Associated Press
Mark McKinnon
When center-left pundits are critical of Republican extremism, it's expected. When a former aide to George W. Bush and John McCain does it, the criticism resonates a little louder. In this case, it's Mark McKinnon, who wants "a new Republican Party."
Increasingly, it is becoming clear that the party is against everything and for nothing.
Nothing on taxes. Nothing on gun control. Nothing on climate change. Nothing on gay marriage. Nothing on immigration reform (or an incremental, piece-by-piece approach, which will result in nothing). It's a very odd situation when the losing party is the party refusing to negotiate. It may be how you disrupt, but it is not how you govern, or how you ever hope to regain a majority.
And so, we have a Republican Party today willing to eliminate any prospect for a decent future for anyone, including itself, if it cannot be a future that is 100 percent in accordance with its core beliefs and principles. That's not governing. That's just lobbing hand grenades. If you're only standing on principle to appear taller, then you appear smaller. And the GOP is shrinking daily before our eyes.
In fairness, when it comes to today's GOP, McKinnon is further from the Club for Growth and closer to the David Frum contingent, but the more commentary like this spreads, the more it reinforces perceptions that the radicalization of Republican politics is creating a larger political crisis.
Indeed, also note this terrific recent piece from Thomas Friedman, who warned Republicans they will struggle so long as the party "is at war with math, physics, human biology, economics and common-sense gun laws all at the same time."
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As far as I am concerned: Good riddance. RIP. You committed suicide, didn't you, thanks to the T-Party. Don't expect any sympathy from me.
The T-Party should be tried for treason before its final demise.
India...
Very well said. And, cannot agree more. The few Republicans that seem to still have a clue are on the way out the door. These Tea Party freaks are not only self-destructive for the Republican Party, but destructive for the U.S.A. Flat out terrorism and should be tried for treason. And, while we are at it... take Rumphole Mur— — — — and Fox News to court as well. Blech.
The President and the Democrats are back at work right now... where are the Republicans??? Being a bunch of babies. And, they care about America??? Please... what a bunch of garbage that is.
I still cannot help but think of Grover "Over" Norquist and his threat of T-Party II. Idiot.
Jango,
Grover is soon to be as obsolete as the Neanderthals. His idiocy has seen the light of day shining, shining on it! Up until recently he was about as well known as Vera Lynn is to the average American.
To know him was not to love him.
I should have said extinct, not obsolete. My bad. My English prof probably just fainted.
I need another cup of coffee. I have a brain cloud.
Really. Twenty mothers cried through the worst Christmas of their lives in Newtown. But the selfish paranoid gun freaks and rightwing scum want their noisemachine to divert things other issues, cause 'Bamy gonna get their guns. I hope they all burn in hell with Wayne LaDerrier.
And oh, these bums bray Jesus, who loved the poor, but they Hate the poor. Don't tell me they don't. I've seen their ugly sneers about food stamp recipient all over the net. As if people Want to be on food stamps. Millions of hard workers were thrown out of their jobs thanks to the Bush recession, and on top if they have to suffer the sneers of morons. I sure hope that Any Republican who loses their job turns down All state aid. Let them go hungry and without medical care for their principles of hate.
Jim
In 2006 I worked with a company that seemed to be fine financially... by the fall of 2007, they had a company-wide conference call stating we were being liquidated. So, I went through the liquidation, plus I found another full time job making what I made at the company going out of business. January 2007, the company goes out of business completely. The new company started having troubles. By the next January, I was let go during a "re-structure"... last one in the door... first one out.
The dates... during the actual Bush era in the White House.
January of 2008... I ended up with three jobs... one full time, two part time just to make what I lost. By August, I found a new place, making more than the all three jobs combined. I have been there since. Who was in office? President Obama. The company even grew during these years.
The rich... most don't give a damn about anyone except themselves. They give dirty looks, act like the middle class and poor are garbage. They seem to forget, we are the workers! We made the companies successful. The big shots are the group that destroyed the companies with their inflated bonus structure, etc.
