Cobb: The Republican Freak-Out

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October 12, 2005

The Republican Freak-Out

I've been too much on the side of making friends rather than influencing people (and just plain working) to pay much attention to the hash over Nominee Miers. It seems that the summary judgement is that she's both Mediocre, and Not Clearly Against Abortion. And for this some Republicans have their lederhosen in a twist.

Over at NeoNeocon, the subject has raised my pique and so I'll repeat something in writing that I mention in passing last week in Greensboro. The problem with the Republicans is that they don't know very well how to be a majority party. This is the central problem which has made the party subject to the excesses of ideologues. They really aren't leading the nation, they are aggregating loud minorities. Their wedge issues and marginalia don't work. So let's be straight about some weaknesses.

1. Tax Abatement as Principle
The Republicans have done an extraordinary job of communicating that everything government does costs, and it's a good idea to be skeptical of allowing spending. But it hasn't stopped the Bush Administration, nor has it really stopped any Republican administration in decades. What gives the idea the most credibility is that spending on certain things is bad and the discipline is applied ideologically. There's a punt to the ideologues. I can accept that this was a necessary punt, but it has become something of a liability when considered in the context of the confusion between Republicans and Conservatives.

As a moderate Republican, my middle name is supposed to be 'fiscal conservative', but I'm also a strong Nationalist and so I say damn the torpedoes when it's wartime. I'm not sure that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast are worth 60 billion, and GW probably squandered and opportunity to make some sticking points on the Ownership Society in his haste. Then again it's not as if any of Kanye Wests' fellow travellers were listening. And as recent events has shown, they're more interested in what they dream that Bill Bennett is dreaming.

So on the whole Republicans are getting no props for fiscal conservatism, and their lack of imagination when it comes to tax abatement has long worn thin. Still, I'm not giving my tax refund back.

2. Abortion & The Christian Right
I'm sure I've said this better elsewhere but there is nothing so craven as Republicans' pretending that every whiff of 'judicial activism' is making us into a godless commie country. Rove's coddling of the Christian Right is overblown and that very presumption that the Christian Right controls the Republicans is a self-fulfilling prophesy and circular argument.

We're lucky that Roberts was such a good choice, and whining over Miers is really beneath what I think Republicans ought to be about.

Here we have a majority in the House, Senate, the White House, the Supreme Court and probably the Governors as well, and yet there's turmoil over Miers. All this smacks to me of a minority party trying to purge itself in order to make a radical choice clear. That may be useful for what I'm doing against black progressives and black liberals, but fer chrissake, grow up GOP. You're supposed to be leading America, and you're not.

That it empowers McCain and his Gang of 14 is just what's to be expected.

Posted by mbowen at October 12, 2005 01:22 PM

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Comments

I agree with that. Newt Gingrich, Tom Delay and the other henchmen should have stepped aside once the Republicans broke through in the House. They were gate stormers, savages on the front line who led the overthrow, but they killed off the next wave of their own team instead of letting the more civilized group govern.

Unless the right wing of the party splinters off, I don't see the party as presently constructed ever helping a significant number of black politicians get elected.

But everyone who stays in Washington at least ten years leaves with a net worth over a million dollars.

Posted by: Anonymous at October 12, 2005 10:33 PM

^^ That was me ^^

Posted by: brotherbrown at October 12, 2005 10:35 PM

At the local level, they're all about that. I sensed that when I was in Greensboro, that a local conservative black politician would be just gold.

Posted by: Cobb at October 13, 2005 07:43 AM

Cobb, I've come to the conclusion that the GOP is very good at winning elections but cannot govern worth a damn. The problem with the Dems is that that did not groom intellectual, economic and judicial leaders like the Republicans. But now that the GOP controls the nation, we see the results. I'm not sure if their policies about smaller government are true because they haven't made government smaller.

I think the GOP was at its best when it was fighting liberal policies and not have the responsibility of implementing its own.

Posted by: james manning at October 13, 2005 04:13 PM

And soon we will see if the right will hold. Now is a good time to start identifying the political cliques and see which way they go. Limbaugh this morning was saying it's not a crack-up that's in the offing but a crackdown. Conservatives are now going to try to force party unity over the Miers nomination.

Posted by: Cobb at October 13, 2005 04:31 PM

I am actually surprised that the party is not singing Miers praise right now. I just knew the neo-cons would be on board within five days of the announcement. They are ticked but the Party will unify once the Democrats start attacking Miers. Right now they are letting the Evangelicals and elitist of the Party tag her.

But I think the GOP has done some damage to itself. The far-right wing of the Party is much more vocal than the moderates and I think after this episode, they will become that much more vocal in demanding the GOP politicians follow the script. I think the 2006 election will tell more about the Party than the outcome of the Miers nomination.

And this is why I love politics

Posted by: james manning at October 13, 2005 06:28 PM

Right now they are letting the Evangelicals and elitist of the Party tag her.

Not a good portion of the rank and file. Many of us conservatives really meant it when we said no judicial activists.

Posted by: Juliette at October 14, 2005 03:23 PM

I think Bush made a serious misstep when he suggested that her faith in part made her qualified for the Supreme Court. I don't think Conservatives really feel for it and it is not a good policy.

I'm not sure if she will make it but like I mentioned on my blog, I think he has made himself a lame-duck earlier than expected. I doubt Republicans will give him any love when it comes to pushing his second term agenda.

He might as well head back to Crawford now. The Dems are doing right by staying out of it until she has to speak before them - then attack her.

Posted by: james manning at October 14, 2005 06:05 PM