Steele’s 12-Step Plan for Self-Destruction. Includes parroting Sarah Palin on bureaucrats and your health, and cheering the Survivor approach to moderates in the party (get rid of them).
The far right wing is still driving this party. Part of me cheers that because I think that will help the Democrats win. But most of me laments the continued insanity of a major party in a two-party system. Our Republic works better with engaged, and intelligent disagreement. The Dems let us down on that all the time, but the Republicans now give us Tea Parties and Sarah Palin. And now John McCain accusing the President of purposefully bankrupting America. Or Liz Cheney cheering on torture.
Surely the GOP can do better than this?
9 comments:
Maybe that's just the best that they can do?
That is a pessimistic thought, Ken. :)
Pessimism, realism. Sometimes I get them confused.
Actually, I'm with you on this. I think the GOP can do better than simply being the party of "NO".
I think the Democrats tend to have better policy when they actually have to compete. These days, it's more like "Well, you get to choose between what a couple of our interns threw together in ten minutes, or the ravings of a crazy people." Good for D's electoral chances but very bad for the Republic.
I think that we benefit from competition between the parties, but face it, many voters are superficial. While Obama had a decent platform, I am sure that many people were voting for 'not Bush.' The midterm election, like many other elections in poor economic times, will probably see a lot of incumbents losing.
I think there are a fair number of good Republican ideas, but they aren't doing a good job of getting them out there. To be fair, the Dems aren't doing all that great of a job with this either, which would explain why both Congress and the President have low approval ratings.
Steve, I am not sure that the superficiality is equal on both sides. Further, I would argue that there are Republicans with good ideas, but the issue is not them failing to get them out there, but that the leadership of the GOP will not allow such ideas. The GOP Started 2009 with one idea--defeat any Obama policy, and that has been the sum total. And before anyone says that Democrats did the same with Bush, I will remind them that Kennedy worked with Bush on education policy, and that several Democrats worked with Republicans on the Department of Homeland Security and even the Patriot Acts. Republicans, on the other hand, have decided to sit out the biggest reform in recent history because they will not be a party to any Obama success.
Yeah, Obama and the Democrats have fallen in the polls. But they still lead the Republican leadership.
Leighton, I think you are exactly right. Democrats need an honest and legitimate opposition party. Not the caricature they have now.
Some Republicans have been making asinine comments in regards to health care and TARP. OTOH, there have been some that have consistently opposed the bailouts and have given substantive reasons. They may be wrong, but they were making these statements back when Bush was president. I will agree that leadership is doing a poor job. I am interested in seeing what happens once the elections kick into gear. Michigan will be interesting, in that the Governor is term limited and her Lt. Governor has dropped out of the race. It is wide open here, with some good people from both sides annoucing that they are running.
As for superficiality, I think it is a matter of perspective and isn't provable by any means, so I'll just leave it at that.
Good people? I hope you are not including Hoekstra in that list.
BTW, I don't deny that there were some consistent ideological opponents to Obama's bailout. But the rest were ridiculous--often negotiating concessions, refusing to vote for it anyway, and then bragging about bringing home the money in their district.
You will have to do more to convince me that the Republican party is not dominated by fundamentalist thugs right now. Certainly doesn't mean all Republicans are like that--absolutely not. But the party is controlled by that mentality from Steele to the leadership in Congress, to the Palin/Beck base.
I am not going to try and convince you because I am not convinced myself, though I tend to lean more towards the idea that they are in some kind of limbo, with the media focusing more on the negative, loudmouth assholes.
Hoekstra is not on the list, as I have never liked him. Debbie Stabenow is not on the good list, either. I can't fathom how this state keeps electing her to anything. I was talking about David Bonior, Mike Cox, Virg Bernero, Andy Dillon, and Mike Bouchard.
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