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March 02, 2009

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Karl Rove's base strategy was a stroke of genius in that it galvanized some less efficacious fundamentalist voters who along with more traditional GOP voters managed to give Bush a couple of narrow victories. But over the long term, the strategy has borne toxic fruit. The tribalism and exclusionary fervor of the GOP base makes recapturing a majority of voters an uphill climb. But as Rush, Michelle and Ann show, it's more fun being righteous than effective. That partly explains why Rush attacked Newt Gingrich for suggesting the Party needed better policy positions.

Going on 40 years of age, the Southern Strategy made culture war political gold. But it was Reagan who made the grand coalition of culture warriors and greedheads possible. Without Reagan, the base simply looks deranged. CPAC is just a rowdy mob of True Believers who want a fight to the death regardless of the battle. It doesn't matter if there's a grave economic crisis, what the other issues are, or even what the polls say. When the tribe of white Christianist "conservatives" convenes, nihilism isn't far behind.


Mr. Talton, this is an excellent post. The Republican Party is a sick toxic joke. It is terrifying that anyone votes for Republicans. They are the party of predatory capitalism, of outsourcing jobs, forcing Americans into crap jobs (because there is nothing else), of lost pensions, worthless 401(k), and ultimately starvation. I don't see how 40 year-olds who are laid off now will survive when they get older -- our country will just "mow them down" instead of having compassion and feeding penniless old folks who tried to work and save for retirement.

Your description of Rush Limbaugh is spot-on. It is absurd that this caricature is actually viewed as a leader, or as verbalizing any political message that makes any sense. Perish the thought. He's a clown, and a demagouge.

"...Forget their rhetoric about 'liberty.' It's all about the money. All about "I got mine."..."

Not a contradiction for these folks. "Money is freedom," and all of that. It's that "freedom for all" thingy they keep pushing back at. Sounds too much like "money for all"...

Anyway, a great synopsis of the state of the GOP. It is shadenfreudelicious, with a dash of bitters.


Here's to your continued good health and intellectual vigor, Jon Talton!

Keep writing!

"Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot."

It's frightening how Republicans have merged Evangelical zeal with political philosophy. It's as if Jesus returned only to write the GOP planks -- they are apparently holy writ. I'm quite sure Luther would have been appalled.

Jon, you are absolutely right that (progressive) Democrats have more to fear from (corporate lackey) "Democrats" than they do from the cavalcade of buffoons remaining in the dying husk of the GOP. The ownership class is busily turning the Democratic party into a wholly owned subsidiary as we speak. For example, legislation that would allow bankruptcy judges to write-down mortgages (would reduce forclosures by an estimated 20% and at no cost to taxpayers) is being watered down by a group of conservative Democrats at the behest of the banks.

As for Limbaugh, I suppose that whether or not one found anything redeeming about him at any time is a matter of perspective. This is a man who likened Chelsea Clinton to a dog back in 1993. That was around the same time he mused that the sole purpose of feminism was to allow unattractive women access to the media. He extolled the virtues of sexual harassment in the workplace in one of his early books. So I'll take your word for it that he was once funny or self-deprecating or whatever. I hadn't noticed, since his misogyny has always gone full-bore.

USA Today recently published an alarming front page story claiming that Wall Street had no faith in Obama because his budget had revealed him to be "way off to the left" of Bill Clinton.

These sentiments were revealed, however, exclusively by quotes from two hedge-fund managers, who -- though the article failed to mention it -- are slated by that budget not only to experience a slight increase in their marginal income tax rate, but also to lose the special capital gains tax break currently enjoyed by them (and by private equity managers).

The story did end with a paragraph expressing "Wall Street's" feeling that confidence in the markets would be restored if only the government took MORE DECISIVE action. The Arizona Republic, which carried this story, edited out these final paragraphs, leaving readers with the strong impression that the sentiment actually prevailing on Wall Street was a complete lack of confidence in the ability of government, per se, to address the crisis.

This is at least the second time in the last week that the Republic has done this. Another recent story (again, very similar to a USA Today story) reported only that the feds intended to rewrite the 287(g) agreement (between local law enforcement such as MCSO, and ICE) because of "insufficient guidance".

The Arizona Republic, unlike nearly every other periodical covering the story, excised all explicit reference to the fact that the feds' chief dissatisfaction in the implementation of 287(g) was the abuse of it in targeting ordinary undocumented immigrants rather than the serious criminal aliens (drug smugglers, coyotes, etc.) who were the intended targets of the agreement. Revealing such a fact, however, would be tantamount to reporting that Uncle Joe Arpaio is not in compliance -- rather a touchy subject for him at present.

I'm afraid, then, that I'm not a sanguine as Mr. Talton regarding the threat from conservative propaganda. Its adherents have always been cranky, and frequently buffoonish, but the rub is that they are also loud, persistent, and have the ear of the mass media, since ownership of that media is increasingly concentrated in the hands of wealthy investors.

A minor quibble: there is no record of Lenin ever having actually used the term "useful idiots":

"In the spring of 1987, Grant Harris, senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress, said "We have not been able to identify this phrase among [Lenin's] published works."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useful_idiot

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