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In recent years, as Republicans have pursued ideological purity and the right has grown less tolerant of dissent, a variety of once-prominent conservatives have found themselves on the outside looking in.
Brink Lindsey and Will Wilkinson are noticeably absent from the Cato Institute team. David Frum is clearly on the outs with his former conservative allies. John Hulsman was a senior foreign policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, appearing regularly on Fox News, right up until he expressed his disapproval of the neocons, at which point Heritage threw him overboard.
But I've always considered Bruce Bartlett the granddaddy of 'em all. It's hard to question Bartlett's conservative credentials: he helped write the Kemp-Roth tax bill in 1981, worked was a policy advisor in the Reagan White House, and worked in the Bush/Quayle Treasury Department. He worked at Cato and the National Center for Policy Analysis, and wrote regularly for the Wall Street Journal editorial page and National Review.
But Bruce had an "intellectual crisis," came to realize that the Bush/Cheney administration was pursuing an agenda that didn't make any sense, felt compelled to say so, and lost "every last friend I had on the right."
My book, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy, was published in February 2006. I had been summarily fired by the think tank I worked for back in October 2005. Although the book was then only in manuscript, my boss falsely claimed that it was already costing the organization contributions. He never detailed, nor has anyone, any factual or analytical error in the book.
Among the interesting reactions to my book is that I was banned from Fox News. My publicist was told that orders had come down from on high that it was to receive no publicity whatsoever, not even attacks. Whoever gave that order was smart; attacks from the right would have sold books. Being ignored was poison for sales.
I later learned that the order to ignore me extended throughout Rupert Murdoch's empire. For example, I stopped being quoted in the Wall Street Journal. Awhile back, a reporter who left the Journal confirmed to me that the paper had given her orders not to mention me. Other dissident conservatives, such as David Frum and Andrew Sullivan, have told me that they are banned from Fox as well. More epistemic closure.
After another unsuccessful election cycle, Bruce wants his former brethren to "undertake a clear-eyed assessment of who on their side was right and who was wrong," and come to terms with the fact that his criticism was motivated by a desire to help conservatives "avoid the permanent decline that now seems inevitable."
Bruce is offering sensible suggestions to the right; it's a shame they choose to pretend he doesn't exist.
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They eat their own!
Isn't it truly Amazing , when someone opposes even a minuscule portion of "Those peoples" beliefs , They Jump on them like a pack of Rabid Wolves and Outcast them from Their Realm , Banish Them from All of Their Gangs/MOBs/and Financial Backers and Toss them away , as if they are merely a wet and Used RAG ! OH , YEAH , I Would Support These Kind of People To Run The UNITED STATES of AMERICA ?????? HAH !!!!
Steve --
Glad you picked up on this. Krugman is nothing if not prolific and clear.
--bc/hv
"lost "every last friend I had on the right.""
Feature, not a bug. The truth shall set you free.
With friends like these, who needs enemies. . .
Read Bartlett's essay. That's pretty much what he says: anyone who would cut you off for a political difference isn't anyone he wants to know.
(Martin Niemoller, Lutheran minister, @1937 jailed by Nazis for not supporting them)
'When they came for the communists, I didn't say anything because I wasn't a communist. When they came for the unionists... When they came for me... no one left to speak.'
The Taliban/Teaparty, their short-sighted, wealthy backers, and the opportunistic politicians who have sold themselves to the cause never learn. It's a little bit sad, and a little bit funny.
"With friends like these, who needs enemies..."
More like, with friends like these, who needs enemas...
Somebody will enjoy this... I got banned by Red State the first day, for noting Christians and the Taliban both live by principles.
A lot of the same principles, in the case of my fellow Tennessee denizens.
Was a time when you wouldn't totally freak out when a Republican won the Presidency or control of the House or the Senate . You were always assured that while you disagreed with some of their policies at least government would be run in a competent manner.
Those days are long gone
sick-n-effin a very insightful comment. I'm actually old enough to remember some of those Repubs that had governing skills. sadly there aren't many people that old.
I swear these people need to get together and form a support group. Maybe they could do a documentary "Life outside the bubble".
I think the more interesting point might be at what point is there no one left on FOX but the tinfoil hat crowd?
...oh...wait
Having just read his piece over at The American Conservative, I ask "What took you so long?"
But, now that he has "seen the light", I suspect he will find a warm welcome among the Lefties. Krugman can make the introductions.
http://whiskeyfire.typepad.com/whiskey_fire/2012/11/true-stories-of-the-right-wing-truth.html
Never mind a documentary! I say let's have a reality tv show where we show Peggy Noonan crossing the street to avoid Bartlett and Bartlett and the "spurned" crowd getting together to get sloppy drunk while rehashing the glory days with Ray-gun. :-)
I kinda/sorta know Mr. Bartlett through correspondence. Funny how 40 years ago when he was a YAF storm trooper and I was an anti-war vet, we'd have been at each other's throats. I sent him an e-mail after reading this American Conservative piece (gotta give them props for publishing it, I'm sure the True Believers have their knickers in a knot over that), said "welcome to our side, where you don't have to be a liberal or a Democrat, just be anti-stupidity." We really are the big tent.
Anti-Stupidity. That's us.
Just another confirmation that ignoring Orwell's "black boxes on the street corners that will tell you everything you need to know" will eventually come back to haunt you. Wow.
Rupert Murdoch is on my short-list of modern day political villains for having cleverly and deliberately subverted the political process envisioned by the Founding Fathers. The Fourth Estate was supposed to be there for a reason.
Hell, there's a reason that he's the only living person who was neither a Nazi nor a Soviet to have a Bond villain based on him.
We need Murdoch to demonstrate how dishonesty doesn't win elections!
