Sunday, October 19, 2008

Will the Republican Party Survive--And Does Anybody Care Anymore?

Just two months ago, I talked with John McCain in Aspen. Since moving to Arizona seven years ago, I have voted for and supported McCain for Senate and always admired his independence and willingness to cross party lines to do the right thing. I asked him why he had suddenly aligned himself with the most Right Wing, scariest people in the Republican Party and had named the same people who smeared him so viciously in the 2000 primary to run his campaign.

"The Republican Party is a big tent." he told me. "There's room for everyone."

In recent weeks, that tent seems to have gotten much, much smaller as some people have gotten disgusted and left and others have been thrown out. And, as many Republicans and Conservatives have recently pointed out, it's a neighborhood that very few people want to live in any more.

The water carriers of the Right--particularly Fox News, bloggers on townhall.com, and the dozens of talk radio hosts who call themselves Conservative--have always been biased. But as McCain has fallen farther behind in the polls their shows and blogs have become cesspools of hatred, anger, lies, distortion and vitriol which are liberally spewed on Democrats, Obama, and anyone who would vote for either.

In their passionate determination to vilify Obama and the Left, they have ignored the fact that the most devastating critiques of McCain and Palin have come from their own ranks. Conservatives and Republicans such as Charles Krauthammer, David Brooks, Kathleen Parker, George Will, and Christopher Buckley have all expressed their disgust with McCain's selection of Palin, his gutter campaign tactics, and his lack of the temperament, judgment, and ability to be president.

The coup de grace came Sunday when General Colin Powell--a Republican--announced his endorsement of Obama for president. Powell cited a wide variety of reasons that he was excited about Obama, disappointed in McCain himself and disgusted with the way he has run his campaign. Powell was precise, logical, and objective. His criticism of McCain was well thought out and devastating.

After hearing Powell, I immediately switched over to Fox News in time to get their reaction which was entirely critical and dismissive of Powell. One "analyst" speculated this was Powell's way of getting even with McCain for not selecting Powell to be his running mate. Another focused on how unfair it is for anyone to criticize McCain or his campaign since McCain is honest and righteous and Obama is so much worse. No one mentioned the merit or accuracy of Powell's statements. Later on MSNBC, Republican Pat Buchanan speculated that Powell picked Obama because he was just anxious to endorse a fellow Black guy.

Meanwhile, the Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager radio crowd has gone non-stop venal and ballistic over the airwaves this month. Their entire programs are filled with lies, distortions, and partial truths about Obama and his positions. He is freely and constantly called anti-American, a traitor, a socialist, a terrorist, a friend of terrorists, a liar, a thief, a criminal, and a "bloodsucker" who wants to take every hard-working citizen's money--all of it--and distribute it to his liberal, radical, good-for-nothing friends.

This is not just about politics or an election. This has become a Holy War with these guys. My longtime friend Dennis Prager told me last year that unless I had learned to loathe the Left, then I had learned nothing from him in the 20 years I have regarded him as a teacher. He recently wrote a column on townhall.com in which he explains the difference between people on the Left and people on the Right. Apparently being a pluralist or an independent--trying to learn from all people--is no longer an option.

This latest descent completes the utter destruction of the Republican party as a force for good in this country. Until eight years ago, Republicans had a deserved reputation for being more socially and fiscally conservative and responsible. When the party culture became infected with the Bush/Rove/Cheney virus, it began to morph into a divisive force that possessed none of those qualities.

Now the mass exodus is underway. Anyone who is fiscally conservative can't call himself a Republican anymore. Anyone who is a religious Christian can't honestly be part of this since Jesus preached about caring for the sick and the poor--not about eliminating reproductive choice or issues related to same-sex marriage. There's nothing Christian about the agenda of the Religious Right--it's a totally political movement focused on issues that Jesus never mentioned and they ignore the issues about which Jesus preached constantly.

