That Captain Obvious winner shows up in Peggy Noonan’s WSJ column “Pity Party.” This where the real spin begins, as she distances herself from the rest of the apologists and GOP cheerleaders for Dear Leader for the last seven years. She’s the one with 20/20 vision about the disastrous political bind the Republicans are in. The Democrats aren’t the ones falling apart, the Republicans are. The Democrats can see daylight ahead.“Members and pundits . . . fail to understand the deep seated antipathy toward the president, the war, gas prices, the economy, foreclosures.”
–Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia in a 20-page memo to House GOP leaders.
For all their fractious fighting, they’re finally resolving their central drama. Hillary Clinton will leave, and Barack Obama will deliver a stirring acceptance speech. Then hand-to-hand in the general, where they see their guy triumphing. You see it when you talk to them: They’re busy being born.While she’s angry at how the GOP has failed her, she underestimates the capacity of denial and blame-shifting of these clowns in an attempt to save their personal political fortunes.The Republicans? Busy dying. The brightest of them see no immediate light. They’re frozen, not like a deer in the headlights but a deer in the darkness, his ears stiff at the sound. Crunch. Twig. Hunting party.
…Many are ambivalent, deep inside, about the decisions made the past seven years in the White House. But they’ve publicly supported it so long they think they . . . support it. They get confused. Late at night they toss and turn in the antique mahogany sleigh bed in the carpeted house in McLean and try to remember what it is they really do think, and what those thoughts imply.
And those are the bright ones. The rest are in Perpetual 1980: We have the country, the troops will rally in the fall.
“This was a real wakeup call for us,” someone named Robert M. Duncan, who is chairman of the Republican National Committee, told the New York Times. This was after Mississippi. “We can’t let the Democrats take our issues.” And those issues would be? “We can’t let them pretend to be conservatives,” he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.
I say watch the former Bush faithful. If there’s one thing the GOP is good at, it’s the taking the long view of how to make a comeback. Look at what else Davis says to Noonan — after the jump.
Is Davis high as a kite? Does he really believe that Republicans can pin the economic debacle currently occurring in this country, the disaster over in Iraq, the outlandish hands-off approach to climate change, the list goes on and on… — on Democrats? The Dems have only been in non-supermajority control since Nov. 2006. Exactly what part of the mess, are Dems supposed to take the blame for (aside from spinelessness)?The party, Mr. Davis told me, is “an airplane flying right into a mountain.” Analyses of its predicament reflect an “investment in the Bush presidency,” but “the public has just moved so far past that.” “Our leaders go up to the second floor of the White House and they get a case of White House-itis.” Mr. Bush has left the party at a disadvantage in terms of communications: “He can’t articulate. The only asset we have now is the big microphone, and he swallowed it.” The party, said Mr. Davis, must admit its predicament, act independently of the White House, and force Democrats to define themselves. “They should have some ownership for what’s going on. They control the budget. They pay no price. . . . Obama has all happy talk, but it’s from 30,000 feet. Energy, immigration, what is he gonna do?”
Read the rest of Noonan’s piece. She’s telegraphing the 2012 GOP game plan, folks, and I’ve talked about it before. The GOP knows the ship is sinking, and in some ways, I think they want Obama to win the White House and the Dems to have strong control on the Hill. Taking a time out is the only way to reposition that party to wash its hands of the myriad Bush f*ckups and his knee pad-wearing Congress.
I spoke this week to Clarke Reed of Mississippi, one of the great architects of resurgent Republicanism in the South. When he started out, in the 1950s, there were no Republicans in his state. The solid south was solidly Democratic, and Sen. James O. Eastland was thumping the breast pocket of his suit, vowing that civil rights legislation would never leave it. “We’re going to build a two-party system in the south,” Mr. Reed said. He helped create “the illusion of Southern power” as a friend put it, with the creation of the Southern Republican Chairman’s Association. “If you build it they will come.” They did.Out of power, the GOP will have the easy task — given the American public’s short attention span and need for instant gratification — of blaming the inability of an Obama administration and a Dem-led Congress to promptly correct all the wrongs. They know the next president and Congress won’t be able to patch all the holes in this damaged ship to get it home and placed in drydock for repairs quickly enough to satisfy the desperate need for this nightmare to end. This would also have been true of a Clinton victory, btw, and would probably present an politically easier target for the GOP blame game plan in some ways, since they have that trusty tattered playbook to pull out. The Dem White House occupant really doesn’t matter in the end. The goal for the GOP is to blame shift their way back into power.…Is the Republican solid South over?
