Disband GOP
These days, everything has started changing for the better now that the Democrats control the While House, the Senate and the House. Well, except one thing. A certain party (that shall remain nameless like all guilty parties), now out of power and very much in the minority, does not realize that it lost big time because it would not do the right thing for this country no matter what. And it's sticking to that same rule now, be what may.
And what do the rest of us do about those obstructionists? What should all the fair-minded, forward-looking people do about this outrage of a party that is now just Old and no longer Grand?
Well, I say we should campaign for disbanding GOP altogether. In these hard times, we have a unique opportunity to make Republican views on all things political so marginalized that no one, save a few fringe lunatics, would even consider voting for them. They must become the Whigs of the 21st century.
For me, bipartisanship means that we're accepting all reasonably-minded Republicans into the Democratic party. Out tent is so big it can hold all their tent except for all the zealots, racists and other such dregs. Come on in, let the re-education begin.
And what do the rest of us do about those obstructionists? What should all the fair-minded, forward-looking people do about this outrage of a party that is now just Old and no longer Grand?
Well, I say we should campaign for disbanding GOP altogether. In these hard times, we have a unique opportunity to make Republican views on all things political so marginalized that no one, save a few fringe lunatics, would even consider voting for them. They must become the Whigs of the 21st century.
For me, bipartisanship means that we're accepting all reasonably-minded Republicans into the Democratic party. Out tent is so big it can hold all their tent except for all the zealots, racists and other such dregs. Come on in, let the re-education begin.
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We need a minority party. even though it represents the rich and powerful.
It is weak and we need it weak but present.
Or a bunch of minority parties.
That is my belief and I am no expert.
I will tell you that I have despised the GOP for forty years.
January 30, 2009 12:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
A bunch of small third parties is fine, but no obstructionist behemoth like the GOP.
January 30, 2009 12:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
I didn't despise Republicans until the "Moral" "Majority" came along.
January 30, 2009 4:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well that is only 4 years after 1968, so we are not that far apart. I am assuming the 'moral' majority coincides with the 'silent' majority under Nixon.
January 30, 2009 4:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, you young whippersnapper. The "Moral Majority" was an organization founded by Jerry Falwell in the early 80s. They wre real. The "Silent Majority" was Nixon's description of a non-existant group of middle class white people who, he posited, supported the continuation of the Vietnam War into the 1970s despite the DFH's (i.e. the parents of most TPM readers) who were protesting.
January 30, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nixon was appealing to more than just Vietnam war believers, he wanted what would become known after 1980 as "Reagan Democrats" on his side. He started the "southern strategy" of subtle appeal to racists, and the whole culture war thing. Just ask his speech writer Pat Buchanan, he'll tell ya.
January 30, 2009 1:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm right with you on that one, debbiedoesnothing. That phrase immediately divided the population. If you weren't in the 'moral majority' you were, by default, in the 'immoral minority'. Not spoken aloud but implied nonetheless and extraordinarily harmful to the psyche of our nation.
January 30, 2009 8:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
The strategy of giving quarter to right wing religious fundamentalists produced a corrosive stream of anti-intellectual intolerance. It amplified the neo-McCarthyism of the Nixon republicans and contributed to a severe dumbing down of the national character. It was one of Reagan's most egregious "contributions", one which fans the flames of my contempt for nitwits who look back with nostalgia at his destructive tenure. Marginalization of these people - not just politically, but culturally - could be one of the great things about a two-term Obama presence.
January 30, 2009 9:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
That won't just happen because Obama serves two terms. The fundamentalist Christian wackos were out there in the millions and very much a part of the Republican coalition long before Reagan. They just became a lot more vocal and noisy because Reagan started allowing them to enter in the front door instead of the back one. For decades, the Christian right was low-level but vast. With the widespread accessibility of cheap mass communications they spread their dumbass beliefs to even more gullible, fearful, uneducated people desperately in search of some kind of meaning in their lives. The hucksters of the religious right have been fleecing them ever since in their megachurches and with their never-ending revivals. It will take an active effort to crush them and the GOP so that it never rises again.
January 30, 2009 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Membership in evangelical churches has grown by leaps and bounds in the last 20 years because sheep don't want to be in the Immoral Minority.
January 30, 2009 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
You'd better be saving up on all that despise.
The dems have 22 more months of majority status. In the immortal words of Dirty Harry, "You ain't gonna believe what happens next".
January 30, 2009 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
renaye you keep alluding to your knowledge of the future. Why so coy? How about writing a post with your predictions so we can all share the benefits of your crystal ball and have some fun in comments?
January 30, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
You don't have to be a German rocket scientist to figure this out. When one party controls both legislative and executive branches they almost always overreach. The repubs did so to a smaller degree when they were in power a few years ago and got mopped. Their overreaching was nothing like what the dems are pushing now.
The dem's radical agenda depends on threading really a lot of small eyed needles in the next 18 months in order maintain majority status. They've got it all on the line. They're depending on Obama's continuing popularity, and Reid's and Pelosi's leadership abilities.
If they succeed, we'll be a more socialist country and they'll retain power for generations.
The fact the bipartisanship was on the against side of the big spending bill, to me, is an indication they aren't as well organized as they thought. The score after the bill passes the senate will make the picture even clearer, at least in my mind.
The only thing being stimulated by the bill right now is the conservative base. And a lot of independents who voted democrat are looking at this staggeringly massive pork bill in amazement. We'll see.
January 30, 2009 3:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh yeah, only *you* will believe what happens next, not the lowly rest of the humankind. You and Dirty Harry.
January 30, 2009 2:40 PM | Reply | Permalink