Morning Joe 's Joe
Scarborough is a self-described "small-government conservative," a
GOP House stalwart during the Gingrich period, a supporter of every right-wing
policy and process the Grinch of Georgia put forth, the now-admirer of Bill
Clinton who was then right there with the impeachers, who is now bemoaning
"what has happened to the Republican Party." An absolute
GOP-faithful, right there at the center of his party. But now he is talking
about "Republican collapse." Right now, some Republicans are saying
things like the way to deal with guns in schools is to arm teachers and any
pregnancies resulting from rape are in fact the result of God's will and Obama
should be impeached because he wants to use some of his Article II
Constitutional powers to do something about controlling gun violence.
Scarborough is dealing with the Sara Palins and the
Michelle Bachmanns and the Richard Mourdocks and the Todd Akins and the Steve
Stockmans and the rest of the Teabaggers. And so, right there on Politico (1), he said: "Republicans will continue their
dreadful collapse unless they adopt William F. Buckley's view that
'conservatism, except when it is expressed in pure idealism, takes into account
reality.' For the GOP to win again, it must embrace Buckley's ruthless,
pragmatic approach to primary elections and once again vote for candidates who
can win sweeping majorities. That means they must also stop electing idiots in
primaries who are little more than ideological indulgences that only advance
the Democrats' cause." These are views that echo those of such folk as Mike Lofgren (2).
Is the GOP really going to sink into mist because of
its rhetoric? And if that were to happen, it would have to be because of the
rhetoric, because their economic policies have not really changed since they
became the Corporatist Party in the 1880s, which promoted: power to the
corporations, limit to the greatest degree possible the trade union movement,
low income and corporate taxes, limited government spending on anything other
than what benefits the corporations, as little government regulation for the
economy and the environment as possible, no "social safety net" or if
one is forced upon them, make it as limited as possible. Republicans have
always had a political cover of one sort or another in order to get the votes
they needed.
First it was anti-immigrant and pro-prohibition (and
both the "Know-Nothing Nativists" and the Temperance Movement were
important parts of the original Republican coalition from its founding in the
1850s). This worked well for decades (think Prohibition in 1920, the
Anti-Immigration Act of 1924), until the Great Depression and the advent of the
New Deal. But then came the rise of the powerful industrial unions in the
1930s, often communist-led. And so the GOP dusted off the
"anti-socialist" hysteria of the "Red Scare" Palmer Raids
(actually carried out under the "Great Democrat" Woodrow Wilson) and
began the anti-communist hysteria that eventually led to McCarthyism in the
1950s.
The next cover was Richard Nixon's "Southern
Strategy" of the 1970s and the racist "Drug War," following the
passage of the Civil and Voting Rights by the Democrats in 1964-5. And again,
the basic policies of the GOP did not change at all, except that Nixon thought
that some regulation of the workplace and the environment was a good idea
(because in his time there still some capitalists who realized that such
regulations in the long run benefitted the corporate state). The next set of
covers were Reagan's: re-enforcement of the racist theme, but now adding to it
the issues that appealed to the religious right: the criminalization of
abortion on religious grounds and rank homophobia. In addition, the National
Rifle Association (NRA), formerly a sportsmen's club concerned with the
maintenance of hunting rights and gun safety, in the 1970s was taken over by
elements representing the gun industry (whose prime interest of course was
selling guns and ammunition). They started raising lots of money and spent it
politically, actually in both parties. But it was the GOP that put the
misinterpretation of the Second Amendment to say that anyone could own any gun
they wanted to (tanks anyone?), out front.
These covers over time have worked very well for the
GOP. For example, in addition to cheating in Ohio, Karl Rove won the 2004
election for George W. Bush by putting anti-gay marriage initiatives on the
ballot in 12 states, some of them swing states. And then came the Koch/Armey
Teabaggers, some of whom have gotten folks like Scarborough all upset. But why?
Are they really against basic GOP policies that have been GOP policies since
the 19th century? Why no. They are all for them. The problem is that they just
don't treat the cover issues in the "right way." They are in fact too
honest. They are really right up-front in their racism, in their misogyny, in
their religious authoritarianism, in their anti-trade unionism, in their denial
of science and their concomitant promotion of creationism (3) in
their "every man for himself and the devil take the hindmost" Randian
social philosophy (that was actually strongly promoted by Reagan but with
"polite" language). They are just plain embarrassing on the one hand
and much too honest on the other.
So what's a "thinking" Republican to do?
Leave the party like Colin Powell is doing in all but name? Join some third
way outfit (4) made up of "center-rightists," both
Democrat and GOP? Or, try to make some accommodation to the demographic trends,
which at least in part led to Obama's victory in 2012 (see the son of fake
"Cuban Refugees" Marco Rubio)? Or should they go on bemoaning the
veil that has been stripped from their party, like Scarborough and Steve
Schmidt, McCain's remarkably honest former campaign manager, is doing and just
say "we're done for"?
There is
another way and the GOP has been well into it since before the 2010 election,
which put numbers of tea-baggers in the Congress. Voter suppression and Gerrymandering
have become powerful political tools in the hands of the Republicans and will
become even more powerful in the future, as will their all-out assault on the
structure of the Electoral College which could well end up putting a President
in office with a distinct minority of the popular vote. The true GOP that includes
Karl Rove, the Koch brothers, the Club for Growth (of the income/wealth gap),
the Heritage (of the Corporate Power) Foundation, and the Le-vinitating/
O'Rhannibaugh/Fox"News" propaganda machine, is not going away anytime
soon. They are still very powerful. They have just had a temporary, partial,
set-back. This is a subject to which I will return.
References:
1. http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/the-republican-partys-time-to-choose-86193.html?hp=l4
2. Lofgren, M., "Goodbye to All That," http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/3079:goodbye-to-all-that-reflections-of-a-gop-operative-who-left-the-cult .
3. Jonas,
S., "Why Creationism?" click here
