Last Days of the Republican Party

Digby is predicting the demise of the Republican Party. They've lost their political instincts, she says, and are headed towards oblivion:

. . . Perhaps the Republicans had to go completely over the cliff before they could realize they have become too extreme even for a nation that has developed a tremendous appetite for right wing fantasy and corporate advertising. . . .

"But right now, it's looking as if the GOP has made a catastrophic political miscalculation with Ryan. This alleged bellwether in NY-26 is showing that Medicare is killing the Republican and the Tea party in a race they were winning until a week ago.

" . . . I think we're seeing the decadence and delusion of the end stages of a successful political movement. They pretty much fulfilled the corporate wish list. The only things they haven't accomplished are the looney wingnut agenda items, which until now they've managed to keep at arms length, only giving little bits when necessary to keep the rubes on board. Maybe they just have nothing left to do.

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

I agree with Digby. The Republicans haven't run out of hats but they've run out of rabbits. 2010 was a fluke based on the harum-scarum they were able to generate about Obama's health care plan. Now they've turned completely around. They are facing forty miles of bad road from here on out.

That dog just don't hunt no more!

Yes, and we can see these 6 years later how that has turned out. The ultimate demise of the GOP will take more than wishful predictions and celebrations, it will take a lot of hard work by Democrats and a determination to show up and vote in every single election because they are all important.

Republicans have traditionally been able to energize low information voters to support their causes, but even the slow ones are starting to catch on. They were able to get big angry turnouts for town hall meetings. The Ryan budget turns that around. The Republicans once accused Democrats of undermining senior citizens, but they can't do that anymore.

Newt Gingrich got it right when he dismissed Ryan as right wing social engineering. He had to walk that back, and he now says that he would have voted for it. Digby is calling this self-destructive behavior, and I agree with her.

2010 was a trick, that's all. It doesn't interrupt the Republican decline that was well underway when they had to go to the dismally unqualified George W. Bush. In 2008, for example, the Democrats were able to nominate and elect a Black man as President. Since then, Obama has shrewdly avoided triggering a stampede among low information voters.

As Digby points out, the Republicans have become less and less rational as they go along. Eventually there are no more rabbits to be pulled out of hats. The issue now is whether they can sucker Obama into a major mistake, and it seems less and less likely they'll be able to do that. Does Obama know how to keep a lead? Sure looks like it.

I don't think he did. If not, how come?

friggin' landslide. So these predictions strike me as absurd.

Nixon won re-election in a mammoth landslide in 1972, and promptly misinterpreted it as an excuse to use the power of the presidency to punish everyone who'd ever wronged him . . . and he had a list! The stuff that was coming out about him showed that he was still Tricky Dick, the sleazy character his opponents always said he was. His resignation in 1974 was to protect the Republican Party from the damage that further revelations would have caused. For one thing, he had directed the Watergate break-in. He resigned before that got out.

Nixon's elected successor, Jimmy Carter, wasn't far from the center on any liberal-conservative axis. I don't recall any liberal initiatives from the Carter Administration, and Reagan ran not so much as a conservative as he was a patriot to avenge the hostages siezed by Iran. It's true that six years after Nixon, Reagan won in a landslide, but I think that vote was more a vote against Carter than for Reagan-style conservatism. I agree that it had that effect. And Reagan's re-election came against a weak Democrat, Walter Mondale.

drop in popularity for the Republicans, such that prognosticators then were proclaiming the death of the Republican Party by 1980! To the best of my knowledge, no evidence has ever emerged that Nixon directed the Watergate break-in, only that he conspired with others to obstruct justice once the burglars had been arrested, in the interests of preventing the justice system from finding about other activities his administration had committed, like the war on Ellsburg

Hell, I remember commentators saying that Americans were so sick of Bush that the Repukes were a dead letter for a generation or longer in 2008. In 2010, Republicans regained control of the House.

What is needed to put the Repukes out of business once and for all, imho, is for a meaningful progressive party of the left to emerge (Dem Socialist perhaps or Green), thereby allowing the Dem Party to eliminate once and for all its schizo identity, proclaiming progressive ideals but enacting and\or enabling reactionary and imperialist policies.

philosophy alive, but surely bury it and stay out of reach of strikes as it goes through death throes. Take no chances and yield not an inch in bringing about the end of modern republicanism. Republican are not members of the party of Lincoln.

They should not be compared to republicans. They are valuable members of the ecosystem. Republicans, not so much.

:eyes:

Never underestimate the depths of the well of stupidity and media lies that has replaced America.

Republicans have been pretty inventive in finding ways to dupe ordinary people into supporting causes counter to their own interest. There's that saying that nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

But there are two sides of the road. Here's Digby again:

I wish I knew why the GOP has suddenly gone kamikaze on this Ryan plan, but I guess I don't care. They've been so close to the edge of insanity for so long now that it's a good thing for the country if they self-immolate before they are able to somehow seize total power again.

