“Utter insanity and stupidity”: Ex-Reagan adviser unloads on GOP, lobbyists and the myth of the “mod
“Utter insanity and stupidity”: Ex-Reagan adviser unloads on GOP, lobbyists and the myth of the “moderate Republican”
Reform won't come from the GOP — and D.C. is more corrupt than you think, a former Reagan advisor tells Salon
In American politics, for whatever reason, the most forceful and articulate critics of political parties or movements are often apostates. The list of names of redeemers — or traitors, depending on where you stand — is too long to recount here; but one of the more recent addition would have to be Bruce Bartlett, the historian and former member of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations who has since become one of movement conservatism’s most scathing critics. (To get a sense of what we mean, just go to his Twitter page and search “wankers.”)
Recently, Salon saw the onetime aide to GOP Rep. Jack Kemp (the party’s 1996 vice presidential nominee) criticizing a piece about a campaign finance reform-oriented GOP presidential candidate from Harvard Law’s Lawrence Lessig. We decided to reach out, and ended up speaking with Bartlett over the phone for about 30 minutes. Our conversation touched on Lessig’s piece, Bartlett’s contrarian view of campaign finance, and why he thinks lobbying is one of the most insidious threats to American government. A condensed and edited transcript of our conversation can be found below.
What element of Professor Lawrence Lessig’s Daily Beast piece on a reform Republican challenging Clinton — which, I should just note, he admitted was fanciful — did you find most unrealistic?
Well, the impression I had (was) that he, like many other people, such as David Brooks, seems to be longing for a moderate Republican savior who they believe is out there somewhere and (will) rescue the Republicans from utter insanity and stupidity. Lessig has this belief … that the only reason this white knight savior hasn’t emerged is because of problems in campaign finance. So he has this scheme for mobilizing the millions of small donors that he, for some reason, believes are out there longing for this White Knight moderate, who can channel an adequate amount of funding to this White Knight. I think that’s just ludicrous; it’s just nonsense.
http://www.salon.com/2015/05/14/utter_insanity_and_stupidity_ex_reagan_adviser_unloads_on_gop_lobbyists_and_the_myth_of_the_moderate_republican/