The experts think the Republican Party can get up off the canvas and stage a comeback, but don’t bet on it. The poor GOP isn’t really even a party anymore; it’s more like a vaudeville troupe scuttling from one backwater to the next performing the same worn slapstick. No wonder party membership is in the tank. Who wants to stick with a loser. George Bush drove a stake through the heart of the Party with his gratuitous wars and his reckless spending. He left behind a bloated, intrusive, out-of-control Federal government and an economy in tatters. Things have gotten so bad, the Party has a hard time fielding a second place candidate in a two-person race.
But the GOP’s problems run deeper than just Bush. The party has become an anachronism: a plodding, dogmatic, self righteous amalgam of disgruntled white zealots who are wildly out-of-step with the times. It’s become irrelevant, and that’s its biggest drawback. The party has lost its Reaganesque glitter and become a rigid, monochromatic “non-party” that no one pays much attention to apart from the occasional zinger on the Daily Show or Letterman. The truth is, the party is just plain dull.
That doesn’t mean the Democrats are any great shakes either. Far from it. In fact, the feckless Dems became Bush’s biggest enablers. In two terms they never stopped Bush once from doing exactly what he wanted, however heinous it might have been.
Wiretapping. Iraq. Torture. Never. The Dems never seemed to grasp that politics is more than just trolling for campaign contributions and preening for the camera. Every once in a while representatives are expected to earn their pay and show some guts. That message is lost on the Democrats.
The Democratic Party is loaded with pompous windbags like Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi who “talk the talk” but never deliver the goods. Frank has proved over and over again that he’s just lobby fodder for the banking fraternity, faithfully doing their bidding and dressing it up in altruistic mumbo-jumbo. Pelosi’s just as bad. When she’s not applying tooth whitener or getting her hairpiece re-lacquered, she’s busy making sure that anything remotely resembling progressive legislation never reaches the floor of the House.
Yer doin’ a heckuva job, Nancy.
The only thing the Dems have going for them is that they’re not Republicans. They’re not the party that took over all three branches of government and then drove the country off a cliff. That’s how the Republican’s celebrate their victories — mass hara-kiri. In America’s 230-year history, no party has ever crashed and burned so fast or with such fanatical zeal. Republican leaders have been given a permanent roost at FOX News so they can appear from time to time and hurl stones at Obama or hold forth on the evils of illegal immigration. It’s just more of the same polarizing claptrap that keeps them from becoming a serious contender. They’re determined to dig an even bigger hole for themselves by opposing Obama at every turn. What are they thinking? Their ranks are already thinning faster than anyone expected, and now want to duke it out with the most popular president in modern times? No wonder they’re the brunt of every joke on late-night TV. The Republican strategy is tantamount to suicide.
Who Deep-sixed the G.O.P.?
Now that the election is over, the finger pointing has begun and everyone wants to know who’s responsible for destroying the Party. Naturally, the first name that comes to mind is George Bush. But Bush wasn’t as important as people think. He was chosen for the job because his supporters thought they could stitch together another Reagan and because he could be counted on to follow orders without question. But Bush wasn’t steering the ship o state. Not really. The administration was essentially a franchise split up between the three main actors: Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove. Of those three, it was probably Rove who did the most damage through his backroom maneuvering, his ham-fisted public relations operations and his political arm-twisting. Rove’s bullyboy antics produced a number of short-term triumphs, but they cost the Party dearly in terms of credibility. Just look at the Terry Schiavo fiasco: an emotionally charged issue of personal morality that the administration turned into a circus sideshow. The poor husband was blasted as the devil incarnate for simply carrying out the explicit wishes of his stricken wife.
Michael Schiavo was ripped to shreds by a feral media that had become the propaganda arm of the White House. The incident had “Karl Rove” written all over it.
Eventually Rove’s wheeling and dealing caught up to him and he was forced to step down amidst a barrage of allegations. His scorched earth, “take no prisoners” approach galvanized the base, but alienated decent conservatives who were not comfortable with his win-at-all-cost shenanigans. Ultimately, the party of Lincoln became the party of Rove slipping its ideological moorings and abandoning all claims to moderation. By the time Rove left, the Party was in ruins.
Obama didn’t beat the Republicans. The Republicans beat themselves. It was a self-inflicted wound. The Party had become too ideologically rigid and self destructive. Besides, how much mileage can party get on a platform which only contains two planks: War and tax cuts? That’s not a vision of the future; it’s the fast-track to disaster.
The Republican Party has never been “the party of ideas”; that’s a complete myth. The Republican leadership hates ideas, because ideas mean social programs that divert money from the coffers business tycoons and crooked banksters. Republican ideas are different; they usually involve poking around people’s bedrooms telling them what they can and can’t do or railing against science like evolution or stem cells. The party should lay off ideas altogether and do what they do best; traditional values. Republicans have always been able to sell the notion that America needs to return to some mythic “Golden Age” where Pops ran the corner store and Mom baked cherry pies. That idealized vision resonates with a broad cross-section of the voting public. The Republicans should go back to the things that won them elections and forget the war on immigrants.
The United States has always veered to the right politically, so winning elections shouldn’t be hard for a party that truly represents conservative values. But the Republican Party doesn’t represent conservative values, that’s another myth. In fact, the party isn’t really even pro life. If they were, then Bush would have pushed for anti-abortion legislation when he controlled both houses of congress. But he didn’t, because he knew that if the Republicans put an end to the abortion flap for good, half of their base would have no reason to drag themselves to the polls every two years. Preserving abortion as a permanent issue is all part of a cynical calculation to keep the single-issue fanatics engaged. The Republicans will never end abortion. It’s their meal ticket.
Republicans seem to like their role as minority party; they were never comfortable governing anyway. Besides, wandering aimlessly through the political wilderness has its upside, too. There’s more time for drumming up campaign contributions and appearances on Hannity with the other far-right screwballs. There’s even time to work on that slice and (hopefully) shave a few points off the old golf game. Political parties are like people. They should do what suits their temperament. The Republicans aren’t suited for governing; they had their chance and they made a mess of it. And that’s a good thing, because no one wants another eight years like the last.