As if denying benefits to the poor but feeling bad about it was some kind of Republican virtue.

She also seems to pine for the good old days of racism-lite, when Republicans discriminated, but didn't talk about it in such vulgar terms.

devoid of a moral base by any means. Like anything else, taken too far it becomes very bad, and that's what happened. If some on the right always had a tendency to take things too far, at one time decent, typically moderate conservatives wanted to work with us to arrive at agreements that made both sides think some progress and balance had been achieved.

Let's face it, making sure we aren't supporting people who are both mentally and physically able to work--and able to get a job--is only reasonable. Their compassionate part is about their belief that making people living dysfunctional lives work is good for them and for the children they're raising. There's not only something to that, but both sides agree on it.

Now, of course, warped by toxic anti-tax forces into extreme partisanship, most on the right have adopted the vague but extremist notion that everyone benefiting from our social support net is a slacker who could be working. An irrational position.

But not one this woman shares, and we should be supportive of all who speak out to remind conservatives of what compassionate and decent, and sensible, really are. We have to rebuild the center if our democracy is to survive. The natural divisions between wellmeaning people on both sides are healthy ones we can work with.

A smart rock. A square ball.

The term "Compassionate Conservative" is an oxymoron... heavy on the moron.
NO ONE gets to hide behind that anymore.
This woman helped to sew this monster together and now that it has escaped the lab she does not get to wring her hands.
She can shove it right up there with her thousand points of bullshit.

And for those who can, who'd disagree with that?

Conservatives are a FULL HALF OF OUR ELECTORATE. Yet at one time our political center, where reasonable people on both sides came together, was able to accomplish great things, including the New Deal, Fair Deal, Great Society, etc. We will again, but we have to rebuild that center.

And we don't do that by spitting, trumpster-style, at reasonable conservatives who are doing their part. Like this author.

The dark side is very real, it is being very heavily funded by ultraconservative billionaires, and it has been working to destroy the left for some time.

Think what it means to insist a full half off all Americans are irredeemable wrong, and even evil. Think.

Say no. Not all are going to survive this current onslaught, you know. Politics has become a toxic environment. Some DUers disappeared down the extremist rabbit hole in 2016, and only a few will ever find their way back.

as an oxymoronic concept.

Your thoughtful analysis helps me understand (thought not appreciate) the mindset that makes such a position appealing.

Emphasizing points of agreement (such as "Productive work is a societal good that should be encouraged" ) is a good start toward building consensus among parties that are arrayed across the political spectrum.

I could never support the GOP's goal of government-sponsored faith-based initiatives -- and I certainly don't subscribe to the right wing idea that beneficiaries of social programs are by definition slackers.

In a different area, there is -- for example -- a lot of potential for agreement among hunters & fishermen and environmentalists. Their interests are compatible in many ways. We need to focus on those points of agreement rather than excoriating hunters as "animal killers" or letting them paint us as "granola-eating tree huggers."

Full disclosure: I actually am a granola-eating tree hugger, but you get the idea. My granddaddy was a hunter and an environmentalist. There are more out there -- we need to find them and work with them.

These are discussions that we'll continue to have, and the answers may (and most likely will) be different in various states and districts. We need to inspire progressives to devote their energies to the cause, while not losing reasonable moderates who agree with us on some policies but not all.

Centrists lose me when they say "To hell with 'Leftists'" and focus only on how to attract and appease conservatives. Leftists lose me when they say "There's no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats."

Your post offers some insight about how to sift through these ideas and positions and find ways to win without resorting to either scorched-earth tactics or appeasement.

Cons".. They got the Con alright.. how many soldiers and civilians did they kill?

Why do you still belong to the party that has gone so far astray?

Before Obama:
- "They hate us for our freedoms."
- "Liberals are unpatriotic."

After Obama:
- "Dark-skinned foreigners have infiltrated the US and are trying to destroy us!!!!11!!"
- "The Demonrats are traitors and satanic Libtards are murdering babies!!!1!!1!"

Or perhaps since 1994?

Jesus, just get a fucking clue.

The road to our present place started with Reagan. He and his crew began this road to ruin.

