Democrats and Republicans have always been a danger to the republic--whores for their corporate pimps, working to establish predatory capitalism everywhere and especially over working Americans. That they survive into middle age is testimony to the niceness of average Merkins.

The greatest threat to the republic - and to human existence - is unchecked corporate power and greed. Sometimes they wear a republican face but they're just as pernicious when they look like democrats.

q

What Republic? The Rubicon was crossed LONG ago.

Mr. Parry, as so many mainstream liberal writers, is trapped within the narrowly circumscribed discourse and mindset of the ruling Duopoly. He can't see the forrest for the trees here. This article, for me, is absolutely uselesss, and misses the larger point.

As other posters have pointed out, this aint about the details of political actors or parties, or the views of the sycophantic punditry; Our system is institutionally and culturally corrupt. We either need to re-build our public and private instituions, legal frameworks, economic system, or we as a nation will continue to descend into a form of a neo-Fascist Empire, with "democratic" window-dressing.

After all, the democratic process in our country is nothing more than a very expensive PR stunt, complete with entertainment and loads of lies and propaganda. Ed Bernays and Walter Lippmann would be proud.

"...the question must now be asked whether the Republican Party in its current form has become a clear and present danger to the security of the United States and to the future of the American Republic."

Only to about 90% of us...

This article's cynical. The biggest of its lies (among many) is that Democrats are "scared" of Republicans. Democrats aren't scared of Republicans, they are simply trying to find ways to also profit on the crimes without looking like Republicans.

It's time to stop blaming Republicans for the mess we're in. During 8 years of Bush, there wasn't one single ONE SINGLE filibuster from Democrats. Now Democrats have their 60 senators and the White House. The result? A continuation and in many cases an intensification of all Bush policies. Let's stop the BS and expose the Democrats for what they really are: war profiteers, career criminals and vandals of the US Constitution just like their clones the Republicans.

The Republican party is the embodiment of Death. They will most certainly be back. They will, with substantial aid from the Democrats, destroy the United States.

Its true that the Democrats, with some notable exceptions, and with a vastly more civilized rank and file, have ably collaborated with the Republicans to bring us to the present pass. But what makes the Republicans dangerous, much more dangerous, is that they are ferocious and fully armed.

Let's quit blaming republicans for the Democrats' lack of integrity. They are running the show now, and their true colors are showing.

The Democratic Party are the new threat to this country. The Democratic Party are as hawkish as the Republicans. The Democrats have just given the Green Light for Israel to attack Iran as a proxy war for the U.S.

The Democratic Party is disgusting. Joe Biden is putrid and supports more war allowing Israel to attack Iran. Everyone knows that whether Israel attacks Iran, it is actually an American attack and that it is a proxy war fought on behalf of the U.S.

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/07/05/biden-israel-entitled-to-attack-iran/

Biden: Israel ‘Entitled’ to Attack Iran
US Won't Stand in the Way of a Military Strike

by Jason Ditz, July 05, 2009

“In an interview today on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulus,” Vice President Joe Biden said it was up to the Israeli government to decide if Iran constituted an existential threat and that the nation was “entitled” to launch a military strike against the nation if they wanted to….Biden said the United States would make no effort to dissuade the Israeli government from launching an attack on Iran, but was deliberately evasive on the question of whether the US would provide Israel with access to Iraqi airspace for the strike, saying he didn’t want to “speculate.”…Israel has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran over the past several years, and the right-wing coalition government elected earlier this year won largely on a platform of taking an even more hawkish position toward Iran than previous administrations had….At issue is Iran’s civilian nuclear program, which despite a lack of evidence Israel claims is being used to construct a nuclear weapon in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Israel is itself not a signatory of the NPT, and has a large, undeclared nuclear arsenal….US defense officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, have warned that a military attack on Iran, whether by the US or Israel, would be blamed on the US and would create a “disastrous backlash.””

The Republican Party, like Heaven's Gate, has become a dangerous cult.
The Democrats have moved too far to the right to fill the void.

What Parry has described here is a nation run by two political parties - a party of ignorant bullies and a party of cowards.

Joseph McCarthy, a bully par excellence, ruled for years because no one had the courage to call him out. Today the entire Republican Party follows his lead, and the Democrats once again stand back, chew their nails, and stare at their shoes.

"Merkins," "Merka," Bush pronunciations of Americans, America. A "merkin" is an actual thing, but you'd better look it up yourself.

Whether you call it the Duopoly or the Two Party System or the OneParty, two brandnames system or you actually see it as two dominant parties that overlap to some degree, you have to be able to at least catch the stylistic differences.
I'm surprised that it took Robert Parry this long to figure out that the GOP had gone rogue. I date it to '68 and Nixon.
It isn't even really about the parts of the political process that are visible. The real power has been usurped by Corporations and the people that own and control them. For the past thirty+ years, the Corporate world has allied itself with the "conservative" ideology and have dragged society and the polity far to the right. End Corporate personhood.

