I wouldn't consider the market highs as an accomplishment. Consider what keeps a helium balloon up.
The analysis is interesting. Here is another angle. It has to do with ego driven individuals in any environment form grade school play grounds to the the Third Reich.
Power driven egos will without fail turn on those who appear to threaten their power. This dynamic plays out in any size of a human grouping from a marriage to the heads of groupings from a club to a Corporation to now the Presidency of our government.
The Constitution was designed by some incredibly prescient individuals to avoid this common "animal" trait with in our government. A nation to survive must survive on the principles of Cooperation. Competition is totally destructive within a body that needs to cooperate. (Think of your own dense physical vehicle. Imagine competition between the various organs and glands.)
This rather easy to see commonsense view is why there is no place in government for "Business". As it is presently constituted, business runs totally on ancient animal driven instincts and reactions of self survival. It cares only for it separate self. Trump as he point out over and over is a business man, or to be historically accurate a dinosaur. The Tar Pit of Evolution approaches.
50
Damned hard to bring back the past.
It will prove harder and more violent to stay in the past too.
8
"The Strange Impotence of the Republican Party"--sign of an emerging Unimportant party?! Sounds so weird!
1
This statement is false Mr. Stephens. The economy grew over 3% when Obama was President several times. "and the economy is finally growing above the 3 percent mark." It is hard for the Republicans to govern since they don't live in a face based reality.
43
NYT - "Anger is an excellent emotion for pushing ratings and winning elections..."
If that is truly the case then Democrats will win every election for the next 1000 years. Read the comments in the NYT, no one is angrier than Democrats about losing an election they thought they had "in the bag."
7
Why would you expect Trump, a divisive President, to be a party unifier?It's not in his skill set or nature.But this op-ed lacks equipoise. First, extremism is not only a Right Wing phenomenon.Saunders and Corbyn supporters, Maddow and more recently Antifa are just a few examples of the same phenomenon on the Left.Second, and more important,How is it, that given such dysfunction on the Right here at home, there is still no evidence of the Leadership from the Left necessary to shift the balance of power?No matter how despicable 45 may be,Democrats should focus on fielding someone who could become 46 in 2020.Do we really want to risk Republicans getting their act together?
6
As a recently retired history and English teacher, I can speak to some of the comments regarding the sorry state of civics education in our country and the resulting ignorance of voters. I remember vividly a discussion I had with high school seniors a couple of years ago, when some of the more conservative students started whining and complaining about what “the government” was doing to them. I asked them, “What do you think ‘the government’ IS? Who, exactly, is ‘doing’ these things things to you?” They could only sputter about the president and Congress. They were flabbergasted when I started to explain that first, in a democracy, WE are the government – it’s not some separate entity imposed on us from on high. And second, the federal government is only one small part of “government,” which operates at every level and even includes – again, this was astonishing to them – the public school district and its elected officials. High school seniors. Head, meet wall…
70
For a party that "has turned so fiercely on itself," the GOP is inflicting an awful lot of damage. Judicial appointments alone will give us at least 20 years of misery.
36
You hit it on the with "compromise." Nobody wants to compromise or be seen to. To compromise is to equivocate: to gesture at a loss of faith.
We live in a time of resurgent Relativism: Even the torch-and-pitchfork crowd will smirkingly quote Nietzsche to you, more or less, and their--excuse me, thier-- opinions are just as good as anybody's.
But it's a Relativism underwritten by a naive Utilitarianism: Everybody believes thier interpretations will bring the greatest good to the greatest number of people. Compromise will disenfranchise; compromise kills.
The bottom line is how one defines "people." All of us in our own separate Rush Rooms define "people" by what we see in the mirror. I will defend my beliefs because they are just as good as yours, and because they will MAGA--my America, that is, by which I mean, bottom line, me and my bottom line.
Compromise demands trust. Trust demands a belief in a shared reality. MAD succeeded because both sides believed they knew what the other side knew. That belief depends on a belief in the idea of propositional truth. A is not B.
Trump, and I will say the whole trajectory of the GOP, has sought power by pushing the idea that A is B. That is as dumbo Joe Wilson would say, "a lie."
So, if I say if one of us lights a match--either one--the whole barrel of gas in which we kneel is gonna explode, and you say, "that is your opinion," or "there you go again," we are in trouble.
10
Bret, your analysis is all wet.
A long, long time ago, the Republicans were the eat-your-peas party. No new spending, no social welfare, no deficit spending. Nothing to promise the voters except anticommunism and fiscal probity. It won them decades of minority status.
The present-day Republican Party is the party of wishful thinking. Evolution and climate change are conspiracies. Tax cuts lead to economic growth, even pay for themselves "dynamically". Obamacare is destroying the economy, killing jobs. Unaffordable healthcare is freedom.
When campaigns and policies are untethered to the truth, the liars don't have to agree on any facts, or with each other. The best liar becomes president. They can even lie about agreeing with each other. Because ponies!
The party "turned on itself" because it was never one thing. They were united only in their desire for power. Their donors -- on the evidence of such policies as they've pursued -- have a goal: lower taxes on the wealthy. But they themselves vary from fiscal conservative to social conservative to flat-out bought-out.
The only remedy I see is for voters to hold them to account. It happened in California. When the rest of the country catches on, they'll have to fess up and get serious.
Meanwhile, sigh, tax cuts.
37
The hate mongers that Mr. Stephens mentions are the product of the Republican party. These peddlers of fear and anger have come back to haunt what was previously the dominant center-right majority. The Southern Strategy allowed the GOP to capture the angry, poorly-educated, lower middle-class voter for the sake of their votes, never expecting them to arise and grab the reins of the organization. The tail is now wagging the dog, and Trump is the result. Until the fake news machine that riles up the base with outlandish conspiracy theories is muted, we can expect to see more polarization. Since it's their baby, only the Republican party can push the genie back into the bottle.
29
The Strange Impotence of the Republican Party? More like incompetence, and not so strange given the Chief Executive the GOP somehow managed to put into office.
10
A fair number of GOP House members are stunningly ill informed, unsophisticated and obtuse. The Dem reps are, by and large, smarter and more knowledgeable.
46
Someone is surprised that a party dominated by selfish, perverse, racist, classist, woman-hating, gay-bashing, democracy-hating, negative, evil people aren't good at governing a country that still has a constitution and laws? Why would anyone expect them to be good at it when all their ideals go against the core American values of freedom and justice for all?
47
Actually Gerrymandering is the matter. Cheaters are no more loyal to other cheaters than anyone else.
26
Too right about the 34 governorships, matching a 1922 party record. But remember what happened in 1929. It sure seems we're headed for trouble.
I was reminded of 1968 by the Ken Burns Vietnam series on PBS -- how so many earth-shaking events happened one-a-month, from Tet, to LBJ's decision not to run, to MLK, and Watts and "mini-Tet" and Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy...
That feeling is back, in spades. We are daily bombarded by bad news -- events that should be disastrous but for being eclipsed by new events.
This Administration will end badly. Will it drag down our national and economic security with it?
46
The current Republican Party fits in with trends that stem from the 1964 Goldwater landslide defeat. Since that time, Republicans--and their ultra-rich donors who fund their think tanks and campaigns--have focused relentlessly on cutting taxes. This strategy has a profound effect on our society: it defunds governmental programs benefiting social, environmental, educational, and humanitarian efforts that are aimed to protect and provide opportunities for all people -- not just a select pool of "real" Americans. As a result, the rich can buy their own "bubbles" where they and their families live walled off from the rest, and the white, middle and working class base can feel like the "true" Americans can get their "deserved" rewards without having to share -- even if that doesn't pan out. Fox, Breitbart, and the other right wing media are not separate from this strategy -- they are inherently part of it.
24
It seems the one thing all the factions in the republican party have is "hating" liberals. That doesn't make for any good governing. That is what we are seeing. How can Democrats win majority's again?
13
Defeat Gerrymandering, that's how. Across the country Democrats win more votes nationwide yet the congressional districts are Gerrymandered for Republican wins. I had high hopes that Merrick Garland would be a deciding vote to restore fairness to the voting system, but with the immoral Republicans blocking a vote on his SCOTUS nomination, we ended up with Gorsuch who I am positively certain will not make that happen. Is this sad and pathetic leadership in our country right now, or what?
30
There was a time once in a land far far away when being a Republican was something to be proud of. Now all it is, is a cause for shame.
42
For decades the Republican party has banked on the stupidity of its electorate. Each election cycle the story was the same: Republicans invent some red meat issue that social conservatives can dig their teeth into, thus diverting attention from the only issue the donor class cares about, which is lowering their taxes. But with the rise of the tea party it is becoming clearer and clearer that stupidity and rage are overriding everything else in the Republican party.
Yes, the pendulum is bound to swing back, but I predict that it will become worse, much worse, before it gets better.
36
Dear Brett,
Repeat after me: "Let's not, but say we did!"
What a thankless job you have. A conservative opinion writer working for the NY Times. Wow. Not too many accolades are witnessed on the comments section for your pieces are there?
The cast of characters you listed who have become the conservative voice was astounding, but listing Sean Hannity and Laura Ingram as the "moral conscience" of your movement? That says a lot.
Instead of trying to sway your readers that the GOP is working to fix things, I think it's time to throw your hands up in the air and chant "Let's not, but say we did!" Just like our Dear Leader: don't try to fix the disaster in Puerto Rico, just say "things are going great in Puerto Rico!" Done.
12
"Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad."
"A nation gets the government it deserves".
12
I would be interested to read your analysis on the impotence of the democratic party.
3
That would be short and sweet, and contain two words: "Republican Gerrymandering."
21
"Suppose you’re a Republican. Since you’re reading The Times, suppose hard."
*bursts out laughing*
They say laughter makes you live longer. If so, I just racked up another year, at least!
10
When you have run for 30 years as an anti-government institution, you no longer have any competence in governing. When you see compromise as collaboration with the enemy, very few useful bills can be passed or even written. When you have fanned anti-immigrant hysteria, there is no room for accommodation and effective social planning. When a party wants to criminalize the choice of whom to love, there is little hope for a caring society. But there is always tomorrow.
35
Republicans cannot govern because they built their brand on a foundation of lies:
You can have better, universal health care cheaper;
Tax cuts for the rich pay for themselves;
Shari'a law is on the rise in the US;
Black Lives Matter is racist;
There are "good people" who are neo-Nazis;
Marriage equality is a threat to traditional marriage...
... and the list goes on. Sadly, they have done grievous damage to our country while building their brand.
19
Thank you for a remarkably erudite column. It brought to mind Hunter Thompson's paraphrase of Hemingway, "The Scum Also Rises", though he was talking about the Nixon administration which, as it turns out, can't hold a candle to this one.
13
“This won’t end as long as Trump is in the White House. Whether it won’t also be the end of the Republican Party as a functional institution is another question.”
Interesting article Mr. Stephens. Unfortunately, I must say that unless Republicans put country over party, this will be the end of the Republican Party as we have known it. I’ve spoken with lifelong Republicans both White and Black and they state how ashamed they are and didn’t realize it was this bad. Prior to Trump, the hatred you expressed in this article was subtle and slow and besides their strategic attempts to make President Obama’s job challenging, it distracted them from working diligently to ensure a smooth transfer of power regardless of which Republican won. Trump’s rise hurt the execution of their agenda even more because it revealed their ineptness and nakedness. I told everyone President Trump would win, but I also said that his win would be detrimental to the Republican Party. This is indeed what is happening and until more individuals like Collins and McCain use wisdom, we will be officially burying the party of Lincoln and Frederick Douglass soon and very soon.
15
Bret Stephens's explanation doesn't explain. It's like saying people sleep because they get tired. He uses inappropriate analogies, such as Gresham's Law, to claim that bad politicians drive out good ones. Gerrymandering, which is a plausible cause, will be saved for another column.
He also avoids discussing the recent history of the Republican Party--its rightward turn since President Dwight Eisenhower; the rise of "crazies" from Goldwater to Gingrich; the increase in racism since the civil rights victories of the sixties and the rise of the black middle class.
And hovering above all this is the fear of national decline fueled by the defeats in Viet-Nam, Iraq, and Afghanistan and by the decline of the middle class.
There are plenty of plausible causes that have driven the Republican Party and American politics to its current sorry state.
10
The GOP has a problem of not being a real party. Democrats have the same issue but more so on the GOP side. it is not real cause it is really made up of at least distinct parties; classic mainstream centrist repubs, conservatives and libertarians. They have different angers and different ideals but none have courage to make a distinctive party. Send have same; centrist dems, progressives, liberals and greens and add socialists. We need to drop the 2 party illusion and things would read very differently.
6
You analysis fails to mention that the Republican grip on the state houses and the House of Representatives depends upon gerrymandering, the dispersal of white Republican voters among, and concentration of Democratic ones in the House districts. This structural problem will ensure that a Republican minority of voters will elect a majority of seats in the respective legislatures. As has been pointed out, this is reflected in the electoral college, where we may eventually see a Republican president elected by the electoral college, while his Democratic opponent loses with five million votes more.
12
I was shocked at how underwhelming and unprepared George W. was making Reagan look like a great stateman. Next we have DT. The trend coming from the right is frightening. The goal is now trying to keep America from being mortally wounded by this crazed anger.
20
Recently, I wrote about the abysmal failure of the Democratic Party to present a coherent plan to thwart the Republicans in the midterms, and I opined that failure in the midterms to have a Democratic Party ready to serve the needs of the poor and the middle-class, will guarantee a Trump second term.
You say the same in your first two paragraphs, wherein you point out the monumental reality of how much control is in Republican hands, yet these last months the Democratic Party has remained embarrassingly silent, with nary a proposal to present any kind of threat to the Republicans.
