The Atlantic - "The Republican Hardliners Aren't Conservatives, They're Radicals"

[TomCADem]

The corporate media is being over backwards to make Republicans sound reasonable by letting them go on TV and read the talking points that they are ready to negotiate even when they are not. Bob Dole is long retired. Ted Cruz is the current face of the Republican party.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/the-republican-hardliners-arent-conservatives-theyre-radicals/280217/

The current drivers of the GOP are much more hostile to government. Thus, the assault on all federal employees via cuts in pay and benefits; the all-out attack to delegitimize the Internal Revenue Service and its employees by Darrell Issa and his cronies, designed to make it harder for them to carry out their basic functions; the enthusiasm for the sequester; and the lack of concern about the societal impact of mindless cuts to basic research, food safety, and homeland security.

* * *

But a lot of it is an emotional, zealous reaction to America today — an ardent willingness to break crockery and demolish existing institutions to achieve the goal of eviscerating government as we know it, the good with the bad. As Dreher put it, "When I think of the Republican Party, I don’t think of principled conservative legislators who are men and women of vision strategy. I think of ideologues who are prepared to wreck things to get their way. They have confused prudence — the queen of virtues, and the cardinal virtue of conservative politics — with weakness."

Not all congressional Republicans are in that camp. Many, especially in the Senate, fit a more traditional conservative mold. But few are willing to stand up to the zealots, and even fewer are willing to cast votes that depart from the pack. All of them dutifully recite the mantra that Obamacare is an abomination that ought to be eliminated, and none notes that it is basically the same plan as 1994’s Grassleycare/Hatchcare/Durenbergercare/Chafeecare, which was built around an individual mandate, private insurers on exchanges, and premium support for less fortunate Americans. More strikingly, no one notes that Ryan’s long-term plan for Medicare, built around regulated exchanges and premium support, is basically Obamacare for seniors. Every opportunity to reform and refine the Affordable Care Act through traditional institutional means, working with both parties, has been rejected by them.

Here is Dreher’s conclusion: "The Republicans cannot govern. These people aren’t conservatives. They are radicals. What on earth would Russell Kirk say if he were alive to see this?"

[ffr]

1. I have to say it, but that's America

If more of these zealots are elected and not less and our entire institution is burned to the ground, as sad as that is, that's our system.

If we don't like this direction, WE as in you and I, need to get others involved to help prevent zealot-mania from spreading.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Loonies

[blkmusclmachine]

3. The GOPee: America's #1 Terror Organization.

America, Meet Bathtub

[winter is coming]

4. A lot of them are merely opportunists who apparently think that out-crazying

everyone else is the way to rise to the top of the heap.

[DFW]

5. I've been saying exactly that for years

Just because they hijack the term "conservative," that doesn't make them conservative any more than calling every Democrat a "libbrul" makes every Democrat a liberal.

If they want to let Frank Luntz and Roger Ailes write their scripts and their dictionaries for them, that's their business. They can call spiders porpoises, too, for all I care. It still doesn't make it true.

[mnhtnbb]

6. My hubby has been saying this for years, too. There's nothing "conservative" about

this gang.

They certainly do not support The Constitution of the United States.
IMO, they (the elected tea party Reps) are focused on destroying the
balance of power between the branches of government---look at
this shutdown as an example--and they should be treated as the terrorists
they are.

[Bosso 63]

7. Natural resources are limitless, The Constitution was written by God,

and Christianity boils down to " it's every MAN for himself ".
Add to that some racism, a touch of provincialism, and a sense of pride in their ignorance.

Thats not conservative, that's bat shit crazy!

[Mz Pip]

8. I call them reactionaries

Either way they are incapable of any form of flexibility.

[zipplewrath]

9. They're frustrated

It's understandable. They've been "lead" by folks who aren't anywhere close to "true blue" conservatives. The closest was the Shrub, and he wasn't by any stretch. His unbalanced budgets and Nation Building drove them nuts. Reagan looks down right liberal these days, and his signature is on a California abortion bill. These folks have no leadership in which they can truly look and say "that's how we want it done".

Of course this is so because it would (and has) failed spectacularly. So anyone who gets near actual governing has to disappoint them massively. And for a long time they just spent their time in the John Birch Society or at their local Klan meeting getting angry and being ignored.

But now they have Fox News, and Rush Limbaugh. They've gotten "organized". And they are being told that not only do their ideas "work", but "have worked" as they get lied to about the past. Look at the freakout over the last election results. They were lied to for months, and were shocked to find out that Romney didn't have a chance, and never did.

Look at Cruz. No idea where he is going or what he is doing, but they are following him. Look at Boehner, he isn't leading, he gets in front and tries to out run the mob. Mitch? He lets Rand Paul convince him they are "winning"? In the end, there is no leadership in the GOP right now at the national level. The inmates are solidly in control of the asylum. Can you blame them for being pissed at finding out that, oh by they way, yer all nuts.

[Mz Pip]

11. Well said.

They have created a tyranny by the minority and seem to be enjoying their moments in the limelight. It's not positive limelight but there is a saying that no publicity is bad publicity. Carnival Cruz exemplifies it. He gets enough positive reinforcement from his teaagger groupies that he'll continue on for as long as he gets press.

He's a lot like Gingrich, smart but arrogant and inflexible.

[Sunlei]

10. economic terrorists = radical republicans, sure radical is as good a word as any.

It's really a shame what they have done to America. Any more normal republicans are so afraid of their own party they sit silent and vote what they're told.

[Arneoker]

12. Seriously, it honors them too much to call them radicals.

Sometimes we need radicals. When things are radically wrong, radicals can have the right solution.

These a-holes are nihilists. They are only about destruction of anything good.