This cartoon bespeaks the GOP’s bleak fortunes
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:39am Pat Cunningham
 
 I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I am seriously worried about the declining fortunes of the Republican Party.
 Yeah, I’m a liberal Democrat, but I am first and foremost an American, and I don’t think it’s good for the nation to have one of its two major parties dwindle to a core of angry extremists whose overheated rhetoric is unacceptable to almost everyone else. That’s exactly what’s happening to the Republicans.
 The GOP is purging moderate politicians from its ranks and forcing on its remaining conservatives an ugly orthodoxy decreed by the unsavory likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.
 Even John McCain, who’s hardly a liberal, is facing a serious primary-election challenge from the founder of the Minutemen fringe group. (See HERE.) And Arlen Specter’s bid for renomination is similarly opposed by a comparative extremist.
 Moreover, dramatic demographic changes bode ill for the GOP for years to come (see HERE), but the party is doing nothing to adapt in hopes of survival.
 Meawhile, the GOP’s attacks on President Obama, most of which are ridiculous, have had virtually no negative effect on his popularity. Indeed, in Gallup Daily Tracking Polls conducted in the wake of last week’s celebrated tea parties, where anti-Obama invective was fairly commonplace, there has been NO DECLINE in Americans’ approval of the president’s job performance.
 Make no mistake. I’m glad that extremism in Republican ranks is not gaining among the broader populace. But I’m dismayed  that the party of Lincoln, a party that once had a vibrant  progressive wing, now finds itself in the clutches of right-wing radicals.
 UPDATE: Even Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committe, is PESSIMISTIC about the party’s prospects in next year’s elections.
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11 Comments Add your own
1. Mike Carroll | April 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Pat-Your concern for the future of the Republican Party is touching. Don’t lose any sleep; I’m sure it will find its way.
You may have noted (or perhaps not) my absence from this blog over the last 2 weeks. I was on a vacation in the Redneck Riviera (Florida Panhandle) with almost no Internet access. I was therefore unable to comment on the European Apology tour, the bow to the Saudi king, high fiving with Hugo, Janet Napolitano’s right wing terrorists, the release of the terror memos, possible prosecution of Bush Administration officials, and on and on. What a target rich environment and I was AWOL.Timing is everything I suppose.
Thus far the performance of this administration reminds me of the early days of the New York Mets when manager Casey Stengel famously remarked “Can’t anyone here play this game?”
As I said, I think the Conservative cause will do just fine.
2. Pat Cunningham | April 22nd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
Welcome back, Mike. Some of the Applesaucers have been running wild in the absence of your calming influence. We’ve almost had bloodshed.
As for the topics you mentioned:
The so-called Apology Tour was a big hit with the European and American populations alike. The only dissenters were the usual gang of extremists.
The bow to the Saudi King? Come on. That’s old news, and was never big news anyway. Again, only the wingnuts paid attention to it.
The terror-memos flap is only now unfolding.
And nothing else that’s happened in recent days has done anything to diminish Obama’s popularity.
In short, all you missed was much ado about nothing.
3. Mike Carroll | April 22nd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Pat-I did see a bit of blood flow when I checked in last night.
My vacation allowed me to drive to Florida (I spend enough of my life in airports professionally) so we drove through Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and then VERY rural Alabama before hitting Florida. Red country all the way. A Liberal nightmare tour.
A couple of observations. I am always struck by how polite and gracious Southerners are and I don’t think its a show. Much better than us Blue staters. That said, the number of Confederate flags in rural Alabama was startling.
4. DingDong | April 22nd, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Mike, being a southern, we are truly polite people.
5. Pat Cunningham | April 22nd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Mike: In other words, outward courtesy and graciousness don’t necessarily bespeak fundamental civility. And when you say, “Red country all the way,” you pretty much mean the bulk of what’s left of Red country. That’s what concerns me. Democrats include a growing number of so-called Blue Dogs, but Republicans are purging their moderates (never mind their liberals, who are long since gone). If the GOP becomes just a Southern party, that’s not going to be good for America. Witness the secessionist rumblings we’re already hearing. And these damn Limbaugh dittoheads are inclined to beat the brains out of any GOPer who dares show the slightest signs of moderation. It’s scary. It’s far worse than the rise of the radical New Left among Democrats 40 years ago. I’ve witnessed both of these phenomena close-up as an adult. The current situation is the more foreboding. I’m just hoping for the rise of a new and more moderate Republicanism, something akin to the wing that prevailed in the Eisenhower years.
6. Mike Carroll | April 22nd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
The two parties were much closer in philosophy during the 50’s with Democrats actually being more assertive in foreign policy than the Republicans which were more isolationist. I would prefer a return to the Reagan coalition. Now all I need is a Reagan type leader.
7. DingDong | April 22nd, 2009 at 4:10 pm
I remember when I was a kid, my father used tell me, the only difference between and Democrat and Republican was $500 in the bank. My Dad was a Democrat at the time.
8. Pat Cunningham | April 22nd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Mike: Which kind of Reagan would you prefer? The real deal or the mythical one? The somewhat complicated guy who actually embraced pragmatism at times or the unbending conservative ideologue (as some of his hagiographers have misleadingly portrayed him)? The guy who raised taxes after lowering them (which, in fact, was the smart thing to do)? The guy who became a nuclear-disarmament freak (which, of course, annoyed right-wingers at the time)? The disastrously detached executive whose zealous underlings hatched the Iran-Contra scheme without his full knowledge? The guy whose political tin ear and obliviousness to symbolism was exploited by handlers who scheduled the launch of his presidential campaign with a speech on states rights in the tiny town of Philadelphia, Miss., a hamlet previously famous only for the murder of three civil rights workers? There were many Reagans, Mike, good ones and bad ones and a few in the middle. Which one would you want?
9. Mike Carroll | April 23rd, 2009 at 7:33 am
Pat-I’ll take the Ronald Reagan that history (a poll of bipartisan historians that you have referenced to make a point) grades as near great. Not bad when the great category was Washington, Lincoln and FDR as I recall. I know it just burns the hell out of liberals to see that.
Yes, Reagan was a pragmatist. So what. Politics is the art of the possible. You get as much of the loaf as you can and move on.
Something our Messiah might want to consider.
10. Pat Cunningham | April 23rd, 2009 at 8:49 am
Mike: The “Messiah” crack is somehow out of character for you. I expect that kind of thing from the wingnuts, but not from reasonable conservatives. You’re not start calling him Hussein, are you?
11. Mike Carroll | April 23rd, 2009 at 10:00 am
Pat-I gave it some thought before I wrote that. The last few weeks have me worried that Obama is starting to believe that he has been somehow “Chosen” as a savior for the Nation in a time of peril. I hope I’m wrong. He has a lot to learn and he’ll never learn it if he thinks he has all the answers.
His performance to date, in the foreign policy arena, reminds me of the early days of JFK. Not promising when you consider what followed-Vietnam, Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis and the Berlin Wall.
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