So, the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) happened not to long ago. What’s that? You didn’t read much about it either? That’s odd. You’d think that magical time of year where the GOP and the right-wing get together to somehow figure out how to turn their electoral fortunes around would get a bit more ink, especially amongst the pundit class. All I really saw was an article from Cal Thomas saying he saw a Stormtrooper and Chewbacca at CPAC, and Michael “I’m The Truest Real” Reagan talked about how Rand Paul is the future of the republican party because he's not a Ted Cruz level of asshole.
At least Mr. Reagan get’s it, somewhat. The GOP right-wing really need to find a mainstream candidate. They’re not going to find it at CPAC, however much they want it. And from the little coverage I saw of it, that’s probably for the best. The Paul’s: both Rand and Ron are nothing more than wishful thinking amongst the most right of the right-wing. This fantasy that Libertarianism somehow is of “The Internets” and that those young people amongst it will be enough to turn the tides in a general election is laughable. What’s more, the republican party will never open up the tent wide enough for Libertarians and their candidates.
Ted Cruz, one of the presumptive clowns for the Republican Presidential Candidate Clown Car Rally, had some harsh things to say about John McCain, Bob Dole and Mitt Romney. Harsh isn’t the word I would use, and to be fair Cruz just repeated the talking point that came in the wake of the 2014 election: the candidate wasn’t “conservative” enough. Of course Dole and McCain came out and grandpa grumbled about their conservative bonafides, and more or less did show that the republican party does have a real issue: old white men that won’t go away.
The GOP/right-wing could embrace populism more effectively if they were constantly having to appease old farts that still feel a need to say something. Of course, Cruz’s comment were meant to rankle, he even did the whole “These men are great men, but come on…” preamble before he dropped the “not conservative” enough haymaker on them. But Ted Cruz isn’t a populist candidate either. Perhaps, and given enough time, when the TEA Party slowly erodes the GOP, he could establish himself as mainstream. But for now, he and his patriots are just reeking havoc on an already shaky political party.
To two grand dames of the TEA Party, Michelle Bachman and Sarah Palin, showed up to…what were they doing? It seems more and more every year that these two just show up and say nothing, look pretty, and have people yell “Run For President”. Because that’s what the GOP/right-wing needs right now, people mired in controversy and blatant hypocrisy.
Even this column mentions the subdued nature of the CPAC this year, noting that it’s an off year election and that the major juice from the TEA Party Patriots of old has begun to diminish. Also mentioned is a lack of a defined leader to coalesce the party around. This is indeed a real issues the GOP/right-wing is having right now, and from the looks of CPAC this isn’t going to be remedied ANY time soon. I’m come on, Rand Paul won the straw poll!
It’s sad that nearly two years after they lost the presidential election to that rascally Obama that the GOP/right-wing can’t get their shit together as a party. It’s as if they had marginal success with one thing, the “Pelosi-Obama-Reid-Obamacare” tactic in 2010, and now have little else to work with. The fact that the Thomas and Reagan articles both mention a new tact to take should speak volumes to the actual problems the republican party is having. But it’s been the same song and dance since the election, when ol’ Mitt Romney just “wasn’t conservative” enough.
You have to wonder why the GOP/right-wing doesn’t change their message. They have to see that after four years the “Obamacare is gonna get you!” isn’t really working. Even with the faulty start and odd implementation of the program, it didn’t prevent Obama from being re-elected and the democrats were poised to lose seats in both houses of congress anyways. With the further splintering of the electorate the stakes have never been lower, and it’s odd to see the GOP/right-wing really struggle with a clear message at this point.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Monday, March 3, 2014
TEA Party Hair of the Dog with Michael Gerson
A few things happened recently that went under reported. One, president Obama signed a debt limit increase. Two, the TEA Party celebrated it’s fifth birthday as a “grassroots” political organization. I say under reported because they’re both non news, but they are important in the run up to this years midterm elections. The GOP thinks it’s going to capture the Senate this fall, mostly on the back of Obamacare’s implementation and Democratic Party implosion. They couldn’t be more mistaken, but crazier things have happened.
But why the sudden change in tenor from the GOP right-wing? Why wasn’t there the usual Republican so and so on cable news networks screaming that the world was ending and sliding down the slippery slop of socialism as decreed by the almighty King Obama? Why is the TEA Party’s birthday marginalized to the back of the paper as a “Oh yeah, this happened”? Well, mostly because the GOP wants to win this midterm election really, really bad.