“Yeah. Oh yeah.” He said, “I eat lunch every day at Buck’s Cafe. Obama’s picture is all over the wall.”
***
This is slightly off topic, but relevant — another observation about a unique negative that Barack Obama will have to face if elected, and we will likely not see it manifest itself in the MSM, but it will be embedded in the criticism he faces. It’s a common phenomenon a lot of POC who have worked in environments where you’re the first racial minority encounter. Your job performance is likely to be used to pre-judge other people of color who follow you. A white person will not face this because of white privilege, the default or norm being whiteness. This is not a statement of malicious intent — though that is certainly purposeful at times — but it represents a reality for those in the dominant culture. It’s simply because of our country’s tortured inability to discuss race, and a high level of denial about white privilege.
Another example of this would be some of the interesting defenses raised during the Imus “nappy headed hos” nonsense, for instance. I received emails from people asking why I was not attacking the misogyny in hip hop as a counter (an assumption of people who obviously hadn’t read my blog very long, since I had commented on the topic long before Imus opened his piehole). The odd running theme seemed to be that I was deemed responsible for defending a slice of black culture regardless of whether I was a fan of hip-hop, that I was automatically hypocritical on the issue because I am black and are perceived to be ready to “defend the tribe” under any circumstances. Bizarre, but I knew and expected that feedback was coming.
An interesting, smaller-scale example of this was a NC Democratic Party Bloggers Conference I attended in 2007 (I blogged about the event here). I was the only person of color in the room — and one of only a couple of women invited. At one point in the discussion, the conversation turned to bringing in more minorities into the blogosphere dialogue, specifically offline successful local black grassroots activist types. All eyes turned to me — I’m not kidding — as if I had a hotline to the who’s who of NC black political infrastructure (I don’t), or had a “black Rolodex” to whip out to clue them in.
That’s obviously not malicious behavior, but the actions/reactions assume there’s some sort of automatic groupthink or communication in minority spheres. It’s borne of white privilege that’s embedded in our larger culture, and it’s impact is rarely acknowledged or discussed. It just pops up in uncomfortable benign moments like that.
You’ve seen it this in the election cycle as well, with these various, weird “fear of a black planet” statements that intimate an Obama presidency will mean the end of the gravy train of white privilege, that he harbors a Secret Black Radical Trojan Horse Agenda to exact retribution on whitey for past historical wrongs, and deny them positions of power. That’s why you’ve seen little analysis of the irrational fears and the death grip it holds on some people (I like Jacki Schechner’s take on the more overt manifestation of it):
Jon Stewart’s A block was laugh out loud funny last night. The Chris Matthews/Terry McAuliffe bit (6 minutes in) is a must-see if you missed it. But the portion that got me thinking was the part about the media coverage of the West Virginia primary results. Stewart highlights the dance-around-it dance describing why Clinton came out on top:She then asks why this phenomenon occurs: “Why has it become taboo to tell it like it is? Who are we afraid of offending? The offensive?” It’s not about offending a third party, it’s about disclosing the existence of white privilege and an open discussion about the irrational fears of losing immediate control of societal structures and the status quo. That’s more about being frightened, a defensive silence than worried about whether someone will take something the wrong way — though that sense of discomfort is already out there. We cannot allow ourselves to be paralyzed by this.“her working class base”
“working class whites”
“white voters earning less than $50,000″
“blue collar whites”
“white regular people”
“white rural Americans”Stewart’s report also showed soundbites from three West Virginian women who possibly unknowingly outed themselves as racist and grossly misinformed.
Why is it we can’t just call it like it is? White, uneducated, poor voters in West Virginia don’t identify with the suburban-raised, Wellesley and Yale Law educated former First Lady and Senator from “the big city.” A majority voted for Clinton because she’s white. Or to be even more blunt, because she’s not black.
