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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsA Republican lament
I admit, I was smiling while reading this diatribe from Bret Stephens of the WSJ:
Dear fellow conservatives:
Let us now pledge to elect Hillary Clinton as the 45th president of the United States.
Lets skip the petty dramas of primaries and caucuses, the debate histrionics, the sour spectacle of the convention in Cleveland. Lets fast-forward past that sinking October feeling when we belatedly realize were going to loseand lose badly. Lets move straight to that first Tuesday in November, when we grimly pull the lever for the candidate who has passed all the Conservative Purity Tests (CPTs), meaning weve upheld the honor of our politically hopeless cause.
(snip)
We also want to turn the Republican Party into a gated community. So much nicer that way. If the lesson of Mitt Romneys predictable loss in 2012 was that its bad politics to tell Americas fastest-growing ethnic group that some of their relatives should self-deport, or to castigate 47% of the country as a bunch of moocherswell, so what? Now the party of Lincoln has as its front-runner an insult machine whose political business is to tell Mexicans, Muslims, physically impaired journalists, astute Jewish negotiators and others who cross his sullen gaze that he has no use for them or their political correctness.
And while were building a wall around our party, lets also take the opportunity to throw out a few impostors in our midst. Like that hack, George Will. Or John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Jeb Bush and every other Republican In Name Only. Or Marco Rubio, who didnt chicken out on immigration reform quite as quickly or convincingly as Ted Cruz did.
(snip)
As for what the soul of that movement is supposed to be, we can figure that out later. Donald Trump is a candidate of impulses, not ideas. (If you can hire people to write your books you can also hire them to do your thinking.) This doesnt seem to have perturbed his supporters in the slightest. Mr. Cruz is happy to be on any side of an issue so long as he can paint himself as a real Republicanthe implicit goal here being the automatic excommunication of anyone who disagrees with him. Naturally, hes rising.
(snip)
Well convince ourselves that those voting blocs weve spent the past decade alienatingnot just Hispanics, or Asian-Americans or gays and lesbians, but also moderates turned off by loudmouth vulgarians, oleaginous debate champs or ostentatiously pious Christiansdont matter either. Deep down, though, we know the political math doesnt add up for us. We just dont care. Because weve turned even the appearance of moderation, or the amenability to compromise, into a four-letter word.
More..
http://www.wsj.com/articles/lets-elect-hillary-now-1450742854?
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)The Republicans have been so single-mindedly assiduous about alienating huge segments of society, it would be rude not to tell them to go fuck themselves. Conservatives are all "how did that happen" when they look at their current front-runner for president, and it never for an instant crosses their tiny minds that this is the logical and inevitable latest chapter of the course they've stubbornly hewed to.
There was a time when liberals tried to divert conservatives from this self-destructive path, and we got flipped off for our trouble. As far as I'm concerned, those days are receding quickly in the rear-view mirror.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)He wrote a similarly "humorous" article about Rand Paul not too long ago (whom he also despises).
question everything
(47,518 posts)that Rand Paul would be the nominee.
"I am doing this for a living, I know what I am talking about."
I think that the WSJ really was hoping for Walker or even Bush..
Now they will take Rubio.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)I don't remember that one.
question everything
(47,518 posts)Chris Matthews declares Rand Paul will be the 2016 GOP presidential nominee
After analyzing what happens to both parties when they veer to extremes, he concluded
So, I predict the hard right is going to take over the Republican Party in 2016 and that the nomination is going to Rand Paul. You watch, this is what I do for a living.
Yes, from August 2013 but he was so sure that both my spouse and I remember this bombastic declaration, so I googled this recently and found it.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)For some reason, I misread it as "Ron Paul" which is why I was confused (and perhaps need a new prescription!)