I’m hard-pressed to disagree with a whole lot of this Kathleen Parker piece.
I’m actually kind of shocked Fred Hiatt let it through.
Exactly
by John Cole| 46 Comments
This post is in: Republican Stupidity
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Heresiarch
Sorry, couldn’t make it past this:
not to mention global-warming hype
Fuck you in the ass, Ms Parker.
With a fork.
MattF
There are other signs of turmoil on the WaPo Op-Ed page. And there’s the bit about closing down all the Post US bureaus outside Washington. The rats aren’t all leaving the ship yet, but they’re taking a deep breath and looking around. Lucky for the Post, the Washington Times is slipping into “not even a joke anymore” status.
Cat Lady
@Heresiarch:
That was the shout out to George Will, which answers the question of why Hiatt let it go.
JenJen
She almost lost me early on:
Massive health care reform is not an unpopular idea. The trial of KSM, et al for their horrific crimes against Americans has not yet occurred, and Parker betrays her cynicism. And goddammit, global warming is not hype.
But the rest of it was OK.
asiangrrlMN
@Heresiarch: That’ll teach me to skim. I completely missed this sentence and thought Parker was sounding so reasonable.
To her main points, I agree. However, she no longer speaks for the GOP, as they reminded her so sweetly during the elections, so nothing to see here.
Aaron
Yeah, the “unpopular democratic ideas” such as health care reform and trusting the justice system, along with global warming. These are such controversial and leftist issues . . . /eyeroll
Anyway, other than the above idiocy, her statements regarding the Republican party seem fairly accurate. However, this seems like a logical extension of the Bush years and the political litmus test that permeated many (all?) aspects of the government. This is just its formalization.
asiangrrlMN
@JenJen: Missed that entire paragraph, apparently. I guess my internal pie filter works everywhere and not just here!
j
She lost me here, 3 ‘graphs in:
Just when a near-perfect storm of unpopular Democratic ideas — from massive health-care reform to terrorist show trials, not to mention global-warming hype — is coagulating over 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Curses upon you for making me read that prattle. If there is anything worthwhile in there, you should excerpt it to spare others from reading her prefatory BS.
soonergrunt
Well, my trusty ABS Computers laptop that went to Afghanistan with me and back, that survived all of that and everything else I threw at it died a hard death yesterday morning.
So I picked up a new Toshiba A505D laptop at the Tinker main exchange this morning. It’s amazing the difference in three years, and I work in IT in my civilian job. This thing is so fast, and the keyboard is a joy.
Windows7 Home Premium 64-bit.
Heresiarch
Okay, I lied, I read the rest of the piece.
It was all right, but it won’t do anything. We’re going to have centrists and conservatives clapping their hands to their faces and saying, “Oh no, the Republican Party is going caaaaa-raaaazy!” right up until Palin gets elected.
DaBomb
I couldn’t get passed her touting the wins of the Republicans for the Governor’s offices in Virginia and New Jersey as if that is so important. Last time I checked someone who happened to be a democrat winning the NY-23 seat, that was a republican seat for oh, I don’t know over 100 years would be a wee bit more important.
Maybe because that person is a democrat and will be in congress crafting and voting on those so unpopular democratic ideas like health care reform, which has like 70% of the country supporting it.
Parker can be such a twit sometimes.
As for the rest of said article, I was able to choke down the aforementioned bullshit and I surprisingly agree that the Republican party is completely about to implode, by trying to “purify” their party.
JackieBinAZ
Reference to “class envy” … check
America hates the Dems’ agenda … check
Republicans were just on the verge of surging back into power … check
Obligatory “for it/against it” snark at mention of Kerry’s name … check
I dunno, it seems to have enough elements of a Fred Hiatt-approved piece to me.
Rey
How does KP figure that Americans are not supporting the Hope and Change agenda? That’s a bunch of bull$hit. Hope and change are the two words that get most people through the day, and that was before we elected President Hopey.
I hope that the Repubs put these foolish commandments or whatever the hell it is in action, and fall into political oblivion, and die the slow painful death they deserve.
mandarama
I hate it when you or DougJ make me click through to the WaPo. Teh suck is so painful.
But I did my duty and read the piece. Typical talking points about “decline of support” for the “hope-and-change agenda” etc., fluffed with just enough “I am _so_ a contrarian!” mastery of the obvious. I’m not surprised that Parker would defend elitism, though, if she’s gonna use a sentence like “might we bother Mr. Kirk to beam us up?” Adorable!
