Posted on 08/31/2013 4:46:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
How a major, diverse political party became so dependent on the Tea Party's narrow range of strident voices
..........Now, in 2013, we have the politics that 50 years of this process have created. The Democratic Party has fewer conservatives than it once did, but is still a broadly coalitional party with liberal and moderate elements. It controls the coasts, has strength in the industrial Midwest, and is making inroads in the upper, more urbanized South and in Florida. It confronts a Republican Party almost wholly dependent on the interior states of the old Confederacy. (The party continues to win in the mountain and prairie West, but the region is too sparsely populated to provide any real electoral heft.) Because of its demographic weakness, it is more beholden than ever to the intensity of its most extreme voters. This has engendered a death spiral in which it must take increasingly radical positions to drive these voters to the polls, positions that in turn alienate ever larger segments of the population, making these core voters even more crucial — and so on. We have a name these days for the electoral residue produced by this series of increasingly rigorous purifications. We call it “the Tea Party.”
The cry of the hour is that our politics is “dysfunctional” — mired in “gridlock,” all bipartisanship lost. This is of course true, but it must be seen as merely the latest result of the conservative politics of purity. After all, when does a politician, in the normal course of affairs, have a reason to do something? When he thinks it will gain him a vote, or that not doing it will cost him a vote. It follows that politicians have a reason to be bipartisan — to work with the opposition — only when doing so will increase, not decrease, their electoral support. And this can only happen if they potentially share voters with their opposition. But the Republican electorate is now almost as purified as the Republican Party. Not only is it unlikely to support Democratic candidates, it’s virtually certain to punish any Republican politician who works with Democrats. The electoral logic of bipartisanship has collapsed for most Republicans; they have very little to gain, and much to lose, if they practice it. And so they don’t.
Unfortunately, our government isn’t designed to function in these conditions. The peculiarities of our system — a Senate, armed with the filibuster, that gives Wyoming’s 576,000 people as much power as California’s 38,000,000; gerrymandered districts in the House; separate selection of the executive and the legislature; a chronically underfunded elections process, generally in partisan hands and in desperate need of rationalization — simply won’t permit it. What we get instead is paralysis — or worse. The Republican Party, particularly in the House, has turned into the legislative equivalent of North Korea — a political outlier so extreme it has lost the ability to achieve its objectives through normal political means. Its only recourse is to threats (increasingly believable) that it will blow up the system rather than countenance this-or-that lapse from conservative dogma. This was the strategy it pursued in the debt ceiling debacle of 2011, and if firebrands such as Ted Cruz and Mike Lee have their way it will guide the party’s approach to the same issue this fall, and perhaps to government funding (including “Obamacare”) as well. Realignment and polarization have led us to gridlock and instability.
The relentless radicalization of the Republican Party since 1964 is the most important single event in the political history of the United States since the New Deal. It has significantly shaped the course of our government and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. But this means it has also shaped the individual life of every citizen— the complex amalgam of possibilities and opportunities available (or not) to each of us. The conservative visionaries of the ‘50s and ‘60s wanted a new world. We’re all living in it now.
They don't.
Cruz is the Left's nemesis.
He's talking to the silent majority and they're all ears.
Obama and the DNC PREFER Romney, McCain and Rove
who have already installed ObamaCARE/RomneyCARE,
gay marriage, and weaponizing al Qaeda.
“The Democratic Party has fewer conservatives than it once did, but is still a broadly coalitional party with liberal and moderate elements.”
Who does this moron think she is? That’s why EVERY Democratic Senator and almost ALL Dem House members voted for Obamacare? If there were truly conservatives or even moderates in the Dem party, that monstrosity would have NEVER seen the light of day.
The Democrat party is now the ComDem Party.
It began in the 1960’s, but was fully absorbed by the 1990’s.
It could not be more clear than under the current administration. They represent every enemy of the US.
Right now ... conservative does not mean Christian and THAT goes against the beginnings of our nation.
We can argue and discuss until the cows come home whom was a Christian and all the etcetera's that go along with that ... and it IS meaningful ... to a point.
What is more and most important is, America built churches every place people gathered.
From the time the Pilgrims landed, America built churches and worshipped God.
We prayed for rain for the crops and asked forgiveness for sin and married under God's plan.
You want America back?
MAKE Christianity mean something.
Its amazing how many liberals are suddenly so concerned about the health and well-being of the Republican Party.
No. Conservatism can be lots of different beliefs it lack of. Well probably not mt Islam.
considering the source is a must agree.
I disagree. Yes, America is one nation under God, but not one nation under the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We're diverse. Here in the northeast, there are many potential Jewish and Hindu conservatives. They're never going to be Christian, and the Jews will lean libertarian, but there are non Christian people in this country sick of the taxes, who believe in the right to defend themselves, and are scared of government encroachment into their lives.
I heard a couple of Jewish men talking at the community pool the other day. They were talking about gay marriage - you know what upset them? Not gay marriage itself, but that the private business owners were being made to support it.
third party? Well at the very least they will know who to round up for the cattle cars to our destination. For can never say never will it happen again.
Let the GOP wander off aimlessly and do whatever their “charismatic genius Reince Priebus” says. It is way past time for a Conservative Party to go its’ own way.
Salon, just doing the job Pravda refuses to do anymore!
What a pantload. The gop is as much a part of the uniparty as the ‘rats are.
The fear of the ‘rat wing of the uniparty is not that the gop wing is becoming radicalized...it isn’t...it’s that a significant portion of the base that in the past has supported the gop wing might take a hike and actually start a viable second party.
Of course, according to Salon, the problem is that Republicans won’t compromise. But, really, we got into this mess because they did compromise, over and over. Compromise plays into the hands of the Left.
Funny how they never look at Detroit and conclude the Democratic party (electorate) has lost its mind.
BWahaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!BWhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
You forgot to slip the wishy/washy Rinos into you reference. They always show up for the Democrat festivities and media events. These rascals want to waddle down both sides of the aisle.
Exactly.
They are not trying to save the Republicans by warning against Conservatives.
When Salon and their ilk do this, it shows their fear that a solid, capable candidate who is Conservative will be able to step forward and help save America from their STATIST, RADICAL agenda.
It does not show what they purport, that Conservatives are bad news for Republicans.
Effective Conservatives are bad news for the STATIST RADICALS.
Below: comment at sourced article
“The real change in the character of the Republican Party was caused by the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine. This transformed AM radio — which had its share of right-wing cranks but was generally an apolitical general-information medium — into a national right-wing propaganda network of fact-free paranoia and manufactured partisan outrage.
With the addition of Fox News, Republicans began living in their own propaganda bubble completely divorced from reality and immune to logic, historical fact and scientific evidence.
As a result, middle-class Republicans supporting policies such as a flat tax, which will reduce taxes for billionaires while raising their own, are as brainwashed as North Koreans enthusiastically cheering their Dear Leader.”
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/31/the_conservative_crackup_how_the_republican_party_lost_its_mind/
Since the Democrat party is TOTALLY left-wing and successful in a Center-Right Country, why is being “diverse” and “inclusive” a disadvantage??
More left-wing drivel and deliberate misinformation.
The relentless radicalization of the Republican DemocRAT Party since 1964
There, fixed it.
5.56mm
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