Those who lost their jobs, didn't ask for it. The rich need to get their attitudes and brains out of the clouds, wake up, and act like a citizen of the U.S.
The "Right" and their friends need a good kick in the rear end.
What is shocking is witnessing working class and poor gop voters supporting those attitudes you describe
The rich... most don't give a damn about anyone except themselves. They give dirty looks, act like the middle class and poor are garbage
47% of the population just tried to vote that attitude into office , middle class thinking dems who refuse to vote need to get a clue , they have no idea how the gop want to destroy our gov and economy for a messed up ideology
GOP is a Sellout Party of America to make Corp Favored Laws and Policies, which is micro managing Govt of Corps United.
GOP has also started on strong holding and strong arming Democratic Process.
GOP will be ousted as the Whig Party part two. self deporting
And he will now never be asked to be on FOX again. The bubble might be shrinking but those trapped in it only end up becoming more desperate to have their positions and opinions reaffirmed and validated. Dissent in pursuit of honesty is not allowed.
Maybe Republicans think that if you deport all the smart little boys from the conservative kingdom, their Emperor will turn out to have clothes after all.
Actually it is the GOP moderates who are losing the math war. They are being turned out of office at a rate double that of the extremists.
"Terrific?" What new thought is here? For readers digest consumers of the embroidery of the hackneyed, Friedman is your go to guy. For DLC Clintonesque centrists bent on deconstructing progressive policy, Friedman is a willing shill.
Messerly,
Milton Friedman? Can we talk about an a## backward economist? Keynes had it spot on, then and now!
India -- I think he was invoking NYT's Thomas Friedman. Arguably not as destructive (and wrong) as that late, great, freshwater economist, though, as you so gently suggest.
Let's hear it for the rational, reality-based saltwater economists!
;-)
Sadly, a lot of progressives misinterpret Keynes. Using gov't spending to increase aggregate demand isn't what is important. It's just important to increase aggregate demand.
Sadly Obama hasn't lifted a finger to enact policies that would directly increase demand. For instance, he could push to raise the minimum wage to $10-$12. Make it easier for workers to join a union. End these idiotic free trade agreements.
All we gotta do is make sure Joe 6 Pack has more money in his pockets. The economy would be fixed if that was our focus.
helena,#3.2,
I believe you are correct. Thanks. Can't shake this brain cloud today! LOL
Nice cat, btw. There's a photo of my Manx cat on my FB page.
I suspect he means Thomas, not Milton...
Lest we forget, Clinton "reformed" welfare to the cheeers of repugs, now that we have millions out of work and could use a better safety net. Heck, Nixon was to the left of most Dems today, and if you look at some of the things he advocated that is Not an exagerration.
Thomas Friedman is a word salad factory of platitudes. Peal back the practiced turns of phrase and the court flattery, you come face to face with his essense- that he is an irrepressible sycophant. For example, witness his court posturing on Charlie Rose in 2003:
Suck on this. What a lovely, enlightened sentiment. What penetrating insight into the collective delusion perpetrated by the NeoCons.
Thanks for helping the nation see through that one Thomas.
The guy sells books, and will say any superficially clever thing that flatters and confirms rather than confronts popular conceptions. Because confirming sells more books. Intellectual prostitution of the worst kind. It sickens me to see him on Sunday shows.
Dear GOTP, better primary this guy ASAP!
-Karl Rat-feck
Soon come the day when extremist are soundly rejected and ostracized! The the true governing debate begin again.
Let the true governing debate begin again.
Thanks to the extremists of the Tea Party faction, the Republican Party as a whole is becoming more and more irrelevant, as they continue to ignore the moderates (in other words, the majority). Unfortunately, this loud, and very childish minority have somehow hijacked the political process and are using their power to drive the nation into recession.
Steven,
Now that the average American has become aware of what the T-Party exactly is: (a well funded faux grass-roots party founded and funded by Koch money), their popularity is dwindling fast.
