So posits Neal Gabler in this morning’s LA Times op-ed.
But there is another rendition of the story of modern conservatism, one that doesn’t begin with Goldwater and doesn’t celebrate his libertarian orientation. It is a less heroic story, and one that may go a much longer way toward really explaining the Republican Party’s past electoral fortunes and its future. In this tale, the real father of modern Republicanism is Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the line doesn’t run from Goldwater to Reagan to George W. Bush; it runs from McCarthy to Nixon to Bush and possibly now to Sarah Palin. It centralizes what one might call the McCarthy gene, something deep in the DNA of the Republican Party that determines how Republicans run for office, and because it is genetic, it isn’t likely to be expunged any time soon.
As they say, go read the whole thing.
This, “McCarthyism is a way to build support by playing on the anxieties of Americans, actively convincing them of danger and conspiracy even where these don’t exist.” certainly goes a long way towards explaining how Republican operatives can see the strategy of personal destruction as just politics. This is how the game is played and yadayada. It also explains the crazyness of conservatives whining and moaning about the repeal of the Fairness Act, when there is no credible legislative effort afoot to do anything about it. It explains the crazyness of going on a gun and ammo buying binge in certain parts of the US since they’ve convinced themselves (there’s certainly no evidence of it) that Obama is a threat to their guns and ammo. There are still folks who are perfectly comfortable with the manipulation of their anxieties — and certainly Fox News and all of wingnut radio make buckets of money of of these folks.
But that this also means is that a return to conservative principles necessarily means figuring out whether the old Reagan Democrats and moderates are ever going to be available to the same kind of conspiratorial rhetoric again, and being on the lookout for the new conspiracies designed to bypass any rationality.
Then again, there is this proposal to just stop listening to those who have been so wrong on it all anyway. That will certainly keep the hard core 26% who are comfortable to lead with their anxieties and conspiracies largely talking to themselves.