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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums"Bush aide: 'GOP is shrinking daily before our eyes'"
Bush aide: 'GOP is shrinking daily before our eyes'By Steve Benen at the Maddow Blog
http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2012/12/27/16192232-bush-aide-gop-is-shrinking-daily-before-our-eyes
"SNIP..............................................
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.
..............................................SNIP"
applegrove
(118,685 posts)Because they don't want to promote any new legislation. New legislation means more governmnet spending or regulation don't ya know. The 'party of nothing' is the correct term for them.
calimary
(81,320 posts)(She said, with hope in her heart...)
Chorophyll
(5,179 posts)lrellok
(41 posts)calimary
(81,320 posts)Good to have you with us! I'm afraid we'll be plagued by these assholes for awhile. I dream of the day when they're GONE, but then I keep returning to the old cliche - "better the devil you know."
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Salviati
(6,008 posts)calimary
(81,320 posts)grover norquist should be dipped in shit and freeze-dried. And then put on trial for treason as a domestic terrorist and the new Public Enemy #1. What he has done, overseen, and advocated, has been horribly damaging to this country and all of the people in it. Yes, even the rich.
roguevalley
(40,656 posts)UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)That's what they said in 2008. Never underestimate the Democratic Party's knack for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
robinlynne
(15,481 posts)randome
(34,845 posts)The GOP is fading away. Slowly, but still fading. They are only holding onto power now by their fingertips.
UnrepentantLiberal
(11,700 posts)Maybe a dramatic shift will occur. We can dream.
Raksha
(7,167 posts)Cha
(297,316 posts)AverageJoe90
(10,745 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)applegrove
(118,685 posts)SoapBox
(18,791 posts)Sprockets!
"Now is ze time on Sprockets vhen ve dance!"
warrior1
(12,325 posts)arely staircase
(12,482 posts)He was a known and well-liked liberal dude until W dangled 50 sheckles of silver in front of him to be come his Texas Leni Reifensthal - and now he's whining about the extremists he hitched his wagon to. cry me a river.
dflprincess
(28,079 posts)You might also want to examine your principles when the only ones who agree with them are the 1% and tea bagger wackos.
loyalkydem
(1,678 posts)is there any chance they can take their party back from the extremist?
Chemisse
(30,813 posts)Nobody (other than Huntsman) dared breathe a word that did not thoroughly kiss the asses of the racist and sexist teapartiers.
It was a shocking display, epitomized by the cheering of the execution of a Texas prisoner, applauding of the death of an uninsured young man, and the booing of a gay soldier.
An SNL skit soon afterward had the primary moderator apologizing for a late start, saying, "There was a six car pile-up on route 20 that burst into flames," a comment that was met with wild cheering and applause. Really funny, but only because it was so close to what the right-wingers showed they were capable of.
http://digitaljournal.com/article/311934#ixzz2GJZtvIOe
loyalkydem
(1,678 posts)JHB
(37,161 posts)Either way, they have to help drag the window of acceptable political debate and what counts as "realism" and "pragmatism" leftward until the extremists are considered the ranting cranks that Eisenhower was referring to in his "and they are stupid" comment.
ErikJ
(6,335 posts)Jamaal510
(10,893 posts)like in 2010. They can't win in a fair election where both sides are fully motivated to show up to the polls. Hence the voter ID laws.
Lone_Star_Dem
(28,158 posts)They're fringe for a reason. I'm constantly amazed at how the GOP hasn't figured this out.
SoapBox
(18,791 posts)JazzQuipster
(31 posts)...as a good thing. The sooner they're marginalized, the better.
alfredo
(60,074 posts)lrellok
(41 posts)I am always reminded of this scene. [link:http://
|Knights are the republican'ts
the old guy is us
and the "Monster" is government.
The thing about Grover Norquist's "Starve the beast" strategy is that starved beasts do not just roll over and die. Starved beasts tend to come up with fascinating new definitions of food, definitions that frequently include whomever is making them starve.
calimary
(81,320 posts)A starved beast is usually kind of upset about it - and ready to act out. Hmmm... y'know, that grover norquist dude does have kind of a nice-looking padding of fat on him, now, don't you think?
Cobalt-60
(3,078 posts)BUt it looks like good sterno
Jackpine Radical
(45,274 posts)when you can just render him.
B Calm
(28,762 posts)tk2kewl
(18,133 posts)Last edited Fri Dec 28, 2012, 12:23 PM - Edit history (1)
MissMillie
(38,560 posts)I've been saying this for a while.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)Skidmore
(37,364 posts)This is their legacy. I wish I could laugh in this guy's face.
riqster
(13,986 posts)indepat
(20,899 posts)bathtub.
undergroundpanther
(11,925 posts)fuck the billionaire party the corporatist and their paid- for chicken shit,sociopath lapdogs fuck 'em all.