I wish I could fathom why they want to drive us into recession. That still puzzles me. A good economy should be good for everyone! I understand the Koch brother's agenda to rid us of all rules that would hinder their egregious business practices, but why drive the economy into the ground?
That is so counter-intuitive!
India -- Me, too. It's puzzling that they want to destroy the very population they have been counting on as consumers of their products and services.
Part of that was mitigated by remembering that the consuming classes are now as international as the corporations that feed them. Impoverish Americans, yes, but there are still a few solvent Western Europeans, and Indians, and Chinese.
But the oligarchy seem intent on ultimately destroying the consuming classes (the 99%) world-wide.
Maybe it's this: the oligarchs are working toward societies that are not consumption-based but wealth-based. So they look forward to a day when they will have all the assets (gold) they need, and they will not need the rest of us, who can then go starve.
Now, they'll maybe need a few of us to wash their dishes and clean out their swimming pools. Oh, and operate their car elevators. They'll just pay those lucky few a starvation (aka 'living' or 'minimum') wage.
That's all I can figure. Trying to find a rational motive based in classical economics seems fruitless.
I agree, Helena. You may be on to something here with these Oligarchs.
You are correct, he meant Tom Friedman! Of course! (I need a break).
I call the Republican ideal the Mexicanization of America. They want a Mexican economy, with a few very wealthy families at the top, and millions of peons below. You can see it here in Arizona. They cry crocodile tears about illegal immigrants but their biggest employers are Republicans, since they'll work for illegal wages, take a lot of abuse, and you employers don't have to worry about worker safety, unemployment insurance, or bothersome stuff like that.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the most sadistic sheriff in America, runs around with his "posse," harassing Mexicans, but he Never arrests their Republican employers.
Jim: I have been saying that myself. We are becoming Mexico with all the money at the very top.
Jim and Lebowsky,
If you read Naomi Klein's book, THE SHOCK DOCTRINE, you'll see that that has always been the plan, and not just in this country. What the Chicago group did under Friedman's economics in Chile and other countries is what they are doing here. They decimate the middle class. Then there are two classes, the very rich and the poor. Friedman's single-minded message is, "Everything is wrong with the "New Deal", and every social program needs to be privatized. Governments should eliminate all rules and regulations that stand in the way of corporate profits.
Sound familiar? Did I mention all taxes should be as low as possible?
Grover Norquist isn't the only god the GOP worship. Milton Friedman is the other, more important one. He predates Norquist.
It may be how you disrupt, but it is not how you govern, or how you ever hope to regain a majority.
People misunderstand the far right radical revolutionaries who have taken over the Republican Party. They do not plan to "govern", they plan to "lead" and for that they do not need a "majority." Go look at German history from 1929-33, when the Nazi Party first started getting elected to state legislatures and then into the Reichstag. They did everything they could to disrupt the function of government, to make it impossible for the democrats (small "d") to govern. Then they campaigned on the fact that the government was broken and only "strong leadership" could solve the problem. And now look at the 24 state governments under the complete control of this modern far right revolutionary party. All of a sudden, the things they are doing on the state level makes sense if you look at the previous history in Germany.
If you understand that the current Republican party is a revolutionary fascist party, everything starts to make sense. Ex-Democrat Mark MacKinnon made the mistake in the late 80s of thinking the Republicans made sense, and so he joined them, but politically, the man is an idiot and should be ignored as such.
"If you understand that the current Republican party is a revolutionary fascist party, everything starts to make sense."
The good news is, unlike the young fascists of the 1920s and 1930s, today's GOP is old farts. Revolution is a young man's game. The spirit is willing, as they say, but the flesh is weak.
That's not to say that they can't cause damage, but the threat is somewhat different. 20th Century Fascists could believe they were "the future." Today's GOP cultists are afraid of the future. The dynamic is different.
Seth -- Let us hope you're right.
We are turning into a pluralistic society. When all the rotten old haters die, we'll move forward. The only problem is if they cause so Much destruction they'll be able to confuse people who they've made afraid. Fear makes you stupid. It makes you into a Republican.
