The party of Lincoln is dying...By Michael Gerson

[mystery-ak]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-party-of-lincoln-is-dying/2016/06/09/e669380a-2e6b-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-e%3Ahomepage%2Fstory


By Michael Gerson Opinion writer June 9 at 8:20 PM

Why such vehemence among Republican leaders in their condemnations of Donald Trump for questioning the objectivity of a federal judge based on his “Mexican heritage”?

This is, in House Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s words, “the textbook definition of a racist comment.” But it is not materially more bigoted than the central premise of Trump’s campaign: that foreigners and outsiders are exploiting, infiltrating and adulterating the real America. How is attacking the impartiality of a judge worse than characterizing undocumented Mexicans as invading predators intent on raping American women? Or pledging to keep all Muslim migrants out of the country? Or citing the internment of Japanese citizens during World War II as positive precedent?

continued..

[mystery-ak]

Please...the Party of Lincoln died years ago.....

[Sanguine]

Please...the Party of Lincoln died years ago.....

Yes, it was and killed by the very people entrusted with keeping it alive.

[Rivergirl]

Keep in mind that every single elected official was put there by the voters in their district or state.
Most states do have recall but other than a few rare times that has not been used.

It was up to us to educate and inform our own children so that the brainwashing that goes on in the public schools would not be effective.

We needed to get involved in our towns and communities so the elected or appointed officials knew we were watching.

[sinkspur]

And for Trump in particular, politics seems to be a way for white voters to take back social power following the age of Obama.

If you support someone who makes racist remarks, you support racism.  There is no other conclusion.

Trump supporters....................

[Rivergirl]

Trump has reinforced every ugly negative characteristic the left has attributed to the republican party and we are tarred with the same brush.
I simply will not vote for either presidential candidate.

[INVAR]

Their party is dead.

And dead to me.

They wanted Conservatives OUT of their party.  They have made that clear for a long time.

Even Mitch McConnell told us that Conservatives who were working to get actual Constitutionalists elected and demanding the leadership uphold their oaths should be "punched in the nose".

Then they ran Jeb in our face and said he would win "Without the Base".

Then you have Trump.  Trump did the dirty work of the Ruling Class.   Trump is the stealth wrecking ball embraced by the Oligarchy to destroy and drive what remains of Conservatism from their party and then have Trump redefine Conservatism into NYC Liberalism.

Real Conservatives have been sent into the wilderness and made irrelevant.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Dying? Hardly. THe GOP controls a record number of state legislatures and lesser state offices, as well as both houses of Congress.

Temporarily self-immolating? Sure. If Trump was a mistake then hopefully the dummies who voted him in learn their lesson.

[r9etb]

Dying? Hardly. THe GOP controls a record number of state legislatures and lesser state offices, as well as both houses of Congress.

Temporarily self-immolating? Sure. If Trump was a mistake then hopefully the dummies who voted him in learn their lesson.

The same could have been said about the Whig Party, back in the mid-1800s.  But by 1856 the party had lost its way and utterly collapsed, to be almost immediately replaced by a Republican Party.

I think this Trump thing is the culmination of a similar collapse of the GOP.  The party stands for pretty much nothing anymore.

[INVAR]

The party of Lincoln is dying

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

The same could have been said about the Whig Party, back in the mid-1800s.  But by 1856 the party had lost its way and utterly collapsed, to be almost immediately replaced by a Republican Party.

I think this Trump thing is the culmination of a similar collapse of the GOP.  The party stands for pretty much nothing anymore.

What would be the point of a new party? It'd do the same thing the GOP did, there'd be a split between moderates and "true" conservatives. Rinse and repeat.

[r9etb]

What would be the point of a new party? It'd do the same thing the GOP did, there'd be a split between moderates and "true" conservatives. Rinse and repeat.

Well, what was the point of the Republican Party, originally?  It stood for a particular set of principles on which the Whig party had fudged (mainly having to do with slavery), to the point where internal tensions tore the party apart.  It was replaced by a party that was clear about what it stood for, and energetic enough to put its beliefs into political action.

What I'm suggesting is that the GOP as it currently exists is about to collapse for similar reasons.  That a narcissistic demagogue like Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, demonstrates the party's utter incoherence and lack of guiding principles.  (Not that Trump caused this -- he's just the last straw for a party in a culture that's been decaying for a long time.)

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Well, what was the point of the Republican Party, originally?

Well it's the current center-right party. And if it went the way of the Whigs, we'd have a new center right party, they'd have the same struggles the GOP did, the same type of voters would be attracted to it, people like Trump may take it over, etc. etc. Nothing would change.

[truth_seeker]

Dying? Hardly. THe GOP controls a record number of state legislatures and lesser state offices, as well as both houses of Congress.

More evidence of my oft stated belief, some/many true conservatives and Republicans are math and logic challenged.

Emotion is substituted for rational information.

[r9etb]

Well it's the current center-right party. And if it went the way of the Whigs, we'd have a new center right party, they'd have the same struggles the GOP did, the same type of voters would be attracted to it, people like Trump may take it over, etc. etc. Nothing would change.

