Of course the republicans have factions and internal tensions. That’s the nature of coalition politics. I’d rather have our problems than the democrats.’ They have become reactionary defenders of a bankrupt welfare state that can’t be duct taped together much longer. They have a class warfare, leveller president who is reducing the size of the pie vs. beneficiary constituencies that can’t be fed unless the pie gets bigger. “Eat the rich” was a way for Obama to lie his way through the last election, but it’s not sustainable. They have an urban underclass that desperately wants better schools for their kids vs. the teachers unions. They have trial lawyer and environmental radical elites essentially making war on everyone else’s jobs. And they’ve just sold nationalization of healthcare to a mass of low information voters who are going to be very surprised when costs go up and quality goes down.
Yes, we have our quarrels on the right. But I can scarcely imagine the cognitive dissonence with which people on the left must live. Hardly a new observation: living with lies is an old, old story on the left and is rooted in their utopian underpinnings, which makes it difficult to acknowledge dilemmas, hard choices, and the merits in the other side’s point of view. The purpose of the lie is to wish all of that away and recast politics as a simple morality play of good vs. evil.
Yes, we have our internal tensions. But to borrow a phrase, we are a reality based community, and the left is insane.
Good analysis, very well put.