We all have heard of the Nazi homicidal drive for racial superiority, the Khmer Rouge’s murderous demand for purity of opinion, and most of us probably realize that pretty much every authoritarian movement that gains power after a while ends up shedding rivers of blood: atrocities for the sake of purity. There can be little doubt that Republicans have been following that path for a long time now. As far as we know for sure they have followed, so far, minus the head count…
…unless you count those who have been exterminated, or been turned into vegetables, in the name of the war on terror…
…count the war against equality and the war against those who protested the war in the 60s.
Of course then there are always other: more conspiracy theory driven, notions.
Let’s face it: Republicans are damn good at this drive for rhetorical and philosophical purity stuff: especially within their own party. Positively Mao-ish in the demand for political correctness. The era from Reagan on might as well be called the 30 plus year purge of moderate Republicans, liberal Republicans and anyone who doesn’t claim to be Conservative. We have come to a time when there is no more Republican and Conservative parties. Instead they have been merged, a heavy dose of religious fundamentalism added, and the rightward shift accelerating: set on full throtle. No brakes. It’s not your grandfather’s Conservative Party from the 60s, not the party was a member of back then.
About the only politically incorrect movement to remain intact within the party, and somewhat tolerated, would be Libertarians, except they are kept on a tight leash. One assumes some Rove-ian shock collar actives if one actually gets too near the presidential brass ring.
Be careful Mr. Paul, high voltage awaits if you get too close to success.
When I was a kid it wasn’t like this. The Republicans had Jacob Javits, John Lindsay, Nelson Rockefeller and Ike, to mention a few. The National Review : their bi-monthly magazine-format oracle, ran articles side by side that were Pro-Choice and Pro-Life, written by Conservatives. Real Conservatives: not the ideological purists we have today. Bill Buckley had Firing Line: a well liked political discussion show featuring well known Liberals and Democrats. Liberals and Democrats were treated with respect while discussing important issues of the day with Bill. He often invited them to his yacht, he said because he often enjoyed their company more than some Conservatives.
Try getting away with any of that and be treated with respect by the politically correct crowd who runs the Republican Party today. A party where enforced child labor is actually something recommended by the current most popular Republican candidate for president. Try being a Javits or an Ike and run for office with this crowd. Good luck.
It’s worse than that. All we have to do is look to Huntsman, Paul and Romney to realize that the days where one doesn’t have to belong to the only politically correct form of the one and only faith…
The days when one doesn’t have to goosestep in perfect time to religious-Neo-Norquist-Conservative orders…
The days you can do any of this and is still be allowed serious consideration in the Republican Party as a candidate for president are as dead as the far more sane Barry Goldwater.
Rino has come to mean anyone who doesn’t pass rigid rhetorical, religious, purity tests. But, to be honest, that breed has been pretty much hunted to extinction by the extreme political correctness crowd on the Right, or at least corralled like a protester in a no serious candidate zone.
Not so much on the Left. In fact I believe we coddle our Dinos way to damn much. Now I don’t really want Dems to clone any of this type of behavior. But what I want and what might save the party are not necessarily the same thing. That’s why writing this edition of Inspection makes me very uncomfortable. But I think we would be better off in the long run if we purged the party: even if it means we act more like Republicans. Republicans have gotten stronger, not weaker, because they won’t put up with pussies and traitors. We have become weaker because our leaders won’t do what LBJ did: play hard ball.
I suppose I started to head the way of believing “we too should be purging our party” during the 04 election when Kerry folded so easily after all his promises: thousands of lawyers to check on the validity of the election vanished faster than a Pepsi machine mirage in a vast desert. But it was more than that. They refused to look into electronic vote problems, like what happened in Ohio where in one county, for example, the polls were shut early, all observers and all Democrats were locked out so only Republicans would count the vote. The Sargent Schultz-ian Democratic leadership is still saying, “I saw nothing!” …when it comes to this issue.
The head of the part of the campaign my wife and I worked for here in Nashville told us she didn’t want to hear or see anything about this, when asked once if she was concerned at all. She still works, locally, on campaigns. Republican campaigns.
There are a lot of things that our leadership refuses to see. Those in leadership who don’t openly study, investigate unfair tactics like electronic vote rigging should be kicked out of any campaign and sent packing from the party.
Then you have those who are not unlike those Jews who helped the Nazis sort out their fellow Jews for the ovens. Ironically Lieberman was one before he finally admitted what everyone knew all along: not a Democrat. Joe just loves to be the center of attention.
Many of these are folks think the best way to rule is to compromise to the point where we might as well just give the Right everything they want. Of course, if they were honest, they’d admit that would solve nothing: they’d just move further to the right.
Maybe that’s the point behind this dance as the country has veered to the right over the past 30 years like a drunk plowing through the poor. the middle class, the unions, teachers and anyone but the rich and the poltically correct?
What are we to do with those who conspire with such an enemy?
It’s a tough question, for I have no desire that we become exactly the same as those who have decided it’s fun to try to out asshole each other when it comes to demanding purity. But if there’s no party discipline, then why bother having a party at all? Personally I’m not optimistic. Republicans have made it fashionable to behave like bastards if fellow party members in power dare veer from the politically correct line. Dems? Good luck with them responding in kind with equal force, or even offering some mild blowback. Dino vs. Rino fights these days resemble a knife fight between a Teletubbie and an enraged Jack the Ripper. Maybe it’s time we get rid of the Teletubbies who claim to be on our side and refuse to fight, or even stab us in the back.
If we’re going to keep from going the way of T-Rex we’re going to have to enforce a bit of goosestepping ourselves, or at least sticking with those who brought you to the political dance. Or just rename the Democratic Party, “The Party of Give it to Me Again Prison Bitches.”
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Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over 30 years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
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Ken Carman and Cartenual Productions
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