Thanks to socialist, action jackson, obusha and others for sharp minded responses. Parry had seemed a writer who did his homework in what I'd seen before, but when he writes ". . . Bush won the presidency for two terms--in two dubious elections-- . ." one wonders. It should read "Bush STOLE the presidency for two terms--in two DOCUMENTEDLY FRAUDULENT elections--" Florida 2000 and Ohio 2004 were clearly shown by the likes of Harvey Wasserman, Bob Fritakis and others as manipulated and stolen elections, in response to which the Democrats did little or nothing. Not that either Gore or Kerry were then or are now exemplars of representing and fighting for the needs of the US citizenry as opposed to Korporate Amerika.

Later Parry takes note of Gore, Kerry and Biden as having shortcomings but being highly qualified and deeply experienced. But highly qualified and deeply experienced at what? Largely being dependable corporate errand boys and taking positions to keep and maintain the US attempt at global military dominant superpower. Folks fighting mountain top removal right in Gore's home region in Appalachia have sought his support and action based on his claimed deep concern for global warming evidenced in his film and book and with coal fired electric generation as a major pollutant source. Last I knew he has said or done nothing publicly, probably due to avoidance of getting publicly and directly crosswise with others in the democratic political fraternity. That is, it is fine to talk the issues and heartfelt concerns, but when the chips are down on corporate coal mining, or single payer health care, or extending wars for control of Middle Eastern oil and gas resources, the Democrats and Republicans are joined at the hip. The demands and needs of the ruling corporate elites are first and foremost for 99% of national political figures, D. or R. And the corporate lobbyists have we mere citizens ouflanked and outspent. The lobbyists outnumber the members of Congress by 10 or 20 to one and they are there in DC and active near 24/7 with bags of money and influence ready and willing to divert and corrupt every effort toward a government of, by and for the people---and the earth on which we are all dependent. It will take a mighty people's earthquake to dislodge them.

Sarah Palin, the "Field Dressed Moose." (Minnie Pearl oufit with combat boots, 'n' all.)
LOL

after all is said and done :

however much libertarians and "individual" freedom and "choice" discourse tries (as if individual choice by itself is actually the be-all and end-all of existence - just ask Nature - and takes precedence over COMMUNE - that dreaded word) -

the ONE word that sums up the FAILURE of american IDEOLOGY is:

CONSERVATISM.

that's -- it.

let's be sure that concepts such as "progressive" , "liberal" are only concepts in relation to Conservative.

and even they are subject to LIMITS eventually, without which the balance between "individual" and society or a "community" or "communIST" - again , look at Nature -

but CONSERVATISM's IDOLATRY of "individual choice" - so-called - as opposed to what IT describes as BAD "progressive or liberal" ideas about "taking away INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM AND CHOICE" because THOSE concepts PLACE SOCIAL welfare in balance or even OVER that of the INDIVIDUAL's UNcontrolled desires to TAKE PRECEDENCE over the needs -- the NEEDS - of the social whole -

IS the root of all the mess.

it is like having a CELL in the body = INDIVIDUALLY - as it tries or transforms into taking MORE of what is NEEDED and then METASTASIZES into a CANCER, infecting everything around it - until the entire body DIES - ouf to "individuals" GONE MAD and out of control and destroying the organs of which THEY are ONLY "little parts" .

CONSERVATISM puts THIS concept ABOVE that of the HEALTH of the WHOLE.

in a COUNTRY it explains itself in VAST concentrations of power and wealth in "individuals" who Deem THEMSELVES or their CLASS "more worthy" and so are willing to sacrifice EVERYONE ELSE for THEIR bloated desires .

ni a GLOBAL economy or society - it expresses itself in TRADE imbalances, wars, invasions, impoverishment of other countries for the sake of the "individuals" of ANOTHER country...

and eventually expresses itself in the PLANET being UNABLE to sustain everyone's NEEDS because of the DESIRES of a FEW.

THAT is what Conservatism NURTURES.

Among Parry's many ridiculous statements there's this:

"The American Left has contributed to the crisis, too, by failing to invest much in building media outlets that will stand up to pressures from the Right, even as pro-Republican financiers were pouring billions of dollars into the construction of a vertically integrated right-wing media apparatus ranging from books, magazines and newspapers to talk radio, cable TV and the Internet."

Yeah, Parry, too bad people on the "left" didn't pour billions of dollars into the construction of a vertically integrated left-wing media. It must be so hard for the "left" to figure out what to do with their billions and billions of dollars.