Schumer, in his recent speech, said nothing about the real reason for the historic loss back in November, still trying to blame anyone and everything instead of blaming the decades long beggaring of the people, through Democratic incrementalism, and maintainance of the status quo.
Until the Democratics admit their attempts to keep the people comatose backfired, and assert that a new revitalized party, specifically created to serve all of the people, with no corporate backing and interference, is in the works, they will cease to exist.
This nation is a corporate entity, a corporate behemoth, insatiable in its desire to own and control all the wealth, with a fake two party system designed to keep the electorate/people falsely believing they have the power to cause change.
As George Carlin repeats in his American Dream, "You have no choice".
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ4SSvVbhLw
11
Dear Republican Party,
If not now, then when?
Or to be more explicit, when will you show Trump to the door?
14
The real reason is that there no longer is a Republican Party. What we have is a self-interested coalition of holdover Republicans, angry populists and assorted racist/xenophobic cults. It's an uneasy marriage, as we have seen by witnessing the chaos in the White House, because the leadership is either incompetent, ignorant and/or unpredictable. This cannot end well.
13
The paralysis of our government - left and right, if you remember the early days of the Obama administration - comes from our peculiar institution of expensive elections basically funded by bribery. Legislators do not bite the hand that feeds them, unless they expect not to participate in the next election.
In the case of health care, there was a formidable and well-heeled alliance of doctors, hospitals and insurers (and yes, patients) who opposed repeal of the ACA, a president who didn't care, and a bunch of slogan screamers on the other side.
Tax "reform" is another story. We'll see how many of the working poor will bite on the bait of a $1000 reduction, ignoring the hook of a catastrophic reduction of services (which, to do them justice, they may face anyway). There are no rich people opposed to it.
13
With their proposed massive transfer of wealth disguised as a tax cut, the Republicans intend to further enrich the rich while simultaneously starving the government to a more manageable size ("small enough to drown in the bathtub"). It is also malfeasance on a Grand Old Party scale to leave the majority of key governmental positions either unfilled or occupied by the least qualified "yes" men and women imaginable. Even a hint of "maybe" gets one fired by this President, who has turned shameful disgrace into an almost whimsical folk art. So, how to govern then? America is careening down the halls of history looking for a tragic ending. Trump has plans for a massive military parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. We've seen this movie before, it plays on the History Channel on a regular basis. As for governing, let's just sit back and see how things play out, American Style.
12
I seem to have missed the inclusion of one huge influence today. The Internet. Quick, easy and anonymous. The political nerd has no more influence than the know-nothing’s. And there are more know-nothings. Upheaval caused by online tweets and texts is rampant in our culture. I have no answer for changing this. Will someone please put this conundrum in their computer and send me an answer? Thanks.
6
My sister-in-law believes that the country is finally headed in the right direction. What she doesn't realize is that Trump will reduce her access to medical care and even social security. She agrees totally with his racist, sexist & homophobic statements.
10
That's what he counts on--a few dumb bunnies who will applaud his punch lines while he picks their pockets. Apparently, they amount to about 30% of the country, allowing for a few who know better but whose cognitive dissonance prevents them from admitting they made a terrible deal for all of us last November.
11
Thanks for the briefing on your sister-in-law. We were all curious.
1
The rich want even more money. Tax cuts deliver for them. And the only part of government they want is the army and the police . This is the Trumpian Bargain: the rich will get in bed with the devil (Trump) as long as they get what they want.
Since the rich rule , the rest of us are stuck and can only ask , is there someway out of this?
19
Hate is a great motivator for tearing down, not so much for building up.
Hate can be manipulated much more effectively in the individual too. It takes nuance and compromise to love.
As a hated liberal snowflake while I have plenty of criticism for my own side of the aisle and their lack of ..... well just about everything at the moment, I do admit to a sense of comfort knowing that the GOP is in such conflict with each other. It is not anything the Democrats should rely upon or use but if it keeps the depravity from effecting the lives of normal citizens, I'm all for it.
What galls me most about the GOP is the hypocrisy. It is astounding.
12
It all started with Birrtherism. GOP saw attacks on Obama as an advantage and ride that sick pony all the way to Crazy Town. I do not feel sorry for Republicans. You know what they say about Karma.
15
Suppose you’re a Republican. Since you’re reading The Times, suppose hard.
OK, you win the best line of the week....
11
Maybe they aren't reading the NYT, but wouldn't it benefit them to turn off Fox and try real journalism for a change?
6
This is a party that for 40 years has scorned government and has had no new ideas since the tax reform of the '80s. They have become just an opposition party that aims to tear down whatever the other party has accomplished. They live in the past and have no interest in meeting the challenges of the future. Their impotence and inability to govern now should come as no surprise.
22
The Republican party cannot govern because it has no vision for the country. It has nothing positive it seeks to achieve other than to help rich people and corporation. As far as legislation that will help people, the party is all about opposition. It opposed a Republican health care plan--Obamacare--simply because Obama adopted it.
13
I am "supposing hard". But I can't possibly imagine being a Republican in this day and age. I could imagine back in 1970, being say, a Rockefeller Republican. Is that just the rose colored view of days of yore? Or has the Republican party seriously changed?
In any event, that was a great opening paragraph, but I just can't do it. Maybe you can help, how can an intelligent, thinking Republican get up in the morning and look in the mirror and know that Donald Trump and Roy Moore are two of his most powerful fellow travelers and then not turn around and go right back to bed?
12
The GDP ain't above 3%, Mr. Stephens. And the weird proliferation of over-erudite terminology here won't hide the fact that the Right believes in pretty much the same unregulated markets that you do.
6
Some very good points that apply to both parties.
Just change the names, the outcome is the same- Dysfunction and stagnation because the emphasis is on everything but progress for the greater good.
We need a credible third party that represents the majority in the middle.
We need term limits and a lobby system prohibited from using money.
4
The Democratic Party must be worse than impotent, because they've lost both houses and the Presidency to the Republicans.
I have neighbors who still believe the Clintons had Vince Foster murdered.
12
So what will you do about it, Mr. Stephens? You write words that describe the mess that we are in but you champion the dark side that is making this mess. And you accomplish nothing but to gain a paycheck for yourself while you list the sins of your own party. Sounds like a republican to me -- with the exception of admitting to the sins part.
We don't need a conservative to tell us how ugly conservatives are. Try selling that ice to some Eskimos - if your philosophy has left any Eskimos up north after the "made-up" stories about climate change have taken their "imaginary" toll on those least able to deal with the consequences.
14
"the economy is finally growing above the 3 percent mark" not true, should be corrected.
10
Look hard in the mirror, Mr. Stephens. Perhaps the problem with the Republican Party is not the crazy media personalities such as Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity. Perhaps the Party suffers from an over abundance of its so-called "intellectual" enablers -- yourself and David Brooks included. What are you doing in this Party of crazy? Why do you keep promoting Paul Ryan and his ilk as "Numbers Nerds"? They are NOT numbers people, and they are NOT genuinely interested in helping the Country; they are all in the business of politics for their ego and for personal benefits. As long as there are naïve "intellectual" ideologues around, who see wisdom in charlatans such as Ryan and McConnell, the monumental problems of this Country will only get worse. It is incumbent upon people such as yourself to quit the Party of idiocy and craziness! Left alone, the poorly-educated angry white members of that Party cannot do much harm on their own -- and won't be able to accomplish much of anything else either.
21
Oh, the conservative friends of my youth used never to tire of quoting "that government is best which governs the least." Well, here it is. How do you like it?
24
Very nice article.
1
Worse than impotence. The Republicans are now, owing to worse-than-impotence syndrome, breeding Democrats. Young people born immune to bigotry, ignorance, mercantilism and Fox News want nothing to do with their fathers' GoP. Can Democracy be far behind?!...
10
My therapist thought me that anger is not a "true emotion" - it is a reaction, usually to the "genuine emotion" of feeling hurt or afraid. When something hurts us we lash out in anger. When we are afraid of something we lash out in anger. So always stop and ask, "What is behind this anger?" For Americans, it is our self-imposed ignorance and illiteracy that aggravates our fear of change. When change happens over the course of generations, then individuals don't experience the immediate stress of "change" - but, when change happens over the course of years, then individual's lives are directly affected. Unless people are prepared to adapt they face an unknown future naked and alone - a terrifying experience, especially when social media constantly flashes glossy images of people "living the good life". We are deep in a social morass: turn off social media and read a book!
9
Yeats described it well: The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
8
The republican party is already a dysfunctional institution, as you pointed out in this oped. I would posit, then, that the end is not just near, but that the end is here. The only question left is will they take the country down with them.
10
What is amazing to me is that 48 Republicans did vote for their terrible tax cut bills that they titled Health Care Reform.
And the only reason Paul Ryan didn't vote for them was because they weren't awful enough.
What is wrong with these Senators?
Of course, we know the answer. They are being threatened by their donors.
11
The GOP lost its way as a cohesive credible political force focused on financial conservatism. The Republican Party survives by trickery and voter suppression. One of the most insidious anti-democracy schemes, REDMAP, was launched after the 2008 election by the Republicans under the leadership of Karl Rove. The plan involves systematic capture of state legislatures and governorship financed by Citizen's United dark money for the sole purpose of sophisticated computer-driven gerrymandering that suppresses voting by likely Democrats. The GOP has used its mixture of racial and religious bigotry and voter suppression to great advantage. The Republican Party is willing to let the American people die in the streets on behalf of their rich donors. Yes, they have lost their way. Conservatism as a philosophy is no longer relevant, just raw greed.
Republicans are now focused on racial hate mongering, Islamophobia, and disrespect for a woman's rights to seek healthcare on her own terms. They have been aided and abetted by the Big Lie Fox/Breitbart/hate radio propaganda machines. But the GOP message does not resonate with the majority of the American people although it does energize the frenzied right wing extremists who are the base. The steady stream of outrageous mindless political statements by Trump has become a focal point of media fascination. He is the cover act for the corrupt anti-American Republican Party. They must be driven from office in 2018.
15
The Republicans have brought so many different groups into their tent, including far right conservatives, bigots, the religious right, economic conservatives, moderate conservatives, and self serving moneyed interests,that their message is diluted and they stand for nothing except anger statements focused toward each individual group in order to garner votes.
6
I feel sorry for the NRA.
With Obama, they had record sales.
They were counting on Hillary to continue.
They got Trump and now no one is coming to get your guns.
It's tough.
15
I agree with Bret Stephens: The game-changer is the large market of poorly-thinking Right Wing, if you can call them "Right Wing", voters that Right Wing media has discovered and nurtured over the last 30 years. Right Wing media isn't going to give up this market. We're in for a time of instability. If Trump goes, there will be someone else.
But, if Trump goes, his departure could irreparably fracture the G.O.P. I see the G.O.P. as if I were living in Texas; it's a one-party state, and dissent comes from factions within the party. So it generates some really extreme loonies.
The current reasoning is, the G.O.P. is broken, yet they run our government. It follows that our government is broken. It is this way because many voters in swing states that the Electoral College advantages lack basic reasoning skills and are influenced by the self-serving diatribe of Right Wing media pundits. Right Wing ideologues have gotten rich from these people; again, they are not going to give up their lucrative market.
We could be witnessing the end of our democracy; there's no guarantee that it will survive. China's government may turn out to be the better, or next, model for political survivability.
Trump voters are dumb, and they can elect any dumb person whom they want (with the help of the Electoral College and gerrymandering). Chinese people are probably as dumb, but the Chinese *can't* elect any dumb person whom they want.
9
It is folly to expect governing - of which compromise is the very heart - from those who utterly despise compromise.
13
Their stated goal is to destroy the federal government, especially Social Security and Medicare. So the goal is to cut taxes and blow up the debt and destroy the government. Why? So that private enterprise can take over roads, schools, etc. That's right: no more public services. You will pay for each and every service provided by a private company. And if you can't afford it, you can rot. It's taking us to what was once called Third World status.
15
Some coaches used to say "winning isn't everything, it's the only thing." It seems like Gingrich and McConnell and the people who support their efforts must really buy into that way of thinking. Benefiting from the efforts of people who know how to keep folks riled up and make it pay has been part of doing what it takes to win.
So, will people with money, talent, and intelligence continue to support those tactics and strategies? Maybe winning is the only thing when you're fighting the Nazis but not when you're vying to set tax policy.
With the recent Ptolemaic revolution in political thought on the academic left, whereby it seems we are to reason and assign value by means of racial and gender identities and the experiences considered typical for those identities, as opposed to accepting an emphasis on our common humanity as central to our ideals and bringing our own viewpoints and experiences to bear accordingly, the Democrats are not in a position to counter the Gingrich-McConnell way. I thought Obama tried to unite the country but didn't have the party's officials or constituencies behind him.
What would happen if a Democratic leader publicly rejected thinkers who make presumptions about people based on race and gender and habitually demean or belittle them accordingly?
2
Mr. Stephens, good column; however, you are ignoring the elephant in the room (pun intended): the American people. Where are they in all this chaos? We have a gaggle of venal men and women completely holding us hostage, yet we can make them (and their clients, the oligarchs) disappear immediately with the only weapon we the hostages have, the vote.
The chaos is in the collective mind of the American people. We seem to be paralyzed with impotence by our lack of education resulting in our gullibility for believing snake-oil salesmen and tolerating our body politic riddled with parasites.
Nothing will change until the American people do.
11
I thought for a minute that Mr. Stephens was going to have an original thought. He set the extent of the seeming Republican dominance of the moment, then he asked the obvious questions regarding the failure of the seeming dominance to lead to results.
