invasion of Iraq was a dumb idea and supports pulling out.
The "p" in Pyrrhic victory should be capitalized.
Someone is going to have to explain this commentary to me.....this man seems to speak a different language and I cannot understand what he means at all, is there a point?
So embarrassing, but true.
Yeah, pretty wordy. But the bottom line is GWB did all this, single-handedly. Bravo Georgie-boy!
This should make us all realize how bad a choice Kerry was in 2004. Because Kerry was given to us by the DNC, it should also make us realize that the DNC sucks, too.
IT's the money folks... until we get the money out of politics the fraud will continue Left/Right Republican/Democrat. We need a change in the type of Government from a Plutocracy to a Republic as advertised.
Money equals power and power is inseparable from politics, the question is whether the People can maintain control the value represented by money. Money is nothing more than a mutually agreed-upon symbol of value. Our power structure changes when the source of money's value changes, and the story of money is the story of the rise and fall of whatever commodity props up it's value:
seashells, salt, slaves, gold, silver, oil/coal, paper moeny/loans, and most recently "promises" or the 'credit default swap'
The source of money's value is changing again. It's well understood that our next money system will be based on an ancient commodity; one that is difficult to standardize and tax but which is in high demand and ever-increasing supply: human attention.
If you're for looking for a model of the next type of power structure, look who's successful at harnessing human beings' attention for profit. (i.e. Google)
Don't be evil!
What to do when your party sucks? Why, become a Democrat. That's the other party that sucks. When the two party system is Democrat and Republican, and they are both owned by the wealthy, the whole system sucks--at least for the majority 95-99%. We need a complete overhaul, and that sounds like---shudder---revolution. We've never had a real revolution in this country. Our glorious Revolution was really a matter of the wealthy landed gentry in the colonies taking away power from the wealthy Crown. Workers of the United States, get off your butts and TAKE OVER. And don't worry about the religious right. It's a small minority of idiots and bigots and emotionally retarded folk who have been given the heady taste of power by the wealthy so that they (the wealthy) don't have to pull off the kid gloves and show what selfish, greedy fascists they really are. What you really have to worry about is the Army and the National Guard and the Marines, etc. The workers of the United States have to figure out how to convince those in the military that they are part of the working force in this country and that they should unite with their brothers. Does that sound like Russia in 1917? Does it mean blood on the streets? So what.
I'd like to agree with you, but the Unions have been knackered. The masses so brain-washed that any thought of rebellion against the System that is so well supported by the American Imperial Guard (Pentagon) there will never again be American vs. American.
I do not believe that armed revolution will take place again in the US. Instead, we will take our place amongst the other failed imperiums, and be just another seat warmer at the UN.
Maybe no-so-bad, eh?
Unfortunately, things will have to get very, very bad in the United States before many consider armed resistance. I see dire times ahead. Eventually the wealthy will have to take off those kid gloves, and start using the military against the majority of people, including a failed middle class. I don't see much hope from the unions--they have become too corrupt and are part of the system. It will have to get so bad that even the stupid 'rich wannabees' with their portfolios give up the "American Dream". I hope we don't become another seat warmer at the UN. I look to Latin America for a solution. Perhaps eventually the US could join a free and united Latin America, and start being a positive force in the world.
Funny, as long as Democrats are propping up the Republican playbook--what do the Republicans care? Time to get the second bit you mentioned.
"Sometimes it's hard to know who's using whom, since the End Times that the crossketeers have in mind for the circumcised set is not exactly a pretty picture ....... claim their prize of whatever is the Christian equivalent of 72 virgins – 72 guilt-trips for masturbating, perhaps?)."
That's hilarious!