But it really can't be overstated just how self-destructive this attack on Medicare really is, on so many levels. It's bad on the politics and on the merits, of course. But ask yourself why a political party would spend many, many millions of dollars to spread a message that a very popular program among their most valuable constituency is in danger from their opponents as the Republicans did last November, --- and then allow their opponents to piggyback on it immediately and turn it back on them?

The constraint against relying on stupidity is that there really is a limit to how far bullshit flies. Republicans seem to have hit that limit with Ryan. As Digby points out, they used the threat to senior citizens to generate angry resistance to the Obama health reform package. But they turned around and adopted the ideas they were using as scary bears. There are limits to how often you can do that.

crazy can they get?

will ensure the end of the Republican part because unlike 2008, the Republicans then still had moderates in their own party. But now that has changed heading into 2012, and many moderate Republicans have given up on the party, and many Independents have switched to the Democratic party.

The shift will continue as the young voters who register to vote will not join the Republican party as they are doing everything in their power to suppress their vote, future, and aspirations.

The Tea Party isn't concerned with the negotiations that are the nuts and bolts of politics. They're just a bunch of low information amateurs who, when they get their way, lead the Republicans down to further defeat. For example, there was no reason for Nevada Republicans to lose to the unpopular Harry Reid; only their own stupidity in nominating the unelectable Sharron Angle to oppose him.

The Republicans can wheel and deal for support to get them over the top in otherwise close races, but it's a once-only stunt. It netted them a freshman class of people in Congress who can't be bothered with the same wheeling an dealing that got them elected. Some of the freshmen think the voters really weighed the issues and selected them for their ideas!

The Republicans' best chance for success now is to forget the gimmickry and go with sensible ideas. Newt Gingrich had the right idea about the Ryan budget, but the loonies running the party today have forced Gingrich to apologize. They're going to be out of power for a long time.

The people they appealed to 20 years ago still like them today in most cases. As the party has gotten more extreme so have the people who vote for it.

The Republican party is going no where soon unfortunately.

The Tea Party can't sustain itself if it drives away young voters. Furthermore, the demographic of the U.S. is showing a shift away from Anglo Saxon America, and they can't accept such progress.

I wasn't thinking about the younger voters in which care you're right. It would seem logical that as more young people start to vote the Republican party will lose support.

and wouldn't count them down or out at all. They've got big money, they've got Fox, they've still got at least 30% of the electorate willing to vote for them, even if they ran Satan. Politics & power in this country can change very rapidly. If, for example, we have another 9/11-esque, large, devestating, domestic terror attack, watch how fast the Republicans spring back from their so-called "oblivion".

are presently VERY busy buying state level republican politicians to pass draconian voter suppression laws.:evilfrown:

slicing and dicing the electorate...and pandering to the racist, xenophobic, irrational fears of their base. Seems like they are running up of electorate to dice up, though. They run against minorities, gays, teachers, union workers, liberals, progressives, Democrats, Muslims, immigrants, scientists, elderly, women, and students. At some point, how do you put together a coalition of whoever is remaining?

Their agenda is pretty obvious - cater to corporations and the top 5%...the bottom 95% is not relevant. There is no vision for jobs or economic recovery - just social legislation designed to destroy 100 years of social progress. But they read polls and know that that they are rapidly losing voters and energizing the opposition. So now they turn their focus on elections - how to limit the right of all Americans to vote them out of office. They are anti-Americans - they hate the core principles of the Constitution that they claim to love. Republicanism is a political disease that needs to be excised from the body politic.

The rancor at the post-Ryan budget town hall meetings was between Republican members of Congress and the Republicans who voted for them! That's what Digby is referring to when she says that the Republicans have finally cooked their own goose. The damage, she says, is not only immediate, but it will persist in the long run.

The Republicans can't weed out their own bad ideas, and the Ryan budget is one of the worst ideas to come down the pike. Newt Gingrich took one look at it and called it a loser, which it is. He was forced to wear sackcloth and ashes for this "heresy." Digby is calling the Republican Party a spent force. I especially the first line of her final paragraph,

I think we're seeing the decadence and delusion of the end stages of a successful political movement.

Movements do indeed rise and fall. One sure way to bring about decline is to lose sight of the reasons the movement was successful in the first place. Republicans appear to have done just that.

I remember when the Republican Party had some liberals and moderates in their Party. They have driven out any thoughtful people who have differing opinions. Reminds me of FreeRepublic. With all of the purges and banning of anyone who won't think like JimRob, you're left with a bunch of morons who, collectively, are incapable of critical thought.

A political party exists to think critically about problems the country faces. If the Republicans have decided to favor orthodoxy over originality, that's the beginning of the end for them. They're not entirely irrelevant yet, but when 67-yr old Newt Gingrich is a young rebel, they are closing in rapidly on complete irrelevance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1prd0Dpfytw&feature=related

All the time they thought staying on message was a good thing is working against them now. They desperately need to to be told to reverse their course. They are wrong in serious, fundamental ways.

