It's now official. The GOP is no longer a party-where there is some kind of minimal unity. If you can't elect your own Speaker you are no longer a party.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-republican-party-is-no-longer-party.html
The enemy is government as such. When you look at the Presidential race the only candidates doing well are those who have never held any kind of elective office whatsoever.
By the way many Beltway pundits try to draw the usual symmetry with the Dems. They claim that both sides are totally against insiders in favor of outsiders. The proof for the Dems is Bernie.
Sorry, but this won't wash. You surely know if you've read me at all I am not a Bernie man. But at least the Bern has actual experience in government.
Indeed, his brand has always been about kind of having it both ways-he's sort of an outsider by refusing to call himself a Democrat. But he has caucused with the Dems in the Senate and done some good work for them as well.
I agree with Daily News Bin: he's a good foot solider but he's not the one to lead the train.
http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/why-the-media-suddenly-likes-hillary-clinton-again/22761/
Bernie has long and deep experience as an elected official of higher institutions.
Then of course there is Hillary who has tremendous experience and standing.
The Dems do not look to inexperienced outsiders for their President. The narrative fails. They realize that if you are taking a plane trip you don't want an outsider of the pilot industry to get you from point A to point B.
Then we have the Speaker race where a resume is a rap sheet. The GOP is simply anarchistic. Their economic and governmental theory is libertarian anarchic. And on process they are anarchistic.
The goal is not to ever lead but simply be part of the permanent opposition. Greg Sargent describes it well:
"For conservatives, fighting isn't a means to an end, it's an end in itself."
"The most important thing to understand about what’s happening now is that this is a permanent rebellion. It has its demands, both substantive and procedural, but those demands aren’t the point, and if they were met, new ones would be forthcoming. For the people behind the chaos, rebellion itself is the point. It’s about the fight, not about the outcome of that fight. They will never stop rebelling."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/10/09/it-doesnt-matter-who-the-next-speaker-is-because-this-is-a-permanent-conservative-rebellion/
Sargent is dead right that it doesn't matter who the next Speaker is-he will be toast. Paul Ryan is not so stupid as to let it be him apparently.
This is the characteristic of all radical and revolutionary groups and movements. They are not interested in govenring and policymaking, indeed, as their goal is just to tear apart and rip asunder.
The true Spirit of today's GOP is ironically enough, the radical leftist anarchist. Bakunin.
http://www.amazon.com/God-State-Michael-Bakunin/dp/048622483X
For such activism the point is protest. If your demands are met, then make new demands or even reverse your demands and deny they have been met.
This is the true Spirit of today's GOP.
P.S. To say that the GOP is in permanent revolution also means that: they are the Maoists. So irony of irony: despite all their red baiting through the years they themselves are the Maoists as well as the Bakuninists.
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-republican-party-is-no-longer-party.html
The enemy is government as such. When you look at the Presidential race the only candidates doing well are those who have never held any kind of elective office whatsoever.
By the way many Beltway pundits try to draw the usual symmetry with the Dems. They claim that both sides are totally against insiders in favor of outsiders. The proof for the Dems is Bernie.
Sorry, but this won't wash. You surely know if you've read me at all I am not a Bernie man. But at least the Bern has actual experience in government.
Indeed, his brand has always been about kind of having it both ways-he's sort of an outsider by refusing to call himself a Democrat. But he has caucused with the Dems in the Senate and done some good work for them as well.
I agree with Daily News Bin: he's a good foot solider but he's not the one to lead the train.
http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/why-the-media-suddenly-likes-hillary-clinton-again/22761/
Bernie has long and deep experience as an elected official of higher institutions.
Then of course there is Hillary who has tremendous experience and standing.
The Dems do not look to inexperienced outsiders for their President. The narrative fails. They realize that if you are taking a plane trip you don't want an outsider of the pilot industry to get you from point A to point B.
Then we have the Speaker race where a resume is a rap sheet. The GOP is simply anarchistic. Their economic and governmental theory is libertarian anarchic. And on process they are anarchistic.