My Truth Hurts
I’m sorry but when has conservatism ever been a thinking person’s “philosophy”? American conservatism from at least WWII has always been dishonest and dogmatic and denied the very progressive birth of our great nation. In my lifetime (I’m 36) conservatism has stood for reactionary, nanny state, war mongering greedy know nothing assholes. In looking at it’s history I have found it was never any different, just sold differently.
jeffreyw
@soonergrunt: Mmm…that thing looks as nice as a Thanksgiving leftover sammich. (more on sammich later)
Autboy
yeah, and the other side of the coin is that anyone disagreeing with the principles will be tortured
MikeJ
If the thesis is that Republicans just aren’t that bright, I’d agree, and nominate Parker as exhibit A.
The Grand Panjandrum
Without the graf JenJen quoted Hiatt doesn’t let the piece through. It contains quintessential Villager framing. The issues are controversial, but unpopular is a bit much don’t you think? But she is right that they seem to have made some sort of cult-like suicide pact with this crazy ten point purity pledge. Didn’t they have some sort of pledge thing last year that they wanted Republicans to sign prior to the nominating convention? What is it with these guys? Funny, this is the same group that seems to hate authority when it isn’t one of their guys in charge.
Alien-Radio
@JackieBinAZ:
This.
Uloborus
People are already mentioning the irritating obviously false conservatisms in this piece. I understand you were trying to say her argument that the GOP is killing itself is a good one, especially the part about nuance being good, not bad.
I just don’t think that’s what this article is about, because there’s all these bizarre contradictions. She’s accusing the party of not thinking while parroting some of the attitudes that defy any shred of thinking nuance. The governor races in particular.
The conservatives are all about tribalist mentality. The explanation that makes this article make sense is that she’s mad consevatives who are ‘intellectuals’ are being told they’re not part of ‘us’. She doesn’t want conservatives to think, she just wants to be told she’s the true leadership of the movement because she wears glasses and has a degree (metaphorically).
Seriously, this article is full of ‘liberals are always wrong unless they’re doing something that makes me look good. And then they’re just doing it badly’. She’s arguing something that’s true – by coincidence only.
Rey
OT: Wonder if Tiger Woods can see out of his right eye this morning? I see that his gangsta’ wife took a Big Bertha driver not only to his back window but, did some damage to his face as well. Wonder if President Obama will get a question about this situation on Tuesday night at West Point?
Karen S.
I clicked on the link and read through and thought that she’s doing her “I’m so contrarian” bit. Yes, the purity test is dumb. I’m wondering if she’s congratulating herself on the chutzpah she imagines it took for her to write this particular column. She still strikes me as an essentially silly person, although not as silly as Peggy Noonan… yet.
Maxwel
I’m starting to think Obama’s decisions are based on the belief that he can’t lose. At this moment, there is no opposition.
dan robinson
Fred Hiatt let it through because he wants the Republican Party to come together in a more united form of opposition before the mid term elections. Fred Hiatt and the people who own the Washington Post are more aligned with the Republican Party than the Democratic Party, but what they are really well aligned with is the status quo because they know how to sell that.
Fred Hiatt is looking for a narrative that he can communicate and use to sell papers and, more importantly, advertising. A fratricidal dust up in the GOP is not the sort of narrative that can be used to sell advertising for the long term. He might have to choose sides in a civil war in the GOP, while a united GOP will allow him to retain what he thinks of as non-partisanship.
These are not people with an interest in advancing Western Civilization and democracy. They are only interested in selling advertising.
gnomedad
I like this part of the “litmus test”:
Cap and trade is “market-based”, asshole. What you want is free pollution.
JenJen
@Rey: TMZ says wifey inflicted the wounds during a big argument with Tiger, btw. Juicy!
Warren Terra
I assume John, like at least one commenter, missed the paragraph JenJen quoted, where Parker falsely ascribes the understandable unhappiness that the Rs could cash in on to health, habeas, and heat.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Uloborus:
We don’t have actual conservatives in this country, except for a handful in the Democratic party, which is headed towards Dwight Eisenhower – Nelson Rockefeller territory in terms of its ideological center of gravity (just listen to Obama and Orzag talking about the need to soon get the budget under control if you doubt this). Which should come as no surprise, given that some of the bluest parts of the country right now are exactly where the old liberal wing of the GOP used to be strongest.