Of all the articles to pick about this fresh face emerging within the GOP, I chose Michael Gerson. He’s just your run-of-the-mill middle-aged white man that writes benign political opinion for the Washington Post. His interpretation is pretty comical, and you have to wonder if Mr. Gerson understands the mercenary animal that is a political party backed in to a corner.
First off, the hangover analogy isn’t very apt. The TEA Party has become part of the GOP, just like the evangelicals. The GOP needs all the voter bloc they have scared up in ensuring decades to pad out their old white men element that’s dying off on them. To be fair, there is a LOT of overlap between TEA Party and evangelicals, so the 2010 electoral shot in the arm of true patriots may have been a bit muddy.
This pure and faith based faux ideology is what Mr. Gerson says made the GOP right-wing start pulling away from the crazies in the party. Mentioning a recent outburst from Ted Nugent, Mr. Gerson surmises that since the ideology of the party is “faith and morality” they HAVE to pull away from old Uncle Ted, who was using “dehumanizing” language or else they look bad. So, he’s at least on point there.
But the GOP right-wing won’t pull TOO far away, as they need those thinly veiled racists to come out to the polls and vote against Obama-Pelosi-Reid-Obamacare-Abortion-They’reGonnaTakeYerGuns. In this desperate grab for the Senate they believe they can do without those who would typically come out to vote for a republican. Mr. Gerson agrees to as much when he states that the majority of republicans still identify with the TEA Party ideology.
Also worth noting is this notion that many right-wing pundits have been parroting lately: populism. I about lost my mind when I read George Will espouse it in a recent column, and of course it finds itself here in an also ran Michael Gerson column. Problem is, the GOP right-wing is totally going to take the wrong “lessons” from this recent turn of events. And I’m fairly uncertain that even though the TEA Party birthday was still marginalized, that they aren’t a potent force.
The reason I say this is because Ted Cruz spoke at the D.C. birthday bash, as did other TEA Party congress people. Ted Cruz is hoping to save a bit of face after imploding the GOP right-wing last fall with his buffoonish filibuster. Mr. Gerson seems to think the Cruz debacle was a liberating moment for the GOP, which in a way, it was. The GOP right-wing could very well send him down river under the notion that he was the old, crazy, racist, bigoted GOP right-wing. This 2014 on forward GOP is your real friend, no…neighbor, who just lives up the street in that shining city on a hill.
But the notion that Mr. Gerson provides in the populist choices that the GOP right-wing has to make is laughable: “Do they want to be identified with the tactics of Ted Cruz? Or do they want to give the populist backlash that Obama has provoked a positive governing purpose on issues from health care to education to economic mobility?” Problem is they are ALREADY identified by Ted Cruz tactics, see every recent debt limit increase, house Obamacare repeal, and so on since Obama entered office. It’s a false choice. The other choice? Give me a break! In order to capitalize on the “populist backlash” they need workable ideas. I’ve already written about some of those ideas at length. They aren’t hiding something super awesome up their sleeve that’s just going to blow independent voters minds.
To end his column Mr. Gerson sticks to the talking points memo: liberalism is in a state of disrepair…because of Obamacare? I’m curious to see if and when the GOP right-wing unleash their healthcare plan if it’s going to work minute one of implementation? That they will find no barriers to enacting the law, and that everyone will gladly accept it with open arms. This is assuming that the GOP right-wing as a whole decides to repeal Obamacare, which many have said is easier said then done. Aside from that, the independents aren’t going to be swayed because Obamacare failed, seeing as that isn’t really an issue to them. A more pressing issue to them has been and will always be the economy.
What’s more, the vast majority of independents are former republicans that have been repulsed by what the TEA Party has done to the GOP. The notion Mr. Gerson lays out is that the GOP right-wing must embrace populism to get votes has never been more apt. But it’s going to take a long, long time before the GOP shakes it’s “scary” elements that are disenfranchising voters and chiefly independents. And you can bet that if the GOP fails to grab the senate this fall, they’ll be more than happy to have that TEA Party hair of the dog to keep the party going to 2016.
