Here is me a long time ago, talking about George dubya and his immigration escapade.
[L]ord, what a tough spot for Republicans. At its heart the GOP has two basic camps [note: oversimplification for the sake of argument] – business conservatives who bankroll the party and the social conservatives/theocons who staff it. In that light one could say the towering achievement of Bush’s term as POTUS was that he defied the centrifugal forces of majority power and held the GOP’s unlikely coalition together as firmly and as long as he did. If so, his towering failure will undoubtedly be his adamant support of this immigration bill.I have tried for days to think of something that could wedge the social cons apart from the business cons than immigration but I just can’t do it. The Chamber of Commerce loves our current system because one can pay illegals practically nothing and they will thank you for it. In their view any fix to the current system has to keep bringing in large numbers of people with poor language skills (can’t have them reading those OSHA flyers on the wall) and a weak bargaining position, e.g. guest workers. Otherwise Americans had better get ready to start paying more for hotel beds, restaurant meals and packed meats.
The key problem is that the thing that the business cons need more than anything is exactly what the social cons desperately want to end.
The last six years have forced me to admit that I got one thing very wrong. Treating brown folks like humans pissed off the base plenty, but losing the presidency twice to a black guy has driven them to an incoherent frothing rage. Business cons do not love ego service and low taxes so much that they’ll strap on a suicide vest for it.
At the same time you can hardly expect Chambers of Commerce to run to the arms of a party that strokes their delicate fee-fees with not quite so desperate an enthusiasm. We have thus moved to the inevitable phase two, where local CoC’s piss away an election cycle or two on futile primaries against the worst offenders. The tea party already made up half of GOP primary voters before the shutdown. Having scared off a few more layers of moderate voter I am sure these milquetoasts will win handily lecturing the frothy horde to tuck their shirts in (or wear one) and eat the damn broccoli.
Speaking of which, I bet that a long line of Wall Street friends begged Peter King to run for President and help bring the crazies to heel.
No one is about to put King in the top tier of GOP 2016 hopefuls. As a single House member from liberal New York, he’d be handicapped in the race for money and exposure against the Chris Christies or Pauls of the GOP. His vocal support for stricter gun control laws would be tough to explain to conservative primary voters, as would his criticism of tea party lawmakers who “equate Obamacare with military action,” as he put it, because they both involve government spending.
And his keen focus on national security when poll after poll indicates the country has turned inward after a dozen years of war isn’t the kind of message likely to fire up the Republican faithful.
But for King, that message is the point. His main motivation is unmistakable: pushing back against what he sees as a “dangerous” strain of isolationism that’s gaining strength in the GOP. Trips to early states like New Hampshire make him not just a “Republican congressman” in the media but also a “potential 2016 candidate” — giving him a bigger megaphone to drive his message.
Settle down you wogs, and eat your damn broccoli. After all this time someone will finally test whether you can win a national election without any volunteers.
srv
Just Mittens without the Mormon.
Might have worked before, but me thinks the CoCks have run out of runway.
cmorenc
The ongoing internal war in the Republican Party would be highly amusing to watch, were it not for the certainty that the battle will inflict so many collateral casualties and so much collateral damage upon innocents across the rest of the nation.
It’s a bit problematic to even root for injuries among them because they’ll take out countless innocent hostages for every one of them that goes down.
Yatsuno
Peter King? Peter “The IRA ain’t terrorists” King? That man has more skeletons in his closet than the entire Mormon hierarchy. No. Fucking. Way.
MikeJ
The solution to immigration is to give the social cons exactly what they want. Death penalty for any employer who hires an undocumented worker. The Republican party will disappear in 15 minutes. Then we can fix the country.
pseudonymous in nc
@Yatsuno:
I’m pretty sure there are entire photo albums of him posing for pints of Guinness with men in balaclavas and fatigues. If there are Wall Streeters who seriously think that a terrorist sympathiser is the great white hope, then that’s just another sign that the “masters of the universe” aren’t fit to judge a goat pageant.
dmbeaster
The CoC is SOL. The tea baggers control the machinery, the votes, and have a rather large independent source of money now. The CoC is simply not as powerful as before. They are either gonna have to convert to the crazy or go their own way. I bet they convert, and try to moderate 10% of the tea bagger nonsense, while accepting 90% of the crazy. These are not principled people, after all.
They will use a vice grip to hold their nose about tea bagger crap before they will ever abandon the Republican Party. And I do not think they have the power to take it back.
NotMax
@pseudonymous in nc
It’s tough work to get the goats into the swimsuits.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Peter King to me is the loudmouth at the end of the bar who makes other loudmouth barflies suddenly remember they’ve gotta get home. I think Christie is the Wall St candidate for 2016. And also too the IRA, and voting against Impeachment of Das Clenis.
Person of Choler
For some reason, the Democrats are just as hot for expanded immigration of poorly educated, low skilled workers as the Chamber of Commerce types are. I wonder why.
Although the immigrants may not be able read those OHSA posters, they can easily be shown where to mark election ballots, out of gratitude for tutoring in affirmative action requirements and how to access government benefits.
