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Well now we can add Scott McClellan to the list and I'm sure he won't be the last.
This behavior of clinging to ideas or a course of action that I find most baffling, not in its essence but in its scope. A rather absurd and crude example I have used in the past was if George Bush went off the farm and was found in Times Square wearing nothing but a diaper, cocaine smeared on his face, bottle of whiskey in one hand and an AK-47, shooting up the street in a random fashion, there would be a core group of people who would run to his defense and attempt to argue and rationalize this behavior.
At this point, anyone, no matter who, no matter how long they were devout to the cause, dissent from the ranks, they are immediately demonized, ostracized, and every attempt is made to destroy their careers and lives. I happen to find this chilling and extremely unsettling that people are this extreme.
I'm sure I probably feel this way from my own experiences of being a life long Republican until the day I first questioned the wisdom of Bush on Sept. 12th, and then most assuredly when I voiced my concerns about the wisdom of invading Iraq. The reaction was harsh, cold like a machine, and I thank the stars for it, as it taught me a great lesson that I won't soon forget.
At least I have plenty of good company "under the bus".
The next two people of real prominence I see being tossed under here are McCain and Palin by what I expect will be the ensuing bloodbath blame game.
It is both a little sad but also a bit healthy as it draws out the more extreme elements of the party. As a reader of the American Conservative Magazine, I have noticed that the more intellectual elements of the party have already begun forging a new direction for the future of the party. I suspect the amount of success they will have is also dependent upon how the Democrats manage the next four years.
CNN Political Ticker: All politics, all the time - Blogs from CNN.com
The Indiana crowd — easily Palin’s largest of the day — was warmed up by country legend Hank Williams, Jr., who often appears at Palin campaign events to perform his recently-penned ode to the GOP ticket: “McCain-Palin tradition.”
But Williams may have been channeling the enthusiasm of the crowds for Palin — and also reflecting recent reports that Palin is “going rogue” with an eye toward the 2012 presidential race. At one point during his performance, he intentionally scrambled the song’s lyrics and put the Alaskan at the top of the ticket, praising a “Palin-McCain tradition.”
That musical witticism earned Williams a loud cheer from the crowd.
Even if a mistake it is not helpful this close to election day.
Remember during the election run up when the GOP starting flying apart at the seams and tossing any dissenters, legitimate or not, under the bus? Well after reading through this thread for humor sake, I wonder if any of those "tossers" have any regrets not that GOP is essentially a notch above the Greens or Libertarians.
Now I suspect the GOP will be back in force as it is just part of the political cycle, one party then the other coming and going in and out of favor. However, after so many years of this authoritarian attitude that was promulgated as, "either you are with us or against us", it seems that the party has denounced many of its own intellectuals, fiscal conservatives, and liberty minded-government out of the bedroom" types that all that is left are those that jump up and down and those that froth at the mouth, and even they are fighting with each other now.
It took Democrats many years to regain some loose form of party unity and nearly the total abandonment of traditional liberalism with a march towards the center (and the traditional right) to gain favor once again. Will it take Republicans as long of a time to regain not just a slim majority but something more akin to the 94 tidal wave?
TnHilltopper, I agree with both your original post and this last one, as well as with many posters in between. We will have to see if the GOP now throws Gingrich
out of the tent and allows a radio DJ to become their standard-bearer.
IMHO, it will take quite some time for there to be any cohesion in the GOP. Their decision many years ago to embrace the Dixiecrats has narrowed their base considerably, as evidenced by their inability to accept and work with Michael Steele, much less President Obama.
If the predictions of demographers are correct, by 2040 Caucasians will be a minority. Statistically women outlive men, so the combination of both white and male decreases the white male segment of society yet again.
The Republican base at this point in time consists largely of deep Southern states, which as we know are largely fundamentalist in their religion and somewhat xenophobic in their social mores.
IMHO, the vast majority of Americans are more moderate than
anything else, and I believe that the election of President Obama is reflective of that. We saw that young people are less biased than many of their elders, and that
peope are willing to work with one another across lines of race, age, religion,
class and ethnicity in order to affect the public weal. Add a dwindling base to
their newly-minted obstructionism, and it will be difficult for the GOP to slice
into that coalition of Democrats, Independents and Obamicans that carried Obama into the White House.
The GOP has marginalized itself, and this desperate attempt to
halt progress does not sit well with the majority of Americans and will backfire because of the economy: people are hurting, and there is only the government to help. Instead of offering different ideas and initiatives, the GOP seems to have
forgotten how a democracy works and feel that their only recourse is to muddy the waters with gullible people using nonsensical chicanery such as the birth certificate non-issue, the Socialism non-issue, and even the laughable "Adolph
Hitler comparison" e-mail.
