Op Ed: conservative Max Boot calls for destruction of Republican party

[Underseer]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...ffcabeff946_story.html?utm_term=.1d423f6d7e65

“Should I stay or should I go now?” That question, posed by the eminent political philosophers known as the Clash, is one that confronts any Republican with a glimmer of conscience. You used to belong to a conservative party with a white-nationalist fringe. Now it’s a white-nationalist party with a conservative fringe. If you’re part of that fringe, what should you do?

Veteran strategist Steve Schmidt, who ran John McCain’s 2008 campaign, is the latest Republican to say “no more.” Recently he issued an anguished Twitter post: “29 years and nine months ago I registered to vote and became a member of the Republican Party which was founded in 1854 to oppose slavery and stand for the dignity of human life,” he wrote. “Today I renounce my membership in the Republican Party. It is fully the party of Trump.”

I don't know whether to praise him or call him an idiot.

Richard Nixon launched the infamous  Southern Strategy around a half century ago, and he just now figured out what the consequences of that are?

The Republican party lost its soul the moment Reagan put that wreath on the graves of racist murderers. Everything since then has been a mere formality.

 

[Sarpedon]

It took me too long to see the right way. I can hardly condemn someone else for taking a bit longer.

 

[Underseer]

It took me too long to see the right way. I can hardly condemn someone else for taking a bit longer.

At what point did you realize that the Republican party was being racist? What caused you to notice? Did the dog whistles just go over your head?

I'm just curious. I have trouble understanding the denial.

 

[SLD]

True conservatives saw the writing on the wall before he was even nominated. They warned that Trump would forever be associated with conservativsim. I certainly hope so. But none listened. In truth they have no one to blame but themselves. They created this monster. They thought they could control him. He would never win they said. Fools. But it must continue. It must go on to its inevitable conclusion. We are living in a Greek tragedy. And they always end badly. And when this one ends badly (in about 5 years) It could end very, very badly. Hopefully though we will learn something from this one.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

This makes no sense. The Republican party has already been destroyed.

We now have a group that calls itself "Republican" but they aren't Republicans.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

The GOP has not been destroyed. It is simply mutating. The real question is, what will it mutate to post-Trump? Will it fall into the hands of the Tea Party? Become more overtly White Nationalist? Become an instrument of Christian evangelicals?

 

[braces_for_impact]

It took me too long to see the right way. I can hardly condemn someone else for taking a bit longer.

At what point did you realize that the Republican party was being racist? What caused you to notice? Did the dog whistles just go over your head?

I'm just curious. I have trouble understanding the denial.

Simply put, most conservatives I know would only admit to racism if it was burning a cross, dressed in a robe in the front yard. Even just carrying tiki torches in slacks shouting nazi slogans didn't do it.

 

[funinspace]

Ah, so another one joins George Will on giving up on their Repug party. It will be interesting to watch how the Repug party transforms as it has entered a dead end political alley.

My wooden nickel: By the 2020 elections we will either be just pulling out of a recession or at least obviously heading into one. With that I think FFvC will be political toast as his Con will be very worn out. With a Dum winning the Presidency in 2020, the Repugs are going to have very tough sailing by 2024. They will no longer own Texas as a red state. The demographic trends are obvious with their white voter majority shrinking every election cycle. Add in Virginia, Florida, and Nevada trending more and more blue, the Repugs won't have any path to win the electoral college.

So the Repugs will either dwindle into a third party, or they will have to throw the white nationalists out. Of course if they throw the white nationalists out, they might rupture into 2 parties anyway. If they just dwindle downward, it will still be a long road as they will still have a lot of power in the House for Zeus knows how long...

 

[Underseer]

This makes no sense. The Republican party has already been destroyed.

We now have a group that calls itself "Republican" but they aren't Republicans.

Holy fuck, are you really using a  no true Scotsman fallacy on Republicans?

It's a political party. It is whatever the majority of voters and politicians in that party decide it is, and Republicans have decided to be the party of white supremacists. They made that decision during the Nixon administration.

You yourself use flimsy arguments to defend racism in a manner very similar to those used by white supremacists, including one known fascist on this forum. Why would you of all people use a no true Scotsman fallacy here? You are among those who helped push the Republican party in this direction.

 

[Underseer]

Ah, so another one joins George Will on giving up on their Repug party. It will be interesting to watch how the Repug party transforms as it has entered a dead end political alley.

My wooden nickel: By the 2020 elections we will either be just pulling out of a recession or at least obviously heading into one. With that I think FFvC will be political toast as his Con will be very worn out. With a Dum winning the Presidency in 2020, the Repugs are going to have very tough sailing by 2024. They will no longer own Texas as a red state. The demographic trends are obvious with their white voter majority shrinking every election cycle. Add in Virginia, Florida, and Nevada trending more and more blue, the Repugs won't have any path to win the electoral college.

