GOP and Tea Party Incompetence...

Rational Nation USA
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For anyone who has been paying even a modicum of attention it is of course clear that the Tea Party wing of the GOP is largely responsible for the dysfunctional state of our present political and governing reality.

It appears at this time there is little if any likelihood that things will take a turn towards reason and rational thinking within the problem caucus. The following article effectively states the case for this conclusion rather well.

The New York Times - The House Republican caucus is close to ungovernable these days. How did this situation come about?

This was not just the work of the Freedom Caucus or Ted Cruz or one month’s activity. The Republican Party’s capacity for effective self-governance degraded slowly, over the course of a long chain of rhetorical excesses, mental corruptions and philosophical betrayals. Basically, the party abandoned traditional conservatism for right-wing radicalism. Republicans came to see themselves as insurgents and revolutionaries, and every revolution tends toward anarchy and ends up devouring its own.

By traditional definitions, conservatism stands for intellectual humility, a belief in steady, incremental change, a preference for reform rather than revolution, a respect for hierarchy, precedence, balance and order, and a tone of voice that is prudent, measured and responsible. Conservatives of this disposition can be dull, but they know how to nurture and run institutions. They also see the nation as one organic whole. Citizens may fall into different classes and political factions, but they are still joined by chains of affection that command ultimate loyalty and love.

All of this has been overturned in dangerous parts of the Republican Party. Over the past 30 years, or at least since Rush Limbaugh came on the scene, the Republican rhetorical tone has grown ever more bombastic, hyperbolic and imbalanced. Public figures are prisoners of their own prose styles, and Republicans from Newt Gingrich through Ben Carson have become addicted to a crisis mentality. Civilization was always on the brink of collapse. Every setback, like the passage of Obamacare, became the ruination of the republic. Comparisons to Nazi Germany became a staple.

This produced a radical mind-set. Conservatives started talking about the Reagan “revolution,” the Gingrich “revolution.” Among people too ill educated to understand the different spheres, political practitioners adopted the mental habits of the entrepreneur. Everything had to be transformational and disruptive. Hierarchy and authority were equated with injustice. Self-expression became more valued than self-restraint and coalition building. A contempt for politics infested the Republican mind.

Politics is the process of making decisions amid diverse opinions. It involves conversation, calm deliberation, self-discipline, the capacity to listen to other points of view and balance valid but competing ideas and interests.

But this new Republican faction regards the messy business of politics as soiled and impure. Compromise is corruption. Inconvenient facts are ignored. Countrymen with different views are regarded as aliens. Political identity became a sort of ethnic identity, and any compromise was regarded as a blood betrayal.

A weird contradictory mentality replaced traditional conservatism. Republican radicals have contempt for politics, but they still believe that transformational political change can rescue the nation. Republicans developed a contempt for Washington and government, but they elected leaders who made the most lavish promises imaginable. Government would be reduced by a quarter! Shutdowns would happen! The nation would be saved by transformational change!...

Perhaps the deeper question that needs to be considered is; does it really matter given the state of American republicanism in America today? For this individual at least, who has completely and totally had it with the absurdities of the Tea Party and GOP, the answer is a definite no.

Continue reading BELOW THE FOLD.

Via: Memeorandum

Comments

  1. Jersey McJonesWed Oct 14, 12:29:00 AM EDT

    I'll tell ya', a perfect diagnosis of a bad case of Rightabetes (or as Wilfred Brimley would say, Rightabetiss). An intellectually sober life should clean that right up!

    JMJ

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shaw KenaweWed Oct 14, 08:56:00 AM EDT

    Brooks clearly understands what the rabid right does not. I look at this in the context of the rabid left of the '60s. Remember what happened to the Democratic Party after that? The Tea Party Republicans seem not to have any grasp of history or of what elimination politics does to a political party. That Donald Trump and Ben Carson are leading in their presidential polls is clear enough evidence that governing is not high on their list of how to solve America's problems. This is the money quote, IMO:

    "...the Republican rhetorical tone has grown ever more bombastic, hyperbolic and imbalanced. Public figures are prisoners of their own prose styles, and Republicans from Newt Gingrich through Ben Carson have become addicted to a crisis mentality. Civilization was always on the brink of collapse. Every setback, like the passage of Obamacare, became the ruination of the republic. Comparisons to Nazi Germany became a staple."

    ReplyDelete

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