If I may be permitted to opine, I would say that as nasty and vitriolic as the current battle is, the real battle is taking place in the Republican Party, which is close to civil war at present.
And in the long term, that ideological battle will have greater ramifications nationally than the race between our two current front runners.
You see the principles of the Grand Old Party don't seem to resonate with the average american the same way they used to and people are scared. And the in house people can't quite figure it out.
Not that there are no splits or division in the Democratic party but we have seen nothing like this sheitstorm.
By all accounts and past prognostications, Jeb Bush should be the GOP standard bearer right now. But something happened on the way to the coronation; the Tea Party morphed into the Freedom Caucus and declared war on the establishment for not being aggressive enough. The base wanted on outsider.
John Boehner was the first casualty in this range war, trying to herd cats so that the party didn't look like fools with their obstructionist tactics. They begged Paul Ryan to take the speakership, a job he didn't want, now the same folks are calling for his head.
It is a funny mix, you have your social conservatives and evangelicals, the pro trade fiscal types, the anti trade protectionist fiscal types, the pro immigration/cheap labor business folks pitted against the anti immigration, put up a wall crowd that sometimes includes white separatists and racists. Isolationists are squaring up against war hawks. Trump vs. anti Trump. Doesn't seem to be a lot the Repubs agree on, excepting of course their hatred for Democrats and Hillary Clinton.
Now Trump is burning down the whole house, the party close to shambles. Down ballot Republicans are associating and disassociating with Trump like spinning weather vanes. Forty percent of the base are ready to pick up their muskets and start blood watering the liberty tree.
The post election infighting and saga should be real interesting to watch.
Not we democrats' problem. Fix your own house.
*
Senators Charles Grassley and Mitch McConnell didn't want to vote for Obama SCOTUS candidate Merrick Garland because they thought that for the first time in history, the next President should get the chance to do it. Now John McCain, Ted Cruz and some yutz at the Cato Institute named Ilya Shapiro think it might be better off to never approve a Supreme Court Justice nominated by a liberal, to let them all die off.
Is this any way to run a republic? Can you imagine the hue and cry if the shoe was on the other foot? But dems of course would never act so cravenly.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz has reportedly got a whole mess of Hillary Clinton investigations on track in the event she becomes President.
Sen. Mitch McConnell started off on the wrong foot with President Obama, immediately signaling that the party strategy was to obstruct and make him a one term President. It is heartbreaking, childish, asinine, ridiculous (insert the adjective of your choice here) behavior. The country deserves better than to be subjected to four more years of partisan bickering and congressional malfeasance.
Good people of both parties need to start working together for the good of the country.
1 comment:
Robert,
I feel it is time for us to differentiate between the current lot of Republicans and the "Conservatives". (read Freedom Caucus and friends) The two are not synonymous.
In my mind, Republicans advocate for a representative form of government that is limited in its powers and limited in the scope of it's responsibility. Government lives within its means, avoids borrowing unless in time of national emergency, conducts a forthright and muscular foreign policy and fields a well equipped and strong military; and serves as the guarantor of our citizenship rights as articulated in the Constitution. That Government must resist the temptation to engage in social engineering or manipulation through the tax code and must present to all citizens a level and fair playing field. It must be trusted and it must be utterly transparent. That is the Republican view as cast in ages past.
"Conservatives" believe government exists to impose their "world view" and their "values" on the nation through force of law. They believe in the Divine inspiration of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. They refuse to acknowledge our nation's "original sin" and they are possessed with a kind of self-righteous fever that convinces them that "they" are more American than anyone else. They also seem to hate their political opponents more than they love their country and they are willing to literally wreck the nation if they can't have their way. They believe compromise at any level is betrayal. They deny facts that don't affirm their prejudices and eschew science in favor of fanciful theories and rumors. They cannot be reasoned with which makes them too dangerous to govern.
It is time that Republicans divorce themselves from the "Conservative" movement, spin them off into the Alt-Right universe where they are a far better fit, and begin to make their case anew to what is left of the thinking people in America. It may cost them a few election cycles as they hone and craft their positions and messaging, but their integrity as a party (and our nation's welfare) is well worth their temporary sacrifice.
I still firmly believe that a healthy, sane, two party system benefits our nation and continues the healthy discussions of opinion and goals as was practiced so many years ago in Colonial Williamsburg by the forefathers and led to our forming of a more perfect union.
Of course the democrats need a little work as well but that is for another day and another writer to explore.
RH
Post a Comment