Tuesday, June 9, 2009
My Op-Ed on the Political Right in the U.S.
In the Nederlands Dagblad today (in Dutch). How a combination of Obama's popularity and political skill on the one hand, and radicalization symbolized by Cheney and Limbaugh on the other, have relegated the political right in the U.S. to the fringes. There may not re-emerge a serious, national opposition until after the next presidential election because it could well take that long for credible new Republican Party leaders to come up from the current ranks of pragmatic, principled, center-right mayors and governors (this would exclude the Sarah Palins of the world).
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3 comments:
If you have an English translation you could send me I'll make a comment.
Armando
hah! you're back! here's a synopsis: Obama's popularity and political skill keeps the Republicans and others on the right off guard; the right is in disarray anyway, thanks to eight years of Bush-Cheney, and an even longer period of majorities in Congress; now the right is being represented by Cheney and Limbaugh (and Kristol and O'Neill), who act quite recklessly; it will take a long time--probably past the next presidential election--for new, moderate Republicans (mayors, governors) to come up through the ranks and give the country a credible, national opposition again
I think that you are correct on all points. There seems to be an additional element (several related ones I think) which may spell doom for the current republican party if the moderates can't figure out how to deal with it. [I haven't put these thoughts to paper yet so it will not be a crisp as you will be used to, being a historian, but it should be understandable.] Or alternatively if the extremists you mention become disillusioned and crawl back into obscurity I think the republican party could come back more or less in its current form.
The issue is that bush was basically dumb, immoral, and dishonest, with no real moral character, or ability to think, and had the basic “taliban belief” that if I really believe something it’s true, regardless of the facts, and I have the right to force my beliefs upon everyone else. This of course is quite common among numerous of the religious christian right in the US, as well I suspect of members of other types of religions. He thus elevated what might be called faith based belief (if I believe it and I think it’s part of my religion it’s absolutely true, and I can force it on you) to national prominence (sort of an ignorance as policy approach). He demonstrated little need to have logical justification, scientific information, or logic, for his actions or have facts behind him or his actions. In fact, he made policy decisions that violated the facts and were detrimental (e.g., abstinence only education has decades of evidence that showed that it is actually detrimental, ….).
And so at a national level he showed that nonsense (literally, irrational thinking) was acceptable and fine for making policy. As a result, many of those on the “right” (I actually think that is an inappropriate description of them, republicans/the right had a more legitimate history than these fools would indicate, but it’s common so I’ll use it for convenience) who also produce “thoughts” based on nitwit thinking have sprung up as “commentators”, and those who were already prominent, such as Limbaugh, have new found authority and power. (and I realize nitwit thinking is not restricted to the “right”). But the issue now is that these are the people who the media reports on as representatives of the republican party. Moderates are almost never heard of. If the right wants to look for how the so called liberal media is hurting them, its by repeatedly covering these fools. Thus, if you are a moderate, have strong morals, and/or can think, you are probably being slowly driven away. I know several “party faithful” who live with it and will always be republicans. They just sort of ignore it more or less. But I also know one or two who are getting tired of it. And, if you are an independent, to be attracted to the republican party, you need to ignore a lot of stupidity, hate, nitwit ideas, etc. So, I think that this problem needs to be solved in order for the republican party to really grow. And that’s a tough problem to solve and still win elections.
Because of bush I think these radical right nitwit thinkers now want a party that represents them as the central element. They are no longer satisfied with compromising with “moderates” and rational thinking in the republican party. On the other hand the moderates and rational thinkers in the party realize that if they alienate these idiots they don’t have a chance to win elections, unless they do what our PA senator did, and switch parties. I think the republican party is in trouble.
Armando
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