Posted on 09/14/2009 8:01:16 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
No one can deny that the GOP, celebrating 155 years of existence this year, has been a significant factor in the American polity. The Republicans have won 22 presidential elections to the Democrats’ 16, and can lay claim to the one president that transcended partisan politics–Abraham Lincoln. No Democratic president in history comes close, not even FDR. Lincoln’s leadership in the civil war and his abolition of slavery are often portrayed as American achievements as opposed to Republican successes. The GOP has also had at least three dominant periods in which they fashioned social, economic, and international policy: 1893 to 1912, 1921 to 1933 and 1980 to 2008. There were excesses along the way but, generally speaking, the party’s history revolves around a legitimate conception of America and how it should be governed. That has been true until this year.
Ever since Obama’s inauguration, the Republicans have struggled to gain any traction as a viable alternative. Since then, Obama’s approval numbers have gone down sharply, but the Republicans have not benefited in any noticeable way. Last week’s silly outburst by Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina, may have made him a hero to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and the rest of the lunatic right. But it did little to make his party seem like legitimate counterweight to the Democrats. Similarly, this Saturday’s Tea Party protests seem grassroots enough, but the rhetoric emerging from its spokespersons leaves the impression that the Republican party is now just a party of protest. It is no longer playing the role of the guardian of conservatism. Consider, for instance, how Sarah Palin’s false charges of death panels did little other than derail a legitimate debate on health care reform. As a result, the battle over health care is now an intra-party contest within the Democratic party.
What is astonishing is how the Republican leadership seems oblivious to all this. It is now obvious the Democrats have given up on getting any bipartisan support regarding healthcare reform or on climate change legislation. You would expect more support from the GOP on the economy considering that many of the initiatives were started by George Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, a Republican nominee. Same goes for Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Even John McCain, a moderate Republican and the co-author of an immigration reform bill with Ted Kennedy, voted against her. Sotomayor was not a controversial choice and represented an opportunity for the GOP to make inroads with Hispanics. On health care, according to many observers, some of the GOP’s ideas will make their way into the final package and there is a real possibility that the dreaded public option will be dropped. At the end of the day, the image conveyed at Obama’s speech last week was that of a bunch of grumpy white men sitting on their hands and contributing very little to the debate.
Is it too late for the Republicans? No, not if the Senate Finance committee comes up with a proposal that has potential to garner some bipartisan support down the road. Still, Sarah Palin’s missive I referenced above has come to symbolize the shallow, oppose-at-all-costs approach to public policy that has dominated the public discourse since last January. Quite frankly, Palin energizes a base that talk radio hosts like Limbaugh and Beck use to exploit fear and misinformation. Even McCain, who keeps defending Palin, sometimes with apparent discomfort, contradicts her view on the death panels. And yet, Palin leads many polls for the 2012 Republican nomination and will draw huge crowds once she hits the speech circuit this fall—this, despite how pathetic she was in interviews with Katie Couric of CBS and Charles Gibson of ABC when tasked with explaining policy. As long as her views drive the debate away from any reasonable proposals coming from Republicans in Congress, the GOP will remain marginal in the debate over any policy direction.
The commies are getting restless. Scared too.
Why does Mark Steyn write for this magaine? Does he still?
Oddly enough, this article is well written up to two sentences into the second paragraph.
Then it goes insane.
Actually, it sounds kind of like John McCain. How’d that work out in the last election? Not too good.
These guys are getting spooked. ACORN busts and the Rally. Couple those with the “August”, and the Obamas are their heels. That’s why its race card week, like the other poster said. Beck and the others are getting too close..
The GOP has also had at least three dominant periods in which they fashioned social, economic, and international policy: 1893 to 1912, 1921 to 1933 and 1980 to 2008. .......................... Hmmmmm? I still look back to the 50’s as being the best of times.
Still, Sarah Palin’s missive I referenced above has come to symbolize the shallow, oppose-at-all-costs approach to public policy that has dominated the public discourse since last January.
I did not find Sarah Palin’s “missive” as shallow or platitudinous as Obama’s “major” speeches.
