Amid All the Madness, the One Thing That Might Rescue the Republican Party from Political Oblivion

Last night on American Idol, Simon and company used the newly instituted "judges save" to rescue piano man Matt from the oblivion voters had consigned him to.

John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and the rest of what passes for leadership in the Republican Party these days must be wishing there was a political equivalent.

Those pathetic, corporate lobbyist-backed tea parties clearly didn't do the trick. They were steeped in desperation. A bitter brew of misguided outrage and good-old-fashioned hate mongering.

It's what people do when the only two ideas they have -- tax cuts and deregulation -- have been given full expression for the last 8 years and failed. Miserably.

The GOP is so devoid of any actual solutions to the many crises we are facing they find themselves grasping at the vaguest hint of a talking point or, failing that, making stuff up out of thin air. So we get Rep. Spencer Bachus saying there are 17 socialists in Congress, and Michele Bachmann warning about "re-education camps for young people," and a Fox reporter "covering" a tea party saying we need to "wake up and start fighting the fascism permeating this country."

And we get Republicans frantically and feebly trying to turn a routine Department of Homeland Security report on right-wing extremists into some kind of Obama-led conspiracy against "ordinary, everyday conservatives."

Boehner, Michelle Malkin, Jonah Goldberg, Lou Dobbs, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and all the others cynically trying to exploit the report know full well that it isn't a "hit job" on conservatives but rather part of an ongoing series of threat assessments that has included editions on "Left-Wing Extremism: The Current Threat" (April 2001) and "Leftwing Extremists Likely to Increase Use of Cyber Attacks over the Coming Decade" (January 2009).

But they need something to agitate over, so we get nonsense like Malkin calling the report "a sweeping indictment of conservatives." It was exceedingly strange how quickly mainstream conservatives were willing to lump themselves in with the white supremacists and anti-government armed militias that are the real subjects of the DHS report.

When the desperation ploy of claiming that Obama is targeting conservatives failed to get any traction outside the right-wing echo chamber, the increasingly unhinged GOP messaging machine switched to Phase Two: trying to turn a potion of the report warning that "rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge" into proof that Obama is "targeting veterans."

"To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable," fumed Boehner.

Claiming that warning about extremists targeting vets is the same as targeting vets is like claiming that the police are "targeting children" when they warn parents to be on the lookout for pedophiles.

The truth is, when it comes to "targeting veterans," Obama has targeted helping make life better for them -- as opposed to perpetuating the lip service paid to our returning soldiers for the last 8 years. George Bush loved to praise our vets' sacrifice and service, then gave us a system that produced the Walter Reed scandal. As Paul Rieckhoff pointed out on HuffPost, Obama has already moved to fulfill two of his campaign promises to vets: push for advance funding of the VA, and for an overhaul of military and VA record keeping -- "removing two of the most significant bureaucratic hurdles that keep veterans from the healthcare and benefits they have earned."

But why let the facts get in the way of a ginned up controversy?

The Republican flamethrowers have proven very adept at being able to argue whatever side of an issue allows them the chance to slam Obama.

We saw this very clearly with the recent Somali pirate standoff. For days before the final rescue, Limbaugh had been accusing Obama of not taking the problem seriously enough, bellowing that "idiots like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama think pirates and terrorists -- and this is terrorism -- are criminals, not enemies." Then, once Obama ordered the Navy to act, Limbaugh was suddenly outraged that he'd gone too far, lamenting what he described as "the killing of three black Muslim kids" who were "shot on the high seas at the order of President Obama."

It's amazing how quickly "terrorists" can become "three black Muslim kids" when there is political hay to be made.

Even Bernie Goldberg, who has accused the media of slobbering over Obama, took Sean Hannity to task the other night for "going out of [his] way to find fault with every single thing" Obama does. "If something bad happened here," Goldberg told Hannity, "and thank god it didn't, but if something bad happened here, I'll guarantee you, I'll tell you who would be leading the crusade against [Obama]: You."