"what with two endless and botched wars, one drowned city, a doubling of the national debt, torture, Constitution-shredding, international loathing, exacerbation of global warming, skyrocketing energy costs, shrinking paychecks, healthcare disarray,"
Tell me Mr. Green what the democratic party did to oppose or alleviate any of these calamities? They're now proposing little to nothing to change this situation either. They were in lockstep on almost all of this garbage. We had a democratic president ten years ago that seemed to gladly lick phil gramm's boots. We'll get a new one soon that appears to be no better than clinton. Obomber may speak better than bush but just like mccain he probably voted as bush would 90% of the time.
I'd vote for Ron Paul or Lincoln Chaffee before any democrats except for Kucinich or Barbara Boxer. AND, don't forget 58 million f**king people voted for mccain! If these pathetic, spineless, limp wristed, and aristocratic democrats keep bowing to the right we might end up with another 1994 or 2000.
"What To Do When Your Party Sucks"
And I thought this was going to be an article about the democrats, but then again, what's the difference?
If you want to see the Machiavellian kleptocrats using, then mocking the Jesus freaks, you should check out the documentary "A Perfect Candidate" about Oliver North's Senate campaign in Virgina. Wow. The nihilism is epic. Why is this man not in prison? Oh yeah, he has a TV career to think about.
Also, in contrast to the 72 Virgins, i think the Christians actually get 72 hands, as reward for their lives of obedience and privation. The guilt was just to keep them in line to build the Kingdom, before they got their post-mortal shebang (or he-bang, on I-bang... whatever)- Sort of a "pie-in-the-sky-when-you-die" thing.
This made my day, Mr. Green. Bravo!
As an "over-sixty white male", I object to being stereotyped.
Once upon a time, maybe, "over sixty" meant "conservative Republican", but I, along with most of my friends are, first and foremost, CHILDREN OF THE SIXTIES!
That is to say - Sex/Drugs/Rock'n'Roll/Peace/Love/Anti-War HIPPIES is what we were and (for most of us) always shall be!
Aside from that, great article.
And I accept your apology.
The Nov. 23 Green-Dog Democrat e-zine, entitled "Republicans in the 21st Century," which is posted at http://www.mytown.ca:80/green-dog/, provides plenty of candles to put onto DMG's cake, which is devil's food, I'd say. The candles? The kind that you can't blow out.
The article was fun. And you dont have to tell me that the right is regressive, but...
The GOP is anything but finished. 46% of those who voted in the presidential race voted for McCain. That is still nearly half. That, after the economy tanked 6 weeks before the election. Had the GOP managed the illusion that the economy was still fine, McCain might be the president elect.
From here, zionist Rupert Murdoch, etc al will soon bring the GOP popularity back up. If only to keep Obama "in check". Without our media, people probably would have voted in their own interests long ago.
Spot on, Braith!
Also, Obama has to work with the world that he inherits from Bush. This economy is going to cause misery. People will experience misery while Obama is in power. It is going to be damn hard to be popular while people are miserable. Just who do you think Fox et al will blame? Oh, the GOP is not finished.
once again, mr. green, brilliant writing. we need you, on a daily basis, to keep pounding the drum. it will be interesting to see what great things arise from the ashes. i suggest, sir, that you will be one of them.
"...this embarrassment of a candidate." oh, so polite.
hey, you gop folks, not a word?? oh, there was one brave soul posting here. the rest? peep. peep.
Finally, an article placing blame where it belongs - on the republicans.
"such a scenario also opens up a substantial political vacuum, particularly as the Democrats are likely to inch themselves a bit back to the left"
There is plenty of evidence this is already happening. Look at Obama's transition team, or his recent decision to free the prisoners of Guantanamo.
.Are you so easily pleased, and by no action, but by words alone?
What about that transition team sends you into thralls of ecstasy I wonder? I await the release of those innocents held in Guantanamo but I'm not holding my breath, or engaging in verbal orgasms quite yet. I see far too many familiar faces on that team, faces associated with obeisance to the same folks who have given us this current economy. I have also lived long enough to realize that words do not so easily translate into actions,but I would love to be proven wrong.....