That might explain the Democrats’ extreme interest.
PeakVT
It would be good for the country to have someone in the same portion of the political spectrum as Christie in the primaries, just so Christie isn’t automatically dubbed the the only sane Republican by the media. Maybe that will be King if Huntsman doesn’t try again.
Anya
What would that “keen focus” be, aside from carting every Muslim off to Guantanamo and spying on everyone?
srv
The Irish and Republican in IRA cancel each other out. That’s all the wingnuts will remember.
PIGL
@Person of Choler: Exactly. And then, we’ll show them how to rape your sons and daughters after they get them all hooked on the reefer.
My fuck, you are a pathetic excuse for a tool.
Spaghetti Lee
Maybe he’ll join up with Lieberman or Evan Bayh and run under the Americans Elect ticket. They’re due for a breakout year!
Frankensteinbeck
@Spaghetti Lee:
Americans Elect is a beautiful, beautiful example of the problem the Republican Party is facing. Without the lunatics, the rich do not have a party.
Anya
It’s ironic that Romney is accusing anyone of dishonesty. Why can’t he just disappear for good.
Yatsuno
@Anya: I occasionally wonder if the Nwesmax headlines are supposed to be comical. Then I remember that conservatives have no sense of humour.
Omnes Omnibus
@Person of Choler: You are a spoof, right?
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Anya:
Romney won’t disappear for good any more than John McCain will. He’s a Serious Person as well as being a Republican presidential nominee. The media types would give up blow dryers and cosmetic surgery before they’d cut loose any well known Republican.
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
The base of the name is a disease that causes diarrhea, so in any event full of shit is appropriate.
ETA IIRC only shows up to crap on a thread so full of shit applies even without the name.
Anya
@Yatsuno: I know, right? But they can be an indication of where the wingnuts are at on issues, for example, they went from “do you support repealing Obamacare,” to “do you support delaying Obamacare?” Are our wingnuts learning?
Spaghetti Lee
@srv:
I’m confused. You think there aren’t wingnuts of Irish extraction?
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Frankensteinbeck:
True, that. And the lunatics don’t need as many of the rich as the Republicans need the lunatics. It’s only fitting that the Republicans so scrupulously purged intellect from their party that there was no one to tell them that providing arsonists with matches and gasoline might result in having their own homes torched.
Anya
@Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set): At least McCain is a senator but Mittens has no political role. He should just spend his time with his car elevator and his annoying wife. He has no constituency or any supporters so why is he around?
Yatsuno
@Anya: He should do what all Mormons of his age do and advance up the church hierarchy. I get the strange feeling he’s not letting go of that White Horse Prophecy just yet though.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Anya:
Romney is still around because he is a Republican with name recognition. Consider the solicitude with which Newt Gingrich is still treated by the media – despite his being a failed Speaker, failed nominee, a serial philanderer, etc.
Ruckus
@Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):
You’d think that people who at least appear at a first rough glance to be grown up would know on their own not to play with matches and gasoline. It really isn’t that hard of a parable to understand.
Ruckus
@Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):
BTW wanted to ask about the addition to your name. I have an idea but thought it might be better to ask.
Suffern ACE
@Frankensteinbeck: heck. Without the lunatics, the millionaires can’t even decide who their candidate is. Americans Elect spend a lot of money for a party without a candidate.
dmbeaster
The reason Romney and Gingrich are still feted by the press says more about our news media. It is infotainment with news people as celebrity, and when you see these old retreads and has-beens being recycled in the media, think of the magazines at the grocery store checkout counter telling you about the latest Kardashian nonsense, or some other vapid commentary. it is the same principle — sell mindless dribble using proven star power. It has nothing to do with relevance and all about what generates clicks, page views or viewers.
Spaghetti Lee
@Yatsuno:
What, you think he’s running again? That would be hilarious enough for me to root for. I think the opposite-he kind of stumbled into this running for president thing because he thought it would be a nice feather in his cap, but realized that it was actually kinda hard work and took time away from swimming in his giant vat of money. He never really brought passionate spitfire-hate to the table, which is why the TBags never liked him.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Ruckus:
I added it as a gentle ribbing of those who add the device they’re using to their nym.
Ruckus
@Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set):
LOL
That was about fourth in the running.
ETA Glad to still see a sense of humor there. Tells me things are moving along in a good direction. Glad to see that.
Anoniminous
When Peter King is the sane alternative you know you need to start dispensing Chlorprothixene.
By the truckload.
Ruckus
@Anoniminous:
Medication may be indicated but that seems to be way too far off label. I would think a firing squad would be more humane than massive doses of this.
fuckwit
I’ve said this several times and I’ll keep saying it. The business elite and the theocons are absolutely united in one thing: they hate secular democratic government.
Where they differ is on what would replace goverment if the government was in fact drowned in a bathtub.
The theocons are convinced that if there was no evil gummint, a new JEEZ-O-TOPIA would reign on earth and invisible sky buddy will be making all of our laws and keeping our naughty little pee-pees locked up good.
