Wednesday, July 14, 2010

FRACTURES IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
- Winston Churchill -


One week ago, on July 7, ultra-conservative pundit Ann Coulter wrote a piece calling for the resignations of Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney (and by inference, her father, DICK) from the Republican Party. While her column was full of the usual hysterical hyperbole about liberals and the Democratic Party, I was struck by how such a widely-followed conservative commentator went after her fellow Republicans, and such notable ones at that.

For Bill Kristol and the Cheneys have long held esteemed positions in what the Republican Party has become: a bastion of rabid neoconservative ideologues, intent on using pre-emptive military action, perpetual war, and even torture to force the rest of the world into forming U.S.-style governments at gunpoint.


The very next day, conservative Republicans Joe Scarborough and Pat Buchanan took up the discussion and sided with Coulter on Joe's MSNBC-TV Morning Joe show. Said Scarborough, "[this] may be beginning of the Republican Party finding itself on foreign policy...there is a conservative wing of the Republican Party that believes we shouldn't be the party of endless wars...the entire policy went wildly off track when the United States' government decided that they were going to rebuild Afghanistan and when they decided we were going to engage in counter-insurgency instead of counter-terrorism. We'd better come home sooner rather than later, because the current course...is disastrous. The Republican Party HAS been the party of permanent war, total war, since George W. Bush's 2nd inaugural. When George Bush said that he and the Republican Party would 'end tyranny across the globe,' he promised to export democracy. It was dangerous then and it's dangerous now that Barack Obama seems to be doubling down on it in Afghanistan."


Buchanan offered this observation: "The neoconservatives, basically William Kristol, [Charles] Krauthammer and others say he's [RNC Chairman Michael Steele] has got to go [for saying that Afghanistan is Obama's war]; McCain and Lindsey Graham pounded him terribly. Ann Coulter came out and said some of the things that some others have said on this set...is that he's got a perfect right to raise the issue of Afghanistan...the debate should not be shut down and shut off by firing this guy for simply raising the issue."

Scarborough went on to raise the point that"...Bill Kristol does not own the Republican Party---his idea of endless wars, of neoconservatism...the Republican Party has lost its way, and it seems that Ann Coulter now joins forces with Ron Paul, Pat [Buchanan], myself, and quite a few other conservatives who are very concerned about the Republican Party being the party of endless war...whether we're going to continue promoting Wilsonian values across the globe when our own country is in desperate need of rebuilding."

That's quite a rebuke to the warmongering, torture-advocating Cheneys, who, along with fellow war criminals Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, and all the mindless parrots over at Fox "News" like Charles Krauthammer, turned us into a militaristic and aggressive nation and have completely dominated our foreign policy for the past decade. Perhaps this does finally repudiate the arrogant, aborrant, and aberrent neocon stranglehold that has been placed on the GOP for so long. Clearly, it represents a schism within the GOP establishment, as does the current Tea Party phenomenon. The conservative movement, which in varying degrees defines and controls BOTH the GOP proper and the Tea Party, has basically nothing of substance to offer this country today. The loud calls to "take this country back" do not clearly define FROM where TO where. The advocacy of a return to deregulation and free market policies is a proven recipe for failure, and, very recently, nearly destroyed our economy completely. The trend toward more corporate power is also a suicidal step toward economic slavery for all but the wealthy. And a return to aggressive, pre-emptive military action across the globe will not only bankrupt the country financially, but may very well involve us in a war of mass destruction in which we all lose. The conservative stances on nearly every issue embrace past failures, and that simply won't do for a country which needs and deserves far better! So I don't know for sure how all this will shake out. The old, tired elephant is very slow-moving, not that bright anymore, and has become very stinky, so I don't know how palatable their supposed resurgence will turn out to be beyond this fall's election. But, as of this writing, it is quite encouraging and entertaining to see all of these fractures developing within the conservative movement and the Republican Party!
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UP NEXT: OUR UNHEALTHY OBSESSION WITH THE MILITARY

16 comments:

Vigilante said...