We could run a ball of string and win 45%.

They are on a demographic slide but are still in shape to steal and win elections.

No, there's more than a demographic slide. People want the government to get involved in solving America's problems. They don't want government to just sit back and do nothing.

The town hall backlash that began last month over the Republican plan to end Medicare and extend tax breaks for the wealthy is showing no signs of abating.

Rep. Dan Webster (R-FL) encountered many angry constituents Tuesday night during a town hall meeting outside Orlando. Attendees repeatedly admonished Webster for his support of the Ryan budget and pleaded with him to do more to ensure corporations pay their fair share in taxes.

http://thinkprogress.org/2011/05/18/dan-webster-kick-out-town-hall-constituent/

The only way Webster regained control over the meeting was by threatening to have the constituent ejected. When constituents are pleading with their representative to do something, the Republicans are telling them to behave themselves. That's not a formula for success in a democracy.

Republicans are in deep trouble.

It's a ridiculous prediction, a totally idiotic notion.

The entire structure of our society -- our media, our governmental institutions, our economy, our collective culture's very perceptions and assumptions -- all of it has mutated to conform to the right wing template.

No, the Rebublican party isn't going die, not by a long shot.

sw

The way Republican leadership is controlling the message is by telling Republican rank-and-file to STFU. They were able to muzzle Newt Gingrich for his honest remarks about the Ryan budget, which is a disaster for the party.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uuo3dBP431k

This is new, and it's going to paralyze the Republicans.

Where else are the rich fuckers in this country going to congregate with their minions?

They began to believe that their "ideas" won the election. Our side occasionally makes this mistake too, but not as colorfully.

Fear and the recession won 2010. Rather than taking the gift horse for what it was, they chose hubris and started acting on their "ideas".

All pleadings to the contrary, the Tea Party was not about ideas, it was all about fear. The problem with this comes on the day that the rapture does not happen, or Obama does not actually take your guns, or society does not collapse, and a buck or two still seems to get you a loaf of bread.... Doomsday delayed is doomsday denied, which is why their events now only draw dozens. None of the fears they were predicting actually happened.

Republicans foolishly made common cause with anti-intellectuals, thinking they could substitute orthodoxy for originality. As a result, they haven't kept up with changing reality. Want to guarantee your party becomes obsolete in a few years? Run the thinkers off!

In the vacuum created by real intellectuals comes the likes of George Will and Charles Krauthammer, two guys who wouldn't know a real idea if it bit them in the ass. The absence of constraints has enabled the rise of the vulgarians, people like Beck and Hannity and O'Reilly.

The Republican Party, now led by Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, is intellectually bankrupt. How many times can you repeat the Ronald Reagan trick? They tried it with Bush and it failed. Now there's nobody in the pipeline.

a suicide run to ram through their agenda because they have been reading the demographics.

The Boomer generation agitated for social and economic equality. We lost and retreated. We had no generational ally. For a social period that is similar, look to 1848. Within a dozen years, we became the silenced generation sandwich between the Tyktovs and the Milken gens. 1968 Democratic convention, Ohio, Prague Spring were all distant memories.

This year, Boomers reach medicare age, next year, full social security retirement. Contrary to popular belief, older Americans return to their roots rather than "get more conservative". And as we wave an un-fond farewell to the Tyktovs, we realize that we now have a generational ally, the under 32s. They do not view social and economic equality as radical. Thus, the move by state legislatures controlled by the Roopublicons to restrict voting rights of the new seniors, the young and the minorities. The writing is on the wall.

With their permanent majority in danger, the GOP has become as vicious as a she-coon. The GOP wants to destroy, destroy, destroy as much as they are able in the time they have left.

There are a lot of variables that can change the direction in which we are moving. But since I wrote this scenario in the 1990's, I have seen much of it happen.

I like your idea of an alliance between the Boomers and the under-32s. The Bob Dylan line Don't follow leaders, watch your parking meters is finally having an impact. I'm calling that greater sophistication but it may only be the aftermath of the Bush presidency - a total failure. That was a lesson in why you don't follow leaders. Remember how Bush took every little snub personally? He had no humility whatsoever.

I'm trying to avoid the circular reasoning implied by the statement that a swing toward the Democrats implies greater sophistication, which implies in turn that Democrats are more sophisticated. But I think it's true that Democrats have a truer sense of the scope of problems that government can address. I think this is demonstrable; it's not simply an article of faith.

Democratic failures don't imply incompetence; only that Democrats attempt more. For instance, we addressed racial segregation as a dysfunctional legacy of the Civil War. Republicans blamed "outside Northern agitators" for the unrest, and they continue to resent being brought kicking and screaming into the 20th Century. And they're going out of their minds that Democrats nominated and elected a Black man for president.

This 49-51/48-52 "evenly divided country" stuff is total bullshit.