Bushco forcing GOP into both 'escalation' support and 'Next Stop Iran'... party killer

[salin]

or rejuvination of the GOP?

I think there is growing cynicism in the public. I think that bushco's forcing the congressional GOP into a corner to 'protect the president' while hanging themselves out to dry per reelection cycles - is either going to end up splitting the GOP to the point of becoming ineffectual (as time goes on) - or the "unity" will be forced and the damage will be long-lasting to the party.

At this moment in time it seems that whoever becomes the dem presidential nominee will be the next president (residual anger per bushco will be hard to overcome for nearly any GOP candidate) - but how deep will the damage to the GOP be? A Reagan rebound in six years? Or a repudication of what the GOP has come to stand for (like what happened under FDR)?

What a disgusting time - the bushco is so out of control that they are likely to break their party - but the cost per the policies they will pursue in the next 18 months is very, very steep. Potentially steeper than the prices already being paid.

Can't even cheer on what seems to be increasingly likely (a dem president with larger dem majorities in congress) because the price of getting there seems to be an administration that is like a bull in a china shop - and that no longer (if ever) recognizes constitutional restraints on the exec branch - indicating that they will act on their own will whether or not they have the constitutional authority to do so. :mad:

[charlyvi]

1. We definitely need a new FDR.

Perhaps Obama? Or Edwards? Don't know. But it's difficult to see how this culture can produce another FDR.....we are a nation filled with hate. Hate gone mainstream, as if the Pandora's box of our own darker nature has been opened.

[salin]

4. I honestly am coming to believe this isn't just a 'pendulum swing' period

in history - but an opportunity to entirely shift the direction of the country. The economic policies of the far right have failed. Trickle down just doesn't work and most people now get that. The deregulate everything to the greatest extent has lead to the realization that the corps have no loyalty to the country or to its economy, and more and more folks want some regulation back. This is scary to corportists as in the fear of 'will we chase companies away' (mantra) but so many already have gone off shore... with NO penalty and no cost per selling to US consumers. Different policies could make it harder to access the American consuming public (or the US Govt /taxpayers as consumers) do we really think that all of these corps would forgo access to this still high consuming market?

Who knows who might be the new FDR. My greatest hope - though I wouldn't have said this eight years ago - appears to be Gore. He no longer seems 'beholden' to certain political realities that keep folks from working within a (now far to the right of where we were in say, 1979) realities. But he doesn't seem to be ready to get into the game.

I think now the issue we need to consider is *not* electability (unless bushco suddenly pulls back - they will force the party to a place where no GOPer can win) - but "leadability" - who will be able to lead this country into a new direction altogether? I don't have an answer to that.

[charlyvi]

8. "Trickle down" is turning us into a third world nation.

And many people think class division, economic division, is the natural state of things. So untrue--even churches in my area are preaching that money is a sign of grace from God. His reward for living a good life. About as far from Jesus as a society can get. But many are falling for it. Poverty as a moral lapse.

We are like Rome before the fall. France before the revolution.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
.....

[salin]

9. "we are like Rome before the fall. France before the Revolution"

and the US after the Hoover response to the 'crash' and the eras of growing income disparity.

I only add that as there are many examples (in US under FDR, and post war Europe) where transformation of not just politics but the whole cultural view towards economic and political 'truths' (as previously accepted by the public) are challenged and completely altered - some violent (Rome and France examples) some without violence (per govt/public) but none without pain (the depression was very painful and post war periods also were full of suffering). It seems that we may be coming upon one of those pivotal historical points. The hopeful view is a shift that changes our direction (which seems to have little to cheer on eocnomically, civically, or on any front) - without further economic (or military) damage to the ocuntry.

[whistle]

2. The republican party has drunk enough neoconservative koolaid

...that their brain tissue has been permanently atrophied, so Bush/Cheney will get they to go along with anything they do

[salin]

5. Who knows how much damage they will inflict on their way out.

But it appears that they will usher their party out with them.

The question is what it will take to recover. And whether or not who we elect is really up for the job of heralding that recovery.

[whistle]

7. If the damage they inflicted on the way in is any indicator, we had better

...put on 1,000,000 sun block!

[salin]

10. It is really at that serious of a point in history

which is terribly frightening.

[Skidmore]

3. Just proves how effin' stupid they are and unworthy to

govern.

[salin]

6. The difference today from four years ago - is that it isn't just

Duers, and folks who think similarly, who have (or are coming to) this realization.