So the Repugs will either dwindle into a third party, or they will have to throw the white nationalists out. Of course if they throw the white nationalists out, they might rupture into 2 parties anyway. If they just dwindle downward, it will still be a long road as they will still have a lot of power in the House for Zeus knows how long...

Here's the problem: a few Republican pundits may have figured out that he's a fascist and a con, but very few voters have, and they react very badly to anyone who tries to explain it to them.

I expect this opinion piece author is going to be flooded with anonymous death threats.

 

[marc]

I've been saying since around '04 that the party has morphed into a cult, and the leadership was starting to loose control of the followers. Back then the party line was Iraq was going great. And when it wasn't, the party leadership couldn't do anything about it, because to admit things were not going well was to contradict dogma, and be labeled a defeatocrat. Now the cult is in even more control of a shrinking group.

The two paths are 1) take control and kick out the extremists. Hard to do, and they would be effectively alienating a large part of their base, leaving them with little chance of winning many elections for a long time. They would still get money from the corporations they work for, and likely still rely on the economic lies they use. But without the pandering to racists and christian extremists how would they attract enough votes?
2) be taken over by the extremists completely. Likely we will see more candidates who are openly pro-nazi/klan/white supremicists/dominionists. This will shrink their base until only certain states/areas will be able to elect them What affect that will have on businesses in those areas would be interesting to see. They would lose a lot of their corporate backing, who might look to start a new party they can control.

Now, if Dems can get control of a lot of state legislatures in 2020, in time for redrawing districts, then that will strike a major blow to the rethugs. That plus changing demographics might lock the Rs out of the House permanently.

 

[Underseer]

It took me too long to see the right way. I can hardly condemn someone else for taking a bit longer.

At what point did you realize that the Republican party was being racist? What caused you to notice? Did the dog whistles just go over your head?

I'm just curious. I have trouble understanding the denial.

Simply put, most conservatives I know would only admit to racism if it was burning a cross, dressed in a robe in the front yard. Even just carrying tiki torches in slacks shouting nazi slogans didn't do it.

That level of denial is hard for me to comprehend.

The guys with the tiki torches were recreating a famous Nazi march while sitting obviously anti-Jewish Nazi chants. How could anyone fail to recognize that as racist?

 

[Keith&Co.]

The guys with the tiki torches were recreating a famous Nazi march while sitting obviously anti-Jewish Nazi chants. How could anyone fail to recognize that as racist?

Some have tried to justify certain comments and slights with 'Would you call it racism if it's true?'
I guess if you're kinda suspicious that the Jews ARE organized to make your life worse, then it's not racism to point it out, it's just 'paying attention.' Or, 'Well, he's got a point.'

 

[whollygoats]

Kevin Phillips, one of the architects of the 'Southern Strategy', has been trying to warn the American public about the dreadful consequences since before the turn of the millenium.

 

[Underseer]

I've been saying since around '04 that the party has morphed into a cult, and the leadership was starting to loose control of the followers. Back then the party line was Iraq was going great. And when it wasn't, the party leadership couldn't do anything about it, because to admit things were not going well was to contradict dogma, and be labeled a defeatocrat. Now the cult is in even more control of a shrinking group.

The two paths are 1) take control and kick out the extremists. Hard to do, and they would be effectively alienating a large part of their base, leaving them with little chance of winning many elections for a long time. They would still get money from the corporations they work for, and likely still rely on the economic lies they use. But without the pandering to racists and christian extremists how would they attract enough votes?
2) be taken over by the extremists completely. Likely we will see more candidates who are openly pro-nazi/klan/white supremicists/dominionists. This will shrink their base until only certain states/areas will be able to elect them What affect that will have on businesses in those areas would be interesting to see. They would lose a lot of their corporate backing, who might look to start a new party they can control.

Now, if Dems can get control of a lot of state legislatures in 2020, in time for redrawing districts, then that will strike a major blow to the rethugs. That plus changing demographics might lock the Rs out of the House permanently.

While the bulk of the blame for this has to lie at the feet of Nixon's Southern Strategy and the decision of every subsequent Republican party leader to keep the Southern Strategy going, I think part of this needs to be laid at the feet of Bill Clinton.

This was the goal. By moving the Democratic party so far to the right as to become right-of-center, he helped force the Republican party to move even further out into the fringes. Thus, the Democratic party could start raking in some of that sweet, sweet bribe money from big banks and other economic conservative funding sources, while the Republican party would be forced to move to the extreme fringes to keep playing the same games with their voter base.

Mind you, it's been two decades since Bill Clinton started his "socially liberal but economically conservative" third way bullshit, and the Republican party has indeed been forced to become ever more extremist (this was immediately apparent in the Republican administration that immediately followed Clinton), but I have yet to see the Republican party pay any electoral cost for their extremism. So far America is paying a heavy price for that extremism, but the Republican party has yet to suffer any serious electoral consequences for their extremism. I'm pretty sure Bill Clinton didn't factor that possibility into his plans when he cooked up this scheme to move the Democratic party into the moderate conservative position.

