The GOP is blowing it again
The Republican Party is in worse trouble than anyone could have imagined.
Videos are beginning to surface of angry conservative mobs assailing congresspeople -- and this time some of the targets are Republicans.
This video shows embattled lawmaker Bob Inglis (R-SC) urging his audience to turn off the TV when right-wing talk show host Glenn Beck comes on.
"I'm afraid of Obama!" a woman cries.
"Why are you afraid?" Rep. Inglis replies, prompting howls. Of Glenn Beck, Inglis says, "He's trading on fear."
"If you want to lead, stop being fearful," he adds, but the crowd shouts him down.
Inglis has a point, but he also has it backwards.
The GOP has a big opportunity right now. A lot of Americans are dubious about the Obama Administration's plan to run up historic new deficits.
New doubts are also emerging about President Obama's ability to manage the economy and high unemployment.
But Americans won't vote for a political movement led by talk show hosts and symbolized by shouting mobs.
They won't support politicians who wink at conspiracy theorists.
Democrats learned this painful lesson in 1968 when activists disrupted the convention in Chicago.
That debacle ushered in the era of Nixon, which quickly gave way to the era of Reagan.
The problem with Inglis' crowd isn't that they're fearful, it's that they're frightening.
Unless centrist Republicans demand that their leadership rein in the increasingly nutty wing of their party, a political opening will be missed.
So here's my prediction:
If Republicans knock off the silliness and if unemployment remains high next year, the GOP will pick up 2-4 Senate seats.
But if the birthers and the Beckites and the ditto-heads are still the vanguard and the public face of the GOP, Republicans will lose half a dozen Senate seats.
posted by Brian Mann @ 8/08/2009 05:44:00 PM
10 Comments
10 Comments:
Brian, Just who else is a candidate to replace the Beckites and the birthers as the public face? I'm not seeing a very deep bench here. And anybody who had a shot at "moderating" during the last election cycle (McCain, Rudy) just embraced the types of people who are screaming and Tea Bagging. Seriously, can you name somebody who's even as moderate as Nixon was?
I would just add to that, if the economy recovers significantly, unemployment comes down, and the new health care law works moderately well AND the right is still led by the Beck, Hannity, Limbaugh trinity, and Sarah Palin is the most popular Republican candidate in 2012, the GOP could go the way of the Whigs.
These batsh!t people at the town halls ARE mainstream Republicanism.
60+% of Republicans believe that Obama was not born in the United States and therefore an illegal president. Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael Savage are FAR more popular among Republicans than any Republican political leader.
The right wing has created a Frankenstein monster that has, like in the actual story,turned on its masters and now roams the streets looking for blood.
From the first "Anonymous" comment:
"...who else is a candidate to replace the Beckites and the birthers as the public face?"
Moderate Republicans (and even some moderate Democrats) say Christine Todd Whitman.
She was head of the EPA for two years under Geo. W Bush and she was NJ Gov. before that.
Recent articles in the New York Times and Washington Post portray her as a centrist who's trying to tamp down the unhinged wing of the GOP by calling on Republicans in office to focus on issues with broad support: small government and fiscal prudence.
On Monday, the Washington Post reported that--while Whitman's plea has gained little traction among most Republicans--there are some higher ups within the party who are acting on it.
One of them is Charlie Crist (Gov. of Florida, widely expected to run for the Senate seat just vacated by Mel Martinez).
Crist is also heading up the GOP's recruitment for Congressional candidates in 2010.
If Crist can find some moderate candidates who can quiet the extreme wing of the GOP and convince voters that Republicans want limited government and limited spending, it will be a competitive election year.
If not, we should brace ourselves for an ugly hate fest of lunatic shouting.
Is George Pataki completely out of the political mix now? I seriously doubt I'd vote for him if he were to run against Barak Obama in 2012 but I can't imagine we might not have a reasonable discourse during a campaign of Pataki vs Obama or, as Jonathan mentions, Whitman vs Obama... as long as they didn't pick some nut case for a running mate....
Mark, Saranac Lake
how about alaska senator Lisa Murkowski? She is everything palin is not; moderate, well informed, articulate, and bipartisan.
You say as a matter of fact that "Americans won't vote for a political movement led by talk show hosts and symbolized by shouting mobs" but where are you deriving this from? I'm not so sure they won't. These talk show hosts are becoming increasingly adept at controlling their wing nut followers through fear. Why not let them tell you how to vote?
Jonathan,
I'm the first anonymous. Good points in your post, but it kinda reinforces mine. Whitman is 63 years old, and she was part of an agency that denied climate change, fought efforts to lower levels of arsenic in drinking water, and covered up the toxic waste data on the fallen Twin Towers. All that, and the base still doesn't like her. Pataki is 65.
Crist might be the guy, but he's being Scozzafava-fied by the loony right.
"Anonymous," thanks for circling around.
I wasn't trying to minimize your point--just name a few GOP politicians who are trying to moderate the angry and unhinged wing of the party.
I take it that your point is even these prominent Republicans--as they call for sober debate--are being pilloried and then abandoned by the party in favor of fear- and hate-mongers.
If that is your point, I think there's more than enough evidence to support it.
Jonathan,
I think we're on the same page, actually. There are, or have been, a few moderates, and even if they're fairly down-the-line conservatives, they don't get much traction in the modern GOP. The Whitmans and the Patakis (and I know you didn't mention him, another post did) are part of the party's past, not the future. Will be interesting to see if Crist, or even Romney, can find a place at the table.
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