The State of the Republi-can't Party

A part of me derives great pleasure to witness the pathetic state of today's Republican party and its American conservative movement in general. After all, the Chicken-Hawk cabal of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, John Ashcroft, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and their minions achieved a nearly irreversible degree of damage to the state of the nation, both at home and abroad. The unlikely victory of Barack Obama was entirely thanks to this dark period of the last 8 years. The sound defeat of the party at many levels of government in 2008 restored my faith in the American citizenry's ability to elect the right people into power at least when backed into a corner. The mess we have inherited is so bad that it could take many years to restore America's standing in the world. For these reasons I was happy to say goodbye, and good riddance when large sections of the White House and Congress packed up their bags and left, hopefully to retire for good.

Another side of me recognizes that a failed Republican party is bad for the country. I want to see the party come back, stronger than before led by politicians who have something to positive to offer the country. We are a nation of checks and balances, and Washington functions best as a cauldron of competing ideas, especially in times of enormous crisis like today. The Democratic party cannot have a monopoly on power and in fact is not capable of maintaining it anyway. The necessary political equilibrium can only be achieved with a healthy intellectual ferment on both sides of the aisle. Unfortunately, the Republican brand is currently an irrelevant horror show with the same tired old ideas at the forefront since the 1960's. The country has changed immensely and is in real danger of passing the Republicans by, especially when the party has lost sight of what its core values are supposed to be. That is why disillusioned red-blooded conservatives such as Newt Gingrich have made noises about starting a third political party.

What went wrong in the party of Reagan? 2008 was a watershed year which will be remembered by liberals and conservatives alike as the turning point when Republicans completely lost their way. There are plenty of reasons why.

Leadership, anyone? It will take mighty human beings to challenge the phenomenon of Barack Obama. Despite all the criticism (and my documented bromance aside) Obama is a powerhouse of a politician who ran circles against all Democratic and Republican comers that already had clout and name recognition and millions of dollars while Barry O was still drinking in his college dormitory. Critics also lose sight of the fact that by 2012 the economy WILL have improved on his watch, as will the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, for the simple reason that these problems cannot get any worse mathematically. We have already spiralled to rock-bottom. Guess who is going to get the credit for getting us out of it? The Republicans are in serious danger of being completely irrelevant to this recovery, which could set them back a decade. So let's get started on the Rogue's Gallery.

Michael Steele - The Republican party is so behind the times and reactionary that they cannot seem to put forward their token minority or women candidates for office until they realize how popular the Democratic one is. Every one of these conservative tokens has been in haplessly over their heads. Barack Obama running for an Illinois Senate in 2004? Let's get a Reagan old salt, Alan Keyes, who's not even from Illinois, to run against him! Hillary Clinton got 18 million primary votes? Let's dispatch Sarah Palin to mop up those disenfrachised women! The Democrats got a black guy elected? Let's make our own leading black politician the new face of the Republican party as the RNC Chairman! There is too long a list of mistakes made by Steele to note here. Let me just hazard a guess that his concept of enlisting hip-hop music to garner black voters is as tone-deaf as Washington ideas come. That's saying a great deal. The RNC is utterly rudderless.

Sarah Palin. Thank you, Sarah; for not reading about the same issues that you are running on as a Vice Presidential candidate. For not knowing how to run a competent PAC. For not knowing that cities are part of the "real America" too. For blaming your foibles on the media. For running as a "maverick" when your political strategies are culled from a tired Republican playbook. I hope that you run in 2012; you are obviously a front-runner in your party and Charlie, you do fire 'em up, Charlie.

Dick Cheney. Please go away, sir. Go back to the (Jackson) Hole in Wyoming you came from and enjoy retirement. How DARE you emerge during a fledgling administration that was legitimately elected and say that it is making America less safe by dismantling policies that have threatened our security? When your incompetence allowed 9/11 to happen; when you failed to secure victory in Iraq and Afghanistan; and when you have helped lower our standing in the world by running your own shadow government that steamrolled the appointed government apparatus? When your Chief of Staff was indicted for outing a CIA official? Your words are not only in bad taste, they are downright dangerous. You had your chance to protect America, and you failed. Be a man and let your legacy speak for itself.

The pundits. I am struck by the dearth of good ideas coming out of conservative so-called intellectuals and other right-wing media figures these days. Histrionic cries of how we are turning socialist, about taxes being too high, about how we're spending too much on domestic programs and not enough on defense, how abortion and stem cell research and gay marriage are ruining our society, and whining about Obama's warmth towards Europe would carry more weight if they mattered in today's society. Evidence is piling up that the world has moved on since these issues were actually relevant. Obama is an attractive target for this gang, but there are no good alternatives being offered that I can see. It is very telling to listen to figures such as Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Charles Krauthammer, or John Bolton with their righteous anger. They are understandably angry that their side has lost, but if they are to lead the intellectual ferment of the Republicans, God save the party.

So what's needed? I believe that you need a new generation of smart young people to take control of the ship who grew up sometime after the 60's and care about things that matter to conservatism's core: most importantly, real and sensible conservative fiscal policy as opposed to the lip service paid throughout the 2000's. This will be the most important role of the new Republican party; everything else on the RNC platform appears to be either indistinguishable from the left, or bankrupt. If you know of any impressive Repblican leaders, I'd love to hear about them. Because I don't see this new leadership ANYWHERE on the horizon. And I'm desperate to find it. It's unfortunate that the party will have to go digging in Barack Obama's scraps