Republicans own this. Ms. Jordan needs to do some deeper thinking about her positions.

Moron is the end result

Ms Jordan needs a cell with a "Get a clue" app.

by the behavior of the monster who told them loudly and clearly who he was before they ever voted for him.

They are all full of shit. They voted for him because he precisely stated their white supremacist wet dreams, and now that they see what that does when it's put into practice, they all want to distance themselves from it. Because, though they still believe what he is pushing, they don't want to think of themselves as being as base as they actually are.

Hint to the author: if you want to talk about how great republicans really are, don't use Bush's "armies of compassion" as your example, given that they were used to fight unnecessary wars to enrich Bush's cronies.

I don't see much change in tactics from the Republican's in the Nixon era to the current except that the crazies are more out in front

All her crocodile tears and the 'woe is me' pity party a re meaningless hyperbole without a call for action to stop Trump and remove him from office. I just have missed her solution.

You can read the same kind of columns from krugman, piece, blow, etc. All of them essentially say the same thing and have the same problem - there are no solutions to be offered outside of elections.

To the Republicans who are wondering what happened to their party:

You folks ignored what was happening for far too long. You folks bought into the propaganda of compassionate conservatism without giving even a bit of objective thought. You folks ignored the connections to the moneyed interests dictating your parties ideology. This is where that failing to really participate has taken us. Ultimately, the blame lies partially with you.

In the whole of it there are several factors. The curry favor and wink and nod to the racists are one. The fostering of a counter intellectual movement is another. The blind obedience is a third. I'm not sure the anti-Trump Republicans are guilty of all of these but they sure as hell made their bed.

She stated that her family in Mississippi all voted for Chump, because he was "the lesser of two evils," UGH. Don't remember if she said whether she voted for him. Anyway, she said they will not even talk about him anymore, because they are so disgusted with his behavior. A major question, she was not asked, is whether, if he is the Repuke candidate in 2020, they will vote for him again.

I recommend this thread because it is a sign that slowly Chumpy's base, or parts thereof, may be slightly waking up. It can't hurt to have more articles like this circulating in conservative circles.

Why did they see him as that?

1. They are Republicans and find any excuse to vote against a Democrat?
2. They are misogynist and find any excuse to vote against a woman?
3. They are racist and find any excuse to vote for white supremacy?
4. They only watch Fox news and only listen to right-wing radio?
5. Combination of the above?

We need more Republicans to speak up.

and now trump, the tea party are the end result.

the sooner the "republican" in the article understands there in no republican party like they "remembered" and recognize their only path is to align with democrats, the sooner the shame and stain on our country can end.

there were a lot of Republicans that did not like Trump. However, almost all of them still held their noses and voted for him in 2016, or voted for Gary Johnson.

is republicans.

i'm past getting why anyone would still stick with it.

I don't buy this "what happened to my party" bullshit. Donald Trump is just another blip on an uninterrupted downward trajectory that began--more or less--with the Southern Strategy. Every step taken over the past forty years or so has led ineluctably to this moment.

She should have asked this question 18 years ago.

She can go fuck off!

Trump is just the logical result of the desire to cut taxes to the bone and starve the government of anything other than military spending. You can trace a line from the southern strategy to Lee Atwater to Grover Norquist to the Tea Party. Trump is their useful idiot.

Without having to shower afterwards.
I'm in my late 50s and am and have always been a Democrat with a big honking D.
As much as the GOP has always been, as my mother called them "guardians of privilege" today's Republican party is a totally different animal.
It is repulsive and terrifying and despicable.

Both had conservatives, moderates, and liberals. Legislation was produced in a bi-partisan way with coalitions of liberals/moderates from both Parties working together to produce progressive legislation. But, in the late 80s, early 90's Newt Gringrich, with the help of RW talk radio, began to purge the liberals/moderates out of the party and demonize all progressive values. The results are what they are, as a Party, today. A bunch of reactionaries, incapable of leading this country. They value absolute power by promoting incompetent people who are black-mailable, in order to assure their agenda to serve corporations and the 1%...this is their real "base". The ignorant and easily manipulated are their voter-enablers.

