Time is short, and I'll likely have more to say about this later, but I was just struck by a tire-iron of an irony. Have you noticed that the very same people who were going on about how the Tea Parties were "astroturfed" passion plays put on by the GOP, are now saying that these events and the movement they represent are evidence that the GOP is engaged in a "circular firing squad," that it is flying apart and being undone by the "radicals" in its midst? How are we to square this circle?
Can it simply be that the populist, small-government, Party-scorning movement in Conservative thought is simply a force unto itself, which is making both Liberals and establishment Republicans just about equally nervous? What might it say about those who live in a world in which this is a bad thing?
3 comments:
Yeah, the U.S. desperately needs a real second party. LP might end up being it as it's been growing steadily and attracting an increasing amount of mainstream attention, but who knows.
Heh. "second party." I get it.
I'm not nearly as averse to the "Republicrat/Demoblican" critique as I used to be. The waters have become hopelessly muddy. This is one of the reasons I've grown so fond of the Tea Party movement. There is no question of where they stand on the key issues of fiscal restraint, leaner, less intrusive government, and more than lip service paid to the ideals of Federalism. Similarly, despite the soaring rhetoric about Unifying this and Changing that, and Hope-i-fying the other thing, the Obama Administration has unambiguously ceded its agenda to the hard, statist Left.
Suddenly, it begins to look as though the lines are coming back into focus. People might actually have a choice again...despite the best efforts of obfuscators, triangulators, and assorted chicken-littles (and little chickens) of the Left and Right.
Listen, I'd love for there to be a couple more parties, upping the resolution of the debate (though I'd have a problem with the sort of Parliamentary crowd of issue parties which makes for the kinds of nonsensical coalitions you see in Europe). Trouble is, that's not in the cards at this time: the main thing the Libertarians seem to be good at is making very excellent arguments, pushing them too far, losing elections, then railing about how the system is fixed. 'Tis what 'tis.
Instead, if you have the GOP dragged kicking and screaming toward something which actually resembles a fair approximation of its core principles (and less like a vain and ignominious attempt to be all things to all people), while the Democratic Party is dragged further and further to the Left by the so-called "Moderates" who are trying to hang poor Joe Lieberman from a tree on at least a semi-annual basis...well, then the dialectic might actually grow some thesis to go with that antithesis. And come Hegel or high water, the Pols are going to have to listen to the Proles...or take heed as the bell tolls (don't stop me: I'm on roll...).
Oy vey :)
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