Contributors

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Thanks, Charlie!

My first thought at Charley Pierce's brilliant piece in Esquire was, "Hey, he's stealing my shit!" which quickly turned to some inner rumblings about imitation being the highest form of flattery. In fact, he very simply defined the exact reason why I spend so much time talking about the conservative base.

Pierce echoes Mike Lofgren's tell all from a while back and sums up the current political situation quite well.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the Republican party, root and branch, from its deepest grass roots to its highest levels, has become completely demented. This does not mean that it is incapable of winning elections; on the contrary, the 2010 midterms, as well as the statewide elections around the country, ushered in a class of politicians so thoroughly dedicated to turning nonsense into public policy that future historians are going to marvel at our ability to survive what we wrought upon ourselves.

This isn't merely an opinion anymore. It's a fact.

It is now impossible to become an elected Republican politician in this country if, for example, you believe in the overwhelming scientific consensus that exists behind the concept of anthropogenic global warming. Just recently, birth control, an issue most people thought pretty well had been settled in the 1960s, became yet another litmus test for Republican candidates, as did the Keystone XL pipeline, to which every Republican presidential candidate pledged unyielding fealty despite the fact that several prairie Republicans and an army of conservative farmers and ranchers are scared to death of the thing.

Again, all facts. But here's the worst part.

Eventually, as was proven by the failed candidacies of Christine O'Donnell and Sharron Angle, which helped lose the Republicans a golden chance at controlling the Senate as well in 2010, these people cared less about whether the party succeeded than they did that their ideology was kept pure and their private universe invulnerable.

They cared less about whether their party succeeded...in other words, they don't care if they win or lose elections. When you reach that level of irrationality, it makes me wonder what else you are capable of doing. This is exactly what the Democrats don't understand and why, I fear, they severely underestimate the conservative base of this country.

Certainly, this is a mistake I have made in the past but no longer. I know what I ...what we are up against.

Armed with the power of its extraparty institutions, there is a strong element within the Republican base that does not care if the party loses one, two, or three elections as long as their ideology remains pure. There is nobody so powerful in politics as influential people who don't care if they lose. The Republicans have these in abundance. 

Pierce doesn't hold out much hope for the Democrats.

The Democrats don't have them at all. This is what keeps the Democrats from being able to make the Republicans pay full price for their party's departure from reality on so many issues. In 2006, the Republicans were handed a defeat in the midterms every bit as resounding as the one suffered by the Democrats four years later. The difference is that there were so many institutions enabling and validating the Republicans' outré ideas that they didn't see any need to moderate them as a result of the 2006 debacle. They simply rode out the 2008 presidential election and retooled those ideas for the age of Obama. Suddenly, we started hearing about "czars," and more talk about socialism than you would have heard at Eugene V. Debs's bachelor party. What were once moderate Republican ideas were now the thin edge of the collectivist wedge. The transformation was complete. And it was remarkable.

Never underestimate the ugly side of American populism and what it can become.

So, is there a solution?

The Democratic party has an obligation to beat the Republican party so badly, over and over again, that rationality once again becomes a quality to be desired. It must be done by persuading the country of this simple fact. It cannot be done by reasoning with the Republicans, because the next two generations of them are too far gone. 

Hence, one of the main reasons for this site.

Thanks, Charlie!

11 comments:

juris imprudent said...

Never underestimate the ugly side of American populism and what it can become.

Except of course when you are claiming a plebiscite as authority for whatever progressive wet dream of the moment. I will be more than happy to remind you of this insight.

Haplo9 said...

Lol. Pieces that stroke Mark's beliefs are always "brilliant" to him. The problem is all it and you are saying is:

1. Republicans are capital KKKrazy!!! It's a fact because I say so!
2. They should lose elections until they start espousing views that I like.

Wow. Pretty amazing stuff Mark. You do realize that its transparently obvious that you go beyond merely saying "I disagree with Republican positions" (which is quite sufficient) to "Republicans are objectively crazy!" in order to puff up your own beliefs and party. Right?

Mark Ward said...

It's a fact because I say so!

No, it's a fact because of the many examples that I've put on here as well as the several more that I haven't. It's not my fault that you won't accept what people are saying and/or are pretending that they didn't say or act that way.

juris imprudent said...

If only you actually grasped what a "fact" is. I'm not holding my breath.

Haplo9 said...

>It's not my fault that you won't accept what people are saying and/or are pretending that they didn't say or act that way.

Well, two things. First, we've already covered that you're willing to flat out lie (Paul Ryan and food stamps) about what someone said in order to make claims, so you can hardly blame me for not accepting it when you decide to lie. Second, it's true that you can find examples of Republicans behaving badly, or advocating crappy policies. But I'm not quite sure how "example" becomes "objective fact about everyone who identifies as Republican, or even votes Republican" in your world. Oh, but I forget - you can mind read all Republicans, so you are able to tell that any crappy policy is reasonably attributed to everyone who is conservative in some way. My bad.

Anyway, I don't want you to feel alone in your partisan wankage. You should know that there is a healthy cottage industry of the exact same shit, only written for righties:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/04/10/where_are_all_the_moderate_democrats_113790.html

Yep, the same crap you read - "you know, those D's used to be reasonable and moderate, and now they are way out in left field!" For some reason, certain types of political animals, like you, really want to try to claim that their views are centrist while those other guys views are way out there. I have to ask - why bother? Why not just say what you don't like about R policies and dispense with the meta, "I'm in the middle so I can feel good about myself!" crap?

juris imprudent said...

Speaking of facts, and early "health care" federal law...

http://volokh.com/2012/04/19/phillip-hamburger-on-the-maritime-acts/

Oh, I know, this is a notorious libertarian site and thus everything it says must be outright lies or ideologically filtered... yadda, yadda, yadda.

Mark Ward said...

I can't find examples of Republicans acting badly or advocating poor policy, Hap? Are you putting on some sort of play or something? I think its title must be "Saying Shit To Piss Mark Off" so it's hard for me to take you seriously.

Haplo9 said...

>Second, it's true that you can find examples of Republicans behaving badly, or advocating crappy policies.

Do you see the word "can't" in that sentence?

juris "bully weasel" imprudent said...

I can't find examples of Republicans acting badly or advocating poor policy, Hap?

You know I give you shit about your reading comprehension, but perhaps you really do have a learning disability.

GuardDuck said...

Either that or he has such a high opinion of himself that giving someone else's post enough attention to actually pay attention to is just not worth his own so highly valued effort. After all, he already knows what we think and he needs to write another post telling us how stupid that is.

Mark Ward said...

Sorry, Hap. I was reading on my iphone and (sadly) my eyesight isn't what it used to be. All apologies. To be honest, I'm actually relieved that I was wrong...