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Let the Republican Party know your thoughts on how they should rebuild the party
http://ideas.rebuildtheparty.com/
Dear Mr Green,
Bravo, one of the best articles I have read in the two years I have been a member of common dreams.
Lets , once and for ever , lay to rest Ronald Reagan.
Its been thirty years , and you would think the Republican party would have a new non-hero to talk about.
Hey , Republicans, we are not the stupid Americans you have conned for the last thirty years.Its a whole new ball game, you better get second jobs, your rule of fake Christian Fiscal Conservatism is OVER.FOR A LONG TIME, TRY THE NEXT 100 YEARS.
God is watching all the time, and you are correct David, he helped America by allowing the Republican party to hang them selves by abusing his name.
I wonder if the separation of church and state idea came to our founding fathers as warning from God himself.
I am not even going to begin to tell you how sickened I am of the Lunatic Fringe Fake Christian community.
There is more work that needs to done.
To Cygnus-X1-isaHole, a word of cation my friend, I do not want President Elect Obama to curtail any of the power that Bush/Cheney has created for the executive until we have had a chance to uncover the damage done to this country by the so called Reagan Neo con fiscally conservative robber barons and war profiteers.
The Democrats have a great deal of power balancing to be done , 30 of the last 40 years we have been ruled by the Republican right.
The national spy machine is defiantly made up of right wing christian fanatics and Republican cronies , I know , I have been under 24/7 community watch surviellance for two years by these nut jobs. They are entrenched in all facets of agency's and business's in our community, and they were given cart Blanche by Bush and the DHS to conduct surviellance with cointel pro torture tactics.
Let me tell you how bad this spy machine is, I can not get a lawyer in a 5 county radius to believe me, or help me. Because they all know whats going on. Its Infragard and the FBI that are running the Stazi police state spy machine.
They need to be exposed for conducting Domestic torture.
Its going to be an inside job using executive power to uncover this nation wide spy network designed to help the republican party maintain control over its political enemies.
My story is not unique, I bet there are thousands of Americans around the country that have been abused by this illegal warrant less surveillance group of Bushite thugs.
And when all is said and done , We the People, will make sure Obama re-instates fully the constitution.
But not before justice is served up, and the elite that supported warrant less surviellance to line their pockets , are put under the microscope and punished for acts of greed and torture.
By the way , Republicans are not upset that McCain lost, they are upset because the game they have been playing on America is about to explode in their faces, and they are going to be caught with their hands in the cookie jar of warrant less surveillance and domestic torture.
These people are not Christians, they are animals.
I will have my day in court.
BornFreeMen
Dear Mr Green,
Bravo, one of the best articles I have read in the two years I have been a member of common dreams.
Lets , once and for ever , lay to rest Ronald Reagan.
Its been thirty years , and you would think the Republican party would have a new non-hero to talk about.
Hey , Republicans, we are not the stupid Americans you have conned for the last thirty years.Its a whole new ball game, you better get second jobs, your rule of fake Christian Fiscal Conservatism is OVER.FOR A LONG TIME, TRY THE NEXT 100 YEARS.
God is watching all the time, and you are correct David, he helped America by allowing the Republican party hang them selves by abusing his name.
I an not even going to begin to tell you how sickened I am of the Lunatic Fringe Fake Christian community.
There is more work that needs to done.
To Cygnus-X1-isaHole, a word of cation my friend, I do not want President Elect Obama to curtail any of the power that Bush/Cheney has created for the executive until we have had a chance to uncover the damage done to this country by the so called Reagan Neo con fiscally conservative robber barons and war proititeers.
The Democrats have a great deal of power balancing to be done , 30 of the last 40 years we have been ruled by the Republican right.
The national spy machine is defiantly made up of right wing christian fanatics and Republican cronies , I know , I have been under 24/7 community watch for two years by these nut jobs. They are entrenched in all facets of agency's and business's in our community, and they were given cart Blanche by Bush and the DHS to conduct surviellance with cointel pro torture tactics.