Yesterday's tea parties featured a lot of misdirected rage. Blame the socialists! Blame the fascists! (Interestingly, to many protesters, "socialist" and "fascist" were interchangeable epithets. Have words lost all meaning? Perhaps a round of Remedial Poli Sci would help.) And, of course, there was a surfeit of Blame Obama -- even though he has cut taxes for just about everyone at the tea parties, except the anchors covering them for Fox (and even some of them might be getting a tax cut, depending on how much Roger Ailes is paying these days).

The one unmanufactured emotion behind the outrage was fear. And then, much beyond the tea parties -- and across the political spectrum -- there is real anger at what is seen as the unfairness of the way the bailouts are being handled.

While it's easy -- and totally called for -- to shake our heads at all the craziness that has consumed the Republican Party as of late, I think Democrats need to be careful not to turn their backs on what could become a dangerous conflagration: a grassroots populist backlash fueled by the perception -- one based on a lot of reality -- that the Obama economic team is treating Wall Street with kid gloves, and acting as if the interests of the big banks are aligned with the public interest, even though again and again we are presented with evidence of how much they diverge.

In the middle of all the manure the GOP is slinging around, this perception is the only thing Republicans might be able to turn into political gold in 2010 -- the only thing that could rescue them from the Road to Irrelevance they are racing down.

P.S. I was on Countdown last night discussing these themes with Keith. The video is embedded below.

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Comments

[WillCJustice]

WHY REPUBLICAN LAWMAKERS HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME MAKING ANY MEANINGFUL CONTRIBUTION TO GETTING AMERICA BACK ON TRACK

The culprit is "The Pledge." For years, Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, has been able to enforce a demand that Republican lawmakers take a solemn pledge not to raise taxes.

What this means is that all these lawmakers can do is propose tax cuts--to solve any and every problem-- even when the past 8 years shows that trickle-down economics and tax cuts for the rich lead to economic disaster.

Pledge-takers cannot support, even if the want to--needed projects such as high-speed rails or rebuilding American's crumbling bridges and tunnels and highways or health care reform if it means raising taxes.

What is the nation's main barrier to bi-partisan legislation? It's not Obama. It's The Pledge.

Pledge-takers need to know the words of Abraham Lincoln, the greatest Republican ever, who said: "Bad promises are better broken than kept."
Will C. Justice

[Isaac Miller]

If you think that tax cuts for "the rich" and "trickle-down economics" caused this crisis, you've got your head in the sand. I'd like to hear an explanation of that. Even Obama didn't brave that, he just spoke in vague terms of "Greed."

Try this for an explanation of why the crash occurred, and its from no friend of King George: http://www.amazon.com/Meltdown-Free-Market-Collapsed-Government-Bailouts/dp/1596985879

Obama himself has said that the small businesses are the foundation of this country's economy, and I agree. Somehow he doesn't acknowledge that when you tax those above $250,000 annual income, you hit approximately 60% of small business owners.

Oh by the way, the tax that Obama approved on smoking is actually a gigantic increase in taxes on the working class, since they smoke at a much higher frequency rate than the upper classes. Remember the following:

"I can make a firm pledge," he said in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12. "Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

Mr. Biden:

"No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama's plan will see one single penny of their tax raised ... whether it's their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax."

Sorry...Promise broken.

[kurtlockwood]

What really scares me is if the far right wingnuts finally let down their guise and just admitted their racism, homophobia and, lack of morals (see: torture) and common sense (see: Texas seccession, more tax cuts for the rich). Because if they did let down their charade, there could be a good chance all the loonies could take their love of guns, dress in their version of jack boots and brown shirts and matastasize under the conferderate battle flag of the Northern Virginia Army all in the name of Gawd.

[Patriot til Death]

Paranoia will destroy ya.....

[kurtlockwood]

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." -Kevin Spacey, THE USUAL SUSPECTS.

[kurtlockwood]

"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." -Kevin Space as Kaiser Soze, THE USUAL SUSPECTS.

[JimReed]

All these things are not the real Republican party. The real party is the party of the rich. These things are just the leftovers of the tools that have been recently used to reach the goal of rich people setting the stage to become more rich. If it falls apart, then these things are no longer of use to the rich because this voting base is becoming too small to win. It is already over. The rich are already working on how they can inspire a new set of voters. They know Palin and Joe the plumber and Hagee and Dobson won't do it. Probably even talk radio has lost a lot of its clout. What will they do next? I don't know, but if you focus on the current GOP clusterf you are looking in the wrong place. This is just distraction.