Anyone who believes in honesty or competence in government wouldn't call themselves a Republican after Bush. And now, no one who is not a committed soldier in the Holy War against the Left is welcome either.

The only ones left inside the tent are people who don't want to vote for a Black person, those who mistakenly believe they have been better off financially over the last eight years than they'd be under Obama, or those who are driven by a complete and unwavering hatred of liberals, Democrats, and the Left. It doesn't take a lot of room to accommodate that crowd and who would want to be in that tent anyway?

I find all this frustrating and it makes me sad. I liked being an independent. More important--we need the old Republican party--the one that thought the only thing worse than taxing and spending was borrowing and spending which is what the Bush/DeLay crowd has done for years in the name of Conservatism.

I hope the recent meltdown will set the stage for a revival of something we all need now more than ever--a viable intelligent alternative to complete control by the Democrats. As much as I like Obama, the thought of either party having that much power still scares me. Reed and Pelosi scare me much more than Obama does. I think Obama is smart, presidential, and will surround himself with smart, good people.

It's time for a change.

43 comments:

Rebecca Z. said...

Bravo, well said.

Anonymous said...

Another rat deserting what he perceives to be a sinking ship.

(And I am a pro-choice, not very religious republican, who is sticking with McCain)

Anonymous said...

You said that John McCain had "no chance" all the way back in May. You predicted in April that Obama would beat McCain by a comfortable margin. So all this stuff about the party getting smaller in "recent weeks" and talking to John McCain "just two months" ago is just a bunch of nonsense . You weren't going to support him for a long time.

Lisa said...

There was a time when I felt comforted in some way by listening to Dennis Prager on the radio, especially after the events of 9/11. I am a Democrat, but not a "leftist" and I was interested in hearing his views--that is--until the last couple of years, when I simply can't stand the spewing of the divisiveness and what seems like irrational hatred. What happened to him?

Is it true that the world can be portioned into two distinct sides? If you are liberal you are "bad" and if you see issues as he does, then you are "good"? People are complex, issues are complex. People can reach across to each other to open their eyes to truths each side can respect. If this can't be done, what is to be for our children's future?

I now avoid listening to Prager or anyone who sees out of only one strident viewpoint--it just makes me too sad.

I end up watching Charlie Rose or someone who asks questions of various smart people for the purpose of learning about issues from a variety of considered opinion and doesn't make me feel sleazy for listening.

Anonymous said...

I agree completely. I live in the midwest (Indiana), worked for our local Republican party, voted for Bush twice (enthusiastically the first time, not so much the second), gave money to McCain during the primaries hoping he could bring the party back, but I've come to the same conclusion. I didn't leave the Republican party. It left me.

I am not a rat that has left a sinking ship. This ship ran aground years ago and we've been getting off for a long time.

Anonymous said...

Well deserved reputation for being fiscally conservative. I assume you haven't seen this:

http://www.eriposte.com/economy/indicators/bush_deficit_graphic.gif

Anonymous said...

I agree with everything in your post, except for the idea that the mass exodus from the Republican party has just started recently. I would say that two years ago, when the democrats won so many seats in the house, the exodus was already underway.

Certainly it was already taking place when, about 9 months ago, a little known congressman from Texas tried to convince the party that it needed to reform itself if it hoped to have any chance this fall.

Anonymous said...

Wake up white people!
The red flags came up during the Clinton years.
Nominating W. caused me to vote for a minor party candidate in 2000. First time in my life didn't vote for a Republican presidential candidate.
Just the idea of a 2nd Bush term was enough to get me to switch parties.
How is it that I knew back in 2000 that GW Bush was bad news and no one else in the party could see that?
What the f*ck is wrong with you people who would support a guy who smirks while signing death warrants? Are you really that f*cking stupid?
Yes, you are.
The GOP is morally bankrupt, which is so ironic considering that they sold themselves as 'morality incarnate.'
Enjoy the long dark winter as the minority party. You f*ckers deserve it.

timbo60 said...

