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2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)Andrew Sullivan: The GOP’s Real Problem [View all]
http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/02/08/the-gops-real-problem/The GOPs Real Problem
Feb 8 2013 @ 5:01pm
President Bush Holds News Conference
A reader at TPM puts his finger on it:
Neither side in this putative civil war has been willing to reckon honestly with the consequences of the Bush administration for the country (substantively) or the Republican Party (politically). Both do their best to present their views to the public as if the last Republican President had never existed. This has left both groups of activists somewhat unmoored; in politics, you talk ideology and principles when you cant brag about accomplishments, because voters are a lot better at relating the latter to their own lives.
Since neither the Tea Party types or the big donors and the campaign operatives working for them are thinking of repudiating a Republican administration that lost two wars and wrecked the economy, they are left to air their differences on issues no one besides campaign junkies cares about. The self-styled conservatives complain that Rove and his people say mean things about them; the moneybags wing is dedicated to recruiting candidates who will avoid gaffes. Big deal.
Since neither the Tea Party types or the big donors and the campaign operatives working for them are thinking of repudiating a Republican administration that lost two wars and wrecked the economy, they are left to air their differences on issues no one besides campaign junkies cares about. The self-styled conservatives complain that Rove and his people say mean things about them; the moneybags wing is dedicated to recruiting candidates who will avoid gaffes. Big deal.
This was also clear in the Hagel hearings. When you have a party that hasnt been able to repudiate the worst administration in modern times, and actually still attempt to hail it as some kind of achievement with respect to Iraq or Afghanistan or the debt, you cannot persuade anyone you have changed, or want to change.
Someone in the GOP needs to take Bush-Cheney apart, to show how they created the debt crisis we are in, by throwing away a surplus on unaffordable tax cuts, launching two unfunded wars, and one new unfunded entitlement. They need to take on the war crimes that has deeply undermined the soul of the United States. They need to note the catastrophic negligence that gave us the worst national security lapse since Pearl Harbor (9/11) despite being warned explicitly in advance, accept weak and false intelligence to launch a war they were too incompetent to fight or win, sat back as one of the worst hurricanes all but took out a major city, and was so negligent in bank regulation that we ended up with Lehman and all that subsequently took place.
These were not minor errors. They were catastrophic misjudgments which took an era of peace, surplus and prosperity and replaced it with a dystopia of massive debt, a lawless executive branch, two unwinnable wars, and a record of war crimes that had their source in the very Oval Office.
When will the Republicans hold themselves accountable for the things that have persuaded so many that this bunch of fanatics and deniers are unfit for government? When will they speak of Bush and Cheney and repudiate them?
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repudiate???The republicans are going to nominate Jeb unless he chickes out because
graham4anything
Feb 2013
#1
Exactly, Bush enriched all his cronies, he knew exactly what he was doing.
xtraxritical
Feb 2013
#13
I'm not sure I want to give Bush any credit, but yes someone knew what they were doing. n/t
A Simple Game
Feb 2013
#14
Yes, Andrew Sullivan, when will those Republicans who supported our war in Iraq be repudiated?
MNBrewer
Feb 2013
#11
Just because he became as enthusiastic in his support of Obama as he had been for Bush
MNBrewer
Feb 2013
#16
It's in the middle ground. He should always and forever be taken with a grain of salt not only
Bluenorthwest
Feb 2013
#19