Now, to show you why I still think he's one of the best writers on the internet - even though I occasionally disagree with him - take a look at this gem.
The wheels of demolition often grind slowly in American politics. But the countdown to detonation has begun. The GOP has finally maxed out its ideological madness. It can, simply put, morph no crazier than it already is. Which is to say, it can no longer march forward. It can only retreat. And it must do so with a demographically dying base.Nailed it!
Following Romney's crushing defeat, the firebreathers will of course blame Mitt Romney: he was never conservative enough, he wasn't vicious enough, he wasn't inspiring enough, he wasn't, let's say, Santorum enough, and so on. But every sober strategic breath will be whispering: We need to make another plan--now.
Then the fireworks will really begin. Or so I suspect.
To loop back to my original disagreement with carpenter, this is not happening because Barack Hussein Obama is "lucky." Certainly its true that demographics have and will play a role. But a big contributor to why "the GOP has finally maxed out its ideological madness" is that President Obama gave them the choice long ago to either work with him or dive into that madness. In other words, he employed conciliatory rhetoric as ruthless strategy...perfectly.
They have a habit of doubling down every time they lose. I used to think a GOP civil war would break out as well but frankly I don't know if there are enough reasonable conservatives let alone moderates to wage a battle.
ReplyDeletePersonally I think is more likely to generate a new party, not to sure of what the shape and color of it are, NOT a Ron Paul thing, it will look like a home for the more moderate republicans that are now "independents" to move to. The Dem's are positioned so far to the right now that there is no space for the republicans to move to, they are in the crazy corner and that corner is going to get smaller. It is also possible that the new party could come in to the left of the dems and the dems become the new republicans.
ReplyDeleteThey have been hanging on a Tea Bag Thread for years. When this is over the Teabaggers will morph into the Confederate Party and the Moderates will become Democrats. We have a big tent but you have to be a little sane.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Chait, too.
ReplyDeleteThe Paul Ryan Honeymoon Is Over for Romney
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/08/paul-ryan-honeymoon-is-over-for-romney.html
"The initial euphoria phase of the Paul Ryan nomination has already faded, and now Republicans find themselves staring at a cold reality of a campaign that will largely revolve around a wildly unpopular program to reshape the face of government. Alexander Burns, Maggie Haberman, and Jonathan Martin have a staggering report in Politico today that, in more than three dozen interviews with Republican operatives, “ there is an unmistakable consensus among Republican operatives in Washington: Romney has taken a risk with Ryan that has only a modest chance of going right — and a huge chance of going horribly wrong.”....
It is true that Obama is a brilliant strategist. But he's also lucky. Remember just for one example, that killing Osama Bin Laden was maybe a 50/50 proposition.
ReplyDelete