[Chubbster]

yawn. "party of the rich" does everyone think in boxes and cliche's? Today's doormat always becomes tomorrows leading light.

[justthefacts17]

You were not fooled.

[justthefacts17]

I see all the "rich" on the demo side. Wall St.. Buffet,Gates, Madoff etc.
Tell me where I'm wrong or is just recylced political stuff.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

There are rich people who support both political parties. Historically the difference has been between Republican old money and Democratic new money. Each party must pay attention to its base, but I think the Democrats do a better job of listening to their base, which is more sympathetic to the middle and workking classes. It is a cliche because it is true. " Men by their constitutions are naturally divided into two parties: 1. Those who fear and distrust the people and wish to draw all powers from them into the hands of the higher classes. 2. Those who identify themselves with the people, have confidence in them, cherish and consider them as the most honest and safe, although not the most wise depository of the public interests. In every country these two parties exist, and in every one where they are free to think, speak, and write, they will declare themselves. Call them, therefore, liberals and serviles, Jacobians and Ultras, whigs and tories, republicans and federalists, aristocrats and democrats, or by whatever name you please, they are the same parties still, and pursue the same object. The last appellation of aristocrats and democrats is the true one expressing the essence of it all."
Thomas Jefferson to Henry Lee, 1824.

[JimReed]

Some rich peole want to help others rather than just organize the world along lines where rich become richer. The Republicans are not their party. The Republican party always does everything to tilt the playing field their direction. They are against government programs because they have the wealth and they don't want it spread, so they mutually support each other's schemes. Energy companies get rich from us not solving the energy crisis. Healthcare providers profit by how many expensive claims they can avoid paying. Corporate executives receive millions as workers lose pensions. Banks always profit from economic chaos even if we don't know exactly how. And the military industrial complex profits as others make sacrifices. This is NOT Buffet, Gates, and Turner. It IS Madoff, Bush, Cheney, and Murdoch.

[beckpod1]

Being a Republican is a business...being a politician is a business. That's why you'll never see term limits.
You can't expect Pepsi to say you should drink Coke. Politicians sell us ideas...then do what they want behind closed doors while they publicly debate the opposing side on these ideas they sold us....and both sides work together to make sure nothing gets done.
Of course the Repubs have no ideas....because the problem isn't real for them...what is real is the next election....and the economy for them is just fine!
I'm sure the economy is just fine for boths sides right now....
This is what our tax dollars are paying for.....and they have excellent healthcare plans...

[seawolf77]

Let them go gently or kicking and screaming into that good night and good riddance. They are a party of sore losers, saboteurs, and scoundrels. Cock blocking a sitting president, can the nazis really get any lower. I think not. How they have managed to hood wink so many is amazing to me. The only thing I can think of is they have sold others on how good it feels to make some one fail.

[Chubbster]

While I am a Democrat I find it pathetic that people can be so unimaginative as to repeat the same slogans over and over.

[justthefacts17]

Boy! I wish I could a diatribe like seawolf's posted. I envy you.

[mjc]

Treating Wall St with kid gloves has become the mantra of Geithner and Summers. Summers on Meet the Press this am was in full rant on how important the banks, how we can't "recover" without them, how it is quite likely that they will need more money from us...taxpayers..., and implied in every sentence was how patriotic and truly American the bankers are. When David Gregory mentioned that Obama had made a statement warning the bankers that he was the only one standing between them and pitchforks Summers seemed to agree! That is why even though someone like Summers acknowledges that Paul Krugman does have good credentials, there is no question that there is some "glimmers" of hope for the credit markets. Geithner, Summers, Emanuel and others are firmly dug in to their point of view, no matter what comes from their mouths. As far as I am concerned, these are the policies of the GOP and of the people who Bush listened to: we must support the banks at all costs! When I hear a Republican saying regulate, close banks if necessary, support the unions, and do something for the foreclosed mortgage holders, that will be the Republican that can save the Party.