It would be wrong to try to hurry the process along, but it's true that progress is fueled by mortality.
Sure thing, sonny boy. We'd all like a new GOP too. But where were you when your party was going off the rails and dragging the rest of America with it? Oh, yes, I recall … being power gluttons, enjoying all the influence you had because you could release the Kraken pretty much whenever you needed it. Well, the Kraken's come for its due; the GOP has it so far up it's own a$$ that it can taste tentacles. People pointed it out to your party but nobody could be bothered to heed the warning, you were all so sure that you were on your way to a Permanent Republican Majority™.
Your sentiment is so very dear, Mr. McKinnon … and so very very late. But, hey, thanks for checkin' in, yeah?
When I went to see "Lincoln," it was clear to me that both parties are not what they were in the Nineteenth Century. They seem to have switched positions. The formerly progressive Republicans are now, to use Strom Thurmond's term, "Dixiecrats." When he stormed out of the 1948 Democratic Convention, he would later find solace in the Republican Party. I have no doubt that this same Republican Party, might behind closed doors, find scurrilous things to say about their forbearer, Abraham Lincoln. Many of those old hostilities are still quite alive. They know that this is not Abe's party. If they are a party of religious extremists, mired in old and outdated notions about everything, they deserve to become a footnote in history. Having been raised a Republican (I left in 1980 with the nomination of Ronald Reagan), I feel great sadness about the direction that my old party has taken. While I am a liberal or progressive, I do believe that there is a place in our society for opposition and debate. We need a viable party to do that. The extremists within the Republican Party simply obstruct. I hope that reasonable voices will prevail.
When I saw Lincoln, my first reaction was that the quality of discourse in Congress has not changed in 150 years. Sure, the Ds and Rs have switched sides, but the pettiness and name-calling is still pretty much the same.
Of course the hostilities are alive. A lot of Southerners, and some who transplanted to the Midwest, want to destroy the national government as a do-over for the Civil War. I lived in the South for twenty years. That's true - it's the way a lot of them think. Liberals who think everyone is reasonable are going to fall off a cliff if they don't realize this.
Honest to God...all they do is WHINE. Today it is Brent Bozell whining about Sam Champion getting MARRIED to a gay man...they make themselves such victims. The WORLD is tired of their crap.
I love it when Bushies try to redeem themselves. They were in the seat of true power for nearly a decade. These are the same people who willingly nearly bankrupted us and nurtured the right wing hysteria that has now become a Frankenstein's monster.
Not a lot of sympathy here.
Bush who? You mean that guy they did Not invite to their own convention? Gee, they sure do hate to hear about him. According to the GOP, Obama was in office twelve years now, and caused all this trouble.
All who are singing dirges for the GOBP need to remember: At the local level (Congressional districts and state legislative districts) they are safe as houses, because they had control over the last redistricting. It is going to take a long, long time to drive these lizards back into their holes. The people who vote for them, believe the same wacko stuff that they do.
I live in Arizona and it is Really whacko here. The AZ-based editor of Veterans Today magazine just blamed the Newtown and other shootings on Jewish Agents. And this despicable magazine, which is violently antigovernment, gets distributed in VA centers here. I see it when I go there and so do a lot of Jewish war vets.
I believe in Free Speech but why is the VA distributing antigovernment magazines and illegal hate literature? Let them distribute it on street corners, not in the VA.
Here's the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU3fTEZ4IVU
They may not believe in Darwin but his principle seems alive and well when it comes to their political party
Really? And which principle would that be? Natural selection through genetic adaptation? Please, enlighten us all with your boundless understanding of Darwin, won't you?
Dejected Progressive, I didn't really understand the post by ThomasnTexas either, but you didn't have to be viciously sarcastic in your reply.
I think TnT was gently referring to survival of the fittest i.e., those who do not or cannot advance are doomed to extinction
Um, I think Thomas was alluding to the (not Darwin-originated) idea of Social Darwinism. Chris Hayes' book on the Twilight of the Elites is in part based on that fallacy: that those who succeed by becoming or just being wealthy have done or are so because they've somehow won out in the great social experiment. Please forgive the following ugly language:
If you gots, you gets to get more, because them what ain't gots, got that way for a good reason. Them what gots are just better than them what ain't.
