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2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumA New GOP? Not Yet - by Michael Tomasky
Feb 7, 2013 11:12 AM EST
Why its going to take four more years before Republicans truly hit rock bottomand begin moving back to the center. By Michael Tomasky.
You remember the famous Bertolt Brecht line about how the government should just dissolve the people and elect another? I keep thinking about it as I read more and more about the Republican attempts at redefinitionEric Cantors speech, Karl Roves new group, Foxs quasi makeover, Marco Rubios beer with Ben Smith, and so on. They have all these fancy ideas about how to rebrand. But they can have all the fancy ideas they want. They still have an electoral base that sees politics basically as an arena to exact revenge for a series of resentments and grudges. Until they change that, they are stuckand it isnt happening anytime soon.
Cantors Make Life Work speech Tuesday was more about repackaging than rethinking. He put forward one actually excellent idea, for which I give him credit. He proposed that colleges be required to make public data revealing employment and earning patterns among their graduates. Universities fear this to death, for reasons that education expert Kevin Carey explained in an article in the journal I edit, Democracy, as it could ultimately lead to a reduction in tuition costs.
So I applaud that one. Otherwise, the ideas ranged from OK to largely irrelevant to done before to actively bad. Youve got to hold on to your wallet any time a Republican talks about modernizing Medicare. Endorsing a path to citizenship for DREAM Act recipients is fine, but small potatoes. It is interesting, though, as E.J. Dionne observed, that Cantor was mostly playing on the Democrats side of the field, talking about using government to improve peoples lives. Noted.
The RoveTea Party feud is a joyous thing to watch. Rove, after an utterly disastrous run around the track in 2012, is now suckering people into writing him checks for a new outfit that will allegedly hold the zanies at bay, filter out the Sharron Angles and Richard Mourdocks of the world, and promote electable conservatives.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/07/a-new-gop-not-yet.html
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A New GOP? Not Yet - by Michael Tomasky (Original Post)
DonViejo
Feb 2013
OP
S.A.M
(162 posts)1. Should the G.O.P be outlawed?
Why not? They (Republicans) outlawed the Communist Party USA in the 50's.
zappaman
(20,606 posts)2. Not sure how long it's gonna take
but it sure is fun to watch!
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,414 posts)3. Would the Cantor speech mentioned happen to be the one
he supposedly (largely) plagiarized from President Obama? Bottom line is that NOTHING the Republicans *say* is going to matter if they decide to keep pushing the same kinds of regressive policies at the local, state, and federal level. When they start cranking out some reasonable policy proposals, maybe then- and only then- will I pay any attention.