Holy Crap !!! - This Guy Is OFF The Kool-Aid !!!

[WillyT]

The Republican Decline
By: John Cole October 5, 2007 at 10:58 am
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Long piece by David Brooks in which he attempts to figure out why the Republican party appears to be in shambles:

To put it bluntly, over the past several years, the G.O.P. has made ideological choices that offend conservatism’s Burkean roots. This may seem like an airy-fairy thing that does nothing more than provoke a few dissenting columns from William F. Buckley, George F. Will and Andrew Sullivan. But suburban, Midwestern and many business voters are dispositional conservatives more than creedal conservatives. They care about order, prudence and balanced budgets more than transformational leadership and perpetual tax cuts. It is among these groups that G.O.P. support is collapsing.

American conservatism will never be just dispositional conservatism. America is a creedal nation. But American conservatism is only successful when it’s in tension — when the ambition of its creeds is retrained by the caution of its Burkean roots.

Hogwash. If you want to know why the Republican party is in shambles, read this:

Yesterday, in response to a question from a reporter suspicious of why he wasn’t wearing an American flag pin on his lapel, Barack Obama explained his belief that for some, the pins became a substitute for “true patriotism.” The senator said he would instead “try to tell the American people what I believe will make this country great, and hopefully that will be a testimony to my patriotism.”

*******************************************************************************

I didn’t expect leading conservative voices to understand, but I was a little surprised at the ferocity of the response. Jonah Goldberg described Obama’s perspective as “staggeringly stupid,” and “the single dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of him doing.” Another prominent far-right blogger responded this way:

Seriously, you want this for President of these great United States.This is how he catches the attention of a media aligned with the terror force? This useful tool won’t wear an American flag pin? Talk about pandering to the radical base, he ought to run against Ahmadinejad. He is scoring points with Georgie Soros, won’t be waiting long for his on his Soros stipend, I’m sure. What’s Obama Hussein’s new campaign slogan, “America Sucks!” ?

For starters, people got tired of being associated with these drooling retards. Then, when they realized that these drooling retards had ideological allies running the show in the Bush administration and then began to experience their idiotic policies, they moved from disgusted to outright hostile.

Like me. It had nothing to do with Burke, and everything to do with what the party had become. A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs with a mean streak a mile long and no sense of fair play or proportion.

Seriously- what does the current Republican party stand for? Permanent war, fear, the nanny state, big spending, torture, execution on demand, complete paranoia regarding the media, control over your body, denial of evolution and outright rejection of science, AND ZOMG THEY ARE GONNA MAKE US WEAR BURKHAS, all the while demanding that in order to be a good American I have to spend most of every damned day condemning half my fellow Americans as terrorist appeasers.

And that isn’t even getting into the COMPLETE and TOTAL corruption of our political processes at every level. The shit is really going to hit the fan after we vote these jackasses out of power in 2008.

Screw them. I got out. They can have their party. I will vote for Democrats and little L libertarians and isolationists until the crazy people aren’t running the GOP. The threat of higher taxes in the short term isn’t enough to keep me from voting out crazy people and voting for sane people with whom I merely disagree regarding policy. Hillarycare doesn’t scare me as much as Frank Gaffney having a line to the person with the nuclear football or Dobson and company crafting domestic policy.

That is why the Republican party is in shambles. The majority of us have decided that the movers and shakers in the GOP and the blogospheric right are certified lunatics who, in a decent and sane society, we would have in controlled environments in rocking chairs under shade trees for most of the day, wheeled in at night for tapioca pudding and some karaoke.

Link: http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8799#comment-397397

Give that man a Kewpie Doll!!!

:rofl:

[Lifelong Protester]

1. thanks for the post...

and as I am older than dirt, I can tell you it is a kewpie doll!!

Recommended.

[IndyOp]

2. Just for you...

:hi:

[stlsaxman]

8. awww! dats adoughabow! n/t

[WillyT]

4. I Looked It Up In Google... The Horror !!!

Changing it now.

Thanks!

:hi:

[yardwork]

3. NOW they notice? Where have they been?

Where were they when the chimp started racking up deficits five years ago? Where were they when we invaded Iraq? Sheesh. Stupid idiots. Probably all voted for the chimp in 2004, too.

[seemslikeadream]

5. ....

[Lifelong Protester]

6. so danged cute!!

thanks for all of you techno-savvy types that can actually get an image to show up in a post...

(see above note on myself being older than dirt....) :-)

[stlsaxman]

20. is it just me, or does that look like Fred Thompson?

***shaking head***

Damn! it STILL reminds me of him!

[seemslikeadream]

21. You're right!!

We got to start using that as his baby picture

[stlsaxman]

23. Side by side comparison-

[Arugula Latte]

29. Dolls ... *shudder*

No wonder they always creeped me out.

