Self-Loathing on the Right

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stump/archive/2008/09/29/self-loathing-on-the-right.aspx

Self-Loathing on the Right

Ed Kilgore has two great roundups of conservative revulsion at the House GOP today, incuding a great bit from Ross Douthat:

The most likely scenario, as of 3 PM this afternoon: The stock market continues to drop. Some version of the bailout passes in the next week. The American economy staggers into a recession, but passes through the storm without 1930s-style suffering; the Republican Party is not so fortunate. Even though most Americans claim to oppose the bailout, the House GOP's obstructionism is widely viewed as having worsened the economic situation; the fact that these are contradictory positions does not faze an electorate that wraps all of the country's current troubles up, ties them with a bow, and lays them at the feet of the Bush-led GOP. John McCain loses by a landslide in November. The Democratic Party regains years or even decades worth of ground among the white working class, consolidates the Hispanic vote, and locks up a large chunk of highly-educated voters who might otherwise lean conservative. The much-discussed liberal realignment happens. And a politician running on a Ron Paul-style economic platform does very, very well in the GOP primaries of 2012.

--Michael Crowley

[OmahaBlueDog]

1. Good stuff

I read an article months ago (I wish I could find it to cite) that basically compared the Ron Paul campaign to Goldwater in '64, and indicated that the youth movement that supported him will be the energy that drives that party in a new direction.

However, I also have wondered if we, too, won't see some fracture after the election -- with Hillary and the DLC marching off to form a new party, and a party that would try to lure in folks like Arnold Schwarzeneger, Michael Bloomberg, etc. -- a party that would be socially moderate to liberal while being economically corporatist.

[babylonsister]

2. Gosh, I can't even handle the parties we're dealing with now.

But anything is possible. I just don't see the Clintons marching off and starting their own party.