The Next Republican Leader.
In 1992, after President Bush had been defeated by Bill Clinton, and the Democrats controlled Congress, the mantle of national Republican leader naturally fell, by default, to the highest ranked Republican left in Washington. Senate Minority Bob Dole. Three years later, he was basically pushed aside by Speaker Newt Gingrich, even though Dole remained on the scene, running for President in 1996. By the time Gingrich resigned in late 1998 after suffering losses in the midterm elections that year and due to the backlash over his politically motivated impeachment of Bill Clinton, Governor George W. Bush was already running for President and essentially assumed the mantle of national Republican leader. And you know the rest.
Right now, in late 2008, we are basically back to the same situation Republicans faced in 1992. Republicans are out of power everywhere. By default, you can say that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is the national Republican leader, since he is the highest ranking Republican left in the federal government, like Dole was in 1992. But does anyone think McConnell is a leader of the future for the GOP? The man freaks me out every time I look at him. His eyes look like they are going to bug out at the next sneeze.
So if you were picking a Republican to be the national face of the party to lead the loyal opposition in the coming years, who the hell would it be? Because, for the life of me, I see no one on their side that I fear. Sarah Palin? Hahahahaha. Mittens? Maybe, but the fundie base hates him with a passion of a thousand suns. Huckabee?
The leader will have to be acceptable to all the disparate factions of the GOP, who seem more divided and mutually exclusive than ever. Indeed, I highly doubt the Reagan/Gingrich coalition of pro-business “fiscal conservatives,” the Fundies, the small government libertarians, the Neocons and the Paleocons can ever be put back together. Indeed, I see the GOP being in the place the Democrats were in 1968 after they signed away the South with the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1965. In 2008, the Republicans have signed away the whole Northeast and West with the hatemongering they have engaged in over the past two decades. Their base is in the South, and the ideology of the uber-social conservative Republicans from the South are anathema to the rest of the country. Thus, that is no starting point for rebuilding a coalition.
What the GOP has to hope for his a complete failure by Obama, for that will make it easier to rebuild a winning coalition. Without that, the GOP is a regional party without an obvious national leader.
Jon Huntsman:
http://www.utah.gov/governor/about/index.html
Huckabee is the man I fear on the Right. It’s the charm.
I’m still unclear on the direction of the Republicans. Right now they seem to be on the “we’re not Democrats” path.
Four years is a very long time in politics. There is somebody lurking out there that we’ve never heard of.
On the other hand, four years isn’t going to be long enough to fix all the stuff the Bushies broke, so Obama isn’t going to be in a strong position in 2012.
Let’s not get complacent here. We’ve witnessed their ability to rig elections and propagandize the electorate. There is no reason to believe that is going to change. We must remain vigilant and keep working.
I love “Yes We Did” but we haven’t. There is no time to sit back and enjoy our victory because they are already fighting us.
In Delaware we’ve got Dixiecrat Thurman Adams and in the U.S. Senate we’ve got the Hooverite-Southerners. We’ve seen how both can hobble our progressive agenda.
Sorry folks, our work is just beginning.
Rebecca is right.
In 2012 our elected officials will be held accountable. They will need to say: this is what we did; this is where we’re going…
Otherwise November 4ths win will mean as little as two Sundays ago’s win over the Giants means now to Cowboy’s owner Jerry Jones.
In 1994, 2002 and 2004, the media were writing about the dying Democrats; in 1992, the media were writing about the dying Republicans. And in 2008, everyone is speculating about impending demise of the Republican Party again. It gets difficult to take such things seriously.
Come 2012 or 2016, the man elected president will be a Republican; the voters just like to change parties every so often.
Come 2012 or 2016, the man elected president will be a Republican; the voters just like to change parties every so often.
It could also be a woman.
Or the GOP may go the way of the Tories in England. This would make it an incentive to sabotage any and all relief the Obama Admin will try to accomplish over the next 4 years. They can’t allow the People to think that one party actually may be better at governing and finding practical solutions, instead of hubris….per the usual GOP M.O.