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GOP Marching Off a Cliff

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 9 March 2005
8 comments

Edito Parties USA Wayne Besen

by Wayne Besen

The Achilles heal of the modern GOP is that it is a movement rather than a traditional political party. While this arrangement serves as a campaign advantage because it instills message discipline, it leads to habitual overreaching when the Republican Party assumes the mantle of power. Political pragmatism is a strong check on unfettered power, while movements are designed by nature to simply want more.

A chest-thumping Republican Party seems intent on following Newt Gingrich’s path to oblivion by threatening to shut down the government if it doesn’t get its way. Instead of listening to the American people, it is listening to "movement conservatives" who wrongly believethe GOP is strong enough to ram through unpopular ideas.

. Easy terrorist access to firearms, thanks to the NRA and theircongressional allies
. Pushing for the repeal of Article 2, Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment to allow Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president
. Bush’s efforts to subvert the New Deal by undermining Social Security
. The GOP’s attempt to shut down the government by eliminating the filibuster

This week, the General Accounting Office released a report that showed over a nine-month period, officials approved 47 of 58 gun applications from terror suspects. This ought to make the hair stand up on the neck of anyone afraid of terrorism, including conservative Democrats,moderate Republicans and independent swing voters.

Currently, records of gun purchases by terror suspects must be destroyed within 24 hours. This is a direct result of a change in the law last year that was mandated by Congress and supported by the Bush administration. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., has sponsored a bill that would change the law so records on gun purchases by suspected terrorists will be kept for a minimum of ten years.

The Democrats ought to forcefully advocate Lautenberg’s bill, thus putting the GOP leadership in the tough spot of having to choose between national security and the NRA. I would place my bet with the GOP supporting the NRA which would create a huge opening the Democrats could capitalize on to expand their credibility on national security issues.

I know this sounds counterintuitive, but the Democrats should aggressively push for the repeal of Article 2, Section 1 of the 22nd Amendment, which only allows a natural born citizen to be eligible for the presidency. Sure, this would clear the path for California Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to run for president. However,his ascendance is a much greater threat to the Republican Right than it
is to Democrats.

By pushing hard for repeal, Democrats can appear bipartisan and support common sense legislation. It will also, once again, put the conservative GOP leadership in a painfully awkward position. They know if they support repeal, there is a good chance that the moderate Schwarzenegger will be the Republican frontrunner in 2008.

Schwarzenegger, as the nominee, is completely unacceptable to the Tom DeLay wing of the party. With their backs against the wall,conservatives will thwart a repeal effort, thus appearing obstructionist and alienating mainstream voters in their own party. Trust me, Conan will never make it past the congressional barbarians.

It is clear that Bush’s attempt to undermine Social Security by replacing the safety net with a risky privatization scheme has backfired. Bush will dig his own grave if only the Democrats will stop looking intransigent. On Meet the Press, Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said that private accounts are off the table.

What he should say is "the Democrats will support private accounts the very moment the president credibly shows that these accounts will address solvency." The Democrats should steadfastly avoid saying that anything is "off the table" because it makes Bush appear like the reasonable problem solver, rather than a huckster with a cruel plan.

The final issue in the trap is Sen. Bill Frist’s, R-Tenn., threat to go "nuclear" and take away the Democrats right to filibuster judicial nominees. This would be an unprecedented, anti-American power-grab by the GOP. Democrats should portray such a move as a "government shutdown" to make the GOP seem petty and dictatorial.

Movements are great during campaigns because the faithful readily take marching orders. But governing by ideological movement decree can also lead a party to march off a cliff.

http://www.waynebesen.com/columns/2005/03/gop-marching-off-cliff.html

Forum posts

  • The first thing the demcrats have to do is decide what the democratic party really is. How many democrats voted for the bankruptcy bill? And, pushing for a repeal of the 22nd amendment is not such a good idea vis a vis a Schwarzenegger candidacy. The "enlightened" American electorate has already proven its willingness to put a mediocre actor in the White House. Don’t wish too hard for what you want, or you just might get it.

  • Yes, the Republican Party has become a movement. A bowel movement.

  • The only marching will be to the labor camps. What you are describing as a "movement" has a name wayne, it’s called fascism.

    Fascism:
    a political philosophy, movement, or regime (as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition

    "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subjected people to carry arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subjected peoples to carry arms have prepared their own fall." - Adolph Hitler

    Tom delay? He is being used for the time being. So although it may appear that congress would stop arnie from being president...when you change the laws to fit your agenda...guess what? Jokes on you, you fell for the trap, and now we’ll have a nazi running for president and he’ll win.

    Arnie is a dyed-in-the wool Nazi. His father was a member of the Nazi Party in Austria, who served in the SA, the notoriously brutal Brownshirts. In an interview with George Butler in 1977, Schwarzenegger voiced his own views on the Nazi dictator: "I admired Hitler because he came from being a little man with almost no formal education, up to power. And I admire him for being such a good public speaker and for his way of getting to the people and so on." Arnie juxtaposed Hitler’s discipline to the softness of America. "America ... There is one thing I don’t like here and that [is] people go on their own little trips too much," he told Butler. "The unity isn’t there anymore. And I don’t think it’s too much the people’s fault. I think it’s because we don’t have a strong leader here."

    Schwarzenegger got teary-eyed in describing the Nazi Party’s annual Nuremberg rallies, which he attempted to replicate in his own demagogic gubernatorial campaign: "To speak to maybe 50,000 people at one time and have them cheer, or like Hitler in the Nuremberg Stadium, and have all those people scream at you, and just being in total agreement with whatever you say."

    There is more to this story Wayne that you are conveniently leaving out or just too lazy to research. But suffice to say, you don’t know how fascism works. The american fascists are using the republicans, democrats, anyone...EVEN YOU...to spread these dirty tricks.

  • So much nonsense in such a short essay...

    Ok, first: Gun ownership is a civil right. Sure, you Democrats tend not to like that, and even engage in a lot of sophistry to pretend otherwise, but none the less, it is. Listed right there in the Bill of Rights, unlike most of what the ACLU defends. So what you’re advocating is that the government should have the ability to strip somebody of a civil liberty *without having to prove in court that they’re guilty of something*.

    And you like to pretend you actually believe in civil liberties, the rule of law, and all that stuff. What a joke!

    Second, there’s practially no support within the Republican party for repeal of the natural born citizen requirement. Yeah, sure, I suppose Arnold is an improvement for the People’s Republic of Kalifornia, but that’s not to say Republicans living elsewhere feel the burning need to amend the Constitution so that he can run for President. There are less indirect ways of putting a Kennedy in the White House.

    So don’t pretend that you’d be pushing something Republicans want. You probably just want to give Michigan’s governor a shot at the job.

    Third, we could argue about the merits of Bush’s social security plans, but I don’t think they’re going anywhere.

    And forth, I’m just flaberghasted that somebody would claim ending the *filibuster* is an attempt to "shut down the government". Look, at least TRY to look like you’re making sense, ok?

    • Its so reassuring to see the cheerleaders for Bush never sleep...just like the MSM that cheers Bush 24/7/365...if we didn’t have a daily dose of yeah for that stupid prick how would we all be able to get through our day?

    • Excuse me, didn’t you just get bitch-slapped? Is that the best you can come up with, considering that the previous poster just cut your (very tiny) balls off?

  • good ol’ Wayne; always the poster child for Freudian projection.