The GOP has been running against the 60s for forty years. Two things have happened. On many issues -- especially those of individual liberty, including reproductive choice up to (but not including) abortion -- the discussion is over. No one much under 40 supports regulation of contraception or anti-sodomy laws, let alone argues the civil rights laws are a bad or socialist idea. The second thing is that the Democrats finally nominated a presidential candidate, for the first time since 1988 and maybe since 1968 depending on how you count it, who isn't mired in the politics of the 60s or in Boomer Identity Politics Writ Large. You can yell Weatherman at Obama all day long, and he just shrugs and says he was 8 when Bill Ayers was an asshole and criminal. And the country shrugs with him.

People used to wonder what the GOP would do without the Cold War. But without the 60s, they're lost. They have no frame of reference at all, since all that was competitive worthwhile about Reaganism the smart Dems coopted a long time ago. And they are left with the stupidity of arguing that all the most successful parts of America -- the ones with the highest incomes, the most innovation, the best adaptation to an information economy --are not the real America. And what is real is all the failed states at the bottom of the personal income charts.

I shouldn't say this, because it's too divisive, but look at the states' rankings for personal income in the Statistical Abstract of the U.S. The only state in the top 10 that McCain is likely to carry is Wyoming, which is merely riding a very brief energy-related high. There's an increasingly direct tie between adaptation to the information economy, and hence high personal incomes, and the tendency to reject the GOP as we know it. That never would have happened if Jerry Ford were still in charge, or at least in the mix.

Anonymous said...

We should all care!

Political leaders do their best work when faced with a well-organized, smartly managed, and coherent opposition. See Reagan and Clinton.

Larry, are you familiar with Jeff Flake? I heard some interviews with him during the 2006 House Repub leadership shake up and was impressed.

Anonymous said...

Your words express the thoughts I have been having this past year so eloquently. Thank you.
I have voted republican for 20 years, but what I have seen the party reduce itself to in this election season has literally made me sick to my stomach.
For those that feel that they are always proud of their country -this behavior is nothing to be proud of.

Anonymous said...

Excellent! Thank you for your sharing your sentiment. I've been a registered Republican for 28 years and have been watching with disgust the direction of this party since 1988 when the first George Bush embraced religious zealots and Lee Atwater-style politics to get elected.

I hate to say it, but I hope a major civil war erupts within the GOP after November 4th. If it emerges as the healthy home of moderates and smart people again, I'll stay. If it gets taken over by the Palin-Limbaugh-Hannity fringe, I'm outta here for good.

Todd Olsen said...

Well said.

Hating the left is not a substitute for actual ideas or policies.

Todd Olsen said...

Anonymous, the only vermin are those who are staying on the ship.

Anonymous said...

Great post. I'm a staunchly pro-life Catholic, who is eclectic/centrist on other issues. I'd also like a strong, vibrant, and serious Republican party. The present version of the Republican party makes me nauseous. I tend to think that pro-life Christians who stick with the Republicans do more harm than good to their cause. Because Christians ought not to be able to tolerate the divisiveness and flagrant disregard for truth and reason which have become the hallmark of the Republican party. When they do, they look like hypocrites to the rest of the country, and that means that no one has to listen to them on the life issue, either. Or at least so it seems to me.

I don't like Obama's position on choice. But he is very good on everything else. And hopefully the Republicans will regroup in a better way during their upcoming exile.

Anonymous said...

A sad legacy.

We can all have our own views as to which are the major milestones in the descent to parody. I think the right-wing forcing GHWB to repudiate in his reelection campaign the 1990 budget deal was a very important point. It killed him, and with him responsible governance from the Republican policy.

A real tragedy, since on the foreign side, GHWB was really uniquely placed to manage the wind-up of the Soviet Union, especially in the face of those Republicans who (unlike GHWB) had not yet grasped the central truth of Reagan's second term: Nixon, Ford & Carter were right -- the SU needed to be engaged and managed, not isolated and vilified.

