Monday, November 2, 2009

The Conservative Gambit

by Cylinsier

There was a stretch of time from 1952 to 1994 during which the Republican party had not held a majority in Congress even once. When, in 1994, the Republicans finally regained the legislature, they called it the Republican Revolution. With it came the end of the Conservative Coalition and for all intents and purposes, any form of bipartisanship. Newt Gingrich took control of the House and instituted a policy of complete conservative isolation from the liberal side of the aisle, giving birth to modern partisanship.

Fast forward to the 2008 elections. As the extremely unpopular Bush Administration enters its golden years, the Democrats are nursing a majority in the House and a split in the Senate (with tie-breaker privileges going to the most evil man alive, Darth Cheney). The writing is on the wall at this point; the Democrats are about to absolutely clean house in the coming elections. The Republican congress had more than overstayed its welcome, and in one of history's greatest examples of choosing poor timing to fuck up, the Republican administration had mired itself in two costly wars, one of which was unpopular enough to all but guarantee change in party regardless of who ran.

If the Republican party wanted us to think they didn't realize this, they wouldn't have nominated the single most moderate member of their party, John McCain, as their potential President elect. Of course, his team screwed it up by talking him into Sarah Palin, repelling any and all moderates, and the rest is history. And now we find ourselves with Democrats in control of 2 and a half of the 3 branches of government. The GOP must be wondering where they went wrong...or are they?

The Republican Gambit, as I refer to it, is the GOP's all-in strategy to regain power of as much of the government as possible. It is a get-rich-quick scheme, and like all schemes of that type, it carries with it considerable risk and a high liklihood of failure, which seems like an odd course of action for a party that describes itself as conservative.

The Republican Gambit is simply this: sacrifice everything, EVERYTHING, to see that Obama fails. As a person, Obama became a symbol of hope and change for the people of America. And when he won, the Rpublican party no doubt saw it coming, because they already had a plan in place to confront it. That plan was and still is to stonewall everything and to label Obama as failure from the start.

This is kind of like a football team claiming it has won a game when it leads the opponent three to zero at the end of the first quarter. Unfortunately, there are three quarters to go and anything can happen. If the gamble pays off, the braggart team look like geniuses brimming with confidence. If not...well, the term "laughing stock" comes to mind, as does the phrase, "death rattle."

The GOP has chosen to declare Obama the worst President this nation has ever seen. Most of the fringe right were making this statement as early as March. I think most polite people with a modicum of intelligence would find this to be premature and odd behavior. Those of us with less manners would describe it as batshit insane. Football games don't end after one quarter and neither do Presidencies end after one year.

But the GOP will stop at nothing to convince those in the middle that Obama has already failed. They lead tea party rallies and cover them substantially via puppet network Fox News, implying that 50,000 people represent the majority of America (population 300 million if you were curious). The somewhat more sensible ask simply, "what has he done so far?" Or, if they are feeling daring, they tell us, "Obama has accomplished nothing, even with a Congressional majority." But it sounds less like a statement of fact and more like a desperate grab at the fleeting wisps of power.

What some in the GOP must realize is that they are facing a very grim set of circumstances. America sent a very clear message in the last election; Democrats are, well, Democrats. Moderates and Independents had grown weary of the dishonest methods of the supposed party of personal responsibility. And the Republican base? Well, as a minority, they've split off and gone the other way, wanting to be given free reign over their money and power and seemingly nauseated that they must share this nation with the common man. The result is a party with no identity, no support and potentially no hope. And so they make the only move that they think they have left. They active the propaganda machine and try to destroy what stands in their way.

As Democrat numbers slowly ebb away, Republican numbers also continue to dwindle. The GOP doesn't care. Times are too dire to worry about the nuisance of public appearance. There is only once chance. Act as dead weight and ensure that Obama accomplishes nothing, then run on that as the only thing you have resembling a platform come election time. Conservative values are last decade. Liberalism has a huge head of steam. If the GOP can just make Obama look like an underachiever, they might have the slim chance of retrieving the power they so crave, the power the grew drunk on and addicted to. But the penalty for failure is huge. If the GOP cannot claim either the White House or at least a split in power in one of the House of Congress by 2012, then the gambit has failed. The results could be as tame as decades of irrelevance or as dire as the death of the party and the birth of a new, likely socially moderate, conservative party in its stead. After all, the lifeblood of the conservative fringe is the prominently older generation, those that can remember strong careers under Reagan, as opposed to those of us only learning about him in school.

The GOP has to go all in because they've been bled dry of new life. They have to hope that by declaring victory now, they will be vindicated in a few years and look like the prophet saviors of Patriotic America. The consequence of failure is probably utter destruction.

Here's the problem; the Republicans want to convince the rest of us that the Democrats are failing. But are they? Let's take a look at what Bush II accomplished in his first year as President.
Five bills signed into law, three of which are directly related to 9/11. Let's see what Obama has accomplished 10 months in.
If we want to be fair, we can argue that 9/11 changed the priorities of the nation, so we can compare just the records from September 10 and earlier, but that still puts Obama up 11 to 1. The Conservatives making the "too much too fast" argument at least have numbers on their side. But the "what has he done" Conservatives...well, they just aren't paying attention.