Then, poof, Bret kicked the ball out of bounds.
The Republican Party is not in disarray. That is because it never was in array in the first place. Look, Bret, here's how the two parties are formed. Everybody gets together in a really big field. The referee says "All those who are NOT Democrats, move to the right side of the field. We will call you Republicans. All those who are NOT Republicans, move to the left side of the field. We will call you Democrats. The rest of you can go home."
That's why it appears that the Republican Party is useless. The President isn't a Republican. Many "Republican" Congressmen are NOT-Democrats - for example, Rand Paul or Ted Cruz or even McCain. The same goes for the "Democratic" Party. Bernie Sander is a NOT-Republican, but he sure isn't a Democrat, either.
The only thing the members of either Party have in common is that they are NOT the OTHER party. That's why there is so much intra-party friction and viscosity. That's why Washington is a mess, or, as some call it, a swamp.
Now, Bret, about your thesaurus. Fissiparous? Whew.
5
Both Paul Ryan and Alfred E. Neuman are mentioned in this column. Have you noticed how much they look alike?
4
This writer's own arrogance and condescension blinds him to the simple truths that conflict with his elitist world view. Americans are fed up with ALL politicians and their continuing inability to get anything done in Washington. Today's Republicans and Democrats are good at insulting each other, but poor at governing.
It's not "both sides". There's one side in control of our country. What are their values? What will they do with this power?
6
The Right Wing Rage Machine has been stoking and provoking their base for so long...people have forgotten why they're "so damned mad"...now they're just used to being mad. Unrestrained and unfocused rage left unchecked by reality usually leads to bad outcomes...ask the surviving German citizens after WWII,
12
Perhaps this was a column to include addressing the reasons the GOP has so much political dominance - gerrymandering and the flawed electoral college?
9
Yes its individuals who are to interested n their careers and not the common good. But its really the policies. The policies are so out of touch with answering the real issues. Debt, Budget, Health, immigration, climate and the list goes on. Ill thought out, ideological hidden ideas that are designed to answer the needs of a few special intetest's. No party could pass these things. Until the Repubs get real about policy they will continue to fail.
7
Mr. Stephens, as many have said here in the comments, Republicans do read the NYT! Including this, albeit former-Republican! I do not recognize the Republican Party, it's become the party of hate, fear, lies and division. These are tactics it uses in campaigns to rile up their base, which is old monstly white, mostly male, many of them poor and ill informed! No, longer is the GOP the "party of Lincoln" nor of Reagan.
All the drama surrounding the repeal and replace of the ACA, was ridiculous and disgusting! The GOP didn't want to make the ACA "so much better, fabulous and for all" as their president promised! Nope...they simply want to dismantle all the good Pres. Obama has done, and gut his legacy! The GOP is the party of bullies!
Praying and hoping that in 2018 Democrats take the Senate and a small majority in the house....and oust the treasonous administration of Donald and Pence!
13
"Bill O’Reilly is now the right’s historian, Mark Levin its go-to legal expert, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham its moral conscience. These are not ideas guys. They’re anger guys. "
Stop.
If you think the left doesn't have counterparts to these individuals, just turn on MSNBC. Rachel Maddow, leaning forward and smirking while discussing her latest conspiracy theory, and implying that DJT is about to get impeached, is hardly better than any of these folks.
The reason why the GOP can't govern is precisely because of the fact that its voters can use arguments like this without seeing why they aren't valid at all.
Rachel Maddow indeed often fires up the left, using words that the right doesn't like. And she's not afraid to insert emotions in order to obtain that effect.
But that's about it, when it comes to similarities between her and O'Reilly. Contrary to him though, she has a PhD, and is constantly using proven facts, whereas O'Reilly doesn't hesitate to lie on a regular basis.
That people like you don't see this difference is because you don't know anymore how to distinguish fact from opinion, so as soon as someone on the left says something that has been contradicted by someone on the right and with a bit of emotion attached to it, you suppose that it must be "opinion", and as you reject leftist philosophy you immediately discard leftist opinions too.
Whereas much of what the right says is of course "opinion" too, but contrary to many leftist opinions NOT based on facts but on lies. People like you won't detect those lies though, precisely because instead of using fact-checking as a way to find out whether something has been proven to be a fact or not, you use the political affiliation of the messenger as a criterion, and if that messenger shares your own political affiliation, you assume he must tell the truth, if not, it must be false.
You can't get anything done with such a mentality, when it comes to governing.
12
50 years ago The Republican Party created the Southern Strategy, the conscious effort to appeal to the segregationist Strom Thurmond and George Wallace Democratic voters.
In the 1980’s the Republican Party gave us the culture wars and Reagan and the dog whistle politics of welfare queens and States Rights and created the Reagan Democrats.
In the 1990’s we got the Newt Gingrich House of Representatives take no prisoners confrontation, the Clinton impeachment, Whitewater, and Vince Foster murder conspiracy.
With Obama, they created the Tea Party and gave us the birthers, death panels, and support of the Confederate flag.
And all these years, the Republican politicians have been using the Reaganomics talking points of small government and tax cuts for the job creators coming from the right-wing think tanks.
For thirty five years, the rising tide of Trickle Down Economics has mostly made the rich richer.
And the Republican establishment is sick, just sick I tell you, to think of Trump representing the Republican Party.
They can’t understand how the Republican voters, who have been losing their manufacturing jobs all these years as Mitt Romney and his Wall St. colleagues sent those jobs to China, these same voters who have been listening to talk radio all these years, how they can blindly follow Trump and not listen to reason.
9
"Bad money drives out good." How appropriate. Bad money in constant, frenetic scheming for more and more money drives out good ideas, disregards needs for its own selfish wants. As Tom Friedman wrote yesterday the Democrats haven't exactly been a firehose of ideas themselves. Acquired power alone can not address 'anxieties and disgruntlements', fewer taxes and regulations alone do not increase social cohesion. It was always quipped at least the fascists made the trains run on time. We have to buy our trains from Chinese Rolling Stock and the EU. This country craves productive factories and work. The current politicos actions question whether they could make a piece of toast.
A right wing united and driven by misery hatred and ignorance now finds itself divided by those same traits turned inward? Who could have seen that coming? The coup de grace administered by a con artist who did not want or intend to be president and whose campaign was a put-on and whose presidency is a put-on because Democrats presented a tailor made punching bag. Now having gained a stranglehold on all branches of government and all they can do is turn their misery against the media and academia when not fighting amongst themselves? Who could have seen that coming?
4
The Republican Party has been hijacked by bigots, misogynists, racists, science deniers, pseudoChristians, anti-intellectuals and right-wing media ranters who think government is bad, education is bad, immigration is bad, only white people are good and it's time to take a wrecking ball to the entire "system." Of course when that wrecking ball is a hurricane that makes life uncomfortable for them in Texas or Florida -- and drives home the point that science should not be denied -- they are the first to beg for government assistance. Spineless Republicans who now control the reins of power have got to realize that the "base" they're so scared off is actually a tiny minority in this country; if they stood firm against Trump and his Trumpsters they would have the support of most independents, many thinking Republicans and all Democrats, i.e. a majority. Only when they put country before party can they stop cowering and get back to the business of governing.
7
It's hardly fair to compare Donald and Paul to Charles and Diana; Neither D or P possess an ounce Diana's humanity and grace.
5
A little too much hyperbole is your piece. Merkel was not humiliated by the alt-right nor was Macron. The GoP's centerpieces were humiliated by the ringmaster. It was long overdue and well deserved. Seventeen bobbleheads on one stage; all that was missing was the size 28 shoes. They let the pigs take over the farm and now we live in an Orwellian nightmare. The incompetency was apparent before the circus began as we witnessed eight years of negativity. Shaking their heads "N0" is the only style of governance for incompetents. Thank you GoP for taking down stature as a nation.
14
"What’s new is the existence — and metastasis — of the fury factories of the right, from Fox News to Breitbart to Frontpage Mag."
Thank you for saying it. You are absolutely right. This is the real source of the mess we're in today.
9
We are getting more and more evidence that the real results of 35 years of trickle down Reaganomics are the rich getting richer and the rest getting not much.
As more and more people see the evidence, it is getting harder to sell their blatant "tax cuts for the job creators."
The one I like is the "death tax." Thank you Frank Luntz. Estimates are that about 5,000 estates in 2017 will actually pay the estate tax.
8
Mr. Stephens, thank you for the claroty.
For decades many of us have observed how the Republicans have been enveloped in negativism. Trump is just the most overt example. There is no question that this negative disruption, along with capitalistic.money control of elections, has degraded our democracy, our economic fairness, and now weakens our international standing
6
My first reaction is that most of the Trump supporters are non-college educated, white males.
But I can tell you there are a lot of college educated Trump supporters. And a lot of college educated women voted for Trump.
For the non-college educated, they believed the con of Trump.
For many of the college educated, they are doing fine. They have professional jobs, some in government. They live in good suburbs with good schools for their children and employee provided health care.
All the Republican policies will have little obvious effect on their lives.
They don't realize college costs are going up because we are paying so much for prison and police.
They don't realize it would be better to pay for pre-school than prison.
They drive nice cars and go on vacation and send their kids to college and, for many, they never come in contact with poverty other than what they see on Fox News.
6
Yes, but some of these people who are doing well now, might just have problems in the future. They might lose those good jobs--bye bye health care. Also, they might get sick and not be able to work. Again, no health care unless they qualify for Medicare. It's pretty short-sighted--not to mention cruel and uncaring--to vote for someone only because you're doing well.
5
Just want to point out that Paul Ryan is NOT a numbers nerd. None of his budgets add up without 'magical thinking' about spending cuts and growth that supposedly will occur as a result of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
15
Mr. Stephens refuses to admit that maybe Republicans can't govern because their ideas are bad or because they literally have no ideas. Example - "repeal and replace." After frothing at the mouth for 7 years, they literally had nothing to "replace" the ACA with - nothing. It's not that Mitch McConnell's skills in pushing through legislation are lacking - it's that he had nothing to push. Ditto taxes - their only idea is "cut taxes on rich donors" so they don't have a structure or framework with which to work in crafting a bill. Really, their only successful strategy (in terms of winning elections, not governing) is to gin up the base with fear of minorities (racial/sexual/religious) and women. That, I admit, they're good at.
12
In my state, Republican voters vote Republican because Republicans have managed to demonize everybody else and because Republicans use the social value buzzwords that draw their supporters' votes automatically.
6
Quite a long detailed article to explain, or should I say obfuscate, the real problem with the Republican Party. They lie about what it has been achieved or not achieved by their political opponents; they propose solutions based upon those lies; and the solutions accomplish none of which the public once, because they basically hurt people. When they lack the majority of power, they obstructs. They consistently have fewer voters that support them, but managed to win elections due to gerrymandering, the electoral college, and the bias in the Senate given to small states over large states.
We now have one party that campaigns well because they get away with lies; and another party that manages to govern OK despite the massive obstruction from the non-governing-capable party. Enough people can be fooled to provide minority rule to the angry divisive Republicans. When they attempt to govern, their lies and true policy effects are exposed.
14
Republicans' fear of losing their elected positions is far more inherently important to them than the welfare of the country.
Poster boys for party over country.
But Bob Mueller's investigation is going full steam ahead in the areas of obstruction of justice/colluding with Russia. And we can take solace in that. You wonder what other Republicans might also go down.
Trump has little clue what he should be doing, delighting instead in chaos.
The repetition of phases each time he speaks is disturbing and worsening. Truthfully, only Republican Senator Bob Corker was brave and patriotic enough to speak out in very direct terms about Trump's mental stability and competence.
10
As someone with a degree in mathematics, I take offense at calling Ryan a "numbers nerd". He's just another Republican hack faking it so that he can cut taxes on the wealthy and raise them on the poor and the middle-class while cutting necessary services. He's attempting to execute the orders of the ultra-wealthy who control him. Fortunately there are still 3 Republican senators who care about U.S. citizens and their well-being.How long can hold out against the cruelty of the wealthy?
25
All right Brett ...
and why no mention of the gale-force wind fanning the flames of all this anger?
Where is the criticism of the money behind the politics. The unregulated money in politics, there only to amplify itself in the hands of the few.
11
It's all about greed and fear--dark black clouds and I gotta get more of mine.
I've met few Repubs who had anything positive or inspiring to say about anything. It's all self-serious complaint and some weirdly entitled anger gathering guns and money. Fear and meanness rule the day, and now rule ALL of our lives. Roy Moore is a dangerous man, soon to be a senator. Sarah Palin is next I'm sure. I have no idea who we are anymore. I picture a humorless, frightened, mean bunch of red-eyed dogs. What a way to go.
14
Their bumper sticker slogan should be "what ever nasty thing you believe, accuse them of it"
10
The biggest problem for the GOP is they don't have the right ideas for this time in our history. PX-90 Ryan and Puppethead McConnell are stuck in a past and Trump is too, but at least he recognizes, enough to get the applause, the current problems facing their base and most others. Too many in the GOP are stuck in a past where they longed to run the whole game, and now that they do, their ideas are unsound for these conditions. Tax cuts for the wealthy are not a solution to fix our ills, never have been, but this ain't the heady days when things were still good-enough and the pitch was more palatable.
Neither party has any great innovative ideas, but at the very least the Dems are willing to try new approaches that might relieve some of the many strains on lower and middle-income people. All the Repubs still have to offer is Trickle-Down absurdities, that NEVER worked! Because TD ain't a real thing!
Slight tax cuts, ($1000, thank you so much Mr Cohn, but I don't make a $100K...?!) that are not even a wash they are so small. Its like a mom licking her finger to wipe a cheek smudge away, while the kids pants are covered in mud!