Its going to be an inside job using executive power to uncover this nation wide spy network designed to help the republican party maintain control over its political enemies.
My story is not unique, I bet there are thousands of American around the country that have been abused by this illegal warrant less surveillance group of Bushite thugs.
And when all is said and done , We the People, will make sure Obama re-instates fully the constitution.
But not before justice is served up, and the elite that supported warrant less survivable to line their pockets , are put under the microscope and punished for acts of greed and torture.
By the way , Republicans are not upset that McCain lost, they are upset because the game they have been playing on America is about to explode in their faces, and they are going to be caught with their hands in the cookie jar of warrant less surveillance and domestic torture.
These people are not Christians, they are animals.
I will have my day in court.
BornFreeMen
The elephantine idiots may disappear from national politics but they will continue to thrive untouched in the safe, gerrymandered habitats the states provide for them. From city council to mayor to county supervisor to congressperson, the R after their names provides a life-sentence for the rest of us. Once they're in office the only way they leave is retired or dead.
Busque la verdad!
Union of Concerned Scientists is firlding a petition to repower, refuel rebuild
committment by Obama admin in first 100 days
https://secure3.convio.net/ucs/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1753
· Move to 100 percent electricity: Generate power from clean sources such as wind and solar and reduce electricity demand with energy efficient buildings and homes.
· Cut our dependence on oil in half: Improve vehicle efficiency; use electricity instead of oil to power our cars; and invest in public transportation.
· Create 5 million new clean energy jobs: Invest in clean energy technologies and infrastructure that will require new engineers as well as factory, construction, and administrative workers. · Reduce global warming pollution by at least 80 percent: Set a firm national limit on global warming pollution, charging polluters for their heat-trapping emissions and using the revenue to invest in a clean energy future
Have the Big 3 automakers take their Bailout money and start rebuilding our public mass-transit system.
Holding the Republicans solely responsible for the direction of our country since 1980 is really not very helpful. They had plenty of help from the Democratic Party. If the Democrats continue following center-right policies, there won't be all that much to gloat about. Center-right is an improvement over far-right, but we can really do better than that.
Furthermore, I remembered thinking that Bill Clinton would be the next FDR after I voted for him in 1992. I saw Democratic control of the White House and Congress for years to come, with the Republicans surviving only by turning themselves into watered-down Democrats. Two short years later, the second wave of the Reagan Revolution was on, with the Democrats turning themselves into watered-down Republicans!
Mr. Green, if you want to contribute something, tell us how we can push the Democrats in a more progressive direction. Repeated trash-talking columns about the GOP are tiresome. I disagree with much of what conservatives stand for, but to sneeringly deride them as "scary monsters", "emotionally needy", "massively insecure", and "holy rollers" is really juvenile. You can't beat Karl Rove by becoming him.
"Kärlsreich Röve and his Gang of Waffen Swiftboaters"
German-Canadian though I am, I got a good laugh out of that one.
It's even funnier if you pronounce "Kärlsreich Röve" in the German fashion.
Obama IS a trojan horse democrat.
But don't expect him to sneak any progressive policies in his belly.
Obama is going to cement the unitary executive and American imperialism.
Whether he knows it or not.
He's going to accomplish what George Bush, John McCain or any other neanderthal republican couldn't.
Do you honestly think Obama is going to give up the unconstitutional powers that Bush has accreted for the executive?
Do you honestly think Obama is going to restore Habeas Corpus and end government spying?
And what are the odds that Obama won't feed the defense beast by engaging in a middle east conflict or two?
Imagine that it's 2012 now. "Liberal" Obama hasn't restored the Constitution. Nor did he consult Congress for his signature war.
The president must truly have these rights, his supporters will reason.
After all, he's a Constitutional Scholar. He knows more than me about these complicated things. And his words make us feel so warm and fuzzy!