I know anchors, reporters, and pundits can’t come right out and say it - as Stewart spent 5 minutes pointing out - but I don’t know why. Racism is shameful and the behavior of ignorant, close-minded people. We may be hesitant to label someone a racist, but if someone won’t vote for a black man because he’s black, then guess what? Here’s your nametag, Princess Bigot.
I actually think pretending otherwise is a problem. Maybe if people didn’t think it was acceptable to hate based on race, we’d spread a little good. Ignoring the issue isn’t going to make it disappear.
Euphemisms only perpetuate the myth that we’re somehow past the ugly, naked truth. And the results from Tuesday’s primary - where many poor, uneducated, white folks voted for the millionaire white woman because they saw no viable alternative - prove we are buried deeper in the racist muck than anyone in the media cares - or dares - to admit.
12 Responses to “The Republican 2012 game plan”
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““We can’t let the Democrats take our issues.” And those issues would be? “We can’t let them pretend to be conservatives,” he continued. Why not? Republicans pretend to be conservative every day.”
…and there in a nutshell is the heart of the problem.
In their little world, there is only “conservatism”, and you are measured by how closely you hew to the “conservative philosophy”, whatever that happens to be after so many years of predation by fools like Bush, Cheney, Gingrich, Barbour, etc.
There is no recognition of liberalism/progressivism or any other philosophy that treats human needs as more important than human greed.
Ultimately, as much as Noonan and others try to portray the collapse of the “conservative” movement as being the result of a betrayal of that movement’s core beliefs, the fact is the “conservative” movement was given its shot at having things the way it wants them - and it all turned to shit. They passed any law they wanted, invaded every country they wanted, eliminated any tax they wanted, appointed any wingnut ideologue to government “service”, eliminated regulation and oversight. Social Security barely withstood their attacks. Government was refashioned into merely a tool for enforcing Republican Party domination.
Ultimately, it was revealed that there is no real philosophy underlying “conservative thought”, it consists entirely of determining what social/economic/environmental progress has been made so far, and then working as hard as possible to undo it.
The Left now has its (thin) chance to demonstrate the value of its philosophy and ideas. If they blow it this time, we might as well just have a dictatorship and finish burying the “American experiment”…
The biggest problem that a Dem president will face (and note that I say WILL and not “might” or “may”) is the Congress. The current crop of Dems is noted for their spinelessness and fractiousness. Three huge, impassible congressioanl barriers will be placed in the way of the next Dem president:
1. Republican stubbornness. These guys will vote against anything at all productive and then reply on their SM subs in the news media to portray it as a Dem failure. (It has worked so far, and will get waaaaaaaaay worse when they have nothing to lose.)
2. The congressional Dems will be unwilling due to moral weakness to fight and win these obstructive tactics.
3. The congressional Dems will take all that energy that they should have been using to win battles with the GOP minority and spend it nit-picking and quibbling and petty bargaining with the White House. The DemPres will have a nightmare time getting things through the congress because even the most important bills will be held up by about 200 petty highwaymen who’d put a bullet through their own electoral feet in order get what they want.
I agree MikeEss. Robert Farley over at LMG had it 100% correct :
The Left now has its (thin) chance to demonstrate the value of its philosophy and ideas. If they blow it this time, we might as well just have a dictatorship and finish burying the “American experiment”…
Let’s be honest about who (might) come into office in January, MikeEss.
It won’t even be the left-wing of the Democratic Party (represented by people like Dennis Kucinich and Barbara Lee), let alone “the Left” (e.g. Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein).
If Obama wins, voters will be giving “New Democratic,” “Third Way” centrism another try.
If these ideas fail, here’s hoping the various actual Lefts get a little more assertive rather than simply circling the wagons and defending this lesser evil. And before they fail, I think it behooves us on the actual Left to make it clear that our ideas are not even being considered.
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.” — John K. Galbraith
“If Obama wins, voters will be giving “New Democratic,” “Third Way” centrism another try.”
Of course, it’s not ideal, but let’s face it - it’s better than 4-more years of NeoCon lunacy.