The business elite are convinced that if there was no evil gummint, corporations would rule completley unhindered, and the 1% MOTU will become even more insanely richer than they are now.
Actually, if you combined both together– theocracy and kleptocracy– you’d end up with the USA looking remarkably like modern Saudi Arabia, or the medieval pre-reformation Vatican, but with nukes. That’s what Grover Norquist has been attempting for 30 years to turn us into: a police state run by religious fanatics for the benefit of a handful of the very rich.
I actually think, when the history books are written 100 years from now, Grover Norquist will be noted as perhaps the most evil and destructive man to have ever lived in the USA.
Ruckus
@fuckwit:
Those history books may show that but that award will have to be shared among a few people. He may be the most vocal spokesperson but I don’t think grover is smart enough to have thought this out by himself.
Yatsuno
@Spaghetti Lee: If so it won’t be Willard. It will be one of the spawn that he thinks he can groom into being the candidate to fulfill the prophecy. I have very little doubt the Romney boys have just as many Daddy issues as Willard does.
Kropadope
@Person of Choler: I’m in favor of reforming our immigration system, but I don’t favor using it as a way to flood the market with cheap labor. Quite the contrary, I would love to take the opportunity to bring them into the legal labor market, making them subject to our labor laws and giving them actual opportunities to negotiate their terms for working.
Matt McIrvin
@Frankensteinbeck: You’d think the Democrats were friendly enough to the rich that that could be their party. But no, apparently not! Unless they’re in Hollywood or Silicon Valley.
It’s like I’ve said: in a modern democracy, a viable political coalition needs a lot of money and needs a lot of votes. So it can’t be purely class-based, one way or another. It has to cut across classes. Traditionally the Republicans do this by combining various know-nothing appeals to the less-educated with trickle-down economics, and the Democrats (to some degree) do the opposite.
The Very Serious Centrists tend to have a vision of what amounts to a rich guys’ party, and then there’s the sort of Thomas Frank prescription of a populist party, but probably neither is viable in the current environment.
ezra abrams
why do you blame the CoC for the poor conditions of illegals ?
Surely, middle class LIBERAL Americans know, or ought to know, that the “local” “organic” tomatoes they buy at supermarkets are in fact “cheap” cause of near slave labor ?
why do liberals get a pass here ?
My younger brother was 8 years old before he tasted a grape, so he didn’t know what he was missing; I did
and my parents surely did, but no self respecting liberal would buy a grape until C Chavez said to
ezra abrams
@dmbeaster: uh, Romney at least had the votes of 10s of millions of Americans.
Surely, their opinions deserve respect, even if you don’t agree with them; that is what [functioning] democracy means: respecting the views of others, and finding a way to work things out.
So, that he is a voice in the media is appropriate.
That they let him say things that you don’t like is immaterial; that they let him say things that appear to be wrong is a non partisan fault, or
more precisely
a fault defined by the extremes: the media tries to be “centrist” but centrist is defined, roughly, by the extremes in congress; since the Tea party types are more extreme then say B Sanders, the middle is moving right.
iirc, an article in The Nation, in the 70s, a profile of A J Muste.
The reporter noted that Muste always had newspapers in his coat pockets, and whenever he found a good article (rarely) he would show it to a reporter…sturgeons rule, 99% of everything, including blog posts and media items, is BS
John Q
@Anya:
[It’s ironic that Romney is accusing anyone of dishonesty.]
As we learned every week during the campaign.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-xli
John Q
@Anya:
[It’s ironic that Romney is accusing anyone of dishonesty.]
As we learned every week during the campaign.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/chronicling-mitts-mendacity-vol-xli
Col Bat Guano
The real interesting question will be if the CoC turns to Democrats as the alternative. whether they can buy them off before the Dems actually do something like raise taxes or attack inequality in any way.
Neon Vincent
@fuckwit: “[I]f you combined both together– theocracy and kleptocracy– you’d end up with the USA looking remarkably like modern Saudi Arabia…but with nukes. That’s what Grover Norquist has been attempting for 30 years to turn us into: a police state run by religious fanatics for the benefit of a handful of the very rich.”
Combine that meme with the one that Glenn Beck and Frank Gaffney is peddling, that Grover Norquist is an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood, and you might have a vile toxic cocktail wrapped in tinfoil that both left and right could agree on. Then again, I hope that it doesn’t catch on. Gaffney and Beck, along with Pamela Geller, are essentially attacking Norquist over who he is married to. That was evil when it was done to Anthony Weiner over Huma Abedin and it’s still evil when done to Norquist.
While I’m here, I have a comment on “local CoC’s piss[ing] away an election cycle or two on futile primaries against the worst offenders.” That won’t be entirely futile. Here in Michigan, the country club Republicans have a good chance of unseating Kerry “Bad Santa” Bentivolio. They have the candidate, the money, the organization, and enough voters in their faction to pull it off. Too bad. The Democrats would rather run against Bad Santa. Trott, the establishment candidate, scares the Democrats here silly.