What would Republicanism have become if GHWB had allowed himself to embrace Responsibility in domestic as well as foreign affair? We'll never know.


-- "CharleyCarp"

Anonymous said...

Amen--I agree 100%. The Republican party needs to either change its name for the sake of accuracy (Wasteful Fascist Theocrats comes to mind) or change its course back to one of fiscal responsibility and minimal government intervention in people's lives.

Anonymous said...

Pat Buchanan is not a Republican. He hasn't been one since 1996. He is just kind of a racist.

Anonymous said...

Great post. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I'm a pretty conservative guy. I voted for Reagan and Bush Senior back in the day. I'm ex-military. I believe in small government.

My 7-year-old and I hammered an Obama sign into my lawn the other day. The Republican party has sold its soul to people who have no values other than hate for "libruals".

Give me a party I can join and be happy about again, please.

Larry Gellman said...

Thanks for your great comments. My articles are often posted on Huffington Post but they show up here first.

In response to a few comments--

1. If the ship is sinking, the smart rats will desert it. I never understood why that was supposed to be a criticism.

2. Jeff Flake is more of a libertarian than a Republican and for the district he represents in Arizona he is as good as it gets.

3. Most of you people have never lived in a Red state. I hadn't either until I moved to Arizona 7 years ago after spending my whole life in the Midwest. Like a lot of snowbird havens, it's turning Blue fast but you certainly run into a lot of interesting people. Even my many life-long Republican friends here are deserting the ship as it becomes overwhelmed by hatred and ugliness.

My real question is what all these "patriotic" hate-filled people are going to do when Obama is elected. Will they show the office of the presidency the respect they always demanded for Bush, or will they continue their vicious attacks non-stop?

Todd Olsen said...

Larry,

Many will continue their behavior and blame their own actions on those members of "The Left" who never accepted the legitimacy of Bush.

"He/She/They did it first" is the most popular, if lamest, defense of bad behavior.

Anonymous said...

Maybe it's time to get behind the Libertarian party if you're Fiscally conservative or The Constitution party if you're Socially conservative.

Sitting around hoping to regain the Republican party from people who have the bully pulpit strikes me as wasted effort.

They can keep their Pup tent.

Graeme said...

What bothers me most about the destruction of the GOP has been the lack of leadership and willingness to take responsibility. The GOP sold itself, especially as they went after Clinton, as the party of 'adults.' What we've seen this past 8 years is incompetence masked by finger-pointing. When I point out a problem, the GOP true believers simply tell me "THE DEMOCRATS WOULD BE WORSE!"

When that's the best you can muster, we all lose. All we have to show for it now are two long wars and a mountain of debt. Kicking the can down the road.

If an Obama Administration demonstrates real honesty and even a modicum of competence, it's going to be a loooooong time before the GOP has another shot at the Presidency.

Gary Karr said...

One man's "eliminating reproductive choice" is another man's "protecting the rights of the most innocent in society."

Seems to me the people who preach tolerance the most are the most intolerant of all.

Unknown said...

I'm a moderate who voted Republican in the past. Today, I'm hated and called a liberal because I don't agree with all their opinions. I'm tired of seeing the country divided by the Hannitys and Limbaughs.

The phrase "Left to their own devices" comes to mind.

sanjay said...

First of all, I don't regard those who would ban abortion under any and all circumstances "extremists". In fact it is those who would ban it except for certain circumstances who are the extremists. If the zygote/embryo/fetus is life then it deserves protecting irrespective of how it was conceived. Those who would seek to have the state determine that some life is worth protecting are on the slippery slope of Nazi eugenics.