And if Obama is even slightly more progressive than Bill Clinton, so much the better. And in the wake of Republican disaster, a window of opportunity is open.
Electoral and legislative success will not be handed to us on a silver platter. But nothing worth having is easy to get…
I agree that the Republicans would *love* to see the Democrats take the whole ball of wax this time, because it’s someone to blame. A four year Democratic administration, a la Jimmy Carter, who gets blamed for the mess the Republicans left for him to clean up, followed by another 20-30 years of Republican rule.
I do think you’re right about what Obama would face as the first POC in the White House, and I think Clinton would face a similar issue in being the first woman - their success or failure will definitely impact those who follow.
they are not in charge any more in 2012. All they can do is react, not dictate the tempo.
so.
1. They have to deal with Democratic agenda
2. They have to deal with new campaign regulation (ability to raise money)
3. They probably have to deal with new media regulation (TV, radio, and internet) will be different.
If I were Dem’s the power that be. I will start snuffing their money beast. Slay the evangelicals and K-street, neocons. (All sort of investigations. Republican leadership will have nothing left by 2012. Take down, the young and smart one. Leave the stupid/old/corrupt in place to rot the party further.)
But first order of business. Obama has to win, then clean up the corrupt Dems in congress. Republican will kill each other soon enough. (already they are so afraid and won’t pass Bush latest budget.)
This…
is SO critical.
That fact needs to be shouted from the rooftops, broadcast -constantly- everywhere, posted ubiquitously, repeated ad nauseum
and oft spoke, even…too.
This fundie/Zioconic mess is a wreck beyond any dystopian imagining, I sometimes..quagmired then in pessimism and hopelessness.. doomthink.
But be damned damned and fu*ckin’ sure too that EVERYONE in America knows it and maybe? even votes it.
And maybe one of the good guys WONT timeliwise get the great ship back into drydock…
but he or she can sure as hell avoid that bloody iceberg.
Of course, it’s not ideal, but let’s face it - it’s better than 4-more years of NeoCon lunacy.
I totally agree, MikeEss.
I was just saying that an Obama presidency’s successes and failures will have little or nothing to do with “the Left,” so there’s no point saying that they will. The Left isn’t even a part of the conversation.
I hate the whole “one person from minority group represents entire group” thing. I was part of a conversation just the other day where someone was painting with broadass and ridiculous strokes. I’m reasonably sure that most women can relate to it because even though White women won’t have to deal with it because of their skin colour, I’m sure that most have had that experience of being the one woman in the group and feeling the pressure to not make the whole gender look stupid/weak/whatever. I work in IT and there aren’t many women (although that’s changing and the women who are there are almost all in leadership roles) and I have this happen all the time, so it must be hella stressful feeling like you’re representing a race.
Also, it really is considered so much ruder these days to call someone racist than to actually be racist. I’ve told a lot of people my age (20s) lately not to use the n-word - there’s been a really disturbing increase in it’s usage, which I’m assuming is down to people spelling it “n*gga”, mainly in songs. I live in New Zealand so we don’t have the same history of the word, but I’ve heard it dropped by management in a business meeting for gods’ sakes. I call it out, but you’re looked at like you’re insane (and a prissy woman, see above re. IT work) and it is insane that we are at the point where people are dropping this word left, right and centre and the person complaining about it is the nutsack. I also had a run in on an online message board on which I was a regular, and when I called someone out for blatant racism and homophobia I ended up being attacked by a number of other members, presumably because I had the temerity to rock the cradle and point out the racist, homophobic elephant in the room. I don’t post there anymore; not a safe space. I’m pretty much disgusted by most people’s attitudes to race.
I have the solution for the GOP in 2008. Noonan literally got the vapours over President Chimpy McFlightsuit when he landed on the aircraft carrier “Mission Accomplished” back in 2003.
Time to man up, GOP weenies. Get your special GOP- issued codpiece, exclusively designed to distract voters from noticing that you’ve spent that past decade totally fucking up the country!
Instead of worrying about whether they’ll be able to put food on their family or if their children is learning - they’ll be watching FauxNews, endlessly debating who has the biggest dick (and is it real or enhanced). I smell victory!