The part of this story that has legs is not the fracturing of the Republican party, but how it's going to recover the White House before BHO gets a 2nd term. And it's going to do it over the war issue like Nixon followed LBJ. Republicans's class warfare strategy does not permit any lasting disunity. Because they're fighting that war as if it had been declared. Democrats would rather pretend that class war doesnot exists.

Tim said...

Jack having problems commenting,
so I'll make this short,
I liked this post and say thanks for posting it.

Jack Jodell said...

Vigilante,
Let us hope history does not repeat itself. For the GOP to regain toyal control now or in the near future will certainly destroy the country!
---------------
Tim,
Sorry if you've been experiencing problems. I'll look into it on my end.

Tim said...

Jack
It's my problem, been having to comment a few times on each of my friends.
Words of advice...stay with blogger



btw I love that dog...

Jack Jodell said...

Tim,
Yeah, Golden Retrievers have been my favorite breed my whole life. I love labs and cocker spaniels, and ALL dogs really, but goldens are my fave.That's why that little guy is my mascot,; he's MUCH better looking than I! :-)

Cirze said...

I beg to differ, Jack, as what I foresee is the creation of a strawman difference between these factions simply to ensure a November win, and then, after such, a march back to the "cut taxes and increase military spending for wars of conquest" policies they have come to be known for and campaign for with gusto.

There is just no way in my mind's eye that Ann Coulter is the leader of any policy other than a very dark plot to obfuscate what has gone down up to now in that 'piglican gathering.

And she's the perfect persona for this role, don't you think?

Imagine her being sorry for anything she has advocated in the past.

S

Perhaps this does finally repudiate the arrogant, aborrant, and aberrent neocon stranglehold that has been placed on the GOP for so long. Clearly, it represents a schism within the GOP establishment, as does the current Tea Party phenomenon.

Jack Jodell said...

Suzan,
You may have a point there, but if you're right, that means these Republicans are even more diabolical than I think many of us had thought. The only reason I believe there may be some splintering going on, though, is because in a number of case, the "Tea Party" has fielded some candidates far to the right of even the GOP-endorsed one and has upset the applecart. But, as you infer, in the final analysis, in most cases its Tweedledee vs. Tweedledum in the GOP/Tea Party world, and they're both just two different forms of bad.

Tim said...

Having your Dog and Ann Coulter on the same page is stark..
The pooch is so much more beautiful.

Cirze said...

Would that you are right, Jack.

However, not I, Cochise.

Not I.

And this opinion has nothing to do with prejudice - just arises from listening to the nonsense that has been spewed from the so-called MSM for the last 16 years (since Newtie's revolutionary times, which were greeted like a breath of fresh air by people who only breathed at the higher money-laden elevations).

And I agree with Tim!

S

that means these Republicans are even more diabolical than I think many of us had thought.
___________

Jack Jodell said...

Tim,
You are 100% correct!
---------------
Suzan,
The MSM have been patheticand are getting worse. The Republicans have always been for the rich, and mean-spirited (at least in our lifetimes), but they've REALLY gone off the deep end since Reagan, and, as you say, from the Gingrich/Atwater/Rove period we have seen since 1994. We need a big break from all these self-centered, cruel a-holes!

TomCat said...

Jack, Suzan beat me to what I had to say. Republicans are putting up trial baloons trying to find anything that will resonate with voters and return them to power. GOP isolationism will go the same route as compassionate conservatism, if they succeed.

Jack Jodell said...

TomCat,
It's up to us to see that they FAIL, and miserably!

mud_rake said...

Yes it is, Jack, and fail very miserably. We need to keep the centrists aka independents informed of the idiocy of today's Republican Party. Of course, will all of the goofy things that they have said, if put together in short snippets, ought to convince which party wants to govern and which wants to play games.

Jack Jodell said...

mud_rake,
That's right. And goofballs like this Tea Party Williams character, with his insensitive, insultingly racist fictional letter to Abrtaham Lincoln should help make our job a tad bit easier.

TomCat said...

I second that motion, Jack.

Lisa G. said...

Oh, that Abe Lincoln letter really pissed me off. The Repubs are just now starting to formulate their strategy for the midterms - most just want to avoid the issues. I don't blame them - they've got nothing but obstruction to run on. They have done nothing to move this country forward out of this mess.