Not like the dumbass Bush, who sounded like a 3rd grader, who almost everyone finally saw though (after seven years).
Obama will cement the unitary executive.
And his supporters will cheer.
And so will the Republicans.
Then when he's no longer necessary they'll destroy him.
Wow. That's an incredibly bleak prediction, dude. It could happen, but so could 100 other possible futures. I like Kivals' scenario better. I think Obama is more of a centrist than a "liberal". But I can easily see him restoring the Constitution.
The oligarchy never left.
While I agree with what I will call your cautious optimism about the Republican party's hoped for and well deserved self immolation, nevertheless, I am old enough to have jubilantly celebrated in 1964 at the defeat of Goldwater. Yet, look what happened?
It was that very demise which ultimately was the seed which germinated into the last three decades of far right wing control and near destruction of democracy. If a more competent politician than Bush had been the frontman, we might be looking at a third or even hereditary presidency for him or his family. Have we forgotten the potential nasty uses of FISA and the so-called Patriot Act? Have you forgotten that nearly one out of two voters still voted in the voting booth for McCain and Palin? One out of two almost.
Do not be sanguine or it could happen again and next time we might not be so "lucky" than an incompetent is leading them. Especially since the Democrats invariably contain the seed of their own self destruction every time they win.
Signed: Lawlessone [for more irreverence, see resistence-is-possible.blogspot.com]
The democrats have already abandoned the most of us.They left us behind when they continually voted for hte bailouts, FISA, the Patriot Act, against bankruptcy laws, and so on and on. They will continue to abandon the very base that puts them in a position to help them.
That's why I'm a Green and why anyone who is a true progressive and cares about the middle class, the poor, the MAJORITY of people in this country will register a Green or Peace & Freedom or Nonpartisan, anything other that DemocraticRepublic of Corporate Control.
The fact is both parties representing the corporate dole, in fact, suck. Dems are not my Party any more than the Repubs. So Obama's continued drift to the right by naming neo-cons to his foriegn policy team does not surprise me any more than his FISA vote, his numerous votes funding the Iraq war, his sabor rattling on Iraq and subtle threat to carry on a covert war in Pakistan, his affirmations on behalf of Bio Fuel, Nuclear, and Coal as a package solution to impact climate change (which does nothing except contrubute to the problems), nor his cozyness with Wall Street Elites (many named to his own cabinet with a straight face).
I will continue to work to build the Green Party membership, IRV, and vote for candidates with platforms of change, and not empty promises, paying lip service to change, that go ignored when an elitist like Obama gets elected. It is astonishing that despite all his promises for change, he would slap down the left who helped get him elected.
Sioux Rose
CHRIS: I think the facts you relate speak for themselves; although I am HOPING Obama transcends himself, and finds the potentials of his office worthy of the pursuit of genuine ideals. I am not holding my breathe. Eyes wide open...
Um, the Democrats played the Seinfeld DO NOTHING strategy in 2006 and 2008 and yet they "won" ? I was surprised that they'd even win let alone big because most of the time the voters don't vote Democrat just like that. My guess is though that the GOP will let Obama have his 2 terms so that they can control the Democrats as always. Year after year, the GOP even in its minority form will have no problem tickling the Democrats into submissions and concessions again and again. At some point, the public is going to be so angry that they'll give the Democrats yet another 1994 bloody defeat somewhere in the next decade.
Kivalis - interesting point and a very concise way of explaining what the job of the American public is this political cycle. We have to outspend Big Money and literally buy back our government.
Green sez: "... the Democrats are likely to inch themselves a bit back to the left, at least in Congress. This condition would practically scream out for a new political party to rise up on the center-right and become what the Republicans once were, before the Reagan-Bush hijacking."
***
Entertaining read, full of colour and apt decription, as always. However, I would submit the centre-right vacuum has already been filled by the Democratic Party (see: kivals, 3:15 p.m.).
