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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWow! Conservative Douthat BLASTS House repukes comparing them to Kurtz in "Apocalypse Now"
(and yes, I know Kurtz was originally a Conrad character)
For those not familiar with him, Douthat is a conservative op-ed writer for the NYT and frequently a douche.
The Kurtz Republicans
THEY told me, Martin Sheens Willard says to Marlon Brandos Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, at the end of a long journey up the river, that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
His baldness bathed in gold, his body pooled in shadow, Kurtz murmurs: Are my methods unsound?
And Willard filthy, hollow-eyed, stunned by what hes seen replies: I dont see any method at all, sir.
This is basically how reasonable people should feel about the recent conduct of the House Republicans.
<snip>
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/13/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-kurtz-republicans.html
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)That can't be good.
cali
(114,904 posts)Turbineguy
(37,332 posts)Karl Rove, Grover Norquist and Mitch McConnell are becoming my friends.
cali
(114,904 posts)Your timing is impeccable.
Turbineguy
(37,332 posts)when Pat Buchanan sounded like a reasonable and decent human being? Just the sort you'd invite over for a nice Thanksgiving Dinner?
cali
(114,904 posts)PCIntern
(25,550 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)some of our children is learning!
MarchemintotheSea
(50 posts)Incendiary airstrikes against the Red States would solve many problems!
OK that is just being snarky, I know we are not going to have airstrikes on the Red States to the disappointment of many I am sure.
MrScorpio
(73,631 posts)The need to surrender, post haste.
Laelth
(32,017 posts)-Laelth
eShirl
(18,493 posts)love the smell of op-ed in the morning
cali
(114,904 posts)Snake Plissken
(4,103 posts)They really believe America needs to be punished for elected a Black Man President
Thus in their minds, the results of their reckless actions are not their fault, it the fault of the people who voted for President Obama.
Trying to reason with this freakshow is a waste of time, they believe they are doing God's work, just as the terrorists in the Middle East do.
RedSpartan
(1,693 posts)You're far too kind.
Skidmore
(37,364 posts)only listen to Limbaugh and Beck for opinions. I must say that the attempt to whitewash Boehner as some grand strategist that we've seen over the past couple of days is at once laughable and the narrative does fit the frenetic disjointed nature of actual events. Boehner is not in charge but is being whipsawed by the Cruzians.
mgardener
(1,816 posts)think about the people that read the Times.
The man is preaching to the choir.
People who listen to rush and beck do not read the NYT.
cali
(114,904 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,030 posts)Instead, Republicans need to seek a kind of integration, which embraces the positive aspects of the new populism its hostility to K Street and Wall Street, its relative openness to policy innovation, its desire to speak on behalf of Middle America and the middle class while tempering its Kurtzian streak with prudence, realism, and savoir-faire.
Think of the way that Barack Obama, in his post-2004 ascent, managed to channel the zeal of the antiwar left without being defined by its paranoid excesses, and you can see a recent model for how this kind of integration might work.
But then imagine an alternate reality in which figures like Joe Lieberman and John Kerry were stuck trying to lead a Democratic Party whose backbenchers were mostly net-roots-funded fans of Michael Moore, and you have a decent analog for where the post-Bush Republicans have ended up.
As much as every rethug may hate what is happening to their lunatic party, not ONE will actually point to a Democrat, let alone someone like Pres. Barack Obama, as a "template" for what to do "right". They will rail and rant and hand-wring but they never give any credit to their "enemy". Ever. It could be that this is just a phenomena of the young right - the Megan McCains, Abbie Huntsmans, and Sippy Cupps of the new RW media.
Additionally the irony of his definition of the "new populism" as being anti-lobby (K Street) and anti-corporation (Wall Street) and somehow linking that to anything within the current GOP, is just ludicrous. Those are the very entities that sustain them and push their anti-people, pro-corporate message. The suggestion being that the Teabaggers are an example of this type of "populism" (yet those very entities created them out of thin air and continue to fund them).
IMHO, it appears he thinks he is defining what he was taught was Raygunism, but since he was born in 1979, just a year before Raygun's disastrous entry into the highest office and eventual reign of terror on our society, he is quite naive about the man and his evil policies, which have been white-washed and distorted.
Javaman
(62,530 posts)is what the tea ball licking baggers will say AFTER the default.
morons.