The future of the Republican Party: Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich. You decide.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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I hope they go with Palin.
I think either one will be good for us.
Frying pan, meet fire.
Gingrich is weaker. He is more knowledgeable and competent, but he is also a major loser and triply(?) divorced. Women despise him. He is also yet another pasty white grumpy old man. He is typical of the entire republican line-up… and nothing to get excited or motivated for. There is nothing “positive” about him.
Palin, OTOH, is far more dangerous. She is a religious freak… anointed by woo-woo witch-hunters to do “God’s will”. Mary Glazier is as horrid an associate as Thomas Muthee. McCarthyism was bad, but at least his victims weren’t chased, stoned, burnt.
This is vital reading:
http://www.talk2action.org/story/2008/10/24/125017/31
Do we really want insane crusaders fighting bloody religious wars over dogma and heresies? How many bloodbaths do we have to survive? Partisans of the Civil War will pale next to these zealots.
Considering how many preachers are getting involved in politics, it is past time their tax-free status was revoked.
Palin is dangerous because the illiterate and uneducated will rally to her. She inspires the rabble.
And the last person we want with her fingers on the nuclear codes is an End Timer!
What do you mean “either”?
I think they’d make a great ticket, Palin at the top and Gingrich bringing up the rear. You betcha!
From the ridiculous to, er, the ridiculous.
to the ridonkulous!
I think back to 2004, after Kerry lost. We knew Edwards would be back, but only he knew about his baggage. We figured Hillary would make a run, and we also thought that Kerry and Gore could affect a Democratic primary. The grassroots candidates were bubbling to the surface and despite the disappointing loss to Bush, we made many gains in state-wide elections in ’04, putting Democrats in pretty good position for ’06.
Now, I know that the Republicans will come back. Forever is a long time. But it seems to me that the governing philosophy of Republicans is intellectually bankrupt. Palin could not attract a coalition large enough to win a national election, and her image is in disrepair. This could change, but it doesn’t seem to me that she has the political instincts to achieve this. Gingrich is running around the country with a flat tax proposal that has no wheels. Forbes couldn’t sell it, and Gingrich, while sharper politically, has far to many imperfections to sell to the American public.
So where does that leave the Republicans? Until they abandon the “Just Say No.” approach to climate change, social justice, and economic equality, they will continue to be a regional party that attracts the extremes. McCain’s totals may be the high water mark for several election cycles, depending on circumstances and Obama’s performance over the next several years. As we learned with W., performance issues can change much.
I replayed my copy of the PBS documentary last night just on a whim (it’s another Ken Burns production), and the same kind of greed, rapaciousness, and grasping for power is in that broad. The exposure of her getting campaign aides to foot her bills is not just the media shaking out post-election what it already knew about her. It’s certain Republicans trying to head off a another train wreck four years early. She would be an utter disaster no matter where Tina Fey is as well.
Long held the governorship AND was Senator from Louisiana, and he thoroughly demolished local government and civil liberties in the state. The repercussions of his reign are still being felt at this late date.
Don’t be surprised if she tries to hustle Stevens out of his seat in a power move. McCain laid a rotten egg on our door; the rank smell is going to take a long while to dissipate.
I advise them to go with Palin. Gingrich is fine too: as long as it’s someone unhinged and super-right wing. The farther right the better.
At least that’s my concern troll line.
It’s quite a predicament for the GOP: if they try to moderate their views, what’s left of the base will leave. If they move further right, the rest of america will be repelled.
I suspect the same problem the democrats had (ie, Democrats who campaign as GOP-lite lose elections) will now begin to affect the GOP. So sad, just so heartbreakingly sad.
If you’re a republican that is…
gotta love the disconnect from reality.
this approach should be encouraged at every opportunity. a long time in the wasteland will be good for their souls…assuming, of course, that they have any.
My prediction for the last few weeks has been:
Patraeus/Palin ’12
Patraeus will not get along with Obama, who actually has a functioning brain and will question him, so he’ll leave by the end of next year. That leaves plenty of time to ramp up the “war hero dissed by arrogant elitist” meme.
Throw in Palin to appease the lizard brains and you’re all set.
But would she willingly play second fiddle a second time? I think not.
Both Palin and Gingrich are way too crazy, way too narcissistic and demagogic and megalomaniacal to be able to be the central figure of a major presidential campaign where the candidate needs to be able to take direction and follow strategic and tactical instructions and guidelines if the campaign is to be successful.
If the rational, reality-based members of the GOP would begin to vigorously differentiate themselves from the extremist crazies who’ve hijacked that party and mis-appropriated the label ‘conservative’ for themselves; if the rational ones would then start isolating the nuts and then pushing them out of the party power structure, then there’d be room in the Repubs for the ‘Blue Dogs’ in the Dem party to find a new home more natural for themselves and their own conservative views. And their departure from the Dem party would creat all kinds of new space for more actual progressive Dems to be elected, Dems who are morte true to the ideals and constitutional principles upon which the country was founded.
And once the ‘Blue dogs’ are gone, then the Dem leadership will no longer be able to use them as an excuse for why their own stated objectives and plans for more effective and progressive action don’t come to fruition.
Shifting the paradigm between the parties this way I think would be very effective and a giant leap forward for the country, and would help serve to elevate the level of political discourse out of the pathetic state it’s in now.
Will such a thing happen? I won’t be holding my breath.