I see these anecdotal testimonies as the beginning of the end of a Party that has reached the political end of the line. Electing Trump as their Party leader is the culmination of 45 years of descent into a swamp of corruption and treachery.

Start reading old literature, I can recommend a couple of books by the same author, Sinclair Lewis..."Babbit", "It Can't Happen Here!", "Main Street".

The old gran Republican party has always been lead by racists, misogynists, bigots, and a dislike for people who are economically "inferior" to them, like senator Hatch, they do forget where they came from, even though Hatch likes to say that he understands people who are not so fortunate, its all bull, the republican party has always encouraged hate and a bunch of vile human sentiments.

You are wondering "what is wrong with the republican party" and I tell you "NOTHING", and yes I do feel it may be worst, but its only worst because they have cheated and put a man-child in a post he doesn't deserve, cannot handle, who is there to protect his life from the kompromat the Russians have on him. The man-child is vile, evil, has no clue of where he is, no sense for consequence, says and does what he wants, so your republican party has been enabled and they have come out of the closet, they have always been the trash they are today. Your republican party "leaders" may be compromised as well.

Think about it, Paul Ryan has been dreaming, since high school, to abolish all social services that help poor people, he has always hated the fact that poor people can be aided by the government, even though that is what government is there for, he is an evil man who idolizes Ayn Rand, and if you read her books you realize how screwed up and how full of hate that woman was.

Stop fooling yourself that the republican party was good at any time in its history, look at the timelines of presidents and you will realize that any time republicans takes hold of power, all they want to do is screw the people and enrich themselves.

So, again, what is wrong with your party? NOTHING!...what is wrong is that people who follow republicans are constantly drinking their kool-aid, believing the fantasy they spew. By now you should know that what the say is not what they do.

READ, READ, READ...go back in time, realize the party you have always supported has never supported you, its just rhetoric, talk, talk, talk.

I hope this helps.

he was made of BEFORE the election. Does she support politicians or give them quarter when they support IQ45? Does she still identify with a party that shows this is who they are? Cry me a river ma’am. You are one of them.

Did she just realize this man-child is a monster? If so then, in the words of Forrest Gump..."Stupid is as stupid does." and crying for spilled water when you did it on purpose doesn't count.

"The previous Republican president George W. Bush made compassion a literal domestic policy priority by funding what he called “armies of compassion” through faith-based initiatives"

George W. Bush? Lady, did you know that he was considered the worst president this country had ever had until the man-child made him look acceptable?

GW was not a president, Dick Chaney was, and they led a massacre in Iraq, one we are still paying for...

Where is the compassion when you kill so many people based on lies? In my previous post I mention that what is wrong with the republican party is people like you drinking their kool-aid, and you demonstrate that irrational thinking in your article.

GW compassionate? please...what a bunch of bologna...The crimes against humanity carried out in his tenure are compared against other dictators in history, which I will not mention, and you call that monster a compassionate human being? Who used George Orwell's line of "War is Peace"? Was it old Georgie? How compassionate of him.

One last thing...GW started going back to church during the campaign because his advisors told him he needed to cater to the religious right, he was not a man of faith, like many republicans are not people of faith, they just like to wrap themselves on religion and the flag...By the way, I don't care if someone has no faith, doesn't believe in religion, etc., you are free to believe what you want, but don't say you do if you don't. Going to church, and saying you are a person of faith doesn't make you a better person, your actions speak for yourself. I know so many people who go to church every Sunday, then during the week they are cheating on everyone, its all appearances.

I can go on, but enough said...see reality and you will be freed of your republican thoughts...GW compassionate...geez!!

She could have taken this opportunity to say she was leaving the Republican party. Don't get me started on how she thinks George W. Bush was compassionate. Tell that to all the people who died in his two useless wars.

While dispensing his human rights violations and war crimes. If only he were more like the Bushes, and St. Ronnie, we could fuck over the poor of the world (and the US) with proper decorum.

What's the matter with YOU?

No better word, except perhaps cruel.

meet the press or cnn. when their racism is out in the light, it's what happened to my party. It's always been what you see NOW out in the light. Trump just put it out there in the light of day.

YOUR pResident lied us into Iraq and murdered almost a MILLION men, women and children...all wrapped up in fake patriotic bluster.
Go cry to someone else.