I think a Couric interview today would be a far cry from
the previous ones, Sarah would pwn the ageing media princess.
So the Canadian thinks Rush Limbaugh is the lunatic right.
Silly outburst by Joe Wilson, a Republican from South Carolina.
No wonder this guy doesn’t like Sarah Palin.
He is not a fan of Conservative Republicans.
We have unions and ACORN people getting more input writing the bills than any elected representative from the Republicans and they expect bipartisan support.
That would be me!
Exactly what misinformation?
“The GOP has also had at least three dominant periods in which they fashioned social, economic, and international policy: 1893 to 1912, 1921 to 1933 and 1980 to 2008.”
BS on 1980 - 2008. A few problems with this:
1. R’s completely lost control in 2006, not 2008. Both houses of congress went strongly rat that year.
2. We had no effective control of the presidency AND congress except for two years in that entire era, between 2004 and 2006. Even then, no conservative measure could get past a dem/RINO filibuster.
3. The effect of R’s in the modern era is greatly overrated.
We managed to slow somewhat the rate of the slide into socialism until 2000. We did not even stop the slide, we just slowed it down a bit. After 2000, the R’s became cheerleaders for the growth of the state. “We can grow the federal gvt and pass out more goodies than the dems and people will like us more.”
4. For that entire era, until about 2006, the left firmly controlled the supreme court and used it very effectively to constrain any conservative initiatives at the federal or state levels and to advance the left wing agenda there.
But aside from that, the R’s controlled things completely between 1980 and 2008.
Memo to McLeans. We need good justices, not racial quotas.
See my tagline.
I am very proud to be one of those “Palin Republicans” the writer of the article speaks of. Actually, I would prefer to call myself “a RePALINcan!”
These liberals and RINOs’ attempts to discredit and destroy Sarah are failing and will ultimately crash and burn!
I’m with Sarah, all the way! I don’t wanna see another RINO at the top of the ticket! WE NEED SARAH PALIN!!!!! She is the only one who can unseat Obama.
There’s Republicans out there who need to stop believing the liberals’ lies about her and actually pay attention to what she actually says.
Tune the liberals out and HERD THE RINOS OUT OF THE GOP!!!!!
SARAH PALIN, ALL THE WAY!!!!!!! NO ONE ELSE WILL DO!!!!!!!
SAR-AH! SAR-AH!!!!!! SAR-AH!!!!!!! SAR-AH!!!!!!!!
these are “Washingtonians” ....versus Americans.....
Macleans has lots of good writers and is one of the few publications in Canada where conservative thought (and the Conservative Party) get any kind of a fair shake. That said, there are still lots of liberals working there -- in the case of Parisella, capital-L Quebec Liberals. Check out the comments which follow his post. They resemble a lot of the commentary on this site.
thank you!
What he actually neglects to mention is the fact that the GOP has been effectively “SHUT OUT” of the process with regards to health care reform. This despite members of the GOP having tried to bring to the table conservative options for health care reform. What does Obozo and this moron think that GOP members were waving during Obozo’s speech last Wednesday?
"This is the paradox of the tea-party movement and other right-wing protests fueled by genuine citizen anger and fear. It is true that the federal government embraces redistributive policies and that middle-class income is seized in order that "someone else benefits." But so obviously, that "someone else" who is benefiting is not the poor and lower classes -- who continue to get poorer as the numbers living below the poverty line expand and the rich-poor gap grows in the U.S. to unprecedented proportions. The "someone else" that is benefiting from Washington policies are -- as usual -- the super-rich, the tiny number of huge corporations which literally own and control the Government. The premise of these citizen protests is not wrong: Washington politicians are in thrall to special interests and are, in essence, corruptly stealing the country's economic security in order to provide increasing benefits to a small and undeserving minority. But the "minority" here isn't what Fox News means by that term, but is the tiny sliver of corporate power which literally writes our laws and, in every case, ends up benefiting.
My epiphany on this point came when both McCain and Obama during a heated presidential campaign supported TARP. Right then and there I knew there was essentially no difference between the two of them when it came to who owned whom.
My only question now is, do they still control the beast they created?
ex animo
davidfarrar
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