Comment Rescue: New Theory
Not long ago Unstable Isotope said:
Somebody let Michael Steele out of his undisclosed location. Yesterday he questioned the recession.
I clicked through and by the time I left think progress, a new theory was swimming in my brain. One only needs to read the clueless Michael Steele or unhinged blowhardiness of the one time rising GOP star, Dave Burris, who would rather punch me (thank you laws) than make a rational argument, to prove my theory correct.
The theory is this: The Republicans never ever ever…EVER… want to be in a position of having to make decisions again.
On some level they understand the lessons of the Bush years. Republicans only want to be the annoyingly feisty and festering opposition party for ever and ever. The party of nostalgia wants to turn back the clock to a time when they were so much vaguely pissed off window dressing. Then they want to take the batteries out of the clock and crazy glue the hands in place.
I’m sure that is the strategy. Why else would all the steps they’ve taken be so in sync? Why else would all their talking heads be marching in lock step the the crazy Fox News Calliope? Why else would the movement be so aligned by the gravitational pull of the same bizzaro world rationality?
My friends, there is no other possible reason. The Republicans have quit.
Hmmm….that seems as logical as anything else. I think you’re right that they’re not ready to govern again and they think they’re more effective as a bomb-throwing minority party. I think they are having a hard time accepting that their ideology has failed and coming up with new ideas.
Matt Yglesias discussed this some a few days ago:
…but the underlying issue seems to be that rule by conservatives is integral to the right’s conception of the United States of America. This is part of the rhetoric of the “heartland” and “real America”—a period of political victory by a coalition grounded in the coasts and Greater Chicago is a period in which America has ceased to be herself.
This seems really right to me — that the wingnuts find nothing particularly legitimate about this country unless they are leading it. And every bit of their current round of criticism is about the legitimacy of Obama and the Administration. It was AOK that BushCo was burning down the country and going off to war for created reasons. Now that the economy is in ruins and that there is plenty to fix — now these guys want to be interested in accountability and prudence. Which they aren’t, they are just interested in keeping the natives restless. They don’t watch as much TV or respond to as many fundraising appeals without all of that restlessness, after all.
Of course, Jon Stewart has the last word, I think.