Y’all know me. I’ll be 64 years old next month. And since I was 14, I immersed myself in the blood sport of politics in Chicago. But while I immersed myself in politics, I took the time to learn what each of the two sides of the American experiment were all about.
And I learned along the way. The Democrats believed that the government should work for all of the people, and that included giving a leg up for those on the shit end of the stick. And the conservatives, or GOP, believed that government should take care of the necessary business, provide essential services, assure the common defense of the nation, and social services should be left to the states or local charities. Two different parties, with two different ideologies, but at least with ideologies, and beliefs.
You have often heard me lament the inevitable passing pf the GOP. The two party system of government is all that we have in this country, and for it to be successful, it requires two vibrant, opposite forces. A conservative party left unchecked would mean that millions would line and die in squalor and poverty, while a Democratic party left unchecked would mean that hard work was not sufficiently rewarded, while poverty would be averted without any effort from the recipients. The two party system forces the necessary negotiation and parity to provide the necessary balance.
These days, everybody wants to jump on the bandwagon and accuse Donald Trump of killing of the GOP as a viable national political organization. This is nothing more or less than simplistic bullshit. True, Trump elevated racism, sexism, and misogyny as national platforms for the GOP, but those seeds were planted long ago. The GOP has been a racist white party since the days of Nixon in the 1970’s.
As recently as 2004, President George W Bush said, upon his reelection, that he had political capital to spend, and he was going to spend it. And he did. He embarked on an ill fated mission to privatize social security over to private 401k style investment programs, and when that failed, settled for creating legislation that helped to close the Medicare donut hole for seniors in prescription medications. He remained true to the last to conservative principles, but he also tried to do good.
In November of 2008 America elected its first black President, Barack Obama, and from that moment the political magic of America changed. The white, racist Republican party suddenly had to deal with a black man in the White house, and that was a seismic shift in their way of life.
And on inauguration night on January 20th 2009, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called a secret meeting of trusted confidants in a private room in an Italian restaurant in downtown Washington Dc. And he proposed a plan. McConnell’s plan was to ensure that Obama would be a one term President. And the way he proposed to do that was simply by obstructing everything that Obama tried to do during his first term, in order to make him look weak and ineffective in front of the voters.
And McConnell went about his task with a vengeance. He went so far that then Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, had to nuke the filibuster rule for cabinet appointees just in order for for Obama to be able to get his people on place to run the government. And his opposition was not based on any moral or conservative principles, it was opposed to the man himself!
That is what killed the Republican party. Parties in the United States government have been fighting for power for more than 200 years now! But they always fought along ideological lines and waited for their own eventual return to power to enact their programs and legislation. Bit they always held true to their core principles and beliefs while they fought.
But Mitch McConnell singlehandedly changed all of that. because, out of his hatred for Obama and the Democrats, he personally chose to overthrow he platform, ideology, and beliefs of the Republican party, and turned it into nothing more than a party of obstruction. The GOP no longer had to actually had to believe in anything, they just had to oppose anything that the Democrats wanted to do.
And that doesn’t work. Most people join a political party because they believe in something. And ever since 2009, what exactly has the Republican party believed in? Nothing! Just blind opposition to what the Democrats want, even if it’s in the best interests of their own constituents.
Thanks to Mitch McConnell, the GOP will continue to flounder along, becoming more and more marginalized, until something new comes along to take its place. And you can place the blame purely on the doorstep of Mitch McConnell, the self professed Grim Reaper. Congratulations pal, you just collected your own party’s soul. The GOP is ready a sick and lost party by the time that Donald Trump took it over in 2016. A party has to believe in something, it has to have an ideology, and a moral compass, and thanks to McConnell, the party no longer has either.
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like to check out President Evil, and the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange . They comprise a pretty much daily report from the front of the 2016 GOP primaries, as well as the general election
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster35
There’s an old saying which long pre-dates Trump that comes to mind: Democrats are willing to tolerate some people cheating to make sure no one starves, while Republicans are willing to let people starve to make sure no one cheats. That sums up the two side for as long as I can remember and we’re just about the same age and grew up dealing with Illinois politics and the Daley machine and its aftermath. I’ll be 64 late summer and although I’m from the other end of the state (the part Mike Ryoko liked to call the asshole of Illinois) I can assure you Daley’s influence reached statewide. My part of the state came close to breaking off and joining the Confederacy and the (formerly at least – I’m not so sure anymore) hero of my hometown was instrumental in stopping that movement in its tracks. For all that and the southern sympathizing sentiments that lingered right to and through my lifetime the area once voted not just for Democrats but even liberal ones. Including Paul Simon both as Congressman representing my stomping grounds and then as Senator. Now? Turns out the “southern” Democrats were more prevalent there than I realized and it’s been GOP and growing more so for decades as those voters, who took longer to do so than so many elected officials in southern or southern sympathizing areas were followed in the shift of these racist assholes to the GOP. As with Kentucky, there isn’t a larger than normal black population but rather a percentage closer to the national average and it’s white grievance (if not supremacy) all the way for the majority of voters there. I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears (including after I left in 1984 via contact with people I knew from back there) the hypocrisy of working class and poor white people who didn’t just grab hold of govt. assistance but expected, if not demanded it. But the resentment and often outright HATRED of non whites getting the same assistance drove them crazy. Not all of them, but the majority. Then Trump came along and the whole area (except maybe for Carbondale because of SIU) and the lower part of what we call the Metro East area which isn’t part of what folks like me call the real southern Illinois anyway is solid Trump territory. Looking at the voting patterns in Jackson County and my own hometown from Obama’s first Presidential campaign until this last election proves my point that the really big shift, the not just nails but spikes in the coffin were nailed in during this time frame. Hell, Trump held one of his rallies at the Southern Illinois Airport between my hometown and Carbondale (only six miles) this past summer! For decades I’ve gotten homesick every fall, wishing I could be back home to get out south of town and take in the fall colors – the entire region is one of great natural beauty. That feeling hasn’t been anywhere near as pronounced since Trump came to power. I’m too well known in my hometown to move about anonymously (and pretty tall so I stand out) and the thought of having to deal with all the Trumpian hatred kills off thoughts of being able to enjoy a trip back home to see the fall colors and spend a little time with the few folks I know would be glad to see me. Not to mention putting THEM in an awkward spot.