[Chubbster]

mjc wants a real depression, not an almost depression.

[dynwitch]

Stop helping them, Arianne. They don't want your sensible hints.

[surfcitysteven]

Don't worry about it, they were given 12 "clues" from God himself, and they don't know how to deal with any of them truthfully.

[MajorKong]

"they find themselves grasping at the vaguest hint of a talking point or, failing that, making stuff up out of thin air"

I thought that was just business as usual for them.

[lastams]

THE central tenant of the Republican Party has been limited government and the belief that the best regulation is NO regulation.
Now, post-rape of the World Economy, it becomes virtually impossible for the Republican Party to distance themselves from a result that should have been seen as inevitable.
What the Conservative philosophy always fails to take into account is the unlimited capacity for greed in the human animal.
Until and unless the Republican Party acknowledges some role for government
in protecting the public good from the excesses of greed, they will always
be promoting an unrealistic ideal.
Instead of some basic reflection, they continue to promote simple answers and a faux homespun philosophy that falls apart in the real world.
They keep their followers ignorant and riled up on external issues, pack them with lies and carefully coordinated toy phrases, least they wake up
and see that they've been had.
To do otherwise is to lose the support of their two empowering segments;
The very rich who benefit from their programs, and the easily manipulated
who can be convinced to vote against their own best interests.

[koppenberg]

> it becomes virtually impossible for the Republican Party to distance themselves from a result that should have been seen as inevitable.

Their answer is that the problems were caused by the federal government forcing banks (i.e. too much regulation) to give mortgages to the poor who couldn't afford them and to minorities. Pat Buchanan tried to make the point again this week on The McLaughlin Group. Fortunately, he didn't get that talking point in unchallenged.

[tracer289]

I disagree.
Private interests have lobbied for government protection for many years now. The economy is incredibly skewed because of price controls, wage controls, product controls etc. Did you choose to pay for a seatbelt in your car? Whens the last time you drank natural milk? Why can't Americans get real sugar in their colas instead of the deadly high fructose corn syrup?
Any talk of free markets of late have been mere lip service to lead the gullible into voting for one party or another. We have not had a free market in over one hundred years. Just expanding government.

Second government can not legislate values. Values come from individuals. There is nothing government can successfully do to eliminate greed (greeds been around longer than our government).

We must stop looking to government to give us handouts. Nothing is free in life and resources are finite. There is nothing essential about government. Our founding fathers understood this and we have forgotten it. Do not be mislead by politicians or their puppets.

A true free market is a beautiful thing. Go to mises.org to read about it and see that we haven't had a free market in over a hundred years. Only misleading lip service. All politicians do this, not just republicans.

I agree the republican party is a sham. In my opinion so are the democrats. Only libertarians have a solid foundation, Austrian economics, upon which to logically, morally, and sustainably, base policy decision.

[sheilaofmiami]

G O who?

I am sad to see this mess. We need more than one side to all issues. Republicans provide no useful input at all at this point. They are irrelevant now.

But they still make great sound bites, for the country to chew and spit out.

Yet, the far right of the GOP has itself up in arms over gun control. Idiots.

We need a new "conservative" party. It can use the same name, but we need a fresh start. I continue to support Obama, he is just plain right for the most part. I am not pleased with the way he is allowing the economy to go, it is not getting "fixed".

But still, G O who?

[Bloggerrogr]

For What It's Worth; Arianna, we do not NEED to 'save' the Republican party. Let it DIE. There is enough diversity within the Democratic party to satisfy the political leanings of all Americans. That diversity is seen in Will Rogers' observation that, "I don't belong to any organized political party...I'm a Democrat". That's why Democrats have such a hard time coming up with a unified *line*; we're so busy fighting amongst ourselves to get any so-called *message* out.
Yes, let the Rethugs die. They won't be missed.

[qdog112]

"There is enough diversity within the Democratic party to satisfy the political leanings of all Americans"

I agree and predict that with the current GOP upheaval, the Blue dogs and other Dem factions will peal off to form the new political competition.

The win by Barack Obama has transformed political discourse and reshuffled the sides. How it shakes out remains to be seen, but it will surely be unrecognizable when things settle.