And of course its more about families, but right now singles outnumber marrieds! Be they young or older. Singles get nothing - except more tax burdens at all levels. Plus, we're allegedly unhealthier! (although I'll go up against most marrieds any day!) Singles and the elderly are being beaten up, but lets take their small deductions away!
8
Another reason for the GOP's impotence, not mutually exclusive with the article.
The GOP is two parties (at least) masquerading and mislabeled as one.
They are not united on solutions, not even close.
They are not even united on causes of problems (as they see it, taxes too high or God too low).
They are united only by anger and antipathy toward liberalism and science. That's a fine way to manufacture votes, raise unrealistic expectations, and sow distrust, but not a way to govern.
8
Mr. Stephens bemoans the fact that his party can no longer govern. What he doesn’t realize, however, is that the Republicans no longer see this as a problem, because their voters don't see this as a problem.
Republicans understand that because of gerrymandering (for both state and national elections), a far-right Supreme Court, and the outsize influence of small states on our Senate representation, they may retain power for many, many more years.
They don’t need the majority of our citizens to support them. They only need a sizable minority. Thus they need to feed their base what it wants, which is permission to hate anyone who is not white, who is not Christian, who is not straight. As long as their supporters see that they share these hateful views, they will continue to vote Republican. Their voters simply don’t care whether they have jobs, affordable healthcare, or good education for their children. These voters care for none of these things, and their Republican leaders know it. They know they need not govern. They know they need not work for meaningful progress for our citizens. And this is why they don’t. It’s really that simple.
26
Cynical? No. Sadly true
4
Until the Republican party is able to put the will of "we the people" above their own personal ideology or odds of re-election, I hope they continue to fail to govern. Poll after poll showed the unpopularity of their health care plans. Yet, the majority were willing to vote for them even some who admitted the plans were not good. And the tactics to get votes--threats, bribery?? Thanks for mentioning the stab in the back myth that was used against John McCain and Susan Collins after the last defeat. How dare McCain call for proper procedure and possible compromise! How dare Susan Collins worry about the affect the bill would have on her lower income constituents!
Unfortunately, I believe they will have more success with their new tax plan. Of course, the majority of us will benefit from having the estate tax eliminated because so many of "we the people" have more than 5 million dollars to leave to our heirs! So many of us are affected by the alternative minimum tax! Of course the biggest tax breaks should go to the wealthy and so on and so on! We can always make up any deficit caused by the tax breaks by cutting "entitlement programs" like medicare, medicaid, and social security. Those " entitlement programs " that both our employers and we paid into for years.
8
It's not a paradox that the Republicans "can't lose"; it's a glaring sign of the structural deficiencies of our supposed democracy. It's 2 senators per state, whether they represent 40 million or 0.5 million citizens. It's partisan gerrymandering. It's the corresponding distortion reflected in the electoral college. It's Citizens United and the ruinous influence of money on the system. It's partisan control of elections.
Fix all of these things and allow the citizens to properly choose and the Republicans wouldn't be winning. Which, of course, is precisely why these deficiencies persist.
12
a very well-written essay. it supports the premise that history will judge Ronald Reagan (and his handlers) for his seminal role in the failure since his Presidency of our people "to create a more perfect union". His legacy of racism, disdain for govenment, and the transfer of our wealth to the rich has directly resulted in today's sad tragedy of social and economic division, as described in this essay. let's hope our future generations can overcome this legacy and restore respect and faith in our government at all levels to unify our people for the common wealth (meaning our common goodness to each other). Reagan should have respected Rev. John Winthrop's words rather than mis-using their message to sow disuniity. But unfortunately he was a simpleton Hollywood actor instead of a leader versed in civics and history.
8
The purpose of this essay is unclear, aside from sending readers in search of a dictionary to find the translation of the feminine form of "backstabber" applied to Senators McCain & Collins.
This oped column merely states what is obvious to any objective political observer of the past 30 years. The GOP has cultivated alt-right crazies for decades, yet the few grown-ups in the party act puzzled when reaping the inanity & insanity the Republican Party has sown among the benighted rubes & yahoos that comprise the modern American Booboisie, as Mencken named it.
Where were conservative essayists & columnists when this groundswell began with repeal of the Fairness Doctrine in 1987? That spawned the vitriol & stupidity emanating from the likes of Levin, Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, & Alex Jones, culminating in the "Birthers".
The propaganda wing of the GOP that calls itself the Fox "News" Network fans the flames daily among those who slavishly decry the Mainstream Media, as well as any facts that don't neatly fit into their simplistic, conspiracy-filled reality.
Republicans gerrymandered & pandered to religious extremists for 40+ years, enacting laws that care more about an unborn zygote or fetus than a living, breathing woman, deeming IUDs (& other contraceptives) as abortifacients. The Government is final arbiter whether a severely deformed fetus must be carried to term & cared for, no matter what the resulting quality of life may be for the child or parents.
ALEC, anyone?
7
The elites of the GOP own 99% of America now.
The problem is they want the remaining 1%.
6
The purveyors of right wing media (Hannity, Levin, etc.) keep their audiences addicted to outrage. Listen to Levin as he approaches a commercial. His voice rises to a fever pitch just before cutting to an ad. It's all designed to stoke the addiction. Read the comments on any political site and those from the Right blindly target "Liberals" or the Left more than they address the issue. It's all part of the dumbing down and dividing of Americans for nothing but political or financial gain.
11
Republican impotence is actually a good thing. If the "majority" was successful in their agenda, we're heading for another economic and political crater the size of the Grand Canyon. The nation is sailing on the ghost of Obama's wind. His legacy is both imperfect and incomplete but that's all we got. We should be grateful for that much. Long may his legacy last.
I wouldn't go so far as to globalize Republican dysfunction though. I agree there are patterns of similarity but focusing on the similarities ignores the differences. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Republicans own their own dysfunction. Problems in Europe and elsewhere can't normalize this one away. You hitched your wagon to insanity and lies. The monster is on the loose.
You can't blame the media either. In good times, you happily rode the coattails of ignorance. This apparatus predates Trump and even the Tea Party by many years. To disdain them now is to misrepresent yourself. You're lying to both readers and yourself. The conservative media mirrored and exaggerated Republican opposition. Not the other way around.
I remember working an event at the state once. They gave me a pin with the official seal. They told me "When you wear this pin, you are acting as a representative of the state and everything the state represents. Sorry Brett. Roy Moore is representing the Republican party and that means all Republicans. If you don't like him, don't vote him into office.
8
Dear Mr. Stephens,
You have a responsibility to not mislead people.
While the economy grew a 3% for the quarter, that is not annual growth.
Obama had six quarters of above 3% growth.
http://fortune.com/2017/08/30/donald-trump-springfield-mo-3-gdp/
Two sayings we have:
The best lie has some truth to it.
Figures don't lie, liars figure.
8
I'm actually a fan of impotence. On a reproductive level it works, fewer people on an already over-populated plant. And on a political level Republicans can't manage to destroy us. Maybe it will move to the reproductive area too, and we'll have fewer Republicans.
10
Fabulous.
9
Perplexing indeed.
A party comprised of white supremacists, climate change deniers, christian evangelical fanatics and fraudulent freedom caucus fiscal phonies can't come together to get anything done.
Nobody, especially not our current grifter in chief, could possibly be expected to herd these "fissiparous" elements into something remotely resembling a governable consensus.
The raison d'être of the GOP is to "not" govern. Surely, a man who throws around the word "fissiparous" should be able to see that very clearly.
You probably still believe that the GOP is the "party of Lincoln".
It's not, no matter how many times you write it on the blackboard.
17
I'm a Republican and I read the Times nearly every day. I don't have to suppose very hard.
I think Mr. Stephens is missing something obvious. The reason Republicans have a hard time legislating is that they've never been the lock-step party that the Democrats have become. Diversity can be messy.
2
"Diversity can be messy."......Diversity shouldn't be a problem. The absence of diversity is the reason all the Dixiecrats became Republicans.
11
You have to be kidding. Despite opening up the affordable care act for republican amendments, and asking Republicans to participate in the fashioning of a much-needed reforms were healthcare system by President Obama, The Republicans voted against it in lock step. When President Bill Clinton fashions a national tax and spending proposal, again the Republicans voted in lockstep against it. By the way, that Clinton economy show the strongest growth, the strongest job growth, and the last time that we are wages increased for all economic groups.
Yet, you can pretend that Republicans have not been in lockstep. Ridiculous.
The so-called Republican healthcare reform failed for a very simple reason. A few Republican senators had enough of a conscience to prevent 30 million Americans from losing health care insurance.
8
The disarray in the republican party can also be explained by the contradictory participants who comprise the party itself. The top 3% have always had to merge with their economic "lessers" or there would not be a viable party at all.
The conflict is that for years the 3% , through their republican sycophants, have been able to "sell" the lessers the idea that republicans supported the social ideas of being anti abortionists, anti immigrants, anti "you name it" , in exchange for their vote. The republican party "sold" the lessers the 'emotional' issues in exchange for the economic advantages they could quietly reap via huge tax cuts and the like. Fox & Co., being an arm of the 3% fueled the social propaganda while the 3% spoke openly of how they would actually reduce the lessers financial safety net. They never hid that fact because they knew the "emotional issues" were a great distraction.
Today we witness the lessers rage at not having been given anything over the years but instead actually losing much of what they had. Ryan and MCConnell are good salesmen, but it must be very difficult to sell the same lie after 30 years ,as the lessers begin "to catch on" to the fact, there is nothing in it for them.
I agree as long as Trump hangs in there the lessers will cling to the false hope that eventually they will "win". Hope is said to spring eternal, but my bet is, in the next seven years, it won't spring anything for the lessers, just much more conflict.
12
Hope must spring eternal if the "lessers" cling to the dubious promises of a con man, switching their allegiance from the 3% to the 1%. If they've finally caught on and exchanged their rabid social watchdog vote to "what's in it for me?," why would they trust a one-percenter billionaire with a history of pathological greed, dishonesty, and narcissism? He's already thrown them under the bus trying to steal their healthcare. They might want to exchange some of that hope for a dose of critical thinking.
4
What is impotent about the GOP? With the assurance that only a seemingly inexhaustible supply of money can beget, behind the scenes and in all states across the nation, the GOP is stealthily achieving all its most important goals for future decades. the GOP's ultimate prize is the fragmentation of California into three states. Not only is it achievable, but once the deed were done, it would clinch for the GOP every subsequent presidential election.
Unless, of course, we finally make up our minds to banish the Electoral College from our political landscape, to clear the path toward becoming a democracy worthy of the name.
9
I think that their is considerable anger to go around. Bernie Sanders tapped into that on the left. After 4 years of trump-pence expect considerable anger on the left that cannot be smoothed over by Schumer and Pelosi. I look for a young upstart in the Sanders mold to take the Democrats presidential nomination. The DNC elite will be powerless.
2
The GOP is not at all impotent - they could start by instigating impeachment proceedings in the House. The Senate could neuter Trump's efforts to start a war with N. Korea by insisting on a true interpretation of the war powers act, which does not cover non-9/11 related aggression. Either of these efforts would gain quick bipartisan support.
8
Yes,well said! If only we had a president and congress who cared about ALL Americans! But we do not. All the republicans & trump care about is erasing everything Obama did,as if they could erase the memory of him itself. They can't and won't. It is really time to look at our country and consider secession. I know that's a dirty word but how can we continue like we are? I live in the northeast. We think differently here. Trump does not represent us. Yes,there are Trump supporters but they should move to Alabama,or Missouri. The west coast is the same as the northeast. Let the republicans have the south and the middle,and parts of the west. Until that happens,we need to support the Democratic Party and change what we can.
4
This morning I reviewed online some of the many current congressional dysfunctionalities, and then opened my book. "Siddhartha gave his full attention to these affairs, and he came to understand that the political, economic and military problems that beset any kingdom had their roots in the selfish ambitions of those involved in politics. Concerned only with protecting their own power, it was impossible for them to create enlightened policies for the common good." Huh.
12
I was stopped by first point - republicans don't read the NYT? Bullshit!!! I learned in history class with Mr. Morse at Kent school that you need to read the NYT every day, it is the paper of record. Everyone who has a brain HAS to read the nyt. sorry bret, you are now part of the paper of record. Try to live up to these ideals, not down to you wall street journal roots..There is TRUTH TO THE CLAIM THAT republicans don't read the NYT, and bret is just promoting a myth. a FOX news myth..Try to be honest Bret..You have a far bigger platform now than the insulated wall street jourrnal. The NYT has a history of good reporting (blighted as it recently has been it survives because there is NO OTHER) It is still the paper OF RECORD, and you and I both know ALL the Goldman Sachs type jerks read it, EVERY DAY!!!
10
sorry, should read, 'there is NO truth to the claim that repubs don't read the nyt. NO TRUTH...Stop apologizing for your presence at the Paper Of Record, Bret, and TRY to live up to EVERYBODY reading every word you say unlike the conscripted by Wall street wall street journal.
6
In happened on the left in the 1960s, and now it is happening on the right in the 21st century.
Whether right or left, there are times in political history when it becomes moderates versus extremists. This is such a time. The right-wing political extremists have been in charge for quite awhile, and are becoming more extreme and determined to push the GOP moderates out. Why?
Moderates in both parties are generally cooperative, democratic, practical types and believe the art of politics is fairness and compromise--everyone should get a little something to make the system work. The Democratic Party is mostly made up of moderates.
Extremists are angry, willful, authoritarian types, who demand ideological, purist politics. They are irritated and impatient with boring moderation, balance, and giving anything to the opposition. Highly rejecting of alternative views, no compromising is allowed.