But why the sudden change in tenor from the GOP right-wing? Why wasn’t there the usual Republican so and so on cable news networks screaming that the world was ending and sliding down the slippery slop of socialism as decreed by the almighty King Obama? Why is the TEA Party’s birthday marginalized to the back of the paper as a “Oh yeah, this happened”? Well, mostly because the GOP wants to win this midterm election really, really bad.
Of all the articles to pick about this fresh face emerging within the GOP, I chose Michael Gerson. He’s just your run-of-the-mill middle-aged white man that writes benign political opinion for the Washington Post. His interpretation is pretty comical, and you have to wonder if Mr. Gerson understands the mercenary animal that is a political party backed in to a corner.
First off, the hangover analogy isn’t very apt. The TEA Party has become part of the GOP, just like the evangelicals. The GOP needs all the voter bloc they have scared up in ensuring decades to pad out their old white men element that’s dying off on them. To be fair, there is a LOT of overlap between TEA Party and evangelicals, so the 2010 electoral shot in the arm of true patriots may have been a bit muddy.
This pure and faith based faux ideology is what Mr. Gerson says made the GOP right-wing start pulling away from the crazies in the party. Mentioning a recent outburst from Ted Nugent, Mr. Gerson surmises that since the ideology of the party is “faith and morality” they HAVE to pull away from old Uncle Ted, who was using “dehumanizing” language or else they look bad. So, he’s at least on point there.
But the GOP right-wing won’t pull TOO far away, as they need those thinly veiled racists to come out to the polls and vote against Obama-Pelosi-Reid-Obamacare-Abortion-They’reGonnaTakeYerGuns. In this desperate grab for the Senate they believe they can do without those who would typically come out to vote for a republican. Mr. Gerson agrees to as much when he states that the majority of republicans still identify with the TEA Party ideology.
Also worth noting is this notion that many right-wing pundits have been parroting lately: populism. I about lost my mind when I read George Will espouse it in a recent column, and of course it finds itself here in an also ran Michael Gerson column. Problem is, the GOP right-wing is totally going to take the wrong “lessons” from this recent turn of events. And I’m fairly uncertain that even though the TEA Party birthday was still marginalized, that they aren’t a potent force.
The reason I say this is because Ted Cruz spoke at the D.C. birthday bash, as did other TEA Party congress people. Ted Cruz is hoping to save a bit of face after imploding the GOP right-wing last fall with his buffoonish filibuster. Mr. Gerson seems to think the Cruz debacle was a liberating moment for the GOP, which in a way, it was. The GOP right-wing could very well send him down river under the notion that he was the old, crazy, racist, bigoted GOP right-wing. This 2014 on forward GOP is your real friend, no…neighbor, who just lives up the street in that shining city on a hill.
But the notion that Mr. Gerson provides in the populist choices that the GOP right-wing has to make is laughable: “Do they want to be identified with the tactics of Ted Cruz? Or do they want to give the populist backlash that Obama has provoked a positive governing purpose on issues from health care to education to economic mobility?” Problem is they are ALREADY identified by Ted Cruz tactics, see every recent debt limit increase, house Obamacare repeal, and so on since Obama entered office. It’s a false choice. The other choice? Give me a break! In order to capitalize on the “populist backlash” they need workable ideas. I’ve already written about some of those ideas at length. They aren’t hiding something super awesome up their sleeve that’s just going to blow independent voters minds.
To end his column Mr. Gerson sticks to the talking points memo: liberalism is in a state of disrepair…because of Obamacare? I’m curious to see if and when the GOP right-wing unleash their healthcare plan if it’s going to work minute one of implementation? That they will find no barriers to enacting the law, and that everyone will gladly accept it with open arms. This is assuming that the GOP right-wing as a whole decides to repeal Obamacare, which many have said is easier said then done. Aside from that, the independents aren’t going to be swayed because Obamacare failed, seeing as that isn’t really an issue to them. A more pressing issue to them has been and will always be the economy.
What’s more, the vast majority of independents are former republicans that have been repulsed by what the TEA Party has done to the GOP. The notion Mr. Gerson lays out is that the GOP right-wing must embrace populism to get votes has never been more apt. But it’s going to take a long, long time before the GOP shakes it’s “scary” elements that are disenfranchising voters and chiefly independents. And you can bet that if the GOP fails to grab the senate this fall, they’ll be more than happy to have that TEA Party hair of the dog to keep the party going to 2016.
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