Since Delaware Liberal has been called an echo chamber, I figure this give me a little license to talk about the wall that Fox News has built around the conservative movement. My take on this wall is that it is made of one part “The Party of No”, another part of Fox News’ “editorial” direction, and the final part, the litmus tests of Limbaugh and Beck. These broken down and reactionary political building blocks are extremely self-defeating to any success of the Republican Party, that as opposition member, I just have to laugh and laugh and laugh some more.
But there is some hope for the GOP and that hope is Newt Gingrich. For many reasons, I’m not a fan of Gingrich, but if there is one area I do respect him it is his knowledge of politics. And when Gingrich calls for “principled bipartisanship”, Republicans should heed this call. But The Tea Party rejects such a strategy with their childlike stomping of the feet, holding their hands over their ears, and shouting, “No, no, no, no!” Hey, I’ll let you in on a little secret, the Tea Party is so vital to the future success of the Democratic Party, that if it didn’t exist, we’d have to invent it. Don’t tell anyone.
The Fox cocoon may be good for stirring up the troops, but it’s almost certainly not good for the intellectual development of new ideas. And eventually that catches up to you. If modern conservatism is simultaneously politically vigorous but intellectually enervated, Roger Ailes and Rush Limbaugh probably deserve both the credit and the blame.
Alas, the deep sleep of conservatism will last at least another 20 years and no wet, sloppy kiss from Sarah Palin will be able to wake it up from its comatose state in 2012.