Tag: GOP

On behalf of the mob

Ezra opines on the scene:

This is, in other words, no time for moderation. And on the Mall today, you could believe it. The press was seated directly before the podium – I had a second-row seat to history, you might say – and behind us stretched the long lawn. And all we could do was gape. It was a sea of people. Millions of people. A mass of moving, yelling, dancing, joyous humanity, filling every patch of green and surrounding the Washington Monument. The image richly recalled the iconic photographs of Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington. And the assembled politicians knew it. Up on the podium, you could see senators snapping pictures on their digital cameras, pointing at the crowd, shaking their heads in disbelief. They weren’t pretending to be blase about the scene. This was different. This was dramatic. It was a screaming, laughing, cheering rejoinder to those who would constrain the scale of Obama’s ambitions, or question his political assets.

And, as somebody out there moving, yelling, dancing, and actively being humanity: I agree on all points. You’d think the members of both the “loyal” Democrats as well as both the vigorous/healthy and the lunatic, nothing-will-move opposition from the GOP side would look out and have exactly the same moment…and, upon hearing Obama’s own “the ground has shifted beneath them” line would combine the two streams of information and move out accordingly in the coming days and months. Instead, Jay Boehner gives us this:

I’m not sure that anyone knows exactly what [Obama] was trying to say.

Indeed, the meaning of the various threads at work on the day were quite muddy. I guess we know what we have to look forward to.

THIS IS NEXT

The clearest statement I’ve yet seen on where the GOP goes from here is available from this piece that quotes that lovable scamp, Newt Gingrich:

“Look,” Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, said the other day (on the air, to Bill O’Reilly), “I think there is a gay and secular fascism in this country that wants to impose its will on the rest of us, is prepared to use violence… . I think that it is a very dangerous threat to anybody who believes in traditional religion. And I think if you believe in historic Christianity, you have to confront the fact.” For diversity’s sake, he added that “the historic version of Islam” and “the historic version of Judaism” are likewise menaced—which is natural, given that gay, secular, fascist values are “the opposite of what you’re taught in Sunday school.”

Warnings of violence from the ever mysterious, yet surprisingly well organized “other” couched in a pseudo-religious patina. Welcome to the next four years; Campaign 12, ‘Merica Decides! has begun.

GOP: look out, Constitution Party, Here we come. Absolutely determined to become a predominantly southern, crazily religious splinter of a party. The real question, then, is: will the new major party be to the left of the current Democrat? Wouldn’t surprise me, actually. All depends on the economy.

Ceterum censeo GOP esse delendam

David Brooks, the man who (uh, more or less) admits to covering for John McCain these past ten long years, is officially off the bus with regard to the bleeding edge (circa 1984) economic and geopolitical thinking of the current GOP:

It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.

Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.

I’ve spoken with several House Republicans over the past few days and most admirably believe in free-market principles. What’s sad is that they still think it’s 1984. They still think the biggest threat comes from socialism and Walter Mondale liberalism. They seem not to have noticed how global capital flows have transformed our political economy.

Every now and then, even a blind pig finds a nut. He then applies lipstick with it. Badly:

What we need in this situation is authority. Not heavy-handed government regulation, but the steady and powerful hand of some public institutions that can guard against the corrupting influences of sloppy money and then prevent destructive contagions when the credit dries up.

Er, okay, David. We’ll have some non-regulating regulations out for you by lunch. Nice talking to you.

The real conclusion is reached by Brad DeLong:

This Republican Party needs to be burned, razed to the ground, and the furrows sown with salt…

Yep. Methinks this is the end of the beginning of the end of the current political structure. Whether or not the GOP will be a part of what follows depends heavily on the next few weeks and months.

Why the bile? Why especially now? Perhaps this has something to do with it:

[NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that] leading Republicans who are close to [Newt Gingrich said] he was whipping against this up until the last minute when he issued that face-saving statement [claiming he was in favor of the bailout bill]. Newt Gingrich was telling people in the strongest possible language that this was a terrible deal, not only that it was a terrible deal, that it was a disaster, it was the end of democracy as we know it, it was socialism. And then at the last minute comes out with a statement when the vote is already in place.

[…]

NBC’s Mike Barnicle said he had been told by congressional conservatives that the move was “the opening salvo of Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign four years hence.”

Cynicism, thy name be Newt. Where’s Ross Perot and some pie-charts when you need him? Let’s hope there’s a recognizable country left for one of them to run into the ground come 2012.

We ought to route him into Lake Michigan, at least we’ll avoid killing innocent people.

Looks like the GOP is taking its own advice. ~60% of them voted against the bailout bill. The Dow promptly closed down 777 points. Tomorrow, it would seem, is when the shit really hits the fan:

…new worries were building inside the nearly $2 trillion world of hedge funds. After years of explosive growth, losses are mounting — and so are concerns that some investors will head for the exits.

….The big worry is that a spate of hurried sales could unleash a vicious circle within the hedge fund industry, with the sales leading to more losses, and those losses leading to more withdrawals, and so on. A big test will come on Tuesday, when many funds are scheduled to accept withdrawal requests for the end of the year.

“Everybody’s watching for redemptions,” said James McKee, director of hedge fund research at Callan Associates, a consulting firm in San Francisco. “And there could be a cascading effect, where redemptions cause other redemptions.”

All over but the crying. It’s been a good run. Man on the moon, and all that. Somebody turn the lights out on the way out the door. Krugman notes there’s no parking in the White Zone.

I say “Let ’em crash!”

Shorter GOP house membership:

They Bought Their Tickets, They Knew What They Were Getting Into. I Say–Let ‘Em Crash!

Seriously, this bunch of idiots prefer decades of economic destruction to sacrificing their (fake) small guvmint “credentials” at the altar of actual necessity? We can argue and re-tune deals until the cows come home, but I think any responsible person realizes “I don’t know what it is, but something’s got to be did.”

Naturally, this all just kabuki nonsense such that Saint John McCain can either:

a) Create distance between himself and everybody else (the Democrat menace has gotten to W! He never was a “real” conservative no-how!) when they pass the current bill over his cold, dead (voting-against-it) hand.
2) Claim victory when some other version of the bill passes that includes his beloved Blue Ribbon Commission. (Did they just say “Blue Ribbon?!?”; then it must be good.)

All of which can hopefully cause the cancellation of the VP debate, because ‘Merica’s in too much danger to allow a lot of this talkin’.