Susan Collins is an example of a moderate in the Republican Party, but thanks to billionaire funding, Citizens United, and GOP gerrymandering, there is hardly a handful of effective moderates in the GOP today.
The right-wing extremists have taken over the GOP and dominate, but because they are so ideological, rejecting views even close to their own, angry and uncompromising, they pick fights with anyone who refuses to accept their purist beliefs. The result is factions, conflict, and dysfunction. Trump, Bannon...
The question is how do we get back to moderation in our politics?
6
When the Republicans' country-club elite--dreaming of plutocracy--hatched the Southern Strategy, they thought they could control the rowdy anti-Civil Rights faction they brought into the party. They kept stoking the anger of those folks with racial dog whistles and developed a whole media echo chamber to magnify that appeal. Some 40 years later, Bret Stephens and some others of the Republican establishment are stunned by what's happening. But like all those who make pacts with the devil, the Republicans failed to anticipate the power of what they were unleashing.
8
Disagree with your well written, spirited, witty commentary on 2 points. First, Bill O Reilly is an "idea guy,"and his summary that ultimate goal of the left is to destroy the Constitution is a thesis that even you, in your heart of hearts, agree with, at least that is my hunch. Daca is illegal, since c-in-c's responsibility is to enforce federal law, which DACA is in violation of.California's prisons are overcrowded, and vast numbers of "detenus" r illegal felons and should be deported. But will they? No, because illegal immigrant lobbies and their attorneys are standing in the way.Assault on white, Christian civilization is ultimately an aggression against the Constitution itself.I am not an "ethnic nationalist,"--that is the province of the Dem. Party, and Juliana whom I helped to get here from Ghana says "You're the man," and our son, Alister Hall calls me Daddy Alex, which makes me immensely proud.But, "en meme temps,"I believe that our way of life and our system of laws should at all costs be preserved.This country was founded, made great by many different ethnic groups, but above all by our forefathers from the British Isles. There's room for everyone here, but let us not forget the Founding Fathers and the inviolability of the Constitution!It protects everyone!
1
Trump and the republicans have boundless contempt for the American people and the American nation. They think we're stupid; they think democracy is for losers. Their continued efforts to kill the ACA without an alternative that will not drastically hurt the American people after three attempts prove this. Their willingness to foul the air and water in the interests of corporate profits prove this. The new "tax plan" and their blatant lies about whom it will benefit prove this. Their failure at adequate and timely relief for the people of Puerto Rico proves this. While Stephens bemoans the demise of the republican party, I grieve for the degradation of the American nation by that same party and its alleged leader.
11
It's suddenly clear. The opposition party is in charge and still in opposition.
13
With control of the White House and both houses of Congress, plus its powerful control in many states, the Republican Party now has the freedom to fully express its true character.
9
Okay, Bret. I’m thinking real hard to imagine I’m a Republican. Nope. Probably won’t happen. Why? Because in its zeal to govern, it forgot there were others who run the range of disagreement from mild to severe. They could successfully manage this if they’d had an ounce of humanity and tried to find a middle ground for all of the nation’s ills. If Trump could admit that he lost the popular vote and gin up some degree of humility he might be able to, shudder, actually be a decent president. By ignoring that there are some of us who don’t see issues the same way he does, he’s crippled himself and the GOP. This will not happen on the all-or-nothing path the party has selected. So, no thanks. I’m hopeful some degree of reason will prevail.
8
Perhaps much has to do with the untended consequences of living in the computer age?
It has become so easy to promulgate lies and propaganda that it is no wonder that the ignorant and uneducated have discovered what they believe is some sort of enlightenment. Many also keep an electronic version of a so-called pocket constitution on their phones for the purpose of defining their new found self importance and justifying their anger (and fear).
Obviously the far right has done a good job of organizing their newly minted puppets, as well. But it appears they are on a path to self destruction. Hopefully they will not take the rest of us with them!
9
On "60 Minutes" last week, Oprah talked with regular Americans about the state of politics today. One person talked about his joy in seeing " Trump shaking things up" - we've heard variations of that many times before. But I ALWAYS think, "Well, what about AFTER that????" Trump supporters never seem to have an answer for that!!
12
I don't care about the health and survival of the Republican Party or similar revanchist right-wing parties across Europe. I do care about the health and survival of their societies.
When an institution as nasty, enraged, incapable of governance, and just plain "bad" (your word) as the Republican Party holds the full reins of power in a democratic republic, it likely will destroy that nation.
11
“Republicans stand for raw, unbridled evil and greed and ignorance smothered in balloons and ribbons.”
― Frank Zappa
People love the balloons and ribbons. People who vote for the GOP believe any lie as long as you wrap it in red, white, and blue. Isn't that what Trump, Bannon, and Ryan/McConnell do? Trump wants you to salute the flag, but if collusion is proved....he really was spitting on the flag. Just saying.
9
I hope the leaders of my party, the Democratic Party, is reading this. I might suggest to them, that I hope they have not become so enamored of their power within the party that they fail to welcome new ideas, emerging leaders, and young people in general. I hope they can seize the moment, not just to solidify their own power, as McConnell and Ryan did under the Obama administration, but to build a truly functional coalition.
7
Not to worry.The Democrats won't stand for anything.
2
Right now they stand agains Trump. What has Trump done away with: Environmental protections, Wall Street oversight, destroying Obamacare, women's rights, Rural business coop service, rural water and waste disposal, single family housing loans, minority business development, 21 Community Learning Centers,Comprehensive Development Grants, Teacher Quality Partnerships, Health Professionbs and Nursing Training Programs, Low income Home Energy Assistance programs, Flood Hazard Mapping and Risk Analysis (just before Harvey mind you), National Wildlife Refuge funds, OSHA Training Grants....Too many to list. While you were sleeping this is what Trump HAS accomplished so far. Hope your drinking water, your prescriptions, your schools don't tank. The Democrats have fought this, but when the GOP Congress controls and the voters cheer Faux News and THEIR reports, you would never know. Wake up.
8
I enjoyed this intelligent column not least for the presence of two terms previously unfamiliar to me: Dolchstosslegende (the stab-in-the-back myth, for those of you as ignorant as I was) and fissiparous (inferable from context - inclined to cause or undergo division into separate parts or groups). Stephens nicely diagnoses the split between winning and governing, which we have seen before among the Democrats. It appears that there are many emotions one can tap to win, but governing requires rationality.
15
Yes, "Dolchstosslegende" and "fissiparous" were also new to me.
What a mighty Thesaurus Bret Stephens possesses!
2
Long before this devolvement, the GOP morphed into a pure marketing enterprise. The leaders were systematically replaced with cheerleaders.
11
Calling Paul Ryan a "numbers nerd" is an insult to nerds everywhere -- numbers from true nerds add up. If Mr Stephens wants to take a break from currying favor by dissing Trump, maybe he can address the question of why no Republican proposals from health care to tax reform ever stand up to quantitative analysis.
20
There is a saying "If you get up with anger, you will sit down with a loss" which explains the latest trend in the Republican party. Moore of the same!
7
"Republicans always complain that government doesn't work, then they get elected and prove why"
-PJ O'Rourke
18
A British politician I once knew told me that the difference between the USA and Britain was that Americans believed in hope, while the British believed in maintenance. Hope, he added, is necessary for positive change; maintenance only breeds resentment and divisiveness. I fear that this distinction has become immaterial. Both countries are now devoted to the maintenance of creaky, outmoded norms (white power, Little England). With his egregious travel bans, assaults on environmental and financial protections, on healthcare for all, and racist antagonism to constitutional rights, Trump has shown his real motto to be not "Make America Great Again" but the inscription that Dante put on his gates to hell: "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."
6
simple...republicanISM, the right-side way of doing things has deteriorated as social sensibilities, if you will, were eroded by the gimmie of post war greed, pitting factions of republicanISTS (think guys on life rafts fending off the drowning) or individuals (think wolves fighting over kill) against each other.
why should republicans be any different from democrats, whose fracture cost them an election and the rest of the country, coming apart at the fraying seams of the "unum" that once held the "pluribus."
impotence? more like collapse.
ok easy to gripe, now what do do?
first, look away from all politicals, elected, identity, infotainement, and toward people who can, and actually do the tasks they are hired to do - soldiers (below command level), surgeons, ER staff, airline pilots, trapeze artists (no faking, no excuses) and, yes professional athletes, who, no matter where or why they kneel, deliver the best there in/on their fields once the whistle blows.
how to transfer that level of talent, commitment and discipline to washington? first clean out washington, really clean it, every elected, who doesn't quit, tossed withing one four-year cycle - instead, term limits, one per seat, no funding for reelection...we can attract and educate a generation of citizen legislators from the home of the brave and able, just the way we prepare the men and women who win in on in or on the field, with intensive basic training or, call it pre-season drill.
2
We have a Corporate controlled media that feeds Americans sound bites filled with emotion and no information.
If that dynamic ever changes, and it likely will not anytime soon, then perhaps we can get back to a state where facts trump (sorry for the word choice) emotion. Only then can we evaluate policy carefully, deliberately and in the best interest of our nation.
3
Unfortunately, facts are slippery, elusive, and highly subjective
I rarely agree with Bret Stephens, but even when I think he's totally wrong, I have to admit that he is a good writer.
"...economy is finally growing above the 3 percent mark."
You mean like the half dozen +/- times it did that under Obama?
You're reading/watching too much of the right wing propaganda press....still.
And, like with climate change, they are never accurate on the economy...by choice.
14
I think much of this columnists are over analyzing the state of the world affairs , anxiety over one economics future has nothing to do with such hatred vis a vis the one different ethnicly . The evil side of us ,being human ,have been waking up ; and the moral conscience which makes us civilized creatures is under assault: through out history whenever the word goes through this periods ,Terrible, terribles things did happen henceforth ;it's very painful to witness
1
Why do you still believe Paul Ryan is a wonk? He was finally tested on health care policy. When he handed in his test paper, all it contained was a few empty talking points.
12
@Lo
I too do not understand Bret's strange fascination with Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan couldn't pour wizz out of a shoe even if "how to" instructions were printed on the bottom of the shoe! Paul Ryan is far from a "wonk" - he is a "wonk wannabe."
4
Bret - the party is in disarray because Conservatives are, generally speaking, a backward looking and ignorant lot. There needs to be nothing more said about this issue.
12
Mr. Trump and his team are in chaos, one crisis after the other.
You'd think his hostility toward immigrants and prisoners of war, or that Access Hollywood admission would've been enough for Republicans.
But they never kept him from being their candidate, and have always just privately groused. And dream of tax cuts.
Not one will risk an opinion on the optics of this president heading off for yet another golfing weekend during accusations of ignoring the plight of Puerto Rico.
Trump isn't aware the U.S. Virgin Islands are still in dire need of hospitals, food, water, and electricity. Or is he?
Not only have Trump and the Republicans dropped the ball, people are concluding the response is racist.
7
Bret's GOP of old which he often pines for is caught between a rock and a hard spot. The big secret the GOP doesn't want everyone to know is the "anti-minority, anti-immigrant" faction isn't a "small group of people" as they often claim. It's is in fact now a huge portion of the GOP and party leaders would rather look the other way to keep votes and the party whole - rather than watch it splinter off into a neo-nationalist 3rd party. Well I got news for you- That's going to happen anyway.. and Roy Moore is paving the way.
5
And what does his GOP of old look like? How old is it? Nixon old? Bush #1 old? Not exactly stellar pasts.
I think what Brett and others like him (Brooks for example) are referring to is when Repubs and Dems actually talked to each other, and not at the vague "Other Party", or only to their pundits. Which the Repubs have been most guilty of in the rise of Fox News.
2
A brilliant and apt analysis by Mr. Stephens. Just as frightening as the spreading plague of the politics of anger is the unabashed ignorance of the politicians it elevates, exemplified here by Donald Trump and Roy Moore. Moore never heard of DACA and invents entire towns ruled by Sharia law. Crowd sizes, facts and historical persons are all fungible to Trump, who bends reality to his will. Science and the legitimate news media are threats to these men, as well as the learned habit of critical thinking. Let's not forget that the "fury factories of the right, from Fox News to Breitbart to Frontpage Mag" also churn out bizarre conspiracy theories that feed on paranoia and a desire to reject rationality in favor of a feeding an ever expanding toxic melange of junk ideas, made-up facts, and brutal, simplistic solutions to complex modern problems.
11
If a dangerous cartoon like Roy Moore makes it to the senate, other dangerous GOP cartoons will follow. And then it's all over for us. A minority of Americans united by racism, anti-intellectualism, and "religion" will have broken the United States. California and other blue states will secede. Yes, it can--and most likely will--happen here.
6
"Dominant parties often do that when they have little to fear politically from the nominal opposition party." Bingo! The spineless Democratic Party shares the blame for the infuriating perseverance of the Republicans. The short-sighted Democratic establishment has been too timid about mounting a true progressive challenge to Republican obstinance. Retaining their jobs and big money contributors is their first priority.
3
Michael...while the Dems are guilty of many things...in this case their guilt is their reliance that the System, and most Americans love of it, would prevail. That a person like a Trump would certainly lose, once his character was exposed, was enough of a defense for them.
They, and many citizens who sit on the sidelines, see the reality now, a Moore makes it worse. Dems just didn't believe how deep the racism, sexism, and religiosity was....they thought and hoped - like most of us, that while it existed it was much less then apparently it truly is.
Being optimistic isn't inherently a bad thing...only when it blinds you.
Imagine how worse it would be, how much sooner, IF the Dems didnt retain their jobs...no matter their reasons...?
