The myth of an impure GOP
For starters, the movement has an unhealthy share of hucksters eager to make money from stirring rage, paranoia, and an ill-defined sense of betrayal with little concern for the real political success that can come only with persuading the unconverted.
A conservative journalist or activist can now make a decent living while never once bothering to persuade a liberal. Telling people only what they want to hear has become a vocation. Worse, it’s possible to be a rank-and-file conservative without once being exposed to a good liberal argument. Many liberals lived in such an ideological cocoon for decades, which is one reason conservatives won so many arguments early on. Having the right emulate that echo chamber helps no one.
Ironically, the institution in which conservatives had their greatest success is the one most besieged by conservatives today: the Republican party. To listen to many grassroots conservatives, the GOP establishment is a cabal of weak-kneed sellouts who regularly light votive candles to a poster of liberal Republican icon Nelson Rockefeller.
This is not only not true, it’s a destructive myth.
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Jonah’s a good read and smart man, but he’s part of the echo chamber and this should be considered when reading his stuff.
Romney’s barely a republican never mind a conservative.
Jonah’s completely wrong here:
Now whether it’s useful to keep saying the same thing without actually doing anything (echo chamber) is besides the point. People believe it because they don’t see the GOP actually doing anything intelligent to promote the brand or promote conservatism.
Maybe this “myth” would not have legs if the GOP actually moved away from the center and more to the right. Just a thought.
kim roy on January 16, 2013 at 3:53 PM
^ On that occasion he ran beyond it. On the eve of the end of his term as governor and while he was gearing up for a presidential run, he signed into law some meaningless but stiff anti-illegal-immigrant thing. Knowing that it was going nowhere. Gray amorphous blob.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 3:54 PM
Goldberg says
so you at least agree Goldberg is wrong that Rockefeller Republicans have been purged if Huntsman is one?
sauldalinsky on January 16, 2013 at 3:56 PM
Oh but we are in the process of purging him! Hehe. Yeah, there’s some left.
thebrokenrattle on January 16, 2013 at 4:02 PM
Since the GOPe is so eminently “conservative”, how was “some” of that “distrust” “well-earned”? Weaselly, just as his term “hucksters” without giving any specific examples is.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:03 PM
^ By the way, “philosophically pure” is a tired old strawman. How about simply “almost-recognizably conservative”?
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:06 PM
Very good point..
Dire Straits on January 16, 2013 at 4:07 PM
And, how has the GOP sought to “prove its purity to its base”? I really want to know.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:08 PM
According to a Rasmussen poll, 63% of Republicans across the country believe congressional Republicans are out of touch with the party’s base.
idesign on January 16, 2013 at 4:09 PM
^ The GOP has nominated two moderates in a row; it has done nothing “conservative” since taking over the House in 2010; its poobahs regularly dump on the Tea Party and on figures the base likes. So how has the GOPe even tried to prove its “purity” to the base?
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:10 PM
* 2011, that should be.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:11 PM
I think the point is that a party that is always having a “cicular firing squad” moments within is going to lose..
Dire Straits on January 16, 2013 at 4:13 PM
^ The GOP has nominated two moderates in a row; it has done nothing “conservative” since taking over the House in 2010; its poobahs regularly dump on the Tea Party and on figures the base likes. So how has the GOPe even tried to prove its “purity” to the base?
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:10 PM
Many more than that going back to Thomas E. Dewey. Ford, Bush 41, Dole, Bush 43, McCain and Mitt. As I have said earlier, the GOP establishment hates conservatism and conservatives. They are vested in maintaining and growing the leviathan. They are in it for power and money the same as the Dem/Leftists. The only difference is that the Dems are in it for ideology as well. Everything the GOP has done over the past several election cycles going back at least 20 years has done nothing to disprove this.
Rixon on January 16, 2013 at 4:14 PM
You mean like when the base in Delaware is roasted for having chosen COD over Castle? Or the conniption fit at the base for voting for Angle?
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:15 PM
thebrokenrattle on January 16, 2013 at 4:02 PM
Good
In terms of Rockefeller v. Romney… On the one hand, you have an Ivy League-educated Northeasterner who inherited a fortune became a successful businessman and philanthropist and was a large state governor whose supported socialized medicine and “too big to fail” lobbying for federal govt. money. On the other hand, you have Nelson Rockefeller! How could anyone confuse the two?
sauldalinsky on January 16, 2013 at 4:15 PM
Good post. Good to see you Dire.
kim roy on January 16, 2013 at 4:16 PM
Absolutely dead spot-on accurate.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:16 PM
Dumb post. The Dems had lots of circular firing squads after Kerry lost in ’04. Two years later, they won Congress. Two years after that, they won everything. The GOP had lots of circular firing squads after Ford lost in ’76. Four years later, their conservative nominee won in a landslide.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:18 PM
^ In other words, “circular firing squad” is simply squish-speak for “don’t you dare point out the obvious when our moderate candidates lose”.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:20 PM
They learned and adapted. You see grumblings and b1tching from liberals, but when it comes time to vote there they are.
kim roy on January 16, 2013 at 4:21 PM
Not really. The base took over the party.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:23 PM
Yes the Dems united and the indys followed them..
Dire Straits on January 16, 2013 at 4:24 PM
No that is not what it means..
Dire Straits on January 16, 2013 at 4:30 PM
They united behind the enthusiasm of the base. They Dem establishment didn’t sit around b1tching about what an unelectable freak Obama was after he won the nomination.
Yeah, that’s what it means.
ddrintn on January 16, 2013 at 4:36 PM
Really???!!?..That is funny..
Dire Straits on January 16, 2013 at 4:46 PM
Good to see you..
Dire Straits on January 16, 2013 at 5:03 PM
LoLz rofl..You sure did more than your share of bashing the GOP nominee..
Dire Straits on January 16, 2013 at 6:49 PM
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