:scared:

[minnesota_liberal]

7. Jonah Goldberg: Chickenhawk, Kool-Aid drinker, American Enterprise lackey

The guy's most notable accomplishment is popularizing the phrase, "cheese-eating surrender monkeys."

Like I really care about his opinion on Obama.

[fujiyama]

12. That son of a bitch (quite literally - his mom is a bitch)

didn't even coin the phrase.

That honor belongs to Bart Simpson and it was done quite a while before the run up to the Iraq war. I doubt Matt Groening would be proud that such a phrase became so popular with the chickenhawk crowd.

[Canuckistanian]

19. Groundskeeper Willie, not Bart

http://imgred.com/

[me9399]

27. he is a tool

he also made a crack in 2004 about how american soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq so Iraqis could "have a Starbucks on every corner".

[Felix Mala]

38. Jonah had this gem in his Saturday column:

"Now, the fact that no serious person actually thinks Limbaugh really or intentionally called soldiers dissenting on the war “phony” doesn’t matter to the Democrats."


Here's a hint Jonah, fix your eyes on a stationary object when you're spinning. That way you don't fall over when the spinning stops.

He's right no serious person indeed except everyone who listened to Rush and doesn't drink kool-aid and everyone who saw the transcripts and noted they'd been doctored...

[mod mom]

49. "The guy's most notable accomplishment is the phrase 'cheese-eating surrender monkeys."

:rofl:

[oasis]

9. k and r

[quiet.american]

10. Now *that* is a righteous rant! (no pun intended.) n/t

[Swamp Rat]

11. "A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs"

[fujiyama]

13. He's too kind.

[Roland99]

35. heh heh

[Bitwit1234]

14. You know what Obama should do make a sign that says

"I support our troops I want to bring them home" And not say one other thing to any of the crazy bunch of republicans that are complaining about a pin. If the republicans wanted to support the war they would go over there and fight.

[sutz12]

15. Hey.....I like karaoke!

:evilgrin:

It's about time some of our friends on the right started to wake up. I don't mind a real conservative. I can deal with someone who disagrees sanely and coherently. This neo-con crap mixed in with the Christo-fascists sux a big one.

Hell, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to full one party Democratic control. The country works best with a loyal opposition party having some control. But I can't imagine it would be as bad as the last few years. :shrug:

[Jackpine Radical]

28. I too believe in a 2-party system.

Democrats & Greens.

At that point, I would join the Greens.

[calmblueocean]

16. So so so so true.

I have nothing more to add, but reading this before I went to bed is so satisfying that I just had to post to say thanks.

[WillyT]

17. You Are Quite Welcome !!!

Sweet dreams.

:hi:

[NanceGreggs]

18. Fabulously delicious read!!!

Thanks for sharing it - K & R!!!

[SalmonChantedEvening]

22. Tapioca? I'm in!!

Mr. Cole lays it out plain as day.

Thank you WillyT!!

:hi: :pals: :loveya:

[BrklynLib at work]

24. Perhaps it is shambles because it consists of people like David Brooks

[gratuitous]

25. Krugman's column today in the Times

Take a gander at Krugman's column in the New York Times. He argues that instead of being some aberration to the hallowed core tenets of conservatism, Bush is actually the epitome of those tenets, and provides several examples to back up his points. It's worth a read, and since it's no longer behind the stupid firewall, you can read it for free.

On edit, let me add the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/08/opinion/08krugman.html?ref=opinion

[Jackpine Radical]

31. Thanks for that link.

The great ideological battle really boils down to a conflict between two fundamental personality types. It's us against the Authoritarian Personality. The best popular source is John Dean's book. When you get right down to it, the conservative authoritarian mindset is a form of psychopathology--a personality disorder.

[tom_paine]

26. The personal side of the coin. Less significant than the assault on the Constitution

or the entire System of Checks and Balances, but no less a part of the Bushie/Nazi Way than the rest.

But very satisfying to read for it's truth.

Will The People stop The "kinder and gentler" Nazis THIS time around?

We will see for the world is holding it's breath like it was 1937 again, which in may ways it is.

[Harper_is_Bush]

30. To be accurate, I don't think he was ever on it.

I mean, look at his reading material:

Blogs We Both Read

* AmericaBlog
* Andrew Sullivan
* Belgravia Dispatch
* Daily Kos
* Donklephant
* Glenn Greenwald
* Kevin Drum
* Kung Fu Monkey
* Matt Yglesias
* Obsidian Wings
* Talking Points Memo
* The Carpetbagger Report
* The Intel Dump
* The Moderate Voice
* The Poorman
* Unqualified Offerings

Blogs We Monitor and Mock As Needed

* Blogs 4 Brownback
* Hugh Hewitt
* Michelle Malkin
* Red State
* The Corner (AKA K. Lo's House of Crazy)

Science

* Nature Newsblog
* Pharyngula
* Real Climate
* ScienceNOW
* The Panda's Thumb

[Annces]

32. He will say what he needs to say

somedays it is the truth, and other days it is complete lies.

