Tuesday
Oct282008
The Long Knives Are Drawn: Extremists Seek Party Take-Over
WinstonDon’t tell a soul, but in a season of good news, this is about the best news Democrats could hope for yet.
In the aftermath of next Tuesday’s humiliating defeat the GOP’s far-right base plans a coup on the party machinery, arguing—get this—that their party's imminent electoral crushing is attributable to it being not nearly partisan enough, extreme enough, and conservative enough.
Hard to know what to say here. Except, maybe, “Wa-hoo!!”
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Reader Comments (22)
"But I do tell you that if the Democrats win and have substantial majorities, Congress of the United States will be more bipartisan"
LMAO!
I certainly hope not. And while I’ve been fairly happy with her conduct thus far, I’d personally work to defeat or de-throne Nancy Pelosi if she does any such thing.
Frankly I feared that after taking their 2006 spanking, the party’s wiser heads might prevail and the GOP would re-discover the need for moderation and sanity.
I needn’t have worried.
Fortunately the strident social conservative hotheads won that argument, insisting they’d crafted a GOP message guaranteed to be a total lock to win over America: just keep reiterating: Democrat babykillers hate America; they’ll take your guns, tax your ass, turn Homeland Security over to Muslim traitors and make you gay marry. They were unhappy to begin with nominating a relative moderate who was wobbly on criminaliens and tepid on tax cuts slanted to gajillionaires and now they’ll just insist “you can’t win with RINOs.”
If they don’t just turn to political violence (a possibility I don’t discount) they’re going to spend years in the political wilderness.
"I certainly hope not."
I don't think you have anything to worry about. Pelosi is quite possibly a worse partisan hack than yourself.
I'd hope so. She's dealing with the John Boehners and Mitch McConnells of the world.
The Republican party will find its bearing and right themselves once they figure out that 'fiscal conservatism' and 'abject hatred of everything government' are two different things.
Or they won't and will go the way of the whig party they replaced.
I do link the part about making Michael Steele the head of the RNC. It shows that they really aren't capable of learning very quickly, and it shows how Obama has flummoxed them. When Obama ran for Senate all they could think of was to drudge up Alan Keyes as their token white guy to run against him as their token black. When Obama runs for President they dredged up Sarah Palin as their token minority running mate to appeal to women. Now when they assume Obama will be President they feel the need to dredge up Michael Steele as another token minority to try to offset the notion of a first black President.
Alan Keyes is a "token white guy"? *snicker*
"She's dealing with the John Boehners and Mitch McConnells of the world."
No doubt. She might soil herself if she had to deal with the Joe the Plumbers of the world.
Yeah, sorry that should have been token black guy... lol
The point being is that Republicans haven't put much thought into how to put together policy proposals or an philosophy that appeals to voters other than white voters. They are more interested in window dressing that says, Look We Have a Black Guy Too!
No need to appologize, Kwawk. The point you were making was racist/sexist to begin with.
Is it racist to point to a black person and say they're black? Probably but that doesn't mean it isn't true.
Now the problem that you have with Sarah Palin and Alan Keyes is that they are two people who have not other real qualifications for being nominated for where they were. Alan Keyes didn't even live in Illinois. Sarah Palin was specifically nominated to appeal to disaffected Hillary voters. There is nothing secret about any of this.
You want a hint to help your party Mach? If you want to start to convert more blacks and hispanics to be Republcans, divert a lot of money that goes towards these sleazy 527s and put it and some personal time into the communities.
There is much value in the general work ethic theories of conservatives. It is a messege that many poor kids could stand to hear more of. But when all they hear from conservatives is nothing but sleaze and the Southern Strategy, and how they all are getting rich off of welfare and getting special treatement by getting to go to college, then you're not going to get much of anywhere with your messege with this generation or the next.
"You want a hint to help your party Mach?"
I'm not a registered Republican, but if I was perhaps I'd start with hiring armed guards at GOP campaign offices.
"Is it racist to point to a black person and say they're black?" Obviously not if there a democrat. When there a republican you call them a token. kwAwk, gone far enough? Why don't you just call them house n*ggers?
The modern Republican party has a demographics problem. Its base is narrow and it’s getting narrower and narrower every year.
They regard the aspirations of women, blacks, and Hispanics as nothing but a racket, so when they play identity politics at all, they do so in ways that are transparently and contemptuously cynical. There’s no intrinsic reason the principles the party says it subscribes to shouldn’t have some appeal to nonwhites and non-men and the non-native-born, but the fact is, the party regulars see no reason in the world they should have to make these people feel comfortable or respected, and let's face it, a significant slice of the party’s base takes pride in being actively hateful toward them, a slice the non-haters apparently don’t want to (or can't be bothered to) repudiate. (And I specifically exempt Bush / Rove / the Old McCain from this because in contrast with the rest of the GOP, they did seem to know what was up.)
Look, if you want to be the Well-Off Straight White Man’s Party, swell. Fine. Just be aware of (and for Godssake stop whining about) the extremely, self-evidently obvious consequences. You’re in charge of your own market positioning, try accepting some responsibility for that.
Machiavelli: You must mean not-Joe the not-Plumber.
October 28, 2008 at 15:57 | Winston
BL Rag site crashes due to weight of pompous, self-sanctimonious smugness.
Tom Miller: reliably meta-.
Sorry, Tom, did I hit a nerve?
And what is "self-sanctimonious"? is that worse than REGULAR sanctimony?
C'mon, Tom, try a little substance, just for a change o' pace. Why can't / won't the GOP attract outside their shrinking base? Do you think it's got ANYTHING AT ALL to do with stunts like tasking George Allen with your state's minority outreach? Do you think the party could MAKE an EFFORT?
lmao with George Allen with the head of the minority outreach. No wonder Obama is going to win Virginia this year.
'Hey Macaca come here and let me tell you about the Republican Party"
And TM if you don't want people referring to those minorities in your party as tokens, then quit treating them like tokens......
Seems simple enough doesn't it?
kwAwk;
Colin Powell-Sec of State-TOKEN?
Condoleezza Rice- Sec of State, National Security Advisor-TOKEN?
There are others but the point has been made. Republicans promote minorities in there party based on achievement. Democrats slap them on the back, say "good job boy", enjoy your committee sub-chairmanship and don't forget about us at election time. "Wise, yes sir Mr. Democrat sir."
Hey, Kwawk! Is Biden the token white person on the Dem ticket?
TM - As Winston said as far as reaching out to minorities George W Bush has broken with his party on a lot of these things. Making Powell Secretary of State wasn't a token gesture, it was giving a job to a man who had well deserved it. Think about what happened with Powell though, he spent 4 years in the Bush administration being demonized by the right as being a 4 star general who was too Dovish, and he has now endosed the Democratic candidate because the Repub party hasn't been inclusive enough.