The GOP: A Beautiful Corpse 16 Signs the Party's Over / David Michael Green

http://www.regressiveantidote.net/Articles/A_Beautiful_Corpse.html

Lordy, lord, it’s been a mean season, hasn’t it? And a long one, too.
We human beings (those bipeds lucky enough not to have been born a conservative or killed by one, that is) have suffered through the endless depravity, stupidity, duplicity and incompetence of the radical right for what now seems like forever. It’s been awful, and it’s been depressing, and that’s putting it mildly. To have had even a fraction of a heart this last decade means to have lived in Hell. Finally, though, the end is nigh. The signs are all there. The regressive right is cracking up, a complete and utter victim of its own success at winning power and of its own absolute failure in wielding it...The markers are everywhere, bubbling just below the surface. Here are sixteen of them, sure signs if ever there were that the era of destructive government is (nearly) over:

* FOLLOW THE MONEY: If you know anything about how American politics has been played over the last century, you know that the concept of Democrats out-fundraising Republicans is about as likely as likely as George W. Bush getting an honorary degree from anybody besides Bob Jones U. It could happen, to be sure (especially in some freaky parallel universe), it’s just that it just ain’t very likely. But guess what? It’s happening now, and it’s a sure sign of the regressive apocalypse (where do I order tickets for that party?). What is even more telling than empty GOP coffers is that even the big corporate money is going to Democrats. Imagine Enron contributing to Al Gore’s campaign, and you’d just about have the picture. Is it possible that the healthcare industry had a recent change of heart and decided that guaranteed national healthcare is now more important than corporate profits, after all? It would be possible (though massively improbable), if they had ever had a heart to begin with. A much more plausible explanation is that the lobbyists for these fat-cats who are paid to sniff out power can see which way the wind is blowing, and that it ain’t to the east anymore, ladies and gentlemen. Even the finance, insurance and real estate industries are funneling more money to Democrats than to the Reprobatlicans. (Talk about your truly bizarro parallel universes! This is the stuff of science fiction novels.) House Democrats have $28 million in the bank right now, while the GOP has $1.6 million for its congressional races (no, that’s not a typo). When did that ever happen?

* KEEP FOLLOWING THE MONEY: Has there ever been an economy this precarious for this long without throwing a rod or seizing an engine? Given how reviled Bush and his clones already are now, can you imagine how sour the public mood will be if there is a recession or worse in the coming year? When you start seeing stories about roving gangs of furious soccer moms beating up random Republicans caught without their Blackwater guards on K Street, you’ll know why. Just watch the American flag pins start flying off of lapels. Stay tuned for more on this one. Gasoline is now selling for five bucks a gallon in parts of California, and that was being headlined by the Drudge Report, that bastion of anti-regressive journalism. I smell a twenty-first century Whiskey Rebellion a-brewin'.

* FOLLOW KEITH: The reason MSNBC is getting ready to untuck the wee Carlson is because they want to make room for what viewers are actually interested in, which is more progressive politics, like the regular savagings of the rabid right by Keith Doberman. Here comes Rosie O’Donnell into the line-up, with a show that could make Keith look like a nice puppy by comparison. Apparently, even Joe Scarborough – fingers and toes all in the wind – is talking like a liberal these days. What was that Dylan line about not needing to be a weatherman...? You could almost come to love the free market, after all, eh?

* FOLLOW JON: Stewart, that is. And Stephen Colbert. Every night, incessantly, they do what sometimes seems like the only rational thing imaginable given the inanities of regressive politics in our unfortunate time. They mock it mercilessly. The good news is that for many people, especially young folk, this is their sole source of news about current developments. Is that a pretty serious indicator of the tragic state of the American polity? You betcha. But it could be a lot worse. People could be getting their ‘news’ from Fox, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Times, or even CNN or NBC. I think a very serious argument can be made that you learn more about the real world we actually inhabit from Stewart and Colbert than from the more subtle comedy shows presented every day by the mainstream disinformation media in the guise of ‘newscasts’. Brian Williams may be a more honest source of information than was Baghdad Bob, but not by much. Until The Nation becomes required reading and Democracy Now! the most watched news broadcast on television, Comedy Central may be the best alternative we’ve got..

* FOLLOW THE POLLS: Which have been showing for a long time now that Americans are really pissed off about what has happened to their country, and in record numbers. That’s not exactly what you wanna hear when you’re an incumbent running for reelection, or trying to keep your party in power. It gets better yet, though. As Paul Krugman noted this week, political research is now showing that the American public is not just aimlessly angry, but is more liberal in its attitudes than it has been since the early 1960s. And the Baby Boomers haven’t even retired yet! Something tells me that killing stem-cell research and gutting Social Security, coupled with homophobia, environmental destruction, reckless aggression abroad and bankruptcy at home are not going to be big vote-getters in the coming decades. Call me crazy, but I’m going to go ahead and make that wild prediction.

* FOLLOW THE CONVERSIONS: Just as might be expected, Republicans are starting to change their party affiliations, even in places like Missouri and Kansas (really!). And, just as also might be expected, you’re hearing the classic (and true) explanation for their move: “I didn’t leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me”. Sorry Ronnie Raygun, but what comes around... Watch for a whole lot more of this, especially after November 2008.

Thanks for posting...now on to the link to read the rest.

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When are people going to learn...you just can't trust everything you read in that librul rag The New York Times?

thanks for cheering me up.

entire version is better ( and at times pretty hilarious). I particularly like what they say about Move.On

so that one WANTS to read the rest!

... read. Perhaps a wee bit optimistic, but uplifting nonetheless.

I recommend everyone follow the link and read it all, you won't be sorry!

back to 2005 are well worth the read.

Particularly now that the Repuklican era of dirty tricks has come to maturity.

So it's essential that we work extra hard in '08.

Pull up the complete version and read it, please. No one has ever nailed the little twerp better......

are in for a treat.

Loved every bit. Wish I could still rec.