And that reason is Social Darwinism -- i.e., "survival of the fittest" in the socio-economic theater.
Come 2014 the rest will be booted out of office. for their bad behavior, constant whine and just plain bull$hit. Repubs were hired to work for America, not drive it into the ground in the name of God.
YES! 2014!! Cannot wait.
And... in 2014... the Democrats need to make sure this Tea Party/Republican BS is fresh in the minds of the voters so it just doesn't fade away. They are causing so much inflicted pain on our country.
My family had a balance of both Republican and Democat's... in the last two years... we are all Democrats now. Strength in numbers! Vote these terrorists out of office!!!!!
Moderates like this fella were hot to trot in 2010, bragging about the new energy in the Republican party. We tried to warn them,but they refused to beleive these goombahs would act like goombahs.
The GOP thought they had it made in the shade after 9/11. They tapped in to the natural state of fear our nation was in and they hoped to ride that into the next few elections. Fear, paranoia, more guns, more war, fear, fear, fear.....that's all we have heard from the GOP for over a decade. They have a MAJOR brand problem.
The GOP allowed the angry (dare I say commonly viewed as low educated, small minded, racist ignorant redneck?) Tea Party to fully represent them, they have supported unofficial unelected GOP spokes people like Donald Trump, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Lou Dobbs, Sarah Palin, countless evangelical pastors and the entire cast and crew of FOX news....all of these people are paid a lot of money to be "outraged" and outrageous. The more negative and hate filled their rhetoric the more they get paid. BIG PR PROBLEM GOP. BIG.
Meanwhile the Democrats are focusing on the future, sending a message of hope, remaining solution oriented, addressing problems head on, embracing all races, all sexual orientations, letting women make personal decisions for themselves while being PROACTIVE in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies, embracing science, letting people have religious freedom. And now guns...Democrats are solution oriented once again...establishing efforts for common sense laws that preserve the 2nd Amendment while Republicans are still largely mired in paranoia and fear, paranoia and fear "Oh the gov-mint's gonna take mah gun!" EYEROLL.
Who speaks for the Democrats? Our beloved Rachel Maddow of course, smart, level headed, intelligent, brilliant, funny...did I say intelligent? Jon Stewart and Colbert are hugely popular...why? Because they are FUNNY, they are uplifting, they are positive and they are INTELLIGENT and WITTY and SHARP. There is not one person on TV or radio representing the GOP in this way. It's all anger and small mindedness and fear. Not one funny person. Not one.
The GOP needs to find a level headed intellectual uplifting personality to begin representing them. They need to get out of the business of negativity and fear. Is that possible for them? With their current policies and platforms I HIGHLY doubt it.
Dear Mom -- And should I mention that your comment is, well, intelligent?
But do I betray myself as a commie-pinko-librul by hoping that it takes a few decades for the GOP to find a spokesperson as intelligent and witty and sharp as Rachel? There was that Wm. F. Buckley guy for a few decades, and he offered them some ideological cover -- cover even for that Ronnie Ray-Gun fellow, whose damage is still underway.
I can wait. The brightest, most articulate consciences of progressives include many who are just beginning to hit their strides. That's the only reason for hope I can find.
Yes Irrelevant- in the sense of being impertinent, inappropriate, not connected with, off the point, off the topic, out of order, out of place, and unconnected.
No, NOT irrelevant- in the sense of being inconsequential, insignificant, trivial, or unimportant.
The GOP has been boiling off the better parts for decades and what's left now is concentrated poison.
The worst thing to happen to the GOP in the 2012 was maintaining its House control while losing the national race by 1.2 million votes. Republicans can pat themselves on the back that they still have relevance in Washington, but they are given this responsibility with a negative mandate and a dysfunctional caucus. They are forced to work with an enlarged Democratic Senate majority and a re-elected President. Their only agenda in the 112th Congress seemed to be unseating President Obama, and we saw how that turned out.