Having said that I don't know when life begins and most faiths, theologians and scientists can't agree on when life begins either. In the absence of such scientific specificity I don't think it is the business of the state to impose the views of one group on another- hence I believe in choice. It is for the same reason that I disapprove of embryonic stem cell research. We are sacrificing what might be life for an individuals gain.

Obama offers a positive third way. If we can avoid the need for abortion - through better education, access to contraception, simpler adoption and most of all an economic system which helps family raise a child through affordable healthcare, a working wage and education -we can avoid a divisive issue. The only question is are the warring parties looking for an issue or a solution.

Anonymous said...

In 1972, the Democratic party was briefly hijacked by the left-wing fringe. The result was the disastrous run of George McGovern and decades of political backlash. But, there were quite a few moderates and conservatives left in the party to eventually steer the party back towards the center.
Likewise, the right wing fringe has hijacked the Republican party. But, unlike the Democratic party, this takeover seems to be pretty much permanent. The 2008 GOP platform is quite radical. It forbids ALL stem cell research and bans all abortion, even in cases of rape and incest.
In fact, there seem to be less distance between the fringe and the mainstream of the GOP then there is between the left-wing fringe and the mainstream of the Democratic party. In the Democratic Convention, radical left protesters were kept out of site of the convention center. And the speaker list didn’t include Michael Moore, Bill Ayers or Jerimiah Wright. But, their right wing counterparts on the right were welcomed to the GOP convention with open arms. Take Palin for instance. McCain originally wanted to choose a well qualified moderate like Tom Ridge on his ticket. But, the far right wanted someone like Palin and McCain caved.
The contrast is clear. The GOP is a party outside the American mainstream and the Democratic party has bent over backwards to embrace moderation. And yet, many Conservative have the gual to call Obama a “radical”. Right....

Anonymous said...

Great post. I'm in my early sixties belong to an upper middle class family that has been voting Republican for generations. The warning flags for me started going up in the 90's with the insane pursuit of Clinton over what was abominable conduct but not a hanging offence. He lied about sex, it happens a lot. I was unhappy about Bush who always looked lightweight to me but as I was out of the country in Nov 2000 didn't have to make a choice. He's been a total disaster of course but what the events of the past eight years did was to throw into clear relief just how crazy the GOP has become. All the tenets of conservatism were literally junked in protecting what has been one of the worst presidencies in US history. The GOP's problem is the far right has got control of the party. Gerrymandering has ensured that most Representative are extreme right and at least half of the Republican senators fall into this category. The entire party machine is in the control of these people and perhaps more important all the back up machinery of think tanks, pundits and commentator are dominated by far right idealogues. The best barometer is the ed page of the WSJ which is filled with nuttiness every day, and often very nasty nuttiness. If as seems likely the GOP lose big in November, there's going to be a civil war that will probably last a generation while the party basically catches up with where America is in the 21st Century. They've already lost the entire NE from ME to VA and the entire west coast, the mid west is about equally divided but leans Dem, and the Rocky Mountain/SW are trending dem because demographics, particularly the hispanic vote. Recapturing this is going to take decades and involves a huge shift to the left which is going to be messy and prolonged.

Anonymous said...

You missed one important bloc of Republicans that are still out there--people like my dad who is now 75, and his 81 year old brother.

They may, in fact, still harbor enough racism to not vote for a black man, but mainly they are just so long identified as Republicans that I cannot imagine them ever splitting the ticket (Dad says he has, but if it ever happened, it was for city council in, say 1977).

They just can't switch party ID after 50 or more years of, in my families case, well thought out policy-based party selection.

After being a Repub that long, it's fully programmed to believe the party still stands for what guided their choices in early and mid-life.

I've tried to talk to my dad about how much the Republican party has changed in the past 10 years, but he can't hear it.

He also lost his more liberal wife to cancer in the mid-90s and is now partnered with a personally very nice but politically very conservative woman who is all Fox/Rush/Eagle forum. That has not helped.

Anonymous said...