[Ganja Ninja]

33. American Conservatism is and always has been of, by and for

the rich and upper classes. They made a pact with the Devil when they signed on the NRA/KKK and evangelicals. Traditional Republican's know that we can't go on forever spending on this war without an enormous bill coming due, one they will have to pay and they are worried about their fellow travelers gaining real political power. The GOP is going to lose it's traditional big money sources and all they are going to be left with are the crazy, mean and ignorant slobs they've been courting since the days of Richard Nixon and the Dixiecrats.

[Phillycat]

34. I love the smell of the Repuke party collapsing in on itself in the morning.

Smells like elephant dung. :D

[The Wizard]

51. Cleaning up elephant shit

It's what we do.

[lfairban]

36. Link to the original David Brooks article

The Republican Collapse

[jaybeat]

37. My favorite line

The majority of us have decided that the movers and shakers in the GOP and the blogospheric right are certified lunatics who, in a decent and sane society, we would have in controlled environments in rocking chairs under shade trees for most of the day, wheeled in at night for tapioca pudding and some karaoke.

Bwaahahahahahahah!

Er, except that it's *not* funny to think about these "movers and shakers" with their finger on the nuclear button or the political and economic levers of power.

:scared:

And it gets *really* not funny to see the mainstream media treat them as Wise Men with Good Intentions, or mainstream Dems treat them as Strong Opponents to be Feared.

:spank:

Nancy and Harry see the crap that's thrown at Obama by the lunatics for taking off his f'ing pin and think "Jeez, imagine what they'd do if we didn't bring war funding bills to the floor! Too scary to think about. Let's just wag our fingers at them and talk about why we need a Dem(InNameOnly) in the White House before we can REALLY do anything."

:puke:

[WillyT]

44. I Love This One For Its Truth...

"A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs with a mean streak a mile long and no sense of fair play or proportion.

Can't be sure about the betwetting though.

:evilgrin:

[jaybeat]

52. Yeah, that's good.

I'd start worrying 'bout ya Willy if you *could* be sure.

You're right, though. The part you bolded is straight out of Krugmann's latest.

These are mean, selfish SOBs, and they think that everyone else is, too, but just won't admit it. Like Cheney's comment about energy conservation being some kind of "personal virtue"--like that's a bad thing.

Put these freaks into a *real* situation, that demanded *real* sacrifice, and they'd crumple like a wad of paper in the fireplace. Like WWII, with rationing and a draft, or the UK, with bombings, blockades and food shortages.

[Felix Mala]

39. The Republican Party has only one problem: George W. Bush.

Throughout the 2008 election, the Democrats will have to make sure that it's all about the record of George W. Whichever poor bastard gets their nomination, we will have to be adament that he's running with George W. every step of the way; that he's the standard bearer for the George W. party, proposing more George W.-type policies on his way to another George W. presidency.

[madamesilverspurs]

40. Drooling retards?

There's an absolutely wonderful, caring and loving young man in my family who has heard that name hurled at him his whole life, thanks to cerebral palsy. Equating him with those who have disgraced this country through very deliberate and conscious manipulations does him (and those like him) a terrible disservice. His disability is involuntary, their treason is not.

[Stand and Fight]

41. Scathing and absolutely true.

I highly, highly recommend this.

[bjobotts]

42. What a coincidence. I just posted this same piece here a couple days ago.

Glad to see it's finally getting some well deserved attention. It's really right on showing the insanity of the republican party scum that are presently dominating the GOP.

[Judi Lynn]

43. Better late than never. WONDERFUL seeing someone coming to his senses. n/t

[L0oniX]

45. What ever. David Brooks is an asscarrot!

[Ilsa]

46. Some of the GOP candidates fill the job requirements for the

GOP except for one thing: they don't hate enough. People like Huckabee and Paul don't display enough hatred towards all things democratic to suit the typical repukes. The people who like to call him "Obama Hussein" are the ones.

[AwakeAtLast]

47. Damn! I bet that smarts -

For people with consciences that is.

[Marr]

48. They're just trying to distance their ideology from it's greatest practitioner.

The Bush Administration has been a failure because of it's *devotion* to Conservatism. They're trying to say their ideology is valid, but wasn't properly put into action. Nobody listens to communists when they say the same about communism in Russia, and I think the far right of this country should be subject to the same dismissal.

[otherlander]

50. So if he's against

torture and execution on demand, why didn't he say so years ago? It's been, what, a year now since * admitted to the secret prisons, and everyone pretty much knew about them even before that.