The only thing left to debate is quality of law, since quantity clearly favors the current administration. The former will of course be highly subjective. For some, neutering the freedoms of America in the name of preventing future domestic terrorism trumps the rights of women to receive equal pay, gays to receive protection from violent discrimination, AIDS/HIV positive individuals from traveling freely in the country, and every American's right to be treated fairly by their credit card company. Others do not actually have their heads up their asses.

But one fact is clear: the GOP's kamikaze attack against Obama is not only likely to fail, its already failing. It was an ill-advised strategy to begin with because it is so transparent. But now, as much as the fringe right will try to convince us otherwise, it is in the process of eroding at the foundation, and the structure of propaganda and misdirection above is threatening to topple. If the GOP needs one more reminder why, just think about the legislation listed above being signed into law. Obama was elected by a clear majority to pass exactly the things he is passing above. His support may be dwindling a bit, but the voters voted for those laws. Come election time, what makes you think they are going to do an about face and vote for someone who is going to tear that down as opposed to someone who is building, just slower than was hoped? Think about it, or think about anything at all for a change instead of just talking out of your ass. It would do you all some good. Sphere: Related Content

6 comments:

Wesley said...

With the climate on the Hill more partisan than it as ever been in history, I thought maybe your posting was satire. With Republicans being locked out of the room when the health care bills are being discussed, I think we are witnessing partisanship of historic proportions. It’s asinine to say partisanship started with the Republican revolution. All political parties are partisan by definition and they always have been. Why have another party if you agree on everything. Unfortunately, you chose the weakest example to bolster your case. When Gingrich and company came in, it was one of the best examples of partisanship you could find. When one party does not have a hold on all branches of government they have to work together like Clinton and Congress did.

Not just Republicans voted to be in those two wars. And only the Democrats were declaring the Iraq war lost and calling Petreaus a liar when in fact it turned out to be a success and it greatly crippled Al Qaeda. To say the war was the reason the GOP was voted out of office is an oversimplification.

The Republican party did “nominate” the most moderate member of their party and what did that get them? Bupkis. You think this would be the time for guys like Colin Powell to support their dream candidate but there was no outcry from supposed moderates for McCain and it was not a real alternative to BO.

Palin was the only interesting part of the campaign and if she was such a turn off then why is she still so wildly popular? The GOP knows where they went wrong and it is never so evident as in NY 23. Conservatives are taking back their party and there will be a choice again. While some puny percent of Americans say they are Republicans, the numbers are huge for Conservatives. You little Marxists live in the fringe world.

It is not a gambit to regain power. It is an outright plan. And the benefits will be huge for all of America when we bring the country back from Socialist destruction. The gambit was the brazen way in which BO naively through caution to the wind, overextended himself and overtly tried to destroy our economy and steal our freedoms. He has awaken the sleeping giant of American conservatism. Running as the guy that would end the partisanship and then shutting Republicans out he has proven to be a big fat liar on yet one more count. He has not had a single Republican over to the White House since the Super Bowl.

They damn well better stonewall everything this guy tries to do because it is all based in an intentional design to destroy this country. If you want to know what BO is about, take a look at Reverend Wright. They are the same guy.

Go ahead and start lining up your alibis, but the fear you fail to hide in your writing is well founded. The tide has turned.

What we are seeing is Moderates and Independents growing weary of the dishonest methods of the supposed party of hope and change. They don’t need the propaganda machine that has been owned by the Whitehouse. They have something much better. Americans are mad as hell and they are not going to take it anymore. Go ahead and keep calling them names and belittling them when they come to town meetings. Watch where that gets you in a couple of hours when the election results are out. You are kidding yourself if you think Conservatives are prominently older.

MJ said...

How do the Google Ads go from "Your doctor will be the DMV" ...to... "Is your man gay?" Do yinz guys need any more reasons why it's time to take the ad feature off the blog?

Cylinsier said...

Yeah, I don't know why Google hates us so much.

Ellipses said...

They could advertise for menstrual blood milkshakes for all I care... We're (theoretically) getting paid to bullshit :-)

Ellipses said...

"The Republican party did “nominate” the most moderate member of their party and what did that get them? Bupkis. You think this would be the time for guys like Colin Powell to support their dream candidate but there was no outcry from supposed moderates for McCain and it was not a real alternative to BO."

The race was close before the thrilla from wasilla started to talk...

"then why is she still so wildly popular? "

Define "wildly popular"... The teabagger crowd is probably about 15 million people... If 15 million people loved me, I'd consider myself wildly popular... irrelevant, but popular.

"Conservatives are taking back their party and there will be a choice again."

And that choice will be MUCH easier for reasonable people to make... I actually wasn't sure who I was going to vote for last year... until McCain picked Palin.

"The gambit was the brazen way in which BO naively through caution to the wind, overextended himself and overtly tried to destroy our economy and steal our freedoms."

1. Can you be specific?
2. Why?

"They damn well better stonewall everything this guy tries to do because it is all based in an intentional design to destroy this country."

Why? Why does someone try really hard to get to the top just to bring it all down? This is tinfoil hat bullshit.

"Americans are mad as hell and they are not going to take it anymore. Go ahead and keep calling them names and belittling them when they come to town meetings."

Thanks for the permission to keep calling an asshat an asshat.

"Watch where that gets you in a couple of hours when the election results are out."

Results are in... the tea bagger candidate in NY lost. What now?

Cylinsier said...

Yeah, hasn't that NY district gone Republican since the Civil War? Way to demonstrate party unity there, GOP.