Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 11:59 AM Jan 2014

Republican Reformers Stop Being Polite to Tea Party, Start Getting Real


By Jonathan Chait

If John Boehner’s support for immigration reform is a kind of Prague Spring for the mainstream of the elected Republican Party, the equivalent among conservative intelligentsia can be found in the latest issue of National Affairs, which launches a double-barreled assault on conservative dogma. The first is an essay by Bush administration veterans Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, setting the philosophical and historical precedent for a non-dogmatic Republican domestic agenda. The second is a manifesto by the American Enterprise Institute’s Michael Strain laying out a Republican agenda to aid the jobless.

The two pieces represent an important moment in the conservative reform movement, displaying a heretofore rare confidence of the party’s movement to frontally attack their own party’s shibboleths. They also display the dodges and compromises that make conservative reform both so infuriating and so useless in breaking the fever that has gripped the party throughout the Obama era.

In his book Do Not Ask What Good We Do, Robert Draper reported that leading Republicans met the night of President Obama’s inauguration and decided that their path to regaining power lay in opposing every bill that Obama put forward. The political strategy formulated by Washington Republicans was quickly subsumed within a larger flowering of reactionary ideology, flowing from tea-party devotees to highbrow conservative pundits and back: Barack Obama was undermining the basic fabric of the Constitution, threatening an imminent Greek-style collapse and choking out liberty itself.

Gerson and Wehner assail the historical and philosophical underpinnings of this whole line of thought. The Founders, they point out, were not proto-libertarians — the staunch ideological opponents of a flexible national government were actually the opponents of the Constitution. The Founders “would have little toleration for politicians who are committed to abstract theories even when they are at odds with the given world and the welfare of the polity.” They proceed to assail dogmatic opposition to any position for the state, arguing for a government role in furthering “the common good,” “equality of opportunity,” and even “ensure broad access to modern health care.”

full article:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/gop-reformers-stop-being-polite-to-tea-party.html
12 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Republican Reformers Stop Being Polite to Tea Party, Start Getting Real (Original Post) DonViejo Jan 2014 OP
NOOOO! Not yet ... 1StrongBlackMan Jan 2014 #1
Just in time to protect the status quo that both parties serve... polichick Jan 2014 #2
I get that you are disgruntled ... 1StrongBlackMan Jan 2014 #4
Of course the rhetoric hasn't changed much... polichick Jan 2014 #5
Okay ... 1StrongBlackMan Jan 2014 #6
The "social movement" I'm most interested in... polichick Jan 2014 #8
You place too much ... 1StrongBlackMan Jan 2014 #9
I totally disagree - few politicians care at all what the people want... polichick Jan 2014 #10
I understand both your points ... 1StrongBlackMan Jan 2014 #11
The "Tea Party" Republicans aren't going to go quietly Proud Liberal Dem Jan 2014 #3
Don't take that crap Tea Baggers! You fight hard and take the GOP down with you! Happyhippychick Jan 2014 #7
John Boehner’s support for immigration? Bullshit. That teabagger bigoted asshole would AlinPA Jan 2014 #12
 

1StrongBlackMan

(31,849 posts)
1. NOOOO! Not yet ...
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 02:44 PM
Jan 2014

I like that the teapartiers are sucking up all the modern gop's air.

I want Democrats to campaign on income inequity and the modern gop in its extremist extreme, come 2014 and into 2016. If so, Democrats are looking at taking the House and expanding in the Senate in 2014 and super-majorities in both Houses in 2016.

Then, and only then, will we be looking at progressive legislation becoming law.

polichick

(37,152 posts)
2. Just in time to protect the status quo that both parties serve...
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 03:16 PM
Jan 2014

from the progressive/populist movement that's getting started.

 

1StrongBlackMan

(31,849 posts)
4. I get that you are disgruntled ...
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 04:06 PM
Jan 2014

but come on! President Obama has been anything BUT a status quo President; though I will grant that it may appear that way to those of instant gratification and "I want what I want right f'ing now."

If anything, President Obama is a student of history. Name one example of lasting society change that came into realization in less than a decade.

President Obama's message/agenda has changed little since his 2008 campaigning; but the American people are just now ready for that change. It seems you confuse "status quo" with "go slow."

I swear ... "liberals/progressives" are determined to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

polichick

(37,152 posts)
5. Of course the rhetoric hasn't changed much...
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 05:15 PM
Jan 2014

but that has little to do with actions.

Think NSA, drones, TPP, etc., etc., etc.

The status quo is all about corporate power, the 1% and the mic - and Pres. Obama, like most others before him, serve these groups first.

I get that you want to believe, but you confuse "go slow" with "toss the poor rubes a few crumbs."

polichick

(37,152 posts)
8. The "social movement" I'm most interested in...
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 06:00 PM
Jan 2014

is a populist movement that refuses to be squashed by either party establishment. In order for that to happen, voters have to stop fighting each other and recognize the real enemies of the people: two party establishments who collude to protect the status quo and the powerful groups they serve (corporations, the 1% and the mic).

 

1StrongBlackMan

(31,849 posts)
9. You place too much ...
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 06:19 PM
Jan 2014

or is it too little, stock in politicians ... they follow the people and will move with the people in order to stay in office. And as history has demonstrated time and time again, incrementalism is the ONLY way, short of revolution, to make that happen.

What you call for is belied by the Kucinchi lesson. He rejected incrementalism (until very late in his career) and he found himself isolated and a none factor. Sander, on the other hand, talks populism but votes incrementalism.

polichick

(37,152 posts)
10. I totally disagree - few politicians care at all what the people want...
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 06:31 PM
Jan 2014

They are totally bought and interested in their next positions as lobbyists - or interested in their war profits, or their private prison profits, or any number of other profit areas they shouldn't be able to vote on because of a conflict of interest.

I'm not arguing that sometimes things move slowly - just saying that what the people want and what the politicians intend don't often match up.

 

1StrongBlackMan

(31,849 posts)
11. I understand both your points ...
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 06:47 PM
Jan 2014

politicians are self-interested and often those interests lag or conflict with those of the people.

But politicians recognize that in order to be in position for that next post, they must gain the first post first. This is where incrementalism makes its gains as the politicians lag behind the people.

Proud Liberal Dem

(24,355 posts)
3. The "Tea Party" Republicans aren't going to go quietly
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 03:20 PM
Jan 2014

and they can still do a lot of damage on the way down- hopefully, moreso to the Republican Party than to the country. Plus, if the GOP purges itself of the Tea Party, they are going to lose a lot of loyal "foot soldiers", aren't they? How are they going to make up their loss? They gleefully latched on to them following Obama's election in 2008 and used them to basically obstruct President Obama's agenda and rebuild their strength after they were virtually wiped out in 2006 and 2008. What will they do without the Tea Party (to the extent that it's composed of real people and not astroturf)?

AlinPA

(15,071 posts)
12. John Boehner’s support for immigration? Bullshit. That teabagger bigoted asshole would
Fri Jan 3, 2014, 07:15 PM
Jan 2014

never support any improvements to the immigration in the US. He will do exactly what he did during the shutdown and threat to default: Lead the teabaggers in their hatred and stupidity.

Latest Discussions»Retired Forums»2016 Postmortem»Republican Reformers Stop...