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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe GOP’s dysfunction all started with Sarah Palin
The GOPs dysfunction all started with Sarah PalinBy William M. Daley at the Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/rweb/ideas/the-gops-dysfunction-all-started-with-sarah-palin/2015/10/25/bdd34892-7442-11e5-8248-98e0f5a2e830_story.html
"SNIP.............
Palin became a Fox News fixture, reinforcing the newly formed tea partys never compromise demands. Bombast, not reason, reigned. Now the settle for flash aura of Palins candidacy looks like a warning that the party was prizing glib, red-meat rhetoric over reasoned solutions.
Sadly, Palin owes her fame to 2008 presidential nominee John McCain, who is generally one of the partys more thoughtful and substantive veterans. He has championed reforms to immigration and campaign finance. He denounced wacko birds who stymie Congress to pursue hard-right agendas with no chance of passage. Whether McCain actively sought Palin in 2008 or passively yielded to aides pressure, he set a new standard for GOP candidates who rely on lots of sizzle and little substance.
Once McCain put Palin on the ticket, Republican grown-ups, who presumably knew better, had to bite their tongues. But after the election, when they were free to speak their minds, they either remained quiet or abetted the dumbing-down of the party. They stood by as Donald Trump and others noisily pushed claims that Obama was born in Kenya. And they gladly rode the tea party tiger to sweeping victories in 2010 and 2014.
......
Now that tiger is devouring the GOP establishment. Party elders had hoped new presidential debate rules would give them greater control. But they are watching helplessly as Trump leads the pack and House Republicans engage in fratricide.
..............SNIP"
Xipe Totec
(43,888 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Sugarcoated
(7,716 posts)but McCain and Schmidt picking that idiot with her low class dysfunctional family took it to a subterranean basement.
Sugarcoated
(7,716 posts)they took it to another level. It lowered the bar, jumped the shark. Look at what they'll accept now.
Warpy
(111,123 posts)and all the younger ones (the old dudes now) swore revenge upon anyone involved in unseating "their" president. Never mind Nixon was his own enemy and had lost the support of much of his own party. They were out for VENGEANCE. One of the people they focused on was Hillary Rodham, later Clinton, who was on the team that helped oust Nixon.
Never mind that tapes released recently confirmed what everybody "knew" about how completely corrupt and paranoid Nixon was and how it was a good thing he went. They want revenge and won't rest until they've thrown a Democrat out of office. Ever since Nixon they've been rage and revenge driven. It's expanded to ripping every single Democratic program away from the people and it doesn't matter to them how popular, how solvent, how effective, and how necessary the programs are. If a Democrat got it passed, they want it gone.
If you think they've gone crazy, it's because they have.
Bigmack
(8,020 posts)Sugarcoated
(7,716 posts)The crazy towards Clinton, and now Obama, was residual rage and revenge for Nixon. I'll go a little further with my theory and add, the wingnuts went so completely mental on this President because they had nothing on him. They wanted another Clinton and they got a squeaky clean guy in Obama so they've been literally making shit up out of nothing for the last 8 years.
applegrove
(118,462 posts)was about, his brand was rejected. Or at least the Republican establishment rejected him. With Palin the Republican establishment did not. They gave her a TV show. They let trump run around looking for Obama's birth certificate...you can just see the establishment tapping each other on the shoulder and saying "no, don't stop her, let's see where this goes". And it "went" all the way to Trump.
brush
(53,729 posts)rurallib
(62,373 posts)but I think a case could easily be made also for Tricky Dick and his Southern strategy which started things rolling.
Atwater and his crazy shit - begat Karl the Rove all with increasing intransigence.
UTUSN
(70,641 posts)Paulie
(8,462 posts)No longer was there a carrot to go with the stick. So those who just want to destroy have no controls.
rug
(82,333 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)I think the train went off the rails with Nixon being "hounded out of office" by the "liberal media" etc. etc. etc. The rage that engendered, plus the unholy alliance of the Christian Wrong, big business and racist resentment has destroyed the party, possibly the country and maybe even the world.
I luvs me some Bernie, but I don't know if we will recover. The hour is late, I don't see how the Republicans make their way back to sanity and we can't function at all unless they do.
applegrove
(118,462 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)but unless they change the filibuster rule nothing will move in the Senate, and taking over the batshit House is probably out of the question until a) a new census with, b) re-districting and, c) Democrats in charge of state governments. That's a tall order.
Best hope is the Republicans implode somehow in the House.