In short, the GOP has lost its moral compass. It has shown itself willing to resort to base racism and outright lies in order to remain vital, but that
model has been rejected and the GOP insistence on clinging to failed neoconservative thinking and behavior will alienate the general populace. As the years pass and the demographics change, the Republican Party will be reduced even further, as younger people reach voting age. The white male base will not be
large enough to sustain an institution of any magnitude; if the GOP cannot come to
grips with the reality that America is constantly changing and adapt to that, then
they will have written their own epitaph: We Will Die Before We'll Change.
Last edited by Evenstar51; 03-11-2009 at 01:24 AM..
Reason: spelling error
And so the tossing continues with the latest bus casualty, Arlen Specter and suggestions that Snow and Collins might be next. At this rate, there will be one gymnasium in Kansas attended by Limbaugh, Hannity, a small handful of cohorts and a group of paranoid white males still wearing their "Death to Ayatollah Koemani" T-shirts that they bough back in 1979. You will be able to count them all from the nose bleed section near the rafters in the back.
Meanwhile, that huge collection of squished bodies that exceeds the tosser types by about 5 to 1 which were tossed under the bus in the past 18 months should be enough in number to regain control of the party and hopefully take it to a more sensible and reasonable direction.
I have to wonder, if Hannity actually put his mouth where the money is and under went water boarding and came out and said... "yes it is torture", would the contemporary right also toss him under the bus as well? So much for the solidarity of the right, then again, maybe the is the logical outcome of an authoritarian styled political party?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Salukifan1
TnHilltopper, I agree with both your original post and this last one, as well as with many posters in between. We will have to see if the GOP now throws Gingrich
out of the tent and allows a radio DJ to become their standard-bearer.
IMHO, it will take quite some time for there to be any cohesion in the GOP. Their decision many years ago to embrace the Dixiecrats has narrowed their base considerably, as evidenced by their inability to accept and work with Michael Steele, much less President Obama.
If the predictions of demographers are correct, by 2040 Caucasians will be a minority. Statistically women outlive men, so the combination of both white and male decreases the white male segment of society yet again.
The Republican base at this point in time consists largely of deep Southern states, which as we know are largely fundamentalist in their religion and somewhat xenophobic in their social mores.
IMHO, the vast majority of Americans are more moderate than
anything else, and I believe that the election of President Obama is reflective of that. We saw that young people are less biased than many of their elders, and that
peope are willing to work with one another across lines of race, age, religion,
class and ethnicity in order to affect the public weal. Add a dwindling base to
their newly-minted obstructionism, and it will be difficult for the GOP to slice
into that coalition of Democrats, Independents and Obamicans that carried Obama into the White House.
The GOP has marginalized itself, and this desperate attempt to
halt progress does not sit well with the majority of Americans and will backfire because of the economy: people are hurting, and there is only the government to help. Instead of offering different ideas and initiatives, the GOP seems to have
forgotten how a democracy works and feel that their only recourse is to muddy the waters with gullible people using nonsensical chicanery such as the birth certificate non-issue, the Socialism non-issue, and even the laughable "Adolph
Hitler comparison" e-mail.
In short, the GOP has lost its moral compass. It has shown itself willing to resort to base racism and outright lies in order to remain vital, but that
model has been rejected and the GOP insistence on clinging to failed neoconservative thinking and behavior will alienate the general populace. As the years pass and the demographics change, the Republican Party will be reduced even further, as younger people reach voting age. The white male base will not be
large enough to sustain an institution of any magnitude; if the GOP cannot come to
grips with the reality that America is constantly changing and adapt to that, then
they will have written their own epitaph: We Will Die Before We'll Change.
Although I happen to think both right and left are and have been moving towards the center. I mean we have liberals today who are all in favor of expanding our war/occupations in the Middle East and Republicans out protesting in the streets in a very Code Pink manner... teabag anyone? While I believe that this is where the majority of the country is, which is moderate, still both sides are awash in this incessant banter over a mere few degrees at the expense of actual political philosophy.
I suppose I wax for those days when anti-war liberals would protest an undeclared and questionably sourced war or take to the streets over an issue such as poverty, regardless who or what party were managing the war. After all they were liberals first, party partisans second.
By that same note, there was a day when conservatives would speak out about excessive spending, any excessive spending, be it health care or over bloated military budgets. They would chide the intrusion of government into their living rooms, not support some draconian Patriot Act out of fear, and it mattered not who or what party promoted this type of thing.
In any event, I have to laugh as to watch this bus move on down the street is like watching a yugo try to negotiate two foot deep pot holes with the few heads left on the bus, bobbing up and down.
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Was this a mistake or is John under the bus also?
