Trying to make something--anything---out of their party's creeping irrelevance, the folks who still hold the reins over at Republican HQ have come up with a complex strategy to win back the hearts and minds they lost:
1. Deride Obama's use of teleprompters
2. Send tea bags through the mail (and make a classic gaffe in the same way a clueless New Zealander might happily hold a couple of small birds up to a visiting American and exclaim "Aren't these beautiful tits?")
3. Frantically attempt to brand the president and his policies as Socialist with a jagged capitol "s"
4. Foment crowd violence and call for states to secede from the union (hey, Gov. Perry: don't let Democracy hit you on the ass on your way out!)
5. Let porcine loudmouths and google-eyed, well-dressed lunatics articulate the party's basest fears to a decimated and fractious audience
Looking good so far, Republicans.
The brain behind this strategy must belong to that 13 year old wünderkind who wowed 'em at CPAC. One can only speculate about what brilliant maneuvers are waiting in the wings. A mass sticking-out-of-tongues and going "Nyah, nyah, nyah"?
It's all so high school.
Once denuded of the power usually begot by bullying, gerrymandering and intimidation, the Republicans have nothing but pimply, puerile gestures. After the decisive failure of neocon policies enacted by Bush under the aegis of Republican Conservatism, policies developed and executed with admirable discipline and focus by the way, it is clear that's all they ever had. Like waging a perpetual war, like running a perpetual campaign, the endgame for them was having no endgame.
And what a waste of good, Republican talent and energy, I say.
Why not turn their redoubtable organizational skills at rallying the rake wielding, torch bearing faithful to rebuilding our rotting infrastructure? Or constructing a transcontinental high speed rail system? Or keeping arts programs in schools? Hell, how about starting a campaign to finally build the World Trade Center memorial in downtown New York City. It's only been eight years! Now that you're out of power doesn't mean you can't be useful.
And maybe even a force for good.
Now, come inside and finish your homework.
Can we decide what we want?
I think I'd like decaf green (but the ORGANIC kind, because the other kind sucks).
During the glory days of the GOP, the jocks could cheat off the smart kids (ala Buckley). It was a symbiotic relationship where the entire school sang happy tunes and danced along merrily. But the jocks stopped copying off the smart kids and found out they could get away with being popular just for being popular. They even had the temerity to make fun of the smart kids for being smart.
So the smart kids being, well... smart, they exposed all of the jock's failings. The jocks are now finding out that it's rather difficult to dance with their shorts around their ankles while the rest of the school laughs. And since they can't copy off the smart kids, the jocks only recourse is to try and stamp their feet while the rest of the school launches into the next number without them.
(BTW, I just saw you in The Philanthropist. You were terrific and that first scene is a wowser.)
It really is so very juvenile.
This is the shocking aspect for me. That a party is willing to ignore its mainstream to cater to the minority within their ranks. I think they're scared to lose the religious and racist vote. As someone pointed out, in normal circumstances and if people really voted for their self interest the republican party would be a very small party. So they need the crazies who know nothing about economics or even the constitution. It is so sad that politicians encourage this kind of ignorance
A caller on Rush yesterday was saying there were people with tattoos and earrings at his protest, and they both concluded that they must have been 'lib infiltrators' because conservatives didn't have tattoos. They obviously have no idea about skinheads - there were lots of them at the protests. And they are NOT conservative-looking.
The Reagan and Kennedy argument make me want to pull out my hair. Reagan lowered the top tax rate from 70% to 40% but he also ramped up government spending ( or wait thats right millitary spending is not government spending) and left with a 3 trillion dollar deficit. Kennedy also increased Government spending, the space program is a huge government entity. Both Reagan and Kennedy had the room to make those cuts, they did not have massive deficits or as big a millitary plus rates where really high. The point is economists always argue.
Come on. Please. I'm begging. Can we try to be reasonable? Yes, our point is that they often aren't. I get it, but does screaming at a frightened animal calm it down?
We have to admit that poking them them from the sidelines (while giving them the coverage they crave) is not helping. It doesn't matter how right we are, it only makes it worse. If we sincerely want reasonable dialogue, we need to start acting like it.
I did attend a "tea party" as a liberal. I wore my Obama shirt, smiled and engaged about 10 people, only one of whom screamed and ran away. I started with questions, not accusations. I spoke respectfully and found common ground (which we too often don't want to admit we have). I got my point across but I did it by listening first, then talking. We had decent, if not perfect, arguments.
Why do we continue to deride their ignorance but make no effort to respectably invite them into the market place of ideas? We run to our camps and we scream at the other and snicker among each other. No matter your politics, you know that can't help - and if we're afraid that the right's angry behavior may lead to real violence, shouldn't we, in the interest of diffusion instead of incitement, take a cue from our own President and extend a hand instead of clenching our fist?
But the Republican leadership, and associated bodies like Fox News, owe their nation and their constituents much much more and better. It's astonishing, what they're doing, and what they're encouraging. And what they're NOT doing, as in, behaving like an actual political party, is even more astonishing.