[TheBaloneyGrinder]

I'm not sure the GOP can come back. While the only historical precedent (the whigs) is outside of living memory, the GOP has gone so wacky, racist and fractionalized as to merit being placed on the "endangered species" list.

[white mende man]

After all our 41st president, George H.W. Bush ran his presidential campaign on the slogan, "a kinder, gentler, nation."
I for one am loving the new Kinder, Gentler America President Obama is protraying.

[kong99]

OK, I read part of the article and it is a leftist lunacy piece.
There's a lot to comment on, but I'm going to only do it on one subject. You claim that the libs want to help the returning vets. After all, you spent a lot of time bashing Bush and his lack of medical care for them, and it became one of your favorite weapons to use against him in the primaries.
Then explain to me why the libs tried to cut the medical aide for veterans all together. After Obama took oath, all of a sudden the libs wanted the veterans to find and finance their own health care insurance.
You liberals are so blinded by your stupidity and by the media's "messiah" image it has given to the new leader that's going to bring our economy to it's knees...in­tentionall­y. I thought I could handle coming here and seeing what you have to say, but you're intelligence is too low to tolerate.

[Waltfl]

Don't let reality get in your way. There was a lack of medical care under Bush, I have two veterans in my family, so nobody can tell me different. In order to prevent medical double dipping Obama initially wanted to have veterans with private health insurances pay for injuries through their primary insurance, an idea he has dropped. Obama backed the idea of setting aside appropriations to veterans' healthcare one year in advance, which veterans organizations want as a way to keep congressional delays in passing the budget from affecting veterans. Money for this was in last months budget.
Shinseki and Gates are also working on streamlining VA in order to do away with an 800.000 case backlog in VA, where veterans have to wait for years for a decision. Obama has already done more to improve veterans benefits than the previous administration had done in 8 years.

Fact is, John McCain voted against veterans in 2004, '05, '06 and '07, and Bush has an 8 years long history of dismembering veterans benefits. The only problem is that some people in the right spectrum are obviously too dumb to to read the paper, or pull up legislative bills on the Internet, and take everything that Rush blabs out for real.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/05/MNQLUQ4IS.DTL&hw=veterans+bush&sn=001&sc=1000

[dynwitch]

Fact check: Obama wasn't cutting benefits for veterans; he was simply hoping to get their primary insurance to cover them, if they had primary insurance. Everyone else would have still been covered by the government. Try to keep up with the REAL news.

[tache1]

The first thing, and typically only thing conservatives can do is saw we liberals are "stupid". well, I am a veteran, and I am writing this message from Afghanistan. I have complete faith and trust in the things Obama has already done and will do for the military. By the way, he was not going cut verterans benefits, he was going to help those who don't have it get primary care insurers.

[Jeffreygeez]

;Kong says:"Then explain to me why the libs tried to cut the medical aide for veterans all together"

Have they explained it to you yet in a way you can understand? Truth is King, Kong! Do not try to massage it your way.

[qdog112]

"but you're intelligence is too low to tolerate."

That attitude, my friend is precisely why you are "on the outside looking in."

Anthony and the Imperials

[lcdbsez]

Arianna --

Why "rescue" the weepublican Party?? Why not just let it die on the vine -- or the gutter/ditch -- where it really deserves to lie?

Is it a secret, or something -- that the weepublican Party is nothing more than a political tool of Big Biz interests??? And Foxsnooze is its media mouthpiece -- ??????

The weepublican Party is like a street hooker -- pay it enuf money, and it'll be anything you want it to be: rock-solid evangelical fundamentalist, rabid anti-communist avenger!, staunch advocate of all things Americana (except the Constitution -- that's sooooo yesterday!!), macho-man GI-Joe worshipper (except when it comes to medical care, apparently) . . . you name it, they're it!!!!

The weepublicans think they can keep going to the Joseph Goebbels Memorial Propaganda Well indefinitely -- and it will work, every time . . . at least that's what Karl Rove is telling them -- the American people are stupid, and will believe whatever they're told . . . as long as you tell them over and over, what you want them to hear.

Right??