It would be better for USAns to wake up and fill the true political void in the country. They may have voted against the most obvious reactionary trappings of the furthest right, but seem perfectly content to let the oligarchs run things unimpeded from a slightly less extreme outpost.
Don't forget that the GOP thrives on being the minority party. They didn't f***up until they actually got all the power they asked for. They are great at fear, hate and "it's the other guys' fault" and we all know how short the memory of the american electorate is.
The hope is that the Dems not let people forget how the GOPers screwed up. But of course our Democratic Party is the party of nice, let's get along, bipartisenship. If the GOP were Hitler's Nazis (not so far from the truth) the Dems would want to work togeather to clean up those concentration camps.
Make no mistake guys. What they did to this country was no mistake. They just hoped we were dumb enough to not notice AGAIN. And boy it was a near thing.
Good comment.
If the Republican Party continues to lose influence, Wall Street and Big Money will drop them completely and throw all their support to the Democrats. As the Democratic Party increasingly becomes the party of Wall Street, it will continue its steady move to the right, and will slowly absorb Republican defectors along the way. Then one would hope that a significant new party would grow out of the disaffection of the left of the Democratic Party, fueled by the frustration of millions of unemployed and underemployed US citizens suffering from environmental degradation, poor economic conditions, the inevitable bullying by the economic elites in a polarized society, and declining opportunities for themselves and their children to improve their situation.
Sioux Rose
KIVALS: Right on pragmatic prescient prophecy. (I agree.)
Good one kivals.
The question will be, if this new party is the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, will it stand a better chance of winning than a small third party?
A great description of the GOP's status. Loved the quote about guy's running around saying they lost because Americans didn't know Democrats controlled Congress.
At the same tiome I din't agree with his accessment of the war within the GOP at all. The conservatives are the largest part of the GOP, not the hard right. But the truth is the only way they can come back in 2012 is if we allow it.
.Are you suggesting that one party rule is a good thing? Do you hope for a permanent minority GOP? Do you think it matters?
You are under no obligation to answer any of those rhetorical and slightly snide questions. I am just returned from a fishing trip, have a freezer full of salmon, but, alas, no steelhead. I blame the incoming administration and the democratic majority for that!
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
Lunatic Fringe
from the Red Rider LP "As Far As Siam"
Lunatic fringe
I know you're out there
You're in hiding
And you hold your meetings
We can hear you coming
We know what you're after
We're wise to you this time
We won't let you kill the laughter.
Lunatic fringe
In the twilight's last gleaming
This is open season
But you won't get too far
We know you've got to blame someone
For your own confusion
But we're on guard this time
Against your final solution
We can hear you coming
(We can hear you coming)
No you're not going to win this time
We can hear the footsteps
(We can hear the footsteps)
Way out along the walkway
Lunatic fringe
We know you're out there
But in these new dark ages
There will still be light
An eye for an eye;
Well before you go under...
Can you feel the resistance?
Can you feel the thunder?
John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta
Dude-man, hey! You so ROCK!...
I can feel it, man. I can feel that guitar thunder!
Apparently, ye ole 'Masada complex' is contagious!
John Lewis-Dickerson, Atlanta
What to Do When Your Party Sucks
Sucede?
LeeAnnG
Did you mean "secede"?
"It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to ... Cry if I want to... Cry if I want to ...
You would cry too if it happened to you ..."
-- Lesley Gore
In terms of predictions, I think Mr. Green is WAY off-base. First, expect the religious conservatives to rise up and revolt, especially assuming Obama's groundswell tactic works beyond just getting elected. If that group ever figures out it can do politics the way it does evangelism (person-to-person, over the Internet, in houses and churches.. gee, sound familiar??) without Big Money (which does laugh maniacally behind it) it will leave the GOP in a heartbeat. American Christianity is exceedingly good at dividing and splitting off from itself. That and only the social branch of the current party has the youth and know-how behind it to launch such a thing.