The GOP base is a salt-pan of Christianists, cryptofascists, neo-Confederates, and Know-Nothing haters. There’s nothing conservative about that lot, at all. They don’t want to conserve anything, they just want to kill and hate and wreck things until everybody in the country is reduced to the same level of meanspirited nastiness and spiritual, mental and moral poverty that they are. Buckley and co. made a deal with the Devil back in the 1950s and early 1960s, and now the time to give the Devil his due has arrived.
PeakVT
This is a very exciting time in politics. The competition between the Republicans’ suicide pact and the Democrats’ ineffectiveness initiative for the title of worst electoral strategy in the world is thrilling.
Uloborus
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ:
I completely agree. I use the term ‘conservative’ not because it describes them, but because they and most people use it. Real conservatives have either abandoned their principles, were using them as a cover anyway, or been driven out.
Rey
@JenJen
I know it’s TMZ and it’s gossip, but I guess this is a better distraction than another notable/celebrity death. Of course, CNN is trying to spin this into the wife being a hero and saved him from a car accident that the airbags didn’t even think was worth activating for. Yeah riiiiight-
Hunter Gathers
@PeakVT: I wouldn’t call it exciting. More like mind numbing. I feel like we are stuck in a dormroom argument circa 1968.
lowellfield
Well, there are the references to “terrorist show trials” and “global warming hype.” They must have kept Hiatt happy.
New Yorker
Right. One major problem with allowing Christian fundementalists to take over the party is that compromise, deal-brokering, and all that nasty stuff that is part of the democratic process becomes verboten. After all, if the opposition party isn’t just the opposition party but the Army of Satan, of course you won’t compromise! Did Jesus ever compromise with Satan?
And that’s why the heretics will continue to be purged. If Olympia Snowe is willing to compromise with the Army of Satan, then she needs to go.
Elizabelle
Those 10 Principles: bring them on. They’re so awful; a principled person who thinks for him/herself would have to swear off the GOP for a generation or more.
Realize: someone in agreement with this list would vote GWBush into a third term. We cannot sustain a democracy with that level of intelligence/blind obedience voting.
Also: Kathleen Parker is a talented columnist and good writer, but her version of political reality just does not compute.
She’s closer to the skin of the balloon, but still in it.
Brachiator
@JenJen:
I don’t have a problem with this. I don’t agree with Parker, but the point is that independents and moderate Republicans who have reservations about these issues (many of whom voted for Obama), would otherwise be willing to consider returning to a less stoopid, less reactionary GOP.
And what the Village doesn’t understand is that the GOP really has nothing to lose by going to the mattresses. It’s hard to develop workable workable ideas, hard to develop messages that appeal beyond the conservative true believers and the evangelicals. And the GOP (along with some Democrats) is still committed to the discredited idea that you absolutely must always seek to satisfy some mythical group called “the base” in order to insure electoral victory.
Instead, the GOP is going to go all in on the hope that by continually fueling a low level of racism and resentment against Obama and the Democrats, they will be able to benefit from any Democratic stumbles.
kay
Ugh. “Terrorist show trials”. Irresponsible fact-free hackery that demeans and defames US process. No, thanks. I don’t think I’ll read the whole thing.
I’d like an opportunity to ask her a series of questions on why, specifically, she objects to a trial in federal court, and what her alternative recommendations are.
Does she believe all US trials are “show trials”? Jesus.
burnspbesq
@My Truth Hurts:
That’s because you have been confused by decades of Republican demagoguery that has sold the Republican Party as the conservative party. Small c conservatives (I have a lot of leanings in that direction) have not set the tone for the Republican party in my lifetime (and I’m a lot older than you). They have been co-opted and exploited by lunatics, since at least the early 1960s.
There is no authentically conservative party in this country – the closest thing to that is a wing of the Democratic party.
licensed to kill time
__
Ha ha – “because shut up, that’s why!”
Alan in SF
It’s a measure of how extreme the Republican right has become that Parker can look reasonable, even to John, for urging Republicans to advocate extreme, irrational Reality denial without birtherism is still wingnuttery.
Alan in SF
irrational positions, I meant.
shep
That piece of partisan crap been pretty well shredded here already but slavery as an example of poor “decisiveness”?! What a maroon.
TenguPhule
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
We’re going to be invaded by the League of Stupid Evil!
elaine
Wait, the Republicans are holding their convention in Hawaii? A foreign place. What are the odds Cokie Roberts will find this troublesome? Oh right, it’s fine for Republicans to seek the sun. But the president visiting his natal state? That shows how out of touch he is.