Who Killed the Republican Party?

[KansDem]

From Tipping Point blog...

Saturday, April 5, 2008

The GOP's "conservative base" is fractured, frustrated, and confused. Somehow it finds itself saddled with a presumptive presidential nominee who has been spectacularly wrong on virtually every issue throughout his long Senatorial career. Many Republicans have resigned themselves to voting for "the lesser of two evils" once again. How did this happen?

Because it received almost no media coverage, only a few GOP loyalists know anything of the decades-long war waged beneath the surface for the Party's soul, a war ultimately lost by traditional conservatives. Fewer still understand the motives of the combatants or appreciate the impact of that struggle's outcome on today's political scene. To act rationally in the present it is necessary to understand the history of that struggle. Although other factions are involved, the neoconservative movement and its antecedents are the focus of this post.

In the 1950s a small group of Trotskyite intellectuals became disenchanted with aspects of Marxism and began a philosophic migration away from communism. The clique paused briefly at the "Scoop" Jackson/Hubert Humphrey faction of the Democratic Party before selecting the Republican Party to serve as its final host. That migration was led by Irving Kristol and Leo Strauss, the intellectual fathers of neoconservatism.

Kristol, father of The Weekly Standard's Bill Kristol, was Managing Editor of Commentary magazine from 1947 to 1952 and Professor of Social Thought at the New York University Graduate School of Business from 1969 to 1988. Since 1988 he has been ensconced as a Distinguished Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Strauss, who died in 1973, was a Political Science Professor at the University of Chicago for most of his career. Unfortunately for those who value Constitutional government, Kristol, Strauss, and their acolytes brought a lot of socialist baggage with them when they "came over" to conservatism.

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[Turbineguy]

1. Here's a hint:

He's on TV right now!

[colonel odis]

2. who cares, long as they're dead?

[patrice]

4. They're definitely NOT dead.

Their progeny are all over this board.

[colonel odis]

11. i know. it was just wishful thinking on my part.

[patrice]

3. I find that so fascinating > I Kristol and L Strauss tried the Democratic Party FIRST

and, apparently, found it wanting in its interests in fascism and wanting in its willingness to steal the People's Freedom to decide anything without un-due influence.

[napoleon_in_rags]

8. That's REALLY interesting, I agree.

Because the original neo-cons aren't classically conservative in most ways. Then you take McCain into account, who's core motivation is to continue the Iraq war, but is "centrist" on all these other positions. All the war-hawk DLC people, like Lieberman, seem to lay pretty close to these guys ideologically as well.

[NMDemDist2]

5. "There you have it...

According to the prolific written admissions of the movement's founders, neoconservatives are purposeful liars and incipient totalitarians who hold the American people and their traditions in absolute contempt. Today they control much of the national GOP's internal workings. Do you appreciate where the neocons have taken "the Republican party, and American conservatism in general, against their respective wills" so far?"

that pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

[baldguy]

6. Ronald Reagan

When he sold out fiscal responsibility to the borrow & spend supply-siders, when he sold out our foreign policy to the neocon hawks and when he sold out out religious freedom to the Christian fascists.

The group that calls themselves the "Republican Party" has nothing to do with Republican values.

[TooBigaTent]

7. EVERYONE who has ever supported a ethug candidate with a vote or a dollar.

The total worthlessness of the "ideals and ideals" of that gang of thieves and murderers would have condemned it long ago if not for the total control they have over the media and corporate Amerika.

You can fool all of the people for only so long before they learn or die. Either way, the GOP will be DOA, hopefully sooner than later.

[Demeter]

9. The Democrats in Congress Did Not Rise to the Challenge

and then even folk hero types like Bill Clinton sold out....and then, there's Nancy.

The children are starving for justice--set the table already, Nancy Pelosi!

[struggle4progress]

10. Pretending they're dead is likely to lead to nasty surprises