The fiscal and neocon remnant will then need someone new to recruit cannon fodder from and will probably pick up some blue-dog Dems and perhaps rally the Ron Paul crowd.
I wish the Dems would do a little meiosis myself, but I don't see it happening... :/
Wow, what a great rant! And right on the money, too. Before the election, what was left of my far-right, religious wacko "friends" (and relatives!) seemed to feel sorry for me for my delusional thoughts that Obama would win. Now I get total silence. At first I thought it was just total denial. But you're probably right, they're re-grouping! Uchhh.
You do like Obama is doing. You pay for it. And you go on enjoying it.
Hoa binh
US swing voters are a fickle bunch. Anybody who thinks Obama would have been elected if the election were held two months earlier, or if the economic meltdown had occurred two months later is delusional. The Republicans are good at pushing the swing voters' buttons. Don't be surprised if the Republicans are back in power sooner than you think.
Duplicate comment deleted.
raydelcamino November 24th, 2008 1:35 pm:"US swing voters are a fickle bunch. Anybody who thinks Obama would have been elected if the election were held two months earlier, or if the economic meltdown had occurred two months later is delusional.
The poll numbers of the summer would seem to reinforce that delusion. McCain got an expected uptick in the polls following the Palin pick and the Republican Convention, which is commonplace after any major party convention, but he had started receding even before the banks and markets hit bottom in late September. In fact, except for McCain's brief post-convention bounce, the individual poll margins had remained consistent since summer with Obama in the lead, as this chart shows:
CNN 6/26-6/29: Obama 50%, McCain 45%
CNN 7/27-7/29: Obama 51%, McCain 44%
CBS 7/7/-7/14: Obama 45%, McCain 39%
CBS 7/31-8/5: Obama 45%, McCain 39%
Ipsos 6/5-6/11: Obama 50%, McCain 43%
Ipsos 7/31-8/4: Obama 48%, McCain 42%
Time 6/19-6/25: Obama 47%, McCain 43%
Time 7/31-8/4: Obama 46%, McCain 41%
Pew 6/18-6/29: Obama 48%, McCain 40%
Pew 7/23-7/27: Obama 47%, McCain 42%
NBC/Wall Street Journal 6/6-6/9: Obama 47%, McCain 41%
NBC/Wall Street Journal 7/18-7/21: Obama 47%, McCain 41%
(Rich Gallagher of Fishkill, NY, compiled and posted these numbers at Altercation, Aug. 8, 2008.)
http://mediamatters.org/altercation/200808080001#5
Obama-Biden popular vote percentage: 52.3%
McCain-Palin popular vote percentage: 46.2%
(Final numbers from FiveThirtyEight.com.)
http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/
I realize we've all been inundated by the Big Media tripe that the economic meltdown in late September killed McCain's chances after he had pulled even or ahead in the polls, but it's horse pucky. McCain and Palin's sour performance in the debates, the GOP's over-the-top negative ads, a miserably-run campaign, Palin's exposure as an ignorant nitwit, McCain's closeness to Junior, plus the general public disgust with the Republican Party had as much to do with McCain's loss as the financial crisis. Also underestimated are Obama's superior organization, massive GOTV efforts in most of the fifty states, and that the country, already centrist-liberal except in name, has been trending more to the left for many years.
I fear you are correct. The economic meltdown doomed McCain. Americans are
far more concerned about their pocketbook than they are about men and women
being killed in a bullshit occupation of two countries. The economy is so
messed up it will take time to recover, perhaps lots of time. The Republicans
could very well be back in charge in 2013. We are the dumbest people in the
world, if you need proof remember George Bush was President for eight years.
We know how that worked out, let's just hope people don't forget in the next
four years.
decrepittex November 24th, 2008 10:10 pm, Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 and, as a statewide recount by news organizations discovered in November 2001, Florida and the election that year. Junior had to be shoehorned in by an illegal decision of the Supreme Court. (And let's not neglect the dirty work of Florida Bush/Cheney campaign co-chair and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, and Republican-conveniently-turned-Democrat Theresa LePore who designed that confusing butterfly ballot, unlike any other in the state, that gave 3,000 Gore votes to Pat Buchanan.)