Hatred, of the “other” is (sadly) now so interwoven into the DNA of the bulk of people back there and in so many other places that I fear you are totally correct. The GOP’s only guiding principle is opposing anything a Democrat wants to accomplish, even when they benefit from it. The cut off their nose to spite their face (as we used to say all the time) is who not just the really hard core Trumpkins are but also plenty of other Republicans who hotly deny they are racist or even have a racist bone in their body (or ever have) and perhaps they aren’t overtly so, or act in racist ways all the time or even regularly.
But they have NO problem rationalizing standing silent as their hat wearing, MAGA gear buying and flaunting cronies spout their filth and engage in their appalling actions.
We thought that the election of a black man to the Presidency proved we were at a tipping point and that this country could make some real strides in racial progress in addition to economic fairness for all which would benefit more white people than people of color. I guess in a way it WAS a tipping point. It exposed the fact that progress we had made since you and I watched those awful images from the south on black and white TV screens during the evening news when we were wee tykes was more than most whites in most places were willing to accept. And with McConnell leading the way they’ve been furiously fighting to turn back the clock to the 1950s, with the ultimate goal of turning the clock back to the antebellum era.
It’s true as so many of my former friends have liked to say to me that few of those who fought for the Confederacy actually owned slaves. But that’s only because it cost more money to buy even a single slave than most of them could cobble together because the rich folks kept them divided and scratching to survive themselves. My former pals never liked it when I’d point that out to them, and then twist the knife by bluntly stating the fact that while most of those traitors who fought for the south didn’t own any slaves, they dreamed of one day being able to do so! That’s why so many people I’ve known became former friends.
I think our only hope is that enough time passes during which Trump’s ability to gain attention via the antics we had to put up with for years is so limited that he loses his grip and their fervor dies down some. Enough to make them grudgingly accept things they hoped they’d not have to accept. My fear is that even with the Lincoln Project and other groups helping us with messaging that we won’t learn the lessons they can impart about creating a clear and short message and Party wide message discipline. If history teaches us anything it’s that our side seems to have an innate tendency to form a circular firing squad and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, especially when victory is going to look like less than total.
I don’t know, Murf. What you’re describing is more like the killshot to something that was already dying in the first place. The anchor of GOP principles since Nixon, so far as I can tell, is white supremacy. Smart ones like Liz Cheney believe in the most odious kind of equality: fine with them as long as they get to stay in charge. The QAnon and related nuts are less subtle about it is all.
You can trace a pretty straight line from Nixon’s Southern Strategy to Reagan’s Morning In America to Old Man Bush’s “Thousand Points Of Fright” to W’s final gutting of Old Guard Republican leadership before you get to Bitch McConnell’s fatal mistake.
Fatal mistake, which must have seemed oh so clever to them at the time. And just drenched in racism.
As Harlan Ellison said many times about bad ideas, “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
The Republicans had a “big tent” for them. All the conservatives under one banner but that was done by Reagun. Bush Sr. didn’t seem to have the populist flair. When I think of old Eastern money and ways, that would be him. Dubba was the lipstick on a pig. He would just smile (while making a killing “supervising” the Rangers) while his boys and gals would smear Ann Richards. So Bareshark is right, it was white supremacy disguised as “power”. Well, everybody wants power to “govern” (wink wink). Trump did away with all pretense for anybody willing to see. The MSM is still getting used to viewing properly. Even with a riot.
Wait a while, Senovio. MSM will get the memo…long after everybody else does.
No, the GOP has not been killed, even though we would like to think so.
It’s dying, though. A healthy party would have already cut its losses and tried going back underground. They no longer can.
Recent politics is the fruiting body of a government that that ALWAYS been founded on greed, racism, hypocrisy & the principle that might makes right. When we actually start teaching, endorsing, & valuing the truth, progress will be made. The whole idea of any small group of humans owning 95% of everything, ecology be damned, is an idea of a doomed species. Hopefully, a new day is dawning where we decide no longer to placate evil, in the false hope we will change it. We cannot allow facebook or the GOP to do exactly what the dictators around the world do,i.e., lie nonstop on the public airwaves without consequence.Freedom, in this society, or any other is a balance. I’m not allowed to drive whatever speed i like, nor should there be no guardrails on lies told by goddamn PUBLIC servants, or profiting companies. Nothing, i repeat, nothing is truly free on planet earth. That is a verifiable fact of existence. The only ones duped into that delusion must be ripe targets for a cult. Consequences. Always. Seen & predicted, or unintended. No matter. The GOP is learning that.
If they were learning that, Scott, they would have already left Trump in the rearview mirror. As it stands, the lesson, I would argue, is still sinking in.
Basically the ones in the GOP who are learning that, both politicians and voters, are simply leaving the GOP. Because if you have any decency, once you see the true state of the GOP, you leave. In most cases they are not becoming Democrats, but they are definitely leaving the GOP. And in that process the GOP just keeps getting worse, but it least it is also getting smaller.
In other words, as a political entity, the GOP is about to join the USSR.
Keep this going please, great job!