Well, whose fault was it, to let a cult, such as the tea party, to ultimately be the leaders of a Free World, and to allow such a cult as some of the 1%, to dictate to the rest of the Country how to behave, are nuts. We are no longer paralyzed by your transistor radios. We love our neighbors, and it's been a pleasure meeting them all. Noone is going to de-program me, not now; not ever. There are a few who made it through, who have come through not "Dazed and Confused" I have been blessed with total recall. I am immune to your conversation. And I am a long haired hippy.
The Republican Party is on its way to implosion. Probably the sooner the better. It can't heal until the tumor is identified and removed.
Do you mean not until the Republicans say, "We have met the tumor and he is us".? (With apologies to Walt Kelly).
The outcast Republicans have an important role to play, if they would. I actually read Bartlett's anti-W book "Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America..."
I'm still surprised any intelligent person could have taken supply-side economics as theoretically serious even at its inception but, at this point, to take it seriously is to be willfully stupid given all the empirical evidence. At least Bartlett has recognized that Keynes was completely correct in the 30's. Now if we could only get the character-less Republican economists (Mankiw, Hubbard, Cochrane, ...) to admit their professional failure or personal mendacity, the world would be in a lot better shape. It's time for the Very Serious Persons across the globe -- especially America and Europe -- to come clean. They've done enough damage to people and the Earth we will leave to the future.
It really is time to make laughingstocks out of Republicans. It shouldn't be hard.
Thank goodness Rupert and his trolls did not listen. I personally want them to go the way of the other dinosaurs.
"Bruce is offering sensible suggestions to the right; it's a shame they choose to pretend he doesn't exist."
The GOTP don't believe in reality, so why do those "awakened" GOP'ers actually think that they will listen to sensible suggestions......
Sharks do eat each other, who knew....
All his suggestions are to become liberal like he has. He wants Republicans to be more liberal.
Wow. Even while writing something that I can agree with, the arrogance is staggering. Basically, Bartlett is at the epicentre of everything that is correct, and everyone else is either wrong or crazy (or both).
I get what you are saying and understand your reservations. However, I will give Bartlett a bye because he IS talking about the Republicans, isn't he? "The majority is always the majority but the majority isn't always correct."
It is time to make the Murdoch propaganda machine the story of the hour!
Every time FOXNEWS reports, all other civil news organizations need to respond with split screen reporting showing just how far epistemic closure is taking those FOX people over the edge to a daft dimension of hallucinatory perception of the day's events!
I mean, come on!
Karl Rove's pitiful display of magic arithmetic on election night, and the use of Megan Kelly's legs to get away from the madness, is evidence enough THOSE PEOPLE not only don't deserve our respect, but also need to be monitored because their stupid can be cancerous! -Kevo
You're right, Kevo, but don't hold your breath. The other media outlets may not be wings of the Republican party, but they're timid at best.
You liberals are a bunch of big hypocrites. You talk all this crap about the Republican party but you guys do the same thing
Republicans are a rather simple club; you are either in the club or are not. But the club rules only apply to members so that complementary group ('are not') is not subject to the rules. Hence you can only be excluded if you don't agree with these rules. This only means that if the of, by, for and whereas is the club rules produce a contradiction then any member who points out the contradiction is no longer a club member. Hence there are no members of the club who can disagree with the club rules. Even without these considerations, it quite impossible to exchange ideas because in presenting an idea or the negation of that idea one or the other violates the rules.
Hence I will never be member of club who would accept me as member, since my ideas and their opposites are always accepted.
The odd thing is that Republicans could become nonexistent, but that their rules would deny it.
Being so serious about life will not prevent death.
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_paradox
We are looking at a totalitarian movement. The similarities between the radical republican right and their allies and the old CP are remarkable, only one was financed by the USSR and the other by the worst of the 1%. Both hate freedom even as the CP used and the right wing uses the word incessantly as a slogan.
Like the old CP tended to do, what they claim to support because it is popular they do not practice and what they accuse others of doing they do themselves.
I think a very interesting research topic would be how rich right wingers decided to emulate what they thought the Communist Party was doing to take over the US, and while the CP attempt was a joke, their well funded efforts are anything but. It is no accident, I believe, that Wichita is not only HQ for the Kochtopus, it was also filled with leading members of the John Birch Society in the 60s, including Fred Koch, sr.
I would love to have a sane, well-functioning Republican Party. Right how the Democrats are forced to be the left, center and right-light party and all the Republicans can offer the country is far-right and batcrap crazy. It is not good for either party or the county.
The give and take of past years produced some good things. Deregulating the phone company was a dood idea. Remember when you couldn't own your own phone, you had rent it? (probably not) The tax reform of 1986 did make things more fair for a few years. The amnesty of the same time worked well, for a while.
I miss those old 1970s and 1980 Republicans. I never would have joined the Republican party, but there were Republicans that I liked and some good things came out of compromise.
Minor point, but Brink Lindsey is not "noticeably absent" from the Cato team. He's on the 6th floor..got back in September.
Bruce's ideas for the Republican party are mainly liberal. He wants the party to become more liberal. Bruce has turned into a big liberal even though he won't admit it.
Republicans don't like him because he up and left the party and started bashing everyone like crazy.
A real conservative would stay in the party and fix it from the inside.
You liberals say Republicans are not in reality?
Why would Republicans want to listen to liberals and the liberal media?
All the liberal media does is bash Republicans and paint Republicans as some white crazy racists. At Tea Party events the liberal media just focuses on the couple bad apples there that are racists to try and make everyone there look racist but that ain't the truth. All the liberal bias is nuts.
The liberal media does not focus on all the violent crimes that happen at liberal protests. Just the other day a liberal started beating up a conservative for no reason. What about the rapes at OWS?