Sidney Blumenthal: McCain on the Verge of Defeat

[pberq]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/04/uselections2008-johnmccain

McCain is on the verge of a defeat that marks the end of the Republican era

* Sidney Blumenthal in Chicago
* The Guardian,
* Tuesday November 4 2008

Today's election is poised to end the Republican era in American politics - an era that began in reaction to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the Vietnam war and the civil rights revolution, was pioneered by Richard Nixon, consolidated by Ronald Reagan, and wrecked by George W Bush.

Almost every aspect of the Republican ascendancy has been discredited and lies in tatters - its policies, politics, and even its version of patriotism - down to the rock-bottom notion that progressive taxation itself, initiated by a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, who John McCain hails as his personal icon, is unpatriotic.

McCain's own chronic helplessness in establishing rapport, prompting him to latch on to mediums from Sarah Palin to Joe the Plumber, is aggravated by his party's decay. He is an ironic character to make the last stand on behalf of a party he has been at odds with for virtually his whole career.

McCain is less a victim of age than of the age - the end of the age of Reagan. Realignments in American party politics are the consequence of catastrophe. The coming of the civil war produced the Republican party that more or less ruled until the Great Depression brought about the New Deal. The modern Republican era began with the fragmentation of the liberal Democratic consensus in 1968 over Vietnam, civil rights and urban mayhem. Southerners and the urban ethnic working and middle classes shifted allegiance, forging a coalition that delivered 49 states first to Nixon in 1972 and then to Reagan in 1984.

(more at link. . .)

[NC_Nurse]

1. Knock on wood...

Go Obama 08!!!!!

[TKolmsi]

2. McCain has

earned his rest. You know, if my wife was worth 110 mil I would be out on a boat or something. Time to hang it up, John.

[SusanaMontana41]

11. Welcome to DU!

And yes, Grandpa should retire from politics. He has earned it.

[pberq]

3. House Republicans cntemptuous of McCain over bailout

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/nov/04/uselections2008-johnmccain

"During the congressional debate over the bail-out of the banks, Obama adopted a posture of dignified caution. McCain, however, threw himself into the maelstrom without any plan. The rightwing members of the House of Representatives, contemptuous of McCain and tired of making excuses for the Bush White House, voted it down - demolishing McCain's claim to experience, stability and effectiveness. The bail-out was eventually passed, but he did not recover."

[BeyondGeography]

4. Great piece...the Republicans haven't been spanked like this in decades

Nixonland was always an irresponsbile, fundamentally duplicitous place. Kinda like the country as a whole.


Time for change.

[Raster]

5. To The Greatest! It is time for the failed rethuglican ideology to die!

[Number_Six]

10. Absolutely and...

Take Ayn Rand with them...

[pacalo]

6. The boy king was so much more transparent than Reagan & even Nixon.

He caused so much catastrophe both home & abroad that a bad taste will remain with the American people against Republican rule for decades to come. Like John Dean said, Republicans don't govern; they rule.

Today's election is poised to end the Republican era in American politics - an era that began in reaction to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society, the Vietnam war and the civil rights revolution, was pioneered by Richard Nixon, consolidated by Ronald Reagan, and wrecked by George W Bush.

Almost every aspect of the Republican ascendancy has been discredited and lies in tatters - its policies, politics, and even its version of patriotism - down to the rock-bottom notion that progressive taxation itself, initiated by a Republican president, Theodore Roosevelt, who John McCain hails as his personal icon, is unpatriotic.

[barbtries]

7. this was a terrific article

last two paragraphs:
Now, certain factors that have dominated US politics for 40 years seem destined to recede to the far corners. In economics, supply-side panaceas and deregulation created the worst crisis since the Great Depression, requiring a conservative Republican administration to part-nationalise banks, something unimaginable under any Democratic administration. In foreign policy, neoconservatism led to the morass in Iraq and Afghanistan while undermining the western alliance. In social policy, the evangelical right battered science, the separation of church and state, and the right to privacy. Finally, the conservative principle of limited government has become a watchword for incompetence, cronyism, corruption, hypocrisy, and contempt for the rule of law.

Obama may still be a largely unknown quantity, but the judgment will be made about the known. The election will determine more than the identity of the president. It will decide whether one era is to end and another will begin.

highly recommended.

[Martin Eden]

8. Thanks for posting that last paragraph

Yep, damn good article.

[indepat]

9. Each McShame vote above 20% shows the rampant and virulent sickness

spread throughout every town and hamlet by extreme RW ideologues imv. :P