The goal is not to ever lead but simply be part of the permanent opposition. Greg Sargent describes it well:
"For conservatives, fighting isn't a means to an end, it's an end in itself."
"The most important thing to understand about what’s happening now is that this is a permanent rebellion. It has its demands, both substantive and procedural, but those demands aren’t the point, and if they were met, new ones would be forthcoming. For the people behind the chaos, rebellion itself is the point. It’s about the fight, not about the outcome of that fight. They will never stop rebelling."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/10/09/it-doesnt-matter-who-the-next-speaker-is-because-this-is-a-permanent-conservative-rebellion/
Sargent is dead right that it doesn't matter who the next Speaker is-he will be toast. Paul Ryan is not so stupid as to let it be him apparently.
This is the characteristic of all radical and revolutionary groups and movements. They are not interested in govenring and policymaking, indeed, as their goal is just to tear apart and rip asunder.
The true Spirit of today's GOP is ironically enough, the radical leftist anarchist. Bakunin.
http://www.amazon.com/God-State-Michael-Bakunin/dp/048622483X
For such activism the point is protest. If your demands are met, then make new demands or even reverse your demands and deny they have been met.
This is the true Spirit of today's GOP.
P.S. To say that the GOP is in permanent revolution also means that: they are the Maoists. So irony of irony: despite all their red baiting through the years they themselves are the Maoists as well as the Bakuninists.
"P.S. To say that the GOP is in permanent revolution also means that: they are the Maoists."
ReplyDeleteAgreed. They're dangerous because they're angry, deluded, and suffering from a bad case of Dunning-Kruger induced certainty in their own fantasy world. In fact in the last comment I left you... I almost wrote a bit about how they remind me of the delusional lunatics during Mao's "Great Leap Forward" ... melting down all their useful iron tools and cooking pots to create useless homespun steel... and with leaders so determined to please the Maoist leadership, that they inflate their crop yield reports, so when the government comes to take their percentage, they end up taking it all. The result: 10s of millions starved to death while the government grain rotted in store houses. In order to "address" this problem, the Maoists simply forbade any travel outside of the famine districts so evidence of the stupidity wouldn't spread. Eventually a politburo member went to see for himself what was going on... and was horrified. Mao was gently pushed aside for his responsibility in this catastrophe, but never forgot the slight, and came back with a vengeance with the "Cultural Revolution." That same politburo member that sidelined him paid with his life in the resulting chaos.
I look at the level of delusional rage in the GOP ranks, and it doesn't seem that far fetched. These people scare me and if they want so secede from the Union (out of frustration with not getting their way) I think we should let them go this time.
BTW, I always like to read Jennifer Rubin on days like this. I have very mixed feelings about her columns, but I do enjoy some of her criticisms of the extreme right. I think she had a good suggestion for Ryan: he should only agree to run if he gets a lot of concessions. She made a mostly sensible list of seven demands Ryan should make (a couple of them were stupid, but oh well).
ReplyDeleteBTW, Sargent didn't write that "Plum Line" piece: Paul Waldman did.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's possible to expel people from the party? I wrote in another comment to you that Jennifer Rubin had what I considered to be good advice for Ryan: a list of demands that must be met before he'd run. Not on her list, but a nice power to have would be the power to expel somebody from the party. Would the rest of the "Freedom Caucus" leave in protest? Maybe that's the best possible thing that could happen regarding the non-Caucus members. Even the Jacobins found it necessary to purge the Hébertists.
Also, it seems to me the GOP establishment could benefit greatly at this stage by "silencing" a few of the right wing media's biggest self serving blowhards. How many would be secretly cheering if Rush were caught with an underage transsexual hooker for example? Lol.
Sargent and Waldman annoy me as they are so similar and force me to check the byline! TK
ReplyDeleteYes I agree the problem with the GOP is they have lost any ability whatsoever to impose discipline
ReplyDelete