Optimism isnt gone, its just taking a beating...from which it most certainly can weather and come back from...
3
It is worth noting that there was strong opposition by Republican governors to both attempts to repeal the A.C.A because they have to deal with reality.
Eventually, a Republican controlled state legislature turned against Governor Brownback.
That's the optimistic view.
On the other side Republicans in Oklahoma have allowed some school districts to cut back to four day weeks because of lack of funding.
3
Really the reason is straightforward and simple. One word. Gerrymandered.
Most Federal elections for Congress are now rigged in favor of the Republicans who have used their control of State legislatures to gerrymander most Federal congressional districts. The predictable result is almost all Congressional elections are decided in the party primary. That rigs the voting in favor of the most activist candidate able to get out the vote in the primary. A structural advantage for the extreme right and the extreme left that is the primary cause of our political gridlock.
People generally know that Federal elections are rigged (which is a major reason for low voter turnout.) Because our elections have been rigged Congress is no longer representative of the American people, as evidenced by the extremely low approval ratings for Congress. The US no longer has a legitimate elected government.
If we do not reform and fix the reapportionment process to ensure fair elections, then our Republic will end in dictatorship as the people demand action, but Congress is paralyzed.
5
The Left and the Right are equally angry--which rules out the hyperventilating media on the Right, for which there is no real equivalent on the Left. The questions are (1) why is everyone angry and (2) what is everyone angry at.
The answer to (1) would seem to be the frustration, like a child's, from ignorance and its attendant inability to get desired results. All those jokes from the 70s and 80s about the dumbing down of America have become home truths. Our elected representatives and appointed officials truly typify us: ignorant, anti-intellectial, and impotent.
The answer to (2) would be the usual difference of desired results. All those efforts from the same time to undermine the "system" and expand or eliminate the "canon" have destroyed the underpinnings of democracy: respect for others as the basis of civility and equality. Instead, we have substituted the infantile privilege of self-assertion and self-justification in all matters, with criticism of one's positions interpreted as an attack on one's person.
So ignorance, incoherence, and unconstrained individualism have created a mixture toxic, if not lethal, to a democratic state and civilized society. The next question comes from a children's story: who is going to put Humpty Dumpty together again?
2
Mr Hays.I would add, the rise of "narcissistic subjectivity" on the Right. Inserted by men like Gingrich,who convinced a great deal of Americans that their personal opinions were more valuable then facts. Facts derived from objective means....like the sciences, and math based disciplines.
A common refrain in the current culture, esp.among those who vote Repub.
"I dont believe that."
Why?
"Because I don't have to, and I don't need facts to back me up."
So Trump said,X,Y and Z...
"I dont believe it."
Or the flip side to that coin; So because only Trump said A,B, C its true?
"Yup!"
Hard to counter that...might be down right impossible...
Narcissistic subjectivity.
3
" suppose you're a republican ". Suppose YOU aren't. You seem like an intelligent, interesting young Man. What's the attraction to the dark side?
Family tradition, childhood trauma, or a niche that fits, and pays???
Really, I'm curious and wish to learn. A trait of most Democrats.
8
Strange op-ed.
Try to ask yourself what its main argument is, and you'll see that unfortunately that's impossible, because there isn't.
Fox News,and Breitbart (or equivalents) don't exist in Germany, France or Great-Britain, and polls show that the local populations over there are much better informed than the US GOP electorate.
So IF Stephens' point is that the GOP can't govern because they've been lying too much and for way too long, he's of course repeating the obvious, but then you cannot link what's happening here to what's happening in Europe. And then of course, there's absolutely nothing "strange" about the GOP's "impotence" either.
Or does he want to argue that the problem with the GOP and conservative parties in the West is that they don't have any intellectuals anymore? If yes, that's true too, but that clearly doesn't prevent Merkel or May to govern, whereas the GOP can't, so again, it's no explanation for the GOP's impotence.
Conclusion: it's columns like this that underscore the GOP's weakness, and that distinguishes it from all other conservative parties in Europe. Stephens wants to see himself as a "moderate", yet calls Ryan - known for his lack of serious math skills - a "number nerd", and then throws Paul (who has always been consistent when it comes to his libertarian ideology, even when unpopular) together with Lyin' Ted, who hasn't any backbone at all.
The GOP can't govern because Republicans today are trained in only one skill: rhetoric.
5
With any luck, this will kill the current Republican Party.
6
Simply put, Republicans are pursuing winner-take-all class warfare within their own ranks. Though Trump and his financial backers are the perfect exemplars of this absolute selfishness, his middle and lower class devotees astonishingly seem not to understand that they are mere cannon fodder for the aspiring and avowedly anti-democratic plutocracy. At best, and it seems to be enough, some loyal and complicit factotums may become lower-tier vassals. Blatant ward politics at the national level is not pretty and it is destructive. Coattails, not country, become more important.
7
There were a few structural defects built into the Consitution that, at this late date in its history, have, under pressure from the dark side of human nature, manifested in almost total disfunction in our society.
Maybe the greatest was the formal accommodation of human slavery and so the "compromise" of the Electoral College, which, despite the professed idelas of popular governance, removed power from the voters and institutionalized unfair, and now grossly-distorted, representation. It was supposed to prevent the ascendance of a president who was unacceptable to the elite of the time, to keep power once-removed from a distrusted mob of voters easily swayed by lies and emotion or which might, in their ignorance and gullibility, elect a tyrant or an incompetent buffoon. But though it served marginally well for decades, the original crack of illegitimacy formalized by our founders has grown and finally fractured govenment and society and produced exactly what it was intended to preven t-- we have a president both buffoon and tyrant.
So the dark side of human nature has widened and exploited the fracture and has finally destroyed the semi-noble attempt at designing a form of quasi-self-governance.
A new attempt by humans, now all-to-aware of our defects, to formalize a humane, workable, rational and just system is in order. But, with Limbaugh, Fox, the bottomless immorality and corruption of Trumpism, it probably won't happen here.
9
The Electoral College failed us because we let it devolve from men who were educated and capable of seeing what might come from the orange haired President, into a bunch of rubber stamps that haven’t the intelligence or spine to do what the institution was designed to do. Plain and simple.
1
It seems what the party is going through is an analog of entropy, or maybe the kind of thing that happens when an organism is fighting off disease—a lot of very unpleasant activity, fever, chills, etc., that precedes either death because the organism is overwhelmed, or a return to equilibrium.
However, if it is more akin to an auto-immune disorder, this kind of analogous disease activity could go on indefinitely without the intervention of some kind of anti-inflammatory agent. Or the neutralization of the cause of inflammation.
4
What major societal problems have Republicans offered solutions to over the past 40 years? Their sole focus has been on conferring greater wealth and power on the wealthy and powerful. They have been inordinately successful at solving this "problem", and they can't agree on their next target.
More and more powerful guns in civilian hands, perhaps?
Fewer family planning options for the poor?
Ensuring that Shariah law does not make greater inroads into American society?
A renewed focus on Hillary Clinton's emails, maybe?
Or Benghazi?
Determining Obama's birthplace?
Preventing athletes from taking a knee during the national anthem?
Preventing flag-burnings?
Bringing back school prayer?
Making sure transgenders don't use the wrong bathroom?
Making sure they don't serve in our armed forces?
Yes, with their attention focused on issues of such urgency and salience, it's truly surprising that Republicans appear so impotent.
12
Impotence of American government today whether GOP or Democratic party?
The big issue appears to be that founding documents, the legal system, bureaucracy, cannot deal with millions of citizens broken up into various identities racial, ethnic, religious, cultural, national. America has made significant progress assimilating people in the sense of breaking down their previous national and cultural origin, but race, ethnicity, religion seem pretty resistant, and today there is a lot of anger, each group feeling it is being persecuted when really why would anyone respect another person's race, ethnicity, religion, culture and nation in an increasingly globalized world?
The fundamental identity of any group of people appears only valuable to itself, to other people it is just exasperating. In America, for example, you have white protestants, catholic hispanics, black people, jewish people, asian people and so on, and each group feels persecuted when these groups are in fact relatively meaningless to each other, offer nothing really of value to each other in economic or identity sense.
Everybody knows people must interbreed beyond current racial and ethnic categories and that religion must decline and that cultures and nations must bleed into each other, but everybody slyly acts in their own group interest and everybody feels fundamental identities can be preserved in some sort of ramshackle U.S. Constitution/legal/bureaucratic state--a political solution.
Good luck America.
2
One quibble -- this is not new. Fox News has been on since the mid 1990s in our cafes, waiting rooms, and living rooms, searing anger and divisiveness into Republican brains. Where once upon a time Republicans would compromise, now one can't even have a civil conversation around the dinner table: Republicans have been taught to laugh at and shout down those who disagree, including their wives and their children. For the blight it has been on our democracy, our society, and even our families, I hope the Republican Party fails.
13
The Republicans, like Trump, gamed their way into power on the back of a misled minority.
Why wonder they have no ideas? Can't just sell spite and call it progress.
Fail.
10
The GOP is particularly well-suited to impotence in governance. They have spent the past forty years with only two unifying ideas: Trickle-down is one. The other is sowing disunity for political advantage.
Debt and unpleasant, costly cuts always result from their economics. The people suffer from stagnant wages, tax inequities and the bust that inevitably ends the fiscal charade.
The disunity has hurt us all too. We have watched the rise of hate groups, the use of hate and abuse to shame and blame, the division of the people into us and enemies.
But it hammers and hampers the GOP from within. The purity party within the GOP wants purity - nothing less. They are stuck in opposition, and given their lack of Democrats to blame for their impotence, they blame their own leadership.
The GOP leadership hoped Trump would bring something saleable to their marriage. Trump expected it as the dowry the Republican Party would bring. What they ended up with is nothing.
It is a shell of a party. It is incapable of good deeds, particularly good deeds in service of the nation. They search for victories with their tired agenda. Content must pass a purity test that tests for the perfect.
This is likely to get worse.
Trump loves dissension when he's not winning.
This will likely get much worse.
4
The leading objective of the Republican Party since Reagan took office is to decrease, diminish and decay government. Their major premise that government isn't the solution; government is the problem.
Therefore, controlling the government is the best way to reduce it, and choking government is a fine way to be rid of it.
To destroy competent government, electing incompetence suffices.
7
Mr. Stephens gives us another bashing of the extreme right by the more moderate right. These hand-wringing "principled" conservatives are all over the mainstream media these days, lamenting the moral foundering of the Republican Party. My question is, where were they all these years when the extremist conservatives were on the rise? Did they warn their party then about Limbaugh and Ingraham, about unhinged anger, about intolerance and the playing of the race card, about the takeover of the South by a racist GOP? No, they spent all their time attacking liberals. They have reaped what they have helped to sow. My message to Stephens, Brooks, Will, Gerson, Rubin, Parker and all the rest is: too little, too late.
8
Bill Clinton once admonished us Democrats to remember that Republicans, both Congressional Republicans and their assumed-to-be-useful fool now in the White House, don't believe in government. They are Chaucer's "market class", and they think the market is the only viable solution for everything.
6
Mr. Stephens, I enjoy your columns, welcome to the NYT. However, you lose credibility when you refer to Paul Ryan as a "numbers nerd", implying that he knows what he is doing when it comes to fiscal issues. Ryan has yet to propose any budget close to be being based in reality. Again and again he shuns facts and economic realities in his proposals. Then defends them with half truths and lies. I lean left, but do enjoy your writings very much.
7
Bill O’Reilly, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham do not communicate rage as much as they communicate hate. They defined "liberals" as "the other" and by characterizing "liberals" as haughty, well-educated nanny's who want to tell "real people" how to lead their lives they spread the anti-intellectualism that now defines the GOP. Hatred is toxic in politics. You cannot negotiate with people you hate... but you might be able to negotiate with people you disagree with. By spreading hatred these so-called "opinion journalists" are telling their listeners and viewers that their way is the only way and anyone who disagrees with them deserves scorn. I offer the booing of John McCain's name in AL as Exhibit A in making this case.
11
"What’s new is the existence — and metastasis — of the fury factories of the right"
Sort of. The existence of propaganda outlets is not new, but their ascent to the top of the major media mix is.
And that is directly a result of Reagan's FCC doing away with the equal time rule and the Fairness Doctrine, which used to ensure that any reader or viewer of major media would get at least some balance in their information diet.
Without such common sense rules, there are wide swaths of voters who simply don't even know what's actually going on in Washington. If Fox, for example, were required to occasionally report (or have a commentator who did) even a few basic facts about the scandals currently subsuming the Administration, many - though not all - Trump's base would quickly learn to choose more wisely.
7
Dolchstoss indeed! Many tempting ideas; superb writing. Don't see this print intelligence often these days.
Longing for someone/thing to give Donald the alte dolchstoss.
2
Your assessment of our current imbroglio seems on the mark, accurately diffuse in the sense it obeys to multiple sources of anger, despair, inequality, and loss of trust in our institutions (establishment)...and trust in each other, to the point of cynicism. We know that our elected 'unrepresentatives' are self-serving, partly because they have not been elected squarely by the popular vote, and gerrymandering is what keeps democracy at bay...unless the Supreme Court has the courage to right a wrong. And having 'chosen' a vulgar bully, and most incompetent, professional liar, to 'guide' us at the White House, crooked racist Trump may now follow his instincts towards self-enrichment (just look at his tax cuts' proposal) and annihilation of politics as we know it, in spite of having a majority in numbers (but scant and spiteful in spirit). The republican party, and its propaganda arm, Fox Noise (among others), are miserably smallish in their willingness to serve the people, lost in their internal combustion...and spewing poisonous contaminants in our political environment (fear, hate and division). But then again, it would be foolish to expect an edible fruit from a poisonous tree. We are harvesting what we sowed, and some smart folks might even adventure to say 'well deserved'.
