Tuesday, October 15, 2013

FRANK RICH IS EVEN MORE PESSIMISTIC THAN I AM

Frank Rich thinks we're stuck with crazies, who, he believes, have been with us all along, and are not just a sliver of the GOP:
... we keep assuming the anti-­government right has been vanquished after its recurrent setbacks, whether after the Clinton-impeachment implosion or the Barry Goldwater debacle of 1964 or the surrender at Appomattox. A Democratic victory in the 1982 midterms was all it took for David Broder, then the "dean" of Beltway pundits, to write off Reaganism as "a one-year phenomenon." When polls showed a decline in support for the tea-party brand last year, it prompted another round of premature obituaries....

That last stand has been going on for almost 200 years.
There are more crazies than we think, Rich writes, and merely hoping that they'll go away -- a hope shared by Democrats and non-crazy Republicans alike -- is not a plan:
Some Democrats ... cling to the hope that electoral Armageddon will purge the GOP of its radicals, a wish that is far less likely to be fulfilled now than it was after Goldwater's landslide defeat, when liberalism was still enjoying the last sunny days of its postwar idyll. This was also the liberal hope after Gingrich's political demise of 1998. But his revolution, whatever its embarrassments, hypocrisies, and failures, did nudge the country toward the right....

Dwindling coastal Republicans of the nearly extinct George H.W. Bush persuasion like Peter King nonetheless keep hoping that the extremists will by some unspecified alchemy lose out to the adults in their party. Tune in to Morning Joe, that echo chamber of Northeast-corridor greenroom centrism hosted by Joe Scarborough, a chastened former firebrand of the Gingrich revolution, and you'll hear the ultimate version of this fantasy: Somehow Chris Christie will parlay his popularity in the blue state of New Jersey into leading the national party back to sanity and perhaps even into the White House.

To believe this you not only have to believe in miracles, but you also have to talk yourself into buying the prevailing bipartisan canard, endorsed by King and Obama alike, that the radicals are just a rump within the GOP ("one faction of one party in one house of Congress," in the president's reckoning). In reality, the one third of the Republican House caucus in rebel hands and the electorate it represents are no more likely to surrender at this point than the third of the states that seceded from the Union for much the same ideological reasons in 1860–61.
Rich is right: someone actually has to take the fight to the crazies.
Unless and until the other two thirds of the GOP summons the guts to actually fight and win the civil war that is raging in its own camp, the rest of us, and the health of our democracy, will continue to be held hostage.
It's not likely to happen. The people we now think of as non-crazy Republicans have been been filibustering, demonizing, nullifying SOBs for a long time; the new crazies just take it a little further. The so-called non-crazies won't fight the crazies because they like a certain amount of craziness, too; they get elected as culture warriors for the "real America." So I think we're stuck with the uber-crazies indefinitely.

12 comments:

Dennis said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Victor said...

And then, there's Dennis, Steve's "Stalker."

His insistence on stalking a site he has repeatedly been told he's NOT welcome at, and has repeatedly been blocked, is indicative of the Reich-Wing mindset - I WILL NOT BE SILENCED, GODFUCKINTDAMNIT!!! WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU, WHO THE FUCK IS ANYBODY, TO FUCKING SILENCE ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Conservatism is a mental disease.

Unchecked Id, is one of the roots of the problem.
Now, mix that with a massive Ego, and you're got a "stalker."
People like this are often sociopaths, who are led by psychopaths.
Here's a brief and simple analysis of the difference between the two mental disorders:
http://www.helpingpsychology.com/sociopath-vs-psychopath-whats-the-difference

And in internet parlance, these are the people we know, as trolls.

No matter how much a troll is told he/she isn't welcome, he/she tries to return.
Trolls gather IP Addresses, and horde them, to keep breaking through filters meant to block them.

It's like in politics - no matter how many times Conservatives lose elections, they will NOT be silenced!
They try to change the rules, so that they will win, even without broad popular support - aka: Voter Suppression Laws.

Conservatives have no interest in governing.
They want to rule.

And FSM forbid, people like Dennis ever come near to wielding power again.
And sadly, if they're successful at suppressing the votes of people who would never vote for them, there's a good chance of that happening.

Dennis,
You're not part of any solution that normal people might want - YOU, with your mental problems, are the problem!



Steve M. said...

Dennis, you're still banned. And you always will be.

Victor said...

Steve,
That guy's a major league whacko, the way he keeps stalking around here!

He's got some real serious issues.

I hope he gets some help.

Though, based on what we're talking about, I don't see much of anything that might help him.

Dark Avenger said...

Thanks for demonstrating why intelligent conservatism is an oxymoron.

Victor said...

Dennis,
Project much?

Too bad there's no such thing as "An Internet Restraining Order."

But, then, Dennis you wouldn't pay any attention to that, either, would you, STALKER?

Ten Bears said...

I think Vic hit it at the top: not crazy, mentally ill.

Less than sufficiently evolved.

No fear.

Victor said...

Dennis,
Thanks for proving my point about mental illness!

Dark Avenger said...

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."

He's been struggling for a month now with having his comments deleted at Sadly, No. None of them last more than 12 hours, sometimes, not even 10 minutes. He really needs to get some help before he goes postal at his work.

Never Ben Better said...

Well, guys, there's one consolation amid the pathetic detritus of his obsession: He's probably so furious at being denied his GOD-GIVEN RIGHT to spew whatever he wants, wherever he wants (FIRST AMENDMENT! FIRST AMENDMENT!) he's got ulcers. Maybe even hemorrhoids!

aimai said...

I wish people like Rich would stop assuming that Obama is as stupid and milquetoast as his public pronouncements are. The point of talking about the tea party as a fringe group is to isolate them and to create further dissension within GOP ranks between the moderates and the fringe. Its not that Obama and the rest of the top dems think for one minute that the tea party isn't totally crazy or quite identical to the mass of republican voters. ITs just that you catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar and if you want to strengthen the hand of the remaining moderates you can't go full metal jacket on everyone and proclaim the invincibility of the tea party. How you act long term is another matter.

BH said...

Amen, aimai. IMO, O & Co are finally doing some of that rhetorical 'framing' many of us have been yelling for.