The Party Is Over

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By David Michael Green (about the author) Page 3 of 3 page(s)

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What Reagan did best, if you’re of the sort who falls for this kind of crap, is to talk happy talk about how good and right and powerful and moral we all are. But he didn’t live that life himself, he didn’t improve the country or the world with his policies, and nobody gives a shit anymore, anyhow. The degree to which the party faithful keep trotting this guy out like some deity is a perfect measurement of how little they actually have to offer. It’s pathetic beyond belief, and it’s no wonder those pesky elections keep going into the ‘L’ column, one after another, with no end in sight whatsoever.

Of course, there is a silver-lining to having ‘irrelevented’ yourself to such an extent that you now not only don’t control any institution of government, but you are about to not even be able to muster the bare minority you need in the Senate to filibuster a bill and block its consideration. That’s a pretty impressive trick, and the GOP is hardly done, I would say. To wit, they just lost a by-election in upstate New York where a Democratic candidate coming from outside the district, which leans heavily Republican, and having little help from either the president or the Democratic Party, nevertheless managed to beat the well-known Republican candidate who was fully backed by the national GOP and its clown chairman, Michael Steele. At this rate, my guess is that 2010 is going to be another blood-letting for the GOP, just like the last two.

But the silver-lining to these very stormy clouds is this: If actually winning elections and having to govern is the kiss of death for your party, then the GOP has at least been rendered to a place where it can sit on the sidelines and not continue destroying itself by actually making policy decisions.

Or, at least, not destroy itself quite so much. Its new job is little more than to criticize the other guys now in government. Whatever else you can say about Obama and the Democrats, they seem to be trying a bit to clean up the mess they’ve inherited, and they seem to be doing it rather gracefully, if half-heartedly, all things considered.

So what has the loyal opposition been saying? The president uses Teleprompters! He gave the Queen an iPod! He bowed to the Saudi king! He accepted a book from Hugo Chavez! Worse, still, he smiled when he shook the guy’s hand!

Not so impressive, eh? These goons can’t even do carping well.

They have no leaders, no constructive contribution to the debate other than shouting “No!”, and now so little power that they can’t even filibuster from the minority in the Senate.

This party is over.

And, surveying the wreckage of a once great country, not a minute too soon.

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David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions to his articles (dmg@regressiveantidote.net), (more...)

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