5
Lets see if I have this correctly - Brett, usually logical a analytical writer, implies (in the guise of humor) that Republicans do not read the NYT's . I guess as a liberal , progressive Democrat - should cancel my subscription to the WSJ today. Its Brett's next 'premise' that got me though.
I have never been a fan of John McCain - but Stephens implies that both McCain and Collins - 'stabbed' the Party ( GOP) in the back , because they are " of self-infatuated G.O.P. moderates..supposedly more concerned about their reputation on the Sunday talk show circuit than with the welfare of their constituents back home. "
Stephens of all people , who knows better than most about crafting a sound argument - really believes A) that Collins and McCain did not take principled stand on health care - i.e that the health care proposal was actually GOOD for their constituents , and B) that the implication of stabbing the Party in the back - implies that they should have voted "Party" above and inspire of principle ( I guess he already argued they do not have principles - but Party first? Really Brett?)
This is a somewhat good piece, marred by yet again Brett's digression into personal, ad hominem attacks ( see his previous columns)
The further point of the argument - is that the Republican Party is marred by the power they hold and outliners of hate ( Fox, Hannity, Levin, Ingraham , Bannon, Mercers, et al ) that have infiltrated the "Party", when in point of fact that IS the PARTY.
5
"The high-toned explanation[:]...the establishment...has failed to address the anxieties and disgruntlements of the base"
Translation: The World keeps gaining in freedoms and knowledge (anxieties)... Repression-Regression is not working, nor is simple Stagnation (disgruntlement).
3
Once again, Bret, your little screed misses the mark. The GOP's problem is not one of flawed candidates, politicians, congress people, president. Rather, it is one of hideously flawed ideas and policy prescriptions. Somehow, I doubt you'll ever come to terms with that.
9
My long dead mother, of The Greatest Generation, used to say that the Republicans and Democrats are all crooks. The only difference is that the Democrats left a few crumbs on the table for the rest of us.
3
The failure of Republicans to govern effectively is not simply a matter of mentality. It is also, increasingly, a matter of policy. Truth is that most Americans, including many who voted for Trump, do not support traditional Republican policies.
How do we know this? Simply consider the fate of the innumerable attempts to repeal the ACA and the current polling around support for the Republican tax “reform” plan. Republicans no longer are able to effectively pretend that no healthcare is better than imperfect healthcare or that deficit funded tax cuts for the rich will raise the living standards of the many. So in a sense, this is at least partly about ideas.
While Republicans seem to control government, we know that this control is unrepresentative of America, as Michelle Goldberg so accurately described in these pages earlier this week. Structural, constitutional, and legal factors may permit Republicans to remain in power for many years, but they will not turn obviously bad ideas into good ones, and they cannot camouflage majority opposition.
By continuing to aggressively prosecute their unfair advantage only for the benefit of the party elite, Republicans in Congress will continue to sow confusion and anger, if not revolt. It is hard to imagine these dynamics leading anywhere good.
9
So, the question is, are we smart enough as a society to see what's gone wrong and to fix it before a disaster happens, or will it be necessary to learn the hardest way: mass violence and destruction --- civil or international or both.
1
When columns like this focus on the inability of Republicans to govern the country or themselves, they're asking the wrong questions.
As the fear party -- fearing minorities, immigration, Democrats, imaginary conspiracies, crime, regulations, taxes, globalism, etc. -- the Republican right wing isn't in business to govern. That was never the point. Take a closer look at Fox News, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Breitbart, the Koch brothers, et al.
The purpose is profit -- check the Fox News bottom Line, Bill O'Reilly's bank account, the Koch brothers's finances, Trump's tax returns (right...) Fear sells products and advertising and fuels direct marketing campaigns for survivalist gear, guns, freeze dried whatever, gold ingots and helps fund-raising that, in turn, supports more fear campaigns.
The fear industry is doing fine, thank you. As for governing? That's way down on the list of priorities.
8
Maybe the Republican base is starting to realize that the party has become about tax cuts for the rich and crumbs for everyone else.
6
"We are living in an era of party failure, especially on the right."
Not true!
The purpose of the Republican Party to keep the Democratic Party from accomplishing anything. All other purposes are secondary (or tertiary) to the Republicans.
When we look at polls showing strong support for Trump and his record to date, we see that the Republicans are delivering on their main promise to their base: no more Democratic Party success.
So you should be fair, and give the Republican Party its due praise.
4
Perhaps they don't govern because they don't want to govern -- the ultra-reactionary wing of the Republican Party (you know, the part that includes 49 our of 52 Senators) believes in destroying our government. They have promoted hostility to government for decades, and now the emerging Republican true-believer destroyers are going to do what the Party has promoted for decades: refuse to fund the government at all unless they get their way, defund all services other than police and military, and transfer the "savings" to "the people" -- meaning the top tenth of the one percent who fund the crusade and mean to get their money's worth.
5
Actually it is the impotence of both parties, as one cannot even win elections while the does and cannot govern. Both are exhibiting signs of cracking wide open as neither seem to acknowledge that it is class issues that a lot of members of both parties actually have in common. Globalization and inequality have taken their toll in both rural and urban areas, but both areas have chosen instead to cling to issues driven by their values and ideology instead of their reason. We get the government that we deserve.
2
I agree with Mr. Stephens that the rage-stoking right-wing media has played a major role in getting us into this mess (because we're all stuck here together), but I think he is missing the elephant in the room when it comes to Republican's current difficulties: Unpopular and often unworkable policies.
There may be some conservatives out there who believe that the GOP's ongoing attempts to repeal the ACA and cut taxes for the wealthy are somehow good policy for this moment in time (I'd like to see them make an honest case!), but no one can argue that they are popular policies.
Whatever the 2016 election represents, it was not a cry from the heart of the American people to effect a massive transfer of wealth to the wealthiest. It was not a heartfelt demand to gut the services that so many Americans rely on, in states both red and blue.
The irony is that Republicans will lose even if they win. This was especially true of healthcare, where the lies behind the legislation (especially Graham-Cassidy) would have quickly become clear once it was law. But it is also true of tax cuts, which won't much benefit most Republican voters or the economy, but which will enrich the swamp dwellers (esp. Trump and his cronies).
Honestly, can anyone provide an example where the Republican party has a well-thought out domestic policy idea that is workable (sound policy), distinct from Democrats, and popular? On literally any topic? (and not ideologically-based, like anti-abortion).
8
I greatly appreciate the clarity in Stephens' piece and, as an unrepentant logophile, the use of such extended vocabulary. Looking up definitions is a delightful way to increase one's ability to speak to the point, in the leanest fashion.
1
Most of what the Republicans have to offer their own base including the independents do not want. Not the mention the Democrats. This is why they are having trouble passing any legislation.
Former Republican driven away from the Republican party.
3
Bret Stephens has it almost right except he doesn't take his argument about what is fueling the anxieties of the world's citizens far enough. It's not just globalization, immigration, and changing social mores, and it's not just the 'fury factories' ability to whip that anxiety into a conflagrations of anger and fear.
There is something deeper that's fueling those emotions and there's no political solution, as yet, that can address them in any meaningful way. We are now, all of us in this world, in the throes of a massive sea change with regards to the environment in which we live. The tipping point has been reached. The time to have acted has passed us by and we now, on every level in which we have interacted with our earth, have to reap what we have sown.
That's what we're really frightened of. We know it in our bones and in our DNA, and we also know how impotent we all are in the face of it. With no way out, we turn on one another. Fear turns to anger. We make enemies of people we disagree with. We stop looking for solutions to our real problems and fight over issues that are moot because fighting is all we have left. It feels like we're doing something. We're not.
There are, of course, many ways to rise to the challenges that face our world. But I don't see the vast majority of people, especially those in the wealthier parts of the world rushing to embrace them. The tape will have to be played to the end before they give 'this' up. So be it. Too bad.
3
"Opinion journalism is meant to influence and inflame, and it does. Especially in an age in which civics is taught poorly (and, increasingly, rarely), people are politically suggestible." I agree.
There are many older Americans who no doubt never learned civics even when it was taught. Now, there are many younger Americans who have not learned civics because it has not been taught.
To learn civics, one must study history, political science, philosophy, literature, etc., which compose what at least formerly was called liberal arts.
Today, young people and educators are encouraged to focus on STEM subject, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. That's where the money is. But STEM does not teach social skills, social values, or almost anything to do with socialization. People matter.
That Trump and his wealthy White House sycophantic dance troupe espouse a neo-fascism that decries dissent or even contrary opinions without substantial objection evokes historical precedent of demagogic dictatorships, some of which are recent and some of which are not historic but are current. How do those who know not of these precedents have the information to recognize the formation of another?
Restating Santayana's famous warning may be trite but for the fact that it remains true. "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
6
The irony of course, of this entire piece is most certainly the puzzling fact that as 'impotent' as the inflammatory GOP is, they currently hold all or at least most of the deck cards. I say it says more about the declining educational substance and overall integrity of American voters than it does about any specific extremist and histrionic manipulator GOP politician.
When you have a party like the GOP, a party which has managed to offer up such dud leaders over the decades like an economy killing GW Bush, a recession resulting GHW Bush, a Duke educated criminal thief like Nixon, but worst of all, our most infamous job killing master of corporate welfare, Ronnie Boy, I honestly don't know who in their right mind would raise their hand willingly to say they're "Republican". My embarrassment for them and their antics has lasted nearly my entire life.
Yet, I watch as the 'other party' - does nothing. They are just as guilty- whether accidentally, or rather as I see it, by elitist subterfuge. They actually benefit financially from the many political policy irregularities and faceless pro-corporate laws these GOP'ers dream up and pass.
What to do for the rest of us who are forced to watch it unfold year after year. You got me.
7
"A tight-lipped numbers nerd like Ryan..."
A true "numbers nerd" knows 1+1=2, not 5 and there's no such thing in math as a "magic asterisk". You should read Paul Krugman, now THERE is a "numbers nerd" and he doesn't need a magic asterisk.
11
Being a modern day republican means maintaining a closed mind to reality and insisting that your way is the only way. In other words there is no longer any in-between. You are shallow narrow minded and expected to worship the ways of corrupt and socially challenged elitists. As long as your party is in control just look the other way when the reality is not good. Pretend no wrongs exist within the corrupt republican realm. Don't worry about nothing and nothing will be alright.
6
If there is one good thing that may come out of this illegitimate presidency is that it might kill the Republican Party. Kill it dead.
If the Supremes uphold Republican partisan gerrymandering and the Dems don't take back power in 2018 and this nightmare continues on and on into the future, I am seriously considering, at the age of 66, leaving. We're a crumbling empire and Trump and his henchmen are doing their utmost to destroy us.
5
I love your choice of "fissiparous" to describe the party of can't. I have, however, to take issue with the description of Paul Ryan as a nerdy numbers guy, as I have always been quite proud to be a nerdy numbers gal! The difference being that Ryan's calculations never add up! As a banker at the start of the computer age, I would have been fired many times over had I presented charts and plans as illogical and just plain wrong as the ones Ryan creates!
6
All of this is troubling, but quite typical of gangs and thugs throughout history. I am beginning to be utterly amazed that the United States of America has ever accomplished anything at all. Just amazed. Then I look at the deep south and how rural areas continue to languish, so deeply dependent on the federal government or God for anything, and too poor and exhausted to care. It's quite the ruse by virulent gangs of wealthy, white men and women. Trump is their raging clown who reaches out and changes their anger in very perverse and manipulative moves. It's startling to be exposed to this Presidential abuse every, single day. Republican voters, who have nothing, being led by Republican gang leaders who want for nothing, is today's biggest scam on planet earth.
6
Agree with Bret Stephens' points - he is definitely building up his intelligent conservative (an endangered species) credentials, his Fareed Zakaria GPS/Real Time with Bill Maher/MSNBC credentials, his NYT credentials (I really appreciate his opinions and analysis as NYT columnist with conservative views - a real step up from Lord Brooks or Father Douthat or Billionaire by marriage Friedman). He certainly is not going to be welcome at Fox News and Breitbart. But Bret leaves out the racism/white supremacy of Nixon/southern strategy, Saint Reagan/Philadelphia, Mississippi & black welfare queens, Bush I/Willie Horton, Bush II/McCain's black child. Also Saint Reagan's and Bush II's unleashing Christian Sharia. Saint Reagan told us government is the problem. And that Republican policies - healthcare (increase the number of uninsured), tax cuts (for super rich), man made climate change (denial), defense spending (unlimited), corporate welfare are all based on blatant lies and propaganda. Republicans win by using the race card, religious zealotry, fake patriotism, science/facts denial, always putting party ahead of country, fake news, con jobs. Also a citizenry absorbed by reality tv, fake news, social media narcissism, false outrage du jour. A neoliberal Democratic Party (still infinitely better than GOP) that abandoned working class. The end result is Trump, McConnel and Ryan incompetence and disaster.
7
Since the 1930s, the primary appeal of the Republican Party has been xenophobia. As the world's population has increased, hating those who are different in some way or other is going to get more deadly. The U.S. population is expected to double within the century, and at this point anyone who continues to vote Republican is simply a fool.
6
When historians look back on this time, provided we don't blow ourselves up they will point squarely to the demise of the Fairness Doctrine under Reagan and the rise of Rupert Murdoch. Humans are dumb herd animals and if you tell something often enough and loud enough they believe it.
6
The history of your Republican Party is that given enough rope it hangs itself.