A lot of people are predicting that this is it. 2018 will be the year when the Republican party starts to pay a heavy price for years of extremism, but even if they do, they have already done enormous damage to America in the decades it took the average American voter to realize that something is not quite right. We've started trade wars with traditional trading partners. We've antagonized our closest allies. We've greatly helped our traditional enemies on the global stage. We have forever reduced the amount of influence America can exert on the world stage. Obviously, that's just a partial list, but the amount of damage that has been done between the war crimes of Darth Jar-Jar (Bush II) and the praise of literal Nazis by Trump is fucking immense. In the aftermath of WW2, we convinced the world to see us a certain way, and no one in the world can ever again see us that way.

Both the Republican Southern Strategy and the Democratic "third way" bullshit have had enormously negative consequences for America all in the name of one party getting a leg up on the other party.

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

2) be taken over by the extremists completely. Likely we will see more candidates who are openly pro-nazi/klan/white supremicists/dominionists. This will shrink their base until only certain states/areas will be able to elect them What affect that will have on businesses in those areas would be interesting to see. They would lose a lot of their corporate backing, who might look to start a new party they can control.

I think this has been happening, and the party they took control of is the Democratic Party. If the Berniecrats wrestle the Democratic Party way from them, only then will they start a third party, and I think the corporate Democrats still have a stranglehold over that party at least for a little while longer.

 

[Underseer]

The guys with the tiki torches were recreating a famous Nazi march while sitting obviously anti-Jewish Nazi chants. How could anyone fail to recognize that as racist?

Some have tried to justify certain comments and slights with 'Would you call it racism if it's true?'
I guess if you're kinda suspicious that the Jews ARE organized to make your life worse, then it's not racism to point it out, it's just 'paying attention.' Or, 'Well, he's got a point.'

Fucking fuckitty fuck.

That would mean that a large majority of Republican are every bit as rabidly anti-Jewish as neo-Nazis.

I often hear other liberals saying that Republicans "love Israel but hate Jews," but I didn't expect it to be so bad that the overwhelming majority would make excuses for literal fucking Nazis waving literal Nazi flags while spewing literal Nazi chants, and not recognize their own hypocrisy.

 

[whollygoats]

Now, if Dems can get control of a lot of state legislatures in 2020, in time for redrawing districts, then that will strike a major blow to the rethugs. That plus changing demographics might lock the Rs out of the House permanently.

Wow....Now, that is a truly big order. To do that, you will have to overcome the prevailing urban/rural dichotomies which rule the distribution of state representative seats and has historically leaned to the more conservative rural, and now largely Republican, outlanders. It is changing in some states, but very slowly.

 

[marc]

2) be taken over by the extremists completely. Likely we will see more candidates who are openly pro-nazi/klan/white supremicists/dominionists. This will shrink their base until only certain states/areas will be able to elect them What affect that will have on businesses in those areas would be interesting to see. They would lose a lot of their corporate backing, who might look to start a new party they can control.

I think this has been happening, and the party they took control of is the Democratic Party. If the Berniecrats wrestle the Democratic Party way from them, only then will they start a third party, and I think the corporate Democrats still have a stranglehold over that party at least for a little while longer.

True, the system has been sufficiently rigged that the Democratic Party believes they have to suck up to the same corporations for the money needed to run. But if the Republicans shrink to be little more than a regional party, then in the other areas Democrats might realize they don't need the corporate money as much. Or if they keep the corporate ties, then the Berniecrats would likely have a chance to be seen as the opposing party, rather than a third party choice with little chance.

 

[Underseer]

2) be taken over by the extremists completely. Likely we will see more candidates who are openly pro-nazi/klan/white supremicists/dominionists. This will shrink their base until only certain states/areas will be able to elect them What affect that will have on businesses in those areas would be interesting to see. They would lose a lot of their corporate backing, who might look to start a new party they can control.

I think this has been happening, and the party they took control of is the Democratic Party. If the Berniecrats wrestle the Democratic Party way from them, only then will they start a third party, and I think the corporate Democrats still have a stranglehold over that party at least for a little while longer.

True, the system has been sufficiently rigged that the Democratic Party believes they have to suck up to the same corporations for the money needed to run. But if the Republicans shrink to be little more than a regional party, then in the other areas Democrats might realize they don't need the corporate money as much. Or if they keep the corporate ties, then the Berniecrats would likely have a chance to be seen as the opposing party, rather than a third party choice with little chance.

It's not that conservative Democrats think they need corporate money, they want it.

This is all part of the "third way" strategy. This is Bill Clinton's super clever strategy to turn the Republican party into extremists. While they have been successful in pushing the Republican party out into the conservative extremes, so far the Republican party has not paid any electoral price for that. America has been paying the price, not the Republicans.