Overhauling the GOP
By Number Six
Wednesday, November 12, 2008 at 06:54 PM
Cry, moan and wail: Since last Tuesday, the tongues are a wag. Did the GOP lose touch with the voters? If so, what can be done to repair their image?
And will they even bother?
It's possible, but the damage control team's got their work cut out for them, a job I wouldn't put on Mr. Scott.
Dump The Religious Right The Religous Right, Morality Mafia, whatever they are slid into the GOP back in the late 70's, as Ronnie Raygun was winding up to become prez. The party seemed just the place for their venom, their anti-women's-rights and anti-gay-rights sensibilities. And that's just Thursdays.
Karl Rove mined this faction and well to get ShoeShine Boy into power, however, this didn't work to spec: Abortion-on-demand was not outlawed, and other interests of this group of fruit loops didn't fly, either. Some realized they were used. They were.
But, this brand of southern-fried American Al Qaeda doesn't sit well with moderates, and is pure antimatter for we letties. Many moderates belong to many religions, it's just that theirs isn't as weird, and distrust the Religious Right no end. Ergo, lose these losers immediately.
Stop Being The Whores Of Wall Street
This one's a biggie. While it is true that some Democratic reps and senators are as bad or worse, no party is so well connected with puckering up and kissing Wall Street's flabby posterior. K Street, lobbyists, connections to Big Anything, DOD contracts, if there are billions involved, there's the elephant right there to take it, too.
Tax cuts for the rich? Republicans. Trade deals to ship jobs overseas? Usually sponsoreed by the GOP. Anti-unionism? GOP. See where this is going?
In other words, GOP, start acting as if the middle class is something, not something to be crushed out of existence.
Send the PNAC Fascists Packing Permanently If anyone, other than the Religious Right royally ruined the GOP, it has to be this carload of megalomanical maniacs calling themselves Progress For A New American Century, aka...The Neo-Fascist Movement, LLC.
The PNAC mantra reads like a right-wing version of the operating guide to the old U.S.S.R.: World domination, total control, nuke if you have to, take whatever you want, but bring the flag, boys. PNAC is the reason why we're in Iraq and Afghanistan, and why our current economic meltdown went as global as it did: Nobody died and elected America....God.
The PNAC stuff backfired and hard, making the USA look like a Three Stooges short...and far less funny, to boot.
The last attempt at American Empire? PNAC. Let's bid them a fond farewell.
Get Back To Where You Once Belonged
The current GOP cannot compare to the one of the Eisenhower Era: Balanced budgets, for one. No, these current clowns spend like a 9-year old running around Toys-R-Us with Mama's Amex in hand. Since Dick Nixon, every GOP president has left the nation damned near broke; the current dickhead will leave with a new record.
GOP also believed in small government. Compare to that the current model we have now, rife with Homeland Security, and other agencies dedicated to pissing away tax dollars on a fantasy. And did anyone other than me see all the pork in that bill to bail out Wall Street?
America, It Ain't For Whites Only Anymore
That from my African-American comrades: The GOP behaves like a whites-only club....white males especially. Sorry, the electorate isn't like that anymore, and any appeal to the many voters...all across the board...isn't going to work with a party that looks too much like Branson, Mo.
There ya go, GOP. You want a shot at 2012? Best get busy and clean house.
Comments
Jettisoning the religious right and the PNAC pinheads is easier to prescribe than to accomplish. David Brooks actually made sense the other day with his column predicting that the extreme arm of the GOP will prevail as its face and soul for the near term. I think he's right. They have the money, the institutions, the organization and the "zeal" (insanity) to be effective.
Nor is the GOP likely to make many inroads into the Hispanic or Black votes as long as they are acting like the old immigrant-bashing America Firsters and contorting themselves into election night pretzels trying to minimize the number of Black and other minority voters. Even in short attention span America you can't fight to disenfranchise Blacks on Tuesday and succeed in getting the Black vote on Thursday.
I think it will be interesting to see how the two major parties' bases evolve over the next 5 to 10 years. There's some evidence that the country as a whole is swinging back from the right edge, but at the same time, the economic wreck of the nation raises the usual specter of a hard right swing by a very angry, desperate segment of the population.
Either way, I have to say that the last several years have had one good effect on me: I'm now close to glad that old enough to not have to make it a whole lot farther into the future. I can't imagine being 21 right now.