How? Work defeat the repubs in Nov 2018. To fix the repub party, it must be destroyed.

This is what you get from growing up in a propaganda bubble.

Elise Jordan (some may recall her as the widow of journalist Micheal Hastings) graduated from Yale in 2004, which would put her birth year around 1982, give or take. Not even in this world yet when Ronald Reagan talked about "welfare queens" and "young bucks eating T-bone steaks" and launched his campaign in the town where civil rights workers had been murdered, with themes that winked at the killers.

You would have been only 6 when George H.W. Bush won, with help from Lee Atwater's race-baiting ads.

You would have been about 10 to 18 during Bill Clinton's presidency, when you probably started paying attention to politics. The same time when Rush Limbaugh declared Clinton to only be "technically president" and had no mandate because of his electoral college win but getting less than 50% of the popular vote. Did you think the constant attacks on Bill and Hillary Clinton were normal? You might have, not knowing anything else, but they were not.

12, when Newt Gingrich founded his "revolution" in the House on a formula of always treating the Democrats as The Enemy, not as the opposition party. And on saying absolutely anything that would paint Democrats as loathsome and Republicans as heroic, with no regard for facts. Sound like anyone you know? Hint: Newt was one of his advisers.

The Republican Party, your Republican Party, threw turdball after turdball at the Clintons hoping some fleck of it would stick to them and give an excuse for driving him from office. Those that didn't stick sloughed off at their feet, raising a fogbank of steam which your Republicans dutifully pointed at and said "Where there's smoke..." They went in this direction, some eagerly, others acquiescing, because conservative media whipped their voters into a frenzy over hundreds of wild allegations (sound familiar?) most of which were completely unfounded and the rest were greatly exaggerated (again, sound familiar?). And then there were the conservative judges -- one might say activist judges -- who allowed what was originally a redundant investigation on Vince Foster's death to meander all over creation in hopes of finding some Clinton wrongdoing that would be suitable cause for impeachment. They didn't find a suitable reason, but by that time they had so painted themselves into a corner with their voters that they had to do something, so they impeached him anyway, on crap that was never going to get a conviction by the Senate.

About that "embracing compassionate conservatism": That was just a slogan, Ms. Jordan. Maybe it seemed like more to your 18-year-old self, but your party's leadership knew it was merely that. So did Democrats.

And who made that slogan? The guy whose administration you worked for. After he tried to use his 2004 win to privatize Social Security, after it was plain as day that Iraq didn't have the WMDs he assured us were there and were an immanent threat, after his vice-president (y'know they guy who had headed the company that got all those no-bid contracts and was still getting payouts from them) said "Reagan taught us that deficits don't matter." Does any of that sound like it might bear on the current situation, bear on what Republicans find to be acceptable in their presidents?

Have you considered a different career, Ms, Jordan? For someone hired as a political analyst, it seems you've done a poor job of analyzing. But then, a major network still hired you for that job. So they're not dong their job very well either.

And continue to be a part of it is a huge part of the problem right there.

What utter bullshit.


Praising George Bush as some example of moral aspiration. Seriously?

Torture much?

She obviously enjoyed her racism cloaked in code words and her fleeting concern is assuaged by the cynical and empty phrase compassionate conservatism - where the word compassion was used, so no actual acts of compassion are needed.

What on Earth was wrong with you back then?

Roaches for Raid camp

Ms Jordan over the side because we're going to need Democrats, Independents and yes, anti/never Trumpers to turn this around. November is our shot to repudiate the Trumpster and his disgusting acolyte-base. In order to do that, I'm willing to join hands with even a Bill Kristol (gulp), another vociferous Never-Trumper.

We can go back being barn cats with our claws out once Trump and his crew are out of power.

But for right now? Anyone who is against Trump is on our side.

Because in this critical moment, it's country over party time.

Sorry honey. You're party didn't just accept Trump. They made him

Oh, except for that little lie of a war that has killed thousands of US soldiers and untold numbers of civilians. It made tons of money for a bunch of Republicans though. And we all got to laugh watching Dubya "look for the WMDs" under his desk. What a hoot!