It would seem that the GOP would much rather have a republic that is more akin to it's earlier pre-1842 incarnation (when there was a property requirement to vote, as well as race and gender qualifications), or better yet, what Plato called for, a relatively small empowered and supposedly enlightened elite who decide and run things based on votes instead of the will of an oligarchy or autocrat. It would not surprise me if during an honest moment, they wish the USA was like the early Roman Republic before plebeian tribunes.

Naw, the Doomocrats be the larger threat: they're elected.

ActionJackson62:

-- As one wordy commenter to another, I caution you to pace yourself. It's hard to get a word of agreement in edgewise! ;)
__________________________________

In the comments to Frank Rich's article posted on CD today, there is some discussion of whether it is right to characterize Madoff as a "scapegoat", insofar as it suggests that he himself is not responsible for his crimes. My view is that blame or guilt is not a zero-sum quantity, and that one can both blame Madoff as an individual AND still understand that he is the product or symptom of a corrupt system.

I feel the same way about Sarah Palin. When the Republican Party pulled her out from under her Alaskan rock, I thought of Katherine Harris-- another ditsy, ambitious Republican wingnut serving the reactionary cause.

Still, over the campaign period, and even into the present, I was shocked by the absolute brutal animosity that arose in the Democratic ranks.

My 2¢ pop-psychology opinion is that at least some of this unremitting animus and rancor was a reaction of the PUMAs and less obstreperous Hillary supporters. It was as if choosing an obscure WOMAN as Veep was considered the dirtiest of tricks-- an attempt to steal the identity-politics game that Democrats had owned for decades.

It was as if HILLARY, like Glinda the Good Witch, was SUPPOSED to be the first woman vice-president! And now those loathsome Goopers summoned the Moronic Witch of the Northwest to steal Hillary and the Democratic Party's Place in History!

For instance, the mushy moderate liberal Joan Walsh, editor of Salon.com, to this day pounces on every possible twist and turn of Palin's peculiar life to mock and deride her. Strictly speaking, I don't know if Walsh herself oversees this almost daily scourge. But Google for yourself to see the avalanche of Palin-sneering and criticizing published there.

Last summer, I mentioned to my brother, an Obama-supporter, that I was horrified by the anti-Palin overkill arising from both political opponents and the moderate-liberal blogosphere. He shot me down by snarling that it certainly WAS contemptible and outrageous that the Republicans would resort to picking a provincial nitwit as a "Hail Mary" strategy to gain political traction.

My own brother, otherwise intelligent and perceptive, treated my observation as if I were "supporting" or commending Palin. I tried to explain that even if Palin was as pathetic and unfit for high office as it seemed, the hostility and rancor was a quantum leap greater than that elicited by other trashy opportunists, e.g. Katherine Harris.

I think Palin critics doth protest too much, and make her a Poster Child for depraved politics to displace and deny the depravity in their OWN politics.

And speaking of women in politics, reading Parry's laudatory descriptions of her Democratic "competitors" reminds me of a CD poster last year who rejected Cindy Sheehan's congressional campaign because of her lack of "credentials".

I pointed out that conventional contemporary Amerikan "inside politics" advocates make a virtue of technocracy and professionalism. Thus, our process eschews and excludes "amateur" politicians in favor of incumbents and other professionals with a curriculum vitae brimming with institutional qualifications: academic, military, business, and of course political experience.

The critic opined that it was far more sensible to elect a "qualified", i.e. experienced politician who knows the ropes and can play the machiavellian game of obtaining sufficient power to actually "get things done".

I noted that the status quo was filled with "distinguished" professional politicians with extensive and impeccable qualifications for playing the inside game-- including ALL of the bums and reprobates we both agreed were Part of the Problem!

Furthermore, isn't it generally the case that conventional "qualified" expert politicians abandon support for anti-war, anti-military, anti-bankster, anti-authoritarian positions in direct proportion to their success in acquiring political power?

My interlocutor would not stay for an answer.

Parry, like many other political reporters and analysts, has some worthwhile insights, but remains trapped in the conventional status quo bubble and buys into the naïve or superficial belief that the Democratic Party is home to the Best and the Brightest.

How did that work out for the JFK administration?

· Yr Obd't Servant

I hope no one really believes this twaddle. republicans all bad and stupid.....democrats all good and smart.

This is a swing of fortunes that is politically normal. Thinking like this will get your head handed to you in the next election.

People that kid themselves about reality don't last long.

Screw Sarah Palin.
She isnt neurotic enough, and her part time governorship is too much of a qualification for the presidency.

FrANNken C(O)Un(L)TER for President!!!!!!

Love
Zero

"Republicans, a Threat to the Republic?"

More accurately, both Republican and Democrat conservatives are the threat. The modern conservative is a bit different than those the author knew:

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
John Kenneth Galbraith