It’s been absurd for a long while, but the apparent self-destruction of the Republican Party is reaching new depths. Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina is being censured by the state G.O.P. organization for working with Democrats on a climate bill.
For contrast, here is the Huffington Report.
All one can do is stare and ask “What is wrong with those people?”
Despite party leader calls for bipartisanship, we see repeated motions by the grassroots elements of the embattled party to circle the wagons and harden their resolve to do nothing to aid and abet what they perceive as The Enemy.
Which is what, exactly?
Anything, it seems, which suggests that people cannot manage their own affairs, no matter how much they might affect other people, is disallowed. If legislation is proposed to control behavior of individuals, it is anathema to the Republicans.
Unless we’re discussing abortion. Then the full weight of the state must be brought to bear to prevent individual choice.
If the Democrats are smart, all they need do is continue to discuss issues in rational, thoughtful ways, and let the Republican Rabid Dog Wing continue to vociferate mindlessly, and in 2010 there will be another bloodletting of Republican presence in Congress. All the Republicans seem able to do anymore is bang their shoes on the desk and repeat “No! No! No!”
At some point, surely, there will be a schism (much like the one we saw in upstate New York) and the sane and rational Republicans will split away from the hydrophobic microcephalics that have been destroying them for so long. That cannot but be a good thing in the long run.
1. Parties out of power will always fragment until they find the New Boss
2. Seppuku is usually spelled with 'pp' to reflect the glottal stop "っ"
Mark-
The Fox News report you link to seems to be solely discussing his stance on the immigration debate. Fox News' link to the South Carolina state newspaper is broken, but this is the article to which they are trying to link. It notes that local Republicans are also upset with Graham for supporting the bank bailout and for "showing a condescending attitude towards his constituents". It also notes that this is not a new issue– they censured him two years ago for "his stance on immigration and other 'liberal' positions."
Perhaps this is less a case of circling the wagons and more a case of his constituency's ongoing attempts to "make him do it" to borrow the rhetoric of the progressives in the Obama age. In other words, his 90% conservative voting record is not good enough for a conservative electorate that demands 100% conformity– they keep pushing for him to do what they elected him to do. For a long time, the right has been better than the left at building these structures to force accountability from their representatives.
Brynn,
Thanks for the links.
I agree with the "Making Him Do It" tactic with the understanding that this is less from his voter constituency than it is from the back room crowd. They can get away with it because of the majority they seem to have, but eventually the nut-jobbery is going tell against them. At least, I hope so.
Speaking of the extreme right, Bill O'Reilly just announced his reason for why we might as well try to work with Muslims: Because we can kill all of them. Sounds like right wing spin on the golden rule. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/10/bill-ore…
The fox news link actually leads to a story from August of 2007.
Olympia Snowe is not conservative enough for conservatives.It's time to get rid of her too. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/family…