Humanity can live without billionaires & corporations.
Raksha
(7,167 posts)I hope the Repuke Party hurries up and dies so the Democratic Party will split in two, and I can join the Progressive wing.
loyalkydem
(1,678 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)As long as the Dems promote the same policies (even if somewhat tempered) then we'll all wind up in the same place.
It's not about the letter next to the name, it's about whether we ever get to retire.
It's about whether we still have any civil rights (or are they ALL priviledges, now?)
We only win if the bad things stop happening.
KansDem
(28,498 posts)...will help resuscitate it.
Who Wants to Buy the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune?
After all, fertilizer works wonders in helping things grow and there is no horseshit like the horseshit that flows from the mouths of Murdoch's minions at FOX News...
6502
(249 posts)... to the Democratic Party hoping for refuge,
WE GIVE THEM A LITMUS TEST!!!!
They will not bring their Right-Winginess or their "Centrism" or the "Moderate" positions in the Democratic Party.
We are not for half measures on LBGT Equality Rights, Civil Rights, the poor, the working people, taxes, Women's Rights, Healthcare, etc... etc... etc...
If they are not on board, send them on their way!
Let them go and try to make a new party of their own.
Those types will be in disarray into the next two centuries and will whither away on their own.
The Republican Party is already falling apart:
The Libertarians will finally group into their own entity apart from the GOP. And they are small and meaningless.
The Religious-RWers will form their own faction. Again... too small to be effective.
The Corporatists and the Oligarchists will be forced into their own block... still rich, but without the single handed control of a single GOP coalition.
The Teabillies will become irrelevant: they were a noisy minority anyway.
The gun-nuts... noisy minority, too.
Let them disperse their energy.
If they just disperse their engeries in half of the ways I described above it is WE who get to define the future.
One of equality, fairness, and justice for all.
loyalkydem
(1,678 posts)the conservatives and the liberals up there treat each other with respect
6502
(249 posts)... That'd be like coyote and a lamb sitting down to decide what to have for dinner.
Conservatives are the enemy of all things progressive.
It is silly to even try to suggest that they are reasonable...
... or that there is some kind of reasonable middle ground between Democrats/Progressives/Liberals and a bunch of minority hating, gay bashing, women disrespecting, poor crushing, worker exploiting Conservatives.
I mean, what's the middle ground there?
Mixing Conservativesi deas with Liberal/Progressive ideas is like
POURING SHIT IN YOUR CORN FLAKES!!!
No matter how little shit you pour on your corn flakes
IT IS ALWAYS GUT CHURNINGLY DISGUSTING!!!!!!
Conservatism is ALWAYS the enemy of society.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)...besides the one main goal to get rid of Obama.
6502
(249 posts)... know...
Oh, God... we so already know:
* Blacks are our slaves.
* Native Americans are not our slaves, but when we talk with them we will lie.
* Women are not slaves, really. They're more like special class slaves.
And they should be happy for the privilege.
* Latin Amercians need to just go "home". I mean, it's obvious, isn't it?
* Oh, those Asians are good at that math! We'll keep a few of those around... but only a few.
* The Gays are E.V.I.L.
* Child labor builds character.
* We don't pay taxes because you need us to give you jobs. We build your beautiful world.
* The Constitution is the "Bible" and the 2nd Amendment (Right to Bear Arms)
is important because it is a part of this "Bible" and universally applies to everyone.
* The 1st Amendment doesn't count for those Blacks and what-nots.
* Oh! And the 2nd Amendment doesn't apply to them Blacks... or the Latinos...
or the... Oh, heck!! None of them low-lifes!
* The poor should be happy they have a job.
* Healthcare is a personal choice.
* Food is a personal choice.
* The Gays are E.V.I.L. Oh, we said that already.
* All White folks think the way we do... or they should... and if they don't, see the 2nd Amendment.
Scurrilous
(38,687 posts)Warpy
(111,275 posts)who kills the kids because the wife wants to leave him to save her life. Republicans will kill off the whole country rather than cede the power they held when Stupid was in office.
Last Stand
(472 posts)The young generation knows they are being ponzied out of the economy, they don't understand the hate and they know that they can't afford what it takes to get a fair shake.
BeyondGeography
(39,374 posts)McKinnon will never admit it, but "compassionate conservatism" was the ultimate crock; window dressing for trickle down. The problem with today's GOP goes back to Reaganomics, which never added up and led to all of the structural debt and income distribution problems that we are only beginning to belatedly address, without any help from the shrinking GOP. He does have that part right.