Struggles of that sort are the nature of the beast.  The primary advantage of a new center right party (or a vast house-cleaning of the present one) is that a lot of the old baggage would be tossed out. 

The GOP's problem right now is that it doesn't seem to stand for anything at all -- it doesn't engage the Democrats in any meaningful way; it doesn't challenge the Executive Branch in any meaningful way; at a Party level it offers no compelling philosophy that would convince voters to choose GOP candidates over Democrats...

And that is how you end up with a moral sewer like Donald Trump, who stands only for himself and has carried any number of credulous morons in his wake.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Struggles of that sort are the nature of the beast.  The primary advantage of a new center right party (or a vast house-cleaning of the present one) is that a lot of the old baggage would be tossed out. 

How do you "clean house" with a political party? This is like Trump saying that Kristol should be "kicked out" of the party. It's a free country, people can belong to any party they want.

[r9etb]

How do you "clean house" with a political party? This is like Trump saying that Kristol should be "kicked out" of the party. It's a free country, people can belong to any party they want.

Practical matters aside, the theory of "cleaning house" is not all that difficult - at root a political party is nothing more than a group of like-minded people who band together in the service of shared political ideas.  When the range of opinions gets too broad within such a group, it is almost inevitable that the people form new coalitions with those whose philosophies are more closely aligned.

I'd submit that one such house-cleaning took place during the Reagan era - beginning in ~1975 or so, when the so-called Rockefeller Republicans more or less stopped being elected to office.  Many of them went to the Democrats, and at the same time many southern Democrats moved to the GOP.  It was in effect an entirely new party, with a center of gravity far different from what it had been before.

And it wasn't accidental ... there was some pretty bare-knuckled political warfare among the different factions within the Republican Party.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Practical matters aside, the theory of "cleaning house" is not all that difficult - at root a political party is nothing more than a group of like-minded people who band together in the service of shared political ideas.  When the range of opinions gets too broad within such a group, it is almost inevitable that the people form new coalitions with those whose philosophies are more closely aligned.

I'd submit that one such house-cleaning took place during the Reagan era - beginning in ~1975 or so, when the so-called Rockefeller Republicans more or less stopped being elected to office.  Many of them went to the Democrats, and at the same time many southern Democrats moved to the GOP.  It was in effect an entirely new party, with a center of gravity far different from what it had been before.

So why are we still complaining about the "GOP-e" if the last house cleaning was so successful?

[r9etb]

So why are we still complaining about the "GOP-e" if the last house cleaning was so successful?

First off: in my experience (mostly from TOS) there's a high correlation among the people who complain about the "GOP-e," and the ones who vote for Trump.  It's a mindless, meaningless perjorative -- a substitute for thought and action. 

The person who yaps unendingly about the "GOP-e" is a waste of time.  I'd much rather spend my time talking to somebody who can offer fresh and insightful political analyses. 

I didn't say the last house cleaning was successful (as in, good enough to last a thousand years?), I just said it happened.  I'd posit that the main reason for the present decline is that modern Republicans use the words of the Reagan revolution without understanding the philosophy underlying them.  Our elected representatives are too often depressingly shallow.

I'd be more worried if the party did no house cleaning at all... wouldn't you?

[TomSea]

I forget who said it but I think they are correct.

Calling someone a RINO is a misnomer; CINO, Conservative In Name Only might be correct but being Republican might be more expansive. It doesn't necessarily mean you think like Reagan.

[INVAR]

The GOP's problem right now is that it doesn't seem to stand for anything at all -- it doesn't engage the Democrats in any meaningful way; it doesn't challenge the Executive Branch in any meaningful way; at a Party level it offers no compelling philosophy that would convince voters to choose GOP candidates over Democrats...

Actually if we had to pin down what the GOP stands for right now - we could say that the GOP stands for the sanctity of the political caste in Washington and the order and reason they think they represent -  and the expansion of Government, especially to corporate interests that donate to their PACs.

They certainly do not stand for the Constitution, the Rule of Law (which they surrendered) or liberty.

[r9etb]

They certainly do not stand for the Constitution, the Rule of Law (which they surrendered) or liberty.

How do you know when a party is about to die?  When it becomes "they" instead of "we" to its supposed members.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

IME the terms "RINO" and "GOP-e" are used, primarily, by individuals of low intelligence. The term RINO in particular was started to refer to people like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins who were basically indistinguishable from liberals. Slowly the term morphed to mean "anyone who disagrees with me" by said bottom feeders and rock fungi.

[TomSea]

IME the terms "RINO" and "GOP-e" are used, primarily, by individuals of low intelligence. The term RINO in particular was started to refer to people like Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins who were basically indistinguishable from liberals. Slowly the term morphed to mean "anyone who disagrees with me" by said bottom feeders and rock fungi.

 

[r9etb]

What the hell sort of burning coal is that hand holding, to make it glow like that?  Ouch!