My real question is what all these "patriotic" hate-filled people are going to do when Obama is elected. Will they show the office of the presidency the respect they always demanded for Bush, or will they continue their vicious attacks non-stop?

I was wondering this just last night. Well, not really wondering. I'm pretty convinced it'll be all attack all 4/8 years. The GOP tried endlessly to undermine Clinton, even before his own Monica idiocy.

The attacks from the right on Obama as President will, IMO, be far worse (and damaging to both successful government and the R brand) than what we've seen directed at Bush.

It's gonna be a rough 4/8 years.

Perry Callas said...

The Democrats have gone so far to the right, I think it would be more accurate to say the Democratic Party has disappeared, leaving Republicans and Fascists.

Don said...

"Until eight years ago, Republicans had a deserved reputation for being more socially and fiscally conservative and responsible."

I keep seeing this kind of statement and I don't get it. Did I live thought a different 1980-1992 than everyone else? The fact that the GOP kept touting fiscal responsibility while spending money they didn't have doesn't mean they were REALLY fiscally conservative.

RevRon's Rants said...

"My real question is what all these "patriotic" hate-filled people are going to do when Obama is elected. Will they show the office of the presidency the respect they always demand"

Larry, I think we both know the answer to that one. They'll do what they did during the Clinton years, oblivious to the fact that doing so further marginalizes them and renders them even more irrelevant. The last 8 years has just been a practice run for their journey into oblivion. I wish them a safe journey. :-)

Anonymous said...

"Since moving to Arizona seven years ago, I have voted for and supported McCain for Senate and always admired his independence and willingness to cross party lines to do the right thing."

So you voted for McCain for Senate exactly once in an election where he got almost 80% of the vote running against a virtual unknown. That hardly makes you a big McCain supporter.

clearlakedoc said...

Like the afore poster, im ex-military, voted for Ronnie, my c-i-c, and bush 1. Im saddened, in some ways at all the "deserting rats", because change only comes from within. This is the party of Lincoln, that saved our nation. But i understand. I urge you to fight and take back your party. The health of our nation requires 2 parties. The best its been in my adult life was under Bill and the Rep Congress, IMHO. Good luck.

Anonymous said...

You're just discovering all of this now?

Oh well, welcome to the Reality-Based Community.

P.S. Republicans haven't had (or deserved) a reputation for being more socially and fiscally conservative and responsible since Reagan. After all, it was Old Ronnie who set us on course for the borrowing binge that's put us where we are today. And as for socially conservative, see e.g., Foley, Mark; Craig, Larry; Haggard, Ted; and so on and so on and so on ...

Anonymous said...

Driftglass puts your recent realization into perspective:
First Atwater came for Reagan's "welfare queens"
- but I was not a welfare queen so I did not speak out.

Then Gingrich came for the Liberals and the Unions,
- but I was taught to call everyone who disagreed with me a traitor, so I did not speak out.

Then Falwell and Robertson came for the gays,
- but gays are icky, so I did not speak out.

Then Limbaugh came for the Feminazis
- but strong, smart women terrify me, so I did not speak out.

And when they came for me, I had the f*^@#%g nerve to pretend to be Shocked!Shocked! that my Party was being run by degenerate lunatics.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for saying so eloquently what I've been feeling for quite some time.

Anonymous said...

While I have always been a Democrat, I have has respect for and understanding of the philosophical differences between the parties. I may have thought Republicans wrong, but honestly and sincerely wrong.

Such is no longer the case. The budget deficits, the intrusive moralism and the imperialist trotskyite wars all betray traditional Republican values, yet people follow them as they wander far from their ideological roots. This then is no longer a party of ideology, but of power seeking.

Anonymous said...

thanks u r information

it very useful

Anonymous said...

buy wow goldAsesor ProfessionalUruguayProfessionalbuy wow goldOfficeLinksNotice

WOW GOLD said...

WOW GOLD, nice blog. its worth reading. I liked it very much