You know today’s incarnation of the Republican party is in trouble when it receives repeated criticism from its very own George Wills and David Frums. Read this latest from Frum in Newsweek:
… At the peak of the Bush boom in 2007, the typical American worker was earning barely more after inflation than the typical American worker had earned in 2000. Out of those flat earnings, that worker was paying more for food, energy and out-of-pocket costs of health care. Political parties that do not deliver economic improvement for the typical person do not get reelected. We Republicans and conservatives were not delivering. The reasons for our failure are complex and controversial, but the consequences are not.
… Every day, Rush Limbaugh reassures millions of core Republican voters that no change is needed: if people don’t appreciate what we are saying, then say it louder. Isn’t that what happened in 1994? Certainly this is a good approach for Rush himself. He claims 20 million listeners per week, and that suffices to make him a very wealthy man. And if another 100 million people cannot stand him, what does he care? What can they do to him other than ¦ not listen? It’s not as if they can vote against him.
But they can vote against Republican candidates for Congress. They can vote against Republican nominees for president. And if we allow ourselves to be overidentified with somebody who earns his fortune by giving offense, they will vote against us.
If you don’t like your opposition, you can always come up with a better party, instead of shoving the same old Fail down people’s throats. I, for one, welcome a thoughtful house-cleaning at Republican Central, so we have a better quality of garbage to pick from come next election time. Sadly, no. The answer to liberalism is not turning out to be a new, stronger, realistic and feasible conservatism, but rather anti-liberalism. Defining yourself with your self-proclaimed enemy as basis is not constructive. Take a page from the Libertarians and be unabashed assholes if you have to, not having to hide under a thin veneer of faux self-righteousness, spirituality and compassion to push the agenda. That would be a better start.
What really cracks me up is the new Republican base’s and Limbaugh’s lack of appreciation for their own party’s history (not celebrating knowledge and education does have a tendency to backfire). Rush on Frum:
“There are people who have somehow claimed the conservative mantle ¦ You don’t even know who they are ¦ They’re so irrelevant ¦ It’s time to name names ¦! The Canadian David Frum: where did this a-hole come from?”
Ah, yes, proving once again one of my father’s favorite sayings that one can never lose money catering to the lowest common denominator. Where did Frum come from? Let’s see, he is the author of a rather well-written and well-known conservative holy book called Dead Right, thus gaining high praise from Republican Archdruid William F. Buckley, Jr. himself (Bill Buckley? Anyone? Never heard of him, either, huh? Thought not.). In more recent times, Frum wrote GW Bush’s 2003 “Axis of Evil” speech, which immediately hurtled us into that much-heralded war with Iraq, one even the Democrats could not thwart, and has also worked as high muckety-muck on Rudy Giuliani’s campaign. Guess Rush was too far gone on his OxyContin to notice or remember.
Of course, taking Father Dittohead down like this only increases the fringe’s attraction to him. My work here is done. Update: Or it makes people like Will and Frum sound relatively more reasonable to the centrist voter, which is not necessarily a bad thing, if they plan to act on the change in direction they wish to see in the party.
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