At this time in History, the American Right is Stronger than its ever been.

[onehandle]

[OmahaBlueDog]

1. I'd compare this era to the late 40s, early 50s

You had Harry Truman in the WH, but a very hostile, Republican congress that included Dick Nixon and Joe McCarthy. The media of the day had a fairly rightward slant as well.

[onehandle]

10. I would compare it the movie version of that era.

Where it's much more dark and dangerous than it appears.

[Tippy]

2. The RW media is stronger....

[otohara]

3. Telecommunications Act 96

sure did fuck up radio and helped their grip on the AM dial.

Thanks Pres. Clinton for throwing the GOP such a big bone.

[Tippy]

16. SOOOOOOtrue

[WingDinger]

4. Bullcrap, the right is in it's death throes. They are lashing out for a reason.

[customerserviceguy]

5. The 2010 election

looked more like our suffering than theirs, to me.

[WingDinger]

9. The worst thing that could happen to them is to win. They REALLY want Obama to win, but hobbled.

[OmahaBlueDog]

11. No, they don't want Obama to win

About half of Republicans want someone like a Romney or a Chris Christie -- pro business, cut spending (exept on defense), roll back some regs -- but otherwise mostly status quo.

The other half see this as a once-in-a-century shot to make an indelible political mark. They basically want to completely dismantle the entire social safety net, and take this country back about 170 years. They are exceptionally motivated because they realize that demographics are starting to work against them.

[Worship Money]

15. I agree

This is a "darkest before the dawn" moment, assuming we survive it.

[BanzaiBonnie]

6. death throes...

If the conservatives keep up their vendetta against Obama, this country will shift to being a liberal nation forthe next 50 or 60 years. Shade of FDR and recovery from the Great Depression.

[Davis_X_Machina]

7. History did not start in the late '20's. n/t

[onehandle]

8. Shh.

Ixnay on the ealityray.

[Mr Deltoid]

12. The RW might be it's most belligerent

Belligerence does not equal strength. I see it as weakness.

[saras]

13. This is why I'm a political non-Euclidian

Which right? The neocons? The old-fashioned conservatives (all three of them)? The tea party? The capitalist libertarians? The reactionaries?

TPTB appear to be stronger than they're ever been, but they aren't the right, they just use it.

[blm]

14. 2001-2004. They controlled everything and BushInc wielded power over the media, too

in ways that no Democratic administration EVER could.

[SanchoPanza]

17. We're watching the painful unraveling of the conservative coalition.

George W. Bush was, essentially, the right's version of LBJ. Johnson represented both the apex of American liberlism (in its Cold War incarnation, anyway) and the beginning of its rapid decline. The modern conservative coalition was slowly built up in the 60s and 70s, achieved dominance in the 80s and 90s, and the height of its power under the first several years of Bush. After that administration, which was more conservative than any administration in the modern era prior to it, the coalition began to come apart at the seams.

That's how coalitions function; a slow and methodical build-up followed by a rapid deterioration. It's what brought down the Federalists, the Whigs, Northern Republicanism of the Lincoln variety, the New Deal Coalition, and now the conservative movement. Events and circumstances pull their constituent parts away from one another and the sense of unity and mutual purposes falls victim to factionalism.

The current GOP nomination battle should be viewed through this prism; the leaders of various constituencies trying to gain dominance over the other, with none of them generating consensus. Making matters worse (or better, I suppose) is the fact that the conservative movement has essentially given up on attracting new constituencies into the coalition to help offset those that are leaving.

The question that remains is whether or not they'll take a significant chunk of America's current and future prosperity down with them. I'm of the mind that they will, and that it will likely get worse for all of us before it gets better. The coalition has to die for the republic to thrive.