I remember when Christie Todd Whitman was elected governor of New Jersey and I correctly predicted that it was the end of the world as we then knew it. But it got worse.
I’m not talking about a battle between moderates and conservatives. The conservatives won that fight a long time ago. Our children may never believe that moderate Republicans once roamed the Earth, advocating policies that would limit carbon pollution and invest in scientific research, reform our schools and build new roads, promote national service, reduce the influence of money in politics, and require individuals who can afford health insurance to take responsibility for buying it. Soon enough, these politicians will exist only in the minds of ’90s-era pundits and Aaron Sorkin’s writing staff.
For the foreseeable future, I cannot imagine a Republican who could both win the party’s nomination and 270 Electoral Votes. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they will have enough power to make everything an insufferable grind.
Did anyone read the rest of that? Jon Favreau has drank the Kool-aid. He thinks Christie and The Jebster are moderates. He mentions about reforming public schools. Jebster was only interested in getting his pals in on the grift.
My take is that everything’s relative and, at this point, any Republican who isn’t stark raving mad can be seen as moderate (at least in the sense of not foaming at the mouth).
The other day “The Fix” had a write up on how Christie is a top tier Presidential candidate. Largely because he talks like a “regular guy”. There may be some truth to that because many folks don’t really pay much attention to policy. Chrisie is pretty damn conservative and checks most of the required boxes to get the R nomination. He would be a scary President.
This is such a fascinating time to be a political observer. We’re witnessing a realignment that will be studied in polysci classes for 100 years. At the 1964 Republican convention, the radicals took down the scion of the establishment. He stood on stage for 15 minutes as they jeered but he, grandson of the great robber baron, son of the benefactor who gave away half the family fortune, confident of his rightful place in the power hierarchy, told them they were crazy. Ten years later, he was vice president. Then they reasserted themselves and ran him off the ticket. The two factions have been at war ever since except for brief moments when a party leader has managed to convince them he was on their side.
Now the loons are asserting their right to take over and refusing to accept table scraps. They demand that everyone get on the loony train. Yet this is happening at the very same time that they are being swept under the tide of history.
It’s like watching a Eugene O’Neil play or a very slow train wreck. It’s horrible and terrible and yet there’s no way to avert one’s eyes.
Swept under? It looks to me more that they are the tsunami sweeping away all that was good in America.
If there are polysci classes in 100 years.
I believe the term was Rockefeller Republicans.
No, that’s bad news. That means the Democratic Party owns the White House and can totally ignore the will of the voters. Good news would be a political system that presents the voters a reasonable choice of alternatives, not just bad and worse.
I enjoyed this comment, and would like to
subscribe to your newsletterjoin your third party.Enjoy the insufferable grind. Gridlock is our friend. Obama is determined to cut social security and medicare and to install Larry Summers as Fed Chief. If the Republicans give him a chance he’ll be the most anti-middle class president since Reagan.
I just want him to sit down and shut up. People with no spines really should not try to stand up. And they should DEFINITELY not try to make deals with Republicans.
I just want his term to be over before he can do more harm. There is no way on earth for the Republicans to win the WH in 2016. If we had a strong, progressive Congress, they could control a democratic president. In lieu of that, we’re better off with the utter recalcitrance of the current crew. PLUS – the more outrageous they are, the larger the infinitesimally small chance of a progressive wave election in 2014.
Obama protects us from them with his veto pen. They protect us from Obama. That’s the best case scenario. Let’s just run out the damned clock.
I started a reply, and it grew. Now a stand-alone post:
The Good News IS The Bad News, Booman.
AG
This is a dangerous blind spot among Democrats. Republicans are perfectly capable of winning the White House, despite holding views as a party that are anathema to most liberals. Remember that Romney didn’t lose by much more than economically-based political science models were predicting at the time.
Republicans have also done quite well in recent elections, despite running hard to the right. They control 27 state legislatures, and 30 Governor’s offices. They have a solid lock on the House due in part to redistricting, but also because, even in a Democratic year, they still won 48% of the popular vote, against 49% for Democrats. It’s simply wrong to believe that a party with that much support at the ballot box is incapable of winning back the White House.
Their biggest failing has been in the Senate, although they have a very real chance of winning that back in 2013.
Republican losses in recent years are mostly due to the disaster of the Bush presidency, but the memory of that is fading.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjYj9mXElO_QdHZCbzJocGtxYkR6OTdZbzZwRUFvS3c#gid=0
Someone may have already posted this here. It looks familiar. Its spot on. In today’s GOP you have to be unhinged to get in the door.
The most prominent and beloved republican governor of Minnesota, Arnie Carlson, now endorses democrats and is hated by his own party.
That’s as good an illustration of how all this has gone down as I can imagine.
There is more bad news than good ones 🙁 http://linkapp.me/adFnE
I declare this a failure of imagination! But only because it’s expected of me. Then again, I read Ruy Teixeira’s recent analysis of the White Working Class problem and got all deflated over operation Fuck the South, so maybe that’s it.