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Oct. 2nd, 2008 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
malsperanzaI continue to think that Palin is a sideshow, a bit of theatrical distraction from the walking disaster that is John McCain, but I am disgusted by the arguments being offered in defense of her astonishing ignorance. Gaffes? Nervousness? Couric was tricksy? Gwen Ifil is biased? (Because she's black, and/or because she wants to write a book about Obama and might make money from it--something I guess no other debate moderator could do.)
For a long time now the GOP has been trying to win elections by disenfranchising voters, fiddling with the voting machines, throwing out registrations. The Dems have done it too (hey, I grew up in Chicago in the 1960s), but it is policy in the Repuglican Party. No, it's dogma.
The Republican Party had better clean up its act or eventually it will go the way of the Whigs. I can imagine that it might be replaced by some kind of Libertarian party. For far too long it has treated the US structure of government as a system to be gamed, and has insulted both the public and the offices by promoting patently unfit candidates. In the process it has twice gutted the economy. It has lost all claim to probity. Eisenhower would be appalled.
ETA, Oct. 17:
Interesting article on the rise of populist movements in hard times:
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/69951-Lou-Dobbs-in-2012/
Aside from the snark, this sums up some of my views about a possible future direction: rightwing (working-class and middle-class) populism splitting off from the religious/social-issues rightwing and the big money rightwing, to form a sort of partnership with leftwing populists (Nader voters, libertarians, independents, and people who think a third party actually has a prayer in the US electoral system).
Dunno if it would last more than a couple of election cycles, but it might shake up the GOP, and get it to rethink its values a bit. Rightwing populism in a serious economic crisis can lead fairly easily to nationalist fascism (Franco, Mussolini, Hitler, Peron). So, a scary prospect but also perhaps time.
For a long time now the GOP has been trying to win elections by disenfranchising voters, fiddling with the voting machines, throwing out registrations. The Dems have done it too (hey, I grew up in Chicago in the 1960s), but it is policy in the Repuglican Party. No, it's dogma.
The Republican Party had better clean up its act or eventually it will go the way of the Whigs. I can imagine that it might be replaced by some kind of Libertarian party. For far too long it has treated the US structure of government as a system to be gamed, and has insulted both the public and the offices by promoting patently unfit candidates. In the process it has twice gutted the economy. It has lost all claim to probity. Eisenhower would be appalled.
ETA, Oct. 17:
Interesting article on the rise of populist movements in hard times:
http://thephoenix.com/Boston/News/69951-Lou-Dobbs-in-2012/
Aside from the snark, this sums up some of my views about a possible future direction: rightwing (working-class and middle-class) populism splitting off from the religious/social-issues rightwing and the big money rightwing, to form a sort of partnership with leftwing populists (Nader voters, libertarians, independents, and people who think a third party actually has a prayer in the US electoral system).
Dunno if it would last more than a couple of election cycles, but it might shake up the GOP, and get it to rethink its values a bit. Rightwing populism in a serious economic crisis can lead fairly easily to nationalist fascism (Franco, Mussolini, Hitler, Peron). So, a scary prospect but also perhaps time.