In 2004, even with Kerry running one of the worst campaigns in modern history, Bush only won Ohio's electoral votes and the election by extraordinary voter suppression and vote fraud tactics on the part of Bush/Cheney state co-chair and Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell and other Republicans. There were also vote fraud/vote suppression efforts in other key states such as New Mexico and Florida. (Mark Crispin Miller, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Harvey Wasserman and Greg Palast have all written excellent articles on the theft of the 2004 election.)
Also recall that exit polling, which is the standard used by international bodies to determine fraudulent elections, and was previously used by our news networks to call elections, showed Gore won Florida in 2000 and Kerry won Ohio in 2004 and, therefore, each won the presidency, not Bush.
I think it's important to combat this notion that a majority of American voters were fooled by Bush and Rove -- obviously, they weren't.
As Mark Crispin Miller said in an interview with Buzzflash:
"When a movement tries to force an alien agenda on a democratic nation, it must devote itself full-time to that endeavor. The subversion of electoral democracy must be the movement's overriding goal, because it's very difficult to disenfranchise a majority. It takes vast planning and tremendous effort, and a ton of laundered cash. In short, it has to be that movement's main concern; and I believe that it is Bush/Cheney's main concern, and that it is the main concern of the regime's most fervent backers.
"Because the US press refuses to go near the issue of election fraud, it's easy to assume that Bush & Co.'s subversion of the last election was just one of many dark endeavors. That assumption would be dangerously wrong. The subversion of American democracy is the primary interest of the Bush Republicans, whose vast electoral shenanigans were but a part of their ongoing program - a program not at all conservative, but anti-democratic and anti-republican."
-- "Mark Crispin Miller Connects the Dots on Election Problems," Buzzflash,com, January 16, 2006.
http://www.buzzflash.com/interviews/06/01/int06002.html
Also check:
Mark Crispin Miller:
http://markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/ [archived articles on Ohio 2004 election.]
http://markcrispinmiller.com/
Greg Palast:
http://wwww.gregpalast.com
http://www.gregpalast.com/voting-fraud-is-a-fraud-buzzflash-interviews-greg-palast/
Harvey Wasserman:
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2007/2506
http://electionfraudblog.com/category/harvey-wasserman/
"Diebold Memos Disclose Florida 2000 E-Vote Fraud"
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0310/S00211.htm
"Some Might Call It Treason..."
Mark Crispin Miller, Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-crispin-miller/some-might-call-it-treaso_b_23187.html
"Did Bush Steal the 2004 Election?"
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Rolling Stone
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen
The Republican Party had the absolute shit kicked out of it. And that was back in 2006. Then it was drowned, set on fire, hung, drawn and quartered, and hit by a freight train in 2008.
Then 52% of the electorate defecated on the charred and flattened corpse and kicked it into a shallow, unmarked grave where it now waits to rise again, not with the elegance of a vampire but like some cheap monster from a grade Z science fiction movie. As someone said last week, they'll be back . . . as dumb, murdering, thieving and rotten as ever, probably more so, if that's possible.
.I find such commentary about every republican to be too cartoon-like for my taste, especially as the other party is little better. In 06 the election was in no way a rout and even in 08 they suffered a defeat to be certain, and a well deserved one at that after eight years of our very worst President ever, but they are hardly a corpse.Perhaps we shall see a change in leadership and a return to real conservatism, not a bad thing actually.
While the GOP is down the course of this nation may very well fail to deviate much from its present one. Should we then seek to raise hyperbole to new heights while excoriating the Obama administration and a majority democratic legislature? Well, sure!
You are certainly entertaining, Mr. Shiblikoff!
.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.
Anais Nin
in mad magazine it was the 'heap'
Well said