DUDE, at least Rip Van Winkle had the decency to act confused when he woke up:
The Republican establishment is said to have grave qualms about Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign. Here’s the problem: There is no Republican establishment. It squandered its authority by building up the Tea Party’s brigades and then fearing them too much to do anything to check their power.
Fer chrissakes, this has been going on for thirty years. It's been going on so long that Jerry Falwell's latest, last, and best career move was four years ago. The Republican establishment didn't miscalculate its estimation of the Teabaggers. The Republican establishment created the Teabaggers, in response to the fact that the Bush administration, and the 2008 elections, had not simply repudiated the Republican establishment, but had revealed it for all time as the criminal enterprise it has been since the end of Reconstruction, and the brain-dead criminal enterprise it's been since Reagan.
The big "point" of Teabagging was supposed to be how the Republicans were conceding religio-social issues for the tainted-meat-and-potatoes of economic issues. Never mind, of course, that the wrecked global economy could be laid squarely on the doorstep of their gated island community in the clouds.
In this, for some reason, they received the unexpected aid of a Democratic president elected in the wake of all this (plus the comparable international disaster directly traceable to thirty years of trying for that Golden Vietnam Do-Over), who decided to meet them under a flag of truce. Or surrender. I get those two confused. As does he.
It's not like this is a first for the Democratic party. And it's not like The Liberal Media, E.J. Dionne, Jr., card-carrying member, hasn't been worshipping at the altar of Ronald Reagan since 1980. A big part of that has been the convenient belief that the whole of Flyover Country was one big Praise Jesus, snake-handlin' cult one was required to tread very carefully around, lest it wake up to larger realities and start pressing the Republican party for something real in exchange for its votes.
How much more so are "establishment" or "moderate" Republicans responsible for this shit? They didn't wink at it over cocktails; they celebrated it. Whether that was cynically, for votes, or cynically, to maximize profits, doesn't matter. This isn't something which suddenly rose up and bit 'em on the ass. Rick Perry isn't some sui-generis cowboy/religious nut. He is the Republican party. If a few Republican power-brokers of the Mitch Daniels sort hope he's not the nominee, it's just because they don't think that Jebus crap will work in the general; if they had any real concern about the crazy Jebus people they'd have fled the party long ago.
"Business lobbies, once a moderating force, are largely out for themselves, concentrating their energies on how much they can secure in tax and regulatory benefits."
ReplyDeleteSo whatzit now? Someone forced business to drop their traditional role as social reformers?
Damn those liberals.
@Jim. It looks like someone believed that those candidates who ran against "taking special interest money" actually followed through on that promise when they won.
ReplyDeleteWe've suffered through 30 years of Reaganism, for sure.
ReplyDeleteBut Republicans have been using bigotry for power and profits for over 4 decades.
As for the teabaggers...they're nothing more than the Republican base, extensively rebranded with G.O.P. dollars and corporate media megaphones.
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Many did flee. Unfortunately, they became Democrats. QED
ReplyDeletePeople thought they were voting for George H.W. Bush for Governor of Texas when they were voting for George W. Bush who wasn't even qualified to be governor of Texas when he was governor of Texas. After serving one term he still wasn't qualified for a second term. I live in Texas. We haven't gotten over Bush and we probably will never get over Perry.
ReplyDeleteThey got elected because of a weak Democratic Party and the demonization of intelligence and of course Karl Rove's "dirty tricks" orchestrated by his use of his close friends in the FBI--do read Bush's Brain.
The Republican establishment hated Nixon and Reagan and created both of them.