Wow. I was almost speechless after reading this one line. So much ignorance and stupidity in one segment.
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.
Another “comment” from the sourced article (for your reading pleasure).
:)
“The GOP thinks they have accomplished something— they have. They have alienated the majority of humans on this planet, who used to look to America as the dream and and future fulfillment of every humane hope of the world. They have showed off a part of our population who support racism, contempt for the poor and sick, and out-of-control corporate and personal wealth. It appears to all that we not only oppose a decent social safety net, but but that we agree to a political system that no longer functions for the benefit of its people. America’s former vaunted democratic republic is a sad, dead joke.
Reading the foreign press online, it seems that Europe and much of the rest of the world have caught on to what is going on here, faster than a lot of our own people have. But, pessimistic as I have been about our future, it now seems to be coming clear to the majority of Americans.
We don’t want to be this small-minded, hateful, hypocritical theocracy that the Right-wing has tried to turn us into, with its lies and propaganda. We all can see the place that having such an ugly national character will lead us to— and it is a shameful, depressing sight. The America I grew up in had many troubles to work through, but we had a beautiful ideal in our future.
If we allow the GOP to destroy the possibility of that beautiful ideal, in the name of a robber-baron economy and a mean-spirited, dog-eat-dog society, then America, for me, will be dead.”
North Korea ‘r Us
Oh yeah....Republicans should listen to this Marxist writer at Salon for political advice, since of course, she wants them to improve their chances of winning. When the money runs totally out, I hope the Takers turn on these media types first.
Somehow those "many potential" seem to vote at least 70% democrat.
Didn’t you mean, why is being diverse and inclusive an advantage? You wrote “disadvantage”, but your lead-in statement of the Democrats being successful by being TOTALLY left-wing would necessarily make the correct word “advantage” without the “dis”.
And to add to your good point, radical left-wingers are a much smaller percentage of the population than Conservatives and Moderates are.
Yet they have been successful by never giving the slightest inch on anything. If they ever momentarily give, it’s only a short pit stop on the way to their pedal-to-the-medal destruction of America as we’ve known it.
Oops, make that “pedal to the METAL” (not medal).
CW, I think maybe the deranged Chris Matthews wrote that comment.
So the writer doesn’t know the virtues of liberty or what it means to create economic value. Harrumph!
democrats still the party of slavery. Why would we want to submit (by compromise) to that?
I also love reading comments. Yahoo has stopped all commenting because, I believe, the majority of the replies were conservative! Anyway, here’s to Free Republic, another comment:
“exboyracer 6 minutes ago
@Gerry Q Part of this article was quoted (un credited) on freerepublic.com this morning — so far the comments reflect exactly what the article was expressing. Perhaps you would be more comfortable with the commenting on freerepublic”
The are worried that the rotting, hollow tree of the GOP will fall over leaving room for a vibrant opposition party. Got to keep the old wood propped up to keep saplings like the tea party from growing.
Yep, those are targets in the GOP Primaries.
Exposure.
I think they have been listening to Professor Matthews and buying his "clever" line of bs.
It's smoke and mirrors employed by the Left to drive more division - wooing the weak-minded with twisted history and misinformation, all wrapped up in a pretty "I care" bow (or shiny poison apple, if you will).
Yeah, stopping the looters and the popularity of abortion, corruption and luring black racism, is indeed a saintly death wish warranting mental health treatment...
ping
Given how high the odds are stacked against them, it's a wonder to me how any conservatives are elected at the national level.
I am more convinced than ever that LIBs/DIMs arre a plague upon Free America. Their craniums are filled with angry mush.
;>)
Wow. I was almost speechless after reading this one line. So much ignorance and stupidity in one segment.
I’ll boil down this verbal barrage to its most elemental form. This writer would prefer to live in a country with a single party dictatorship. That being a Leftist party of course; just to be “progressive”, naturellement.
Its amazing how many liberals are suddenly so concerned about the health and well-being of the Republican Party.
Actually Salon self-proclaimed "writers" may be the last people left on the planet who take the Republican party even 2% seriously.
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