Now they are a party without a defined purpose, without a public mandate, and without a unified vision for going forward. They want to act like an opposition party, but they still have the shared responsibility of governing. They are being forced to compromise and govern while their instinctual reaction is to hold the line and throw obstacles.
If they continue on this path, the public will given them far worse returns in 2014. 2016 could be a disaster for them, with 60% of their current Senate seats up for grabs. If they have not matured as a party by then, they could fall to 35 or fewer Senate seats and easily lose control of the House despite their careful gerrymandering. With Hillary Clinton topping the ticket, that is very likely.
We are a nation that has a 2 party system. And I think it does this nation great harm when one of those two parties are crazier than bat droppings. But I gotta wonder if in the long run this isn't a good thing. What if the GOP goes the way of the Whigs? What if they're replaced by a sane conservative party (which is more or less what the Democratic party has morphed into). Where would that leave the Democrats? Could Democrats return to being real progressives?
Or is this just a sign that our whole society is collapsing? That we're going the way of the Roman Empire?
Mark McKinnon has vocalized the thoughts and beliefs of a majority of Americans in both parties. The absolute shame of this is that the recent election gave the public the opportunity to reject the extremist views of the ultra right, tea party faction, and the do-nothing congress and make a change for the betterment of their lives. Once again the majority remained apathetic and silent, hence the current round of breast beating and pretense of outrage at every crisis that has come before the current congress. The stumbling blocks they have placed before the President on each and every one of his attempts to secure the well being of this nation and the criticism of the White House policies are the daily watchword for Mr. Behner and his cohorts, while constructive and beneficial measures for the improvement of our nation are to be avoided at all costs! Simply put, it doesn't benefit the fat cats that sit in their congressional seats for what seems in perpetuity collecting big pay checks, getting free lifetime insurances and a plethora of other benefits. Try to express your outrage and get out-shouted at every turn. But that shouldn't surprise anyone...they're all full of hot air!
I think the Republican party should keep throwing tantrums for a few years longer.
its not the first party to fall by the way side and it wont be the last but in the mean time whats a poor country to do why they die a slow death? get it over already we need are economy running not going back down the same path as four years ago i cant take that again who are these people that keep electing this trash these anti americans with there fascist dogma
A bunch of white trash, fascist Un-American, greedy money worshippers!
Our government operates on two parties..and we all suffer if one or the other becomes inept or too strong. The road to the future is via the dynamic tension between two fundamentally strong points of view.
". . . two fundamentally strong points of view."
Yes . . . that would be nice. Unfortunately, the only strong point of view from the right is that everything Barack Obama does is bad.
From the Birthers, the Truthers, Trump and Sununu, the raison d'etre of the GOP is solely to make the President of the United States look bad--nothing deeper, more profound or in any way more patriotic than that. Even if they have to clash before our eyes. No matter how bad things get for the middle class. No matter how painful for ordinary Americans.
They are so blinded by hate their rhetoric and actions make no sense. Republicans are insuring everyone's taxes go up...in order to protect the 1 percent from having their taxes to go up. And how can we ever trust Boehner again? Who actually speaks with authority for this incoherent rabble of warring religious factions? They never intended to govern, even if they had the know how. These feeble vandals have just come to burn the place down. Boehner can neither count votes nor deliver votes and McConnell can only filibuster--even himself.
This will be a shameful time in the history of the GOP. In a time of economic crisis, their only vision is the failure of America's first Black President and of the country who saw fit to place him in office.
It's amazing---if you go to a republican discussion you will get the exact talk about the extreme democrats---guess everyone is really on the same page--just have to blame the other side---
What the repubs are doing is called projection. The dems would also have to actually BE extreme for these discussions to be the same thing. The citing of actual facts will prove where the blame lies.
The problem with your analogy is the fact that extreme Democrats are in the minority. In the GOP right now, the extremists are running the show and many of them want the party to become even more extreme.