Will The Last Person Leaving the GOP Please Turn Out The Lights?
I had similar thoughts this morning, Mac.
And let me tell you something folks. When Bush and the GOP lose people like Mac, you have to wonder whether some kind of cataclysm isn’t in the offing in 2008. Here’s what I wrote this morning:
In fact, given all that has transpired since the 2004 election (which coincided with the last time the Bushies even paid lip service to the base) one could say that this President has seemed most determined to destroy the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Reagan leaving behind only a charred husk for the rest of us to live with. They have decided that Götterdämmerung is in order; if they can’t prevail, then they will destroy what is left of the grand coalition that changed the face of America and the world in the 1980’s and in a fit of either pique or ignorance, leave it for the next crew to cobble together something else.
I will say that it didn’t take much to destroy what was left of that coalition. Since the end of the cold war – the single uniting expedient of the Republican party for more than 30 years – the GOP has been adrift. Uniting against Clinton was fairly easy although that unity was a mile wide and an inch deep. It was based on the absolute worst of political bargains; the cold, calculus of how to get power and keep it. So for ten years Republicans played the special interest game, feeding the lobbyists a steady diet of earmarks and favors, reaping huge amounts of campaign contributions in return, while selling out their basic principles of smaller, less intrusive government and fiscal discipline.
And now, there’s precious little left. No ideology. Little loyalty. Less desire to help this gang of cynical galoots maintain what power and position they have remaining.
While this won’t necessarily mean the death of the GOP, it could mean a long period of being in the wilderness trying to regain some equilibrium. I’ve been there and done that. No fun, I can tell you.
June 1st, 2007 at 2:25 pm
As a moderate independent for approx. 25 years, I’ve had little affinity with the GOP itself –all the while, supporting the majority of its candidates and most of its platforms.
IMO, it’s always been a party in transition (as opposed to the hardline “cradle to grave” dem mentality). Symbolized best as an all-inclusive umbrella (as opposed to the wet blanket approach by the dems), mainstream Republicans basically agree to disagree; dems tend to pout or vow to leave (not their party, but their country when they don’t get their way). By the way — they’re still here and still pouting.
I make no pretense at being an authority — but your second paragraph above strikes me as a tad harsh in your protrayal of the GOP coalition.
Conservatives — whatever the label — are a flexible, resilient corps, held together by common tenets undefined by one person (such as GWB or even RR), yet embodied by the work of those persons. And no — I don’t support GWB’s immigration stance any more than I supported all of RR’s positions.
In addition to being a non-authority, I’m also an optimist. I believe that such a person (or persons) will again rise from the ranks by 2008. (The basis for my optimism is my belief that I KNOW the person who is capable of leading our nation forward.)
I’d be pessimistic and depressed if I thought that by 2008, the GOP leadership and our candidates were projected to represent
I best stop there and go sit in the corner while the authorities speak.