3
Trump embodies this anger mill. There is no contemplation, no serious thought, it's a pure visceral response. "Athletes are kneeling....they hate America! How ungrateful!" There is no attempt to truly understand.
5
It would be nice to see you write a column without the gratuitous nasty jab at 'democrats.' Really, why is the mean, cutting aside a staple of your commentary? Perhaps there's an answer to the question of your column.
3
Ignorance electing ignorants to positions of authority. What could go wrong?
I'm willing to let the cannibalism run its course, Bret. Mother Nature always knows best.
1
Why do people identify with one party over the other? Many years ago, being a demo was an attractive association, as in "we're all in this together." Then the income gap gradually widened to the point that today if you don't live high enough on the hog to own a lot of stuff, you are a sorry loser. Watching the Clintons and Obamas bask in their wealth hasn't helped one bit!
Ten points for "fissiparous," Mr. Stephens. Ten points.
1
Talk about phonies, this guy Stephens is the poster child for Phonies.
The problem is the entrenched, crony, corrupt establishment politicians in both parties. When 7 of the top 9 counties in America are in or near Washington D.C., therein lies the problem. Follow the money. Our tax dollars get funneled through D.C. and all rent seekers have their hands out.
This is why, since the Tea Party movement in ‘09, the Reblicans have won all over the county. But, after 8 years, the party establishment is finally figuring out its is despite them, not because of them. Once the old bulls are pushed out or die out, America will succeed. It’s not Trump, but Trumpism.
2
Fissiparous? Were you a biology major, Bret? It took a long reach to drag that critter into a political polemic. It's been a long time since a NYT columnist sent me to the dictionary. Thanks, though, for not using some obscure French or Italian or German...uhh, scratch that last one...word or phrase that would force me to google the meaning.
2
Smart phone "look up" is a double edged sword, making it easy to define a word in a tap. But it also stops the reader in her tracks breaking the first rule of good writing. Remind me what this piece was about?
1
It's not party failure, it's social polarization. Fifty years of systematic disinvestment have eroded the manufacturing base that provided working class job security, and the so-called "information economy" turned out to be "financial industry economy" of vulture capitalists, mergers, private equity firms, and creative derivatives.
Social polarization was an unavoidable result, or else mere collateral damage, depending on your viewpoint. Wages have been stagnant for the wage-dependent, and job security has been in free-fall for decades, from the lowest levels to middle management and above.
When Democrats and Republicans used to work together, neither group opposed those economic behaviors and social trends. The Democratic party has been a business-friendly party throughout my lifetime, just as the US has been a business-friendly nation. The benefits to people have been incidental for a long, long time.
Now the Republicans have moved so far to the right that the Democrats have two choices: remain a center-right party or move to the left. Moving to the left is the only viable decision. Result: political polarization.
And so here we are.
4
“It can feel awfully good to be awfully mad.”
I’ve been spitting mad since the election of Donald Trump and it has not made me feel “awfully good.” I do not expect to feel anything resembling true joy until this man and his cruel and venal “crew” are out of the government and Rupert Murdoch no longer rules the airwaves. It can not happen too soon.
11
impotence ? - my first thought for the behaviour of greedy and selfish GOP - they may be thinking along the lines of 'as long as I get more money in my pocket, I don't really care what else you do' ...
2
Trump is the logical result of a party platform built of the quicksand of lies, not only about the opposition, but about what the GOP's true goals really are. And so, of course, Fox (and friends) ushered in the bigliest liar and mis-leader ever, with a bigger than ever sociopathic personality to match the hollowest of Republican political ideals.
Reagan started the whole false narrative of "the government is your enemy." The GOP rank-and-file bought that hook and sinker, forgetting the enshrinement of "We The People." Maybe when this whole Republican bait and switch historical farce led by the flim-flam hollow man comes crashing down on them, the People will remember that they ARE their own government--not its angry but acquiescent, abused victims.
5
Fox and their friends, the .01 % donor class - stoke their base with xenophobia and anger for their eroding economic positions. Lashing out, fearful and angry voters elect fearful and angry know nothing legislators. It's neither strange nor surprising to see both impotence but more importantly, incompetence.
6
Numbers nerd Ryan?
So you've also been fooled by their PR?
18
My gosh, what a pile of denial. Its not that Republicans cant govern, its that they dont want to! They want to destroy federal institutions not run them. I cant stand these pearl clutching, hand wringing "conservative intellectuals". That phrase is an oxymoron when the likes of this author, or Brooks or the National Review crowd back the Republican party of the the last 30 years.
11
I thought we had seen the last of Michele Bachman looniness - but now Roy Moore??? I thought the GOP had hit bottom - I was wrong.
19
Why does this analysis fail to address a central issue: the GOP is also in money thrall to a very tiny (0.1%) idiot elite whose interests are directly contrary to an increasingly adtivistic base?
This situation is a recipe for institutional paralysis at the top of our political economy - with confusion, despair and division in the rest of society. The potential for seismic extremism grows more foreboding every day. .
Jeremy Corbin rightly points out that, globalism, automation, and even (perhaps) climate change represent immense opportunities, but only if managed for society as a whole. The GOP has no vision of society as a whole - it only recognizes two irresponsible fragments who would be at loggerheads with each other even more than they are - if one knew the other's essence.
7
Perhaps a partial fix would be to allow the president to play more and more golf, take away his golf cart (he needs to walk more), take away his phone (or redirect his tweets to an empty bin)--keep him away from health care, tax breaks, and Puerto Rico. The whole nation might be better off--notwithstanding the implied sexual/political dysfunction of one of our major parties.
1
And have you looked in the mirror? Asked yourself why you have also risen at this particular moment to this public platform of significance? No parallel here?
2
Whether or not Trump and anger will destroy the GOP is a question only time will answer. The more worry-some question - will the GOP's struggles take America down with them?
4
That much of the Times' readership cannot view Stephens as someone Democrats should hope for in an opposing party and someone they should be able to work with is a blazing indication that Democrats themselves are one step away from the cannibalization afflicting Republicans.
4
The modern Republican Party was constructed within the Nixon Administration. The classical Republican Party was seen as, and acted as, the party of Business.. The power of the classical Republican Party was the money of Big Business. The power of the classical Democratic Party was the working class of a productive nation, along with the vitality of Small Business, especially from Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Administration through Lyndon Baines Johnson's.
Look up "Nixon's Southern Strategy" online. This was the turning point of America's actual exceptionalism. Despite all our national faults: existential racism, fulminating religious bigotry, and a Military-Industrial Complex (Please read Dwight David Eisenhower 's Fairwell Address to the Nation, January 19th 1961.) gone wild, the World generally loved us, envied us, learned from us, copied us.
But, Nixon initiated a cynical policy of shepherding those who saw themselves left out of the flow of the mainstream of America: racially reactionary voters disgusted and frightened by the Civil Rights Movement, Religious Fundamentalists who were shocked by the secularism and liberalism of the 60s in America, and others whose discontent was transactionable. This so called "Southern Strategy" worked to get him re-elected for a second term.... and started the ball rolling downhill, paving the way for the demagogue, Ronald Regan, and that cleared the path for what has become the Republican rape of liberal democracy.
7
The primary win by Judge Roy Moore in Alabama is a darkly ominous event and graphically illustrates the ineffectual essence of the Republican Party establishment. Roy Moore is the political version of the sheeted Southern night riders who terrorized the rural South. He terrorizes the Republican establishment, but will be embraced by fellow outlier Donald Trump. The gun toting Moore's homophobia and religious extremism, are atavistic relics from a darker time and place, but represent "political virility" to many in the Alt Right, who see the Republican Party leadership as effete, cynical, and impotent.
3
The glue binding all Republicans is disdain for the liberal elites.
A liberal "elite" is someone who tells the truth, someone who believes in science, someone who exhibits a capacity for empathy, someone who understands the social contract on which a democracy is based, someone who recognizes the intrinsic worth of every human, someone who is willing to sacrifice self-interest for collective benefit.
The disdain comes in many forms, from the crude, lying utterances of the president to the dulcet musings of op-ed columnists.
15
Excuse me what? Are you talking about government or a football game? Do you have any sense that there are real issues beyond the winning and losing? Maybe the GOP implosion has something do do with their lying, spineless lack of substance beyond diverting more wealth to the already wealthy? That's not a very inspiring rallying cry.
5
It’s your party, and we’re all crying, whether we wanted to or not.
1
The Party of No will continue to slither down the no path. It is a path well greased for them by their own lies which they believe, and the sound machines of radio and TV...a few print but I'm not sure they have time to read.
Meanwhile we have a growing amount of people who elect no party and then get angry because nothing gets done.
Sad
4
"Anger is an excellent emotion for pushing ratings and winning elections and a terrible one for agreeing to compromises and crafting legislation."
Absolutely spot on. But this problem does not belong only to the GOP. Anger is now the driving force behind politics on both sides of the aisle.
So how can either party rule effectively? To me, the answer is obvious. Neither can - alone. It seems that any President, to be effective, will need to mine the "unangry" elements from not just his/her party but both parties. Trump (remarkably) tried to do so on DACA, and perhaps will end up doing so on taxes and fixing the ACA.
We used to call these the "centrist" or "moderate" members of congress. Maybe now we can call it the "unangry" coalition.
1
I object to labeling the trigger of the conservative masses as "immigration." Unless immigration is the new word for racism, it's not an accurate portrayal of what is happening around the western world, on the right. Anti-globalization from the biggest capitalists around is due to both racism and a refusal to ever be on the short end of the stick in the revered "free market." Free as long as I am winning, yes. Democratic as long as you mean for whites.
A lot of words here but I didnt get much out of it. Sure, anger in the base, antiglobalism, cable news fear and anger mongering, none of this is news. But what does the party stand for? I am a lifelong Dem, and even I feel we should cut entitlements. Seems like a no brainer, and something Paul Ryan would be committed to, but nothing happens. I go back to FDR's great comment, the best social program is a job. Maybe they should start there and cut entitlements, actually reduce the deficit, and help the Trump voters get back to work.
2
You mention that the issue of Gerrymandering is for another column. Somewhere in this one you might have noted that all of this is coming from a party with total control that failed to win a plurality of votes. The fact that Hilary Clinton won 2.87 million more votes should never be overlooked. Given that this is not a majoritarian government and that this party seems unconstrained by any Constitutional principles, and the growth in economical inequality that neither party has dealt with, just where does this regime get legitimacy? We can see in regards to Putin's United Russia party that "managed" democracies, if you can use this oxymoron, can be stable. It is most clear to me that Trump is attempting to emulate that dictator. For those who remain in this party Im sure there will be rewards for your collaboration.
7
Your analysis is three-fourths correct. In addition to anger, we have it's faithful companion--fear. Those peddlers of hate, like Fox News and Breitbart, are really good at scaring the heck out of people and then pointing the finger at a scapegoat (immigrants, Black NFL players, liberals, gays, whatever).
Unfortunately these peddlers of hate and fear have done their job too well. Conservatives like my parents have been swinging wildly between fear and hate. It's kind of sad. They're comfortable and safe, but they are no longer optimistic or forward thinking. They fear people who don't look like them, and they are angry about whatever is happening on Fox News today.
And, they keep voting Republican, because they've been programmed to fear the Democrats and hate progressives (like myself apparently). It's really sad. Who really wants to live that way?
2
Despite being an independent progressive, some of my best friends are Conservatives.
What is happening is kind of like what I expected.
In College, I worked with the College Republicans locally on the Reagan campaign in 1980. Many active in the College Republicans & YAF (then Young Americans for Freedom) were blind ideologues and had no problem with scorched earth politics and bright line litmus tests. All or nothing, all the time.
That generation of active College Students are the core of the GOP today and they never grew up, politically. They are all about purity ( so & so is not a TRUE Conservative, because x...) and not much about long term change. They are also a fractious bunch.
The other thing is that many of them are like the Missouri River- a mile wide and an inch deep. Older Conservatives were well read, well educated, reasonably open minded, respectful of opponents, etc. Many of the young firebrands were all second hand knowledge: bumper sticker Conservatives.
On of my best Conservative friends from College was a guy who was an auto-didact who decided to go get his degree after he worked and saved up the money to go. A voracious reader, he was well versed in Liberal and Conservative thought. He read the Times and the Wall Street Journal and did not consider either the fount of evil. He listened carefully to political arguments and stuck to the numbers and historical record.
Where are such in D.C. among the Republicans today?
3
Republicans lack a guiding philosophy. No, really. They can trot out fine sounding values, but their action are not effected, nor even affected, by them: all posturing, never principle. So much criticism and obstruction of Democrats was justified by political ideals which are then found to be unimportant when critiquing a Republican. Our system of balances assumes that parties speak honestly to reconcile opposing ideas but the honest advocates in the Republican Party are now lost in the noise, and celebrity.
1
The reason Republicans can't govern is that governing is just not their philosophy--not in their DNA. Think about it. What are the great things that you most value about this country? Some examples would be, Social Security, Medicare, voting rights act, etc, etc. They are all liberal ideas. Republicans only know how to obstruct and destroy. That is what they do. You might say, "What about the interstate highway system under Eisenhower, and the EPA under Nixon. Well, the interstate highway system was an idea first promoted by liberals, and you can see what Republicans are now doing to the EPA. Until we can somehow get the populace to start voting in their own interest, we will see this country continue its decline.
2
Stephens: "Bill O’Reilly is now the right’s historian, Mark Levin its go-to legal expert, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham its moral conscience. These are not ideas guys. They’re anger guys."
An excellent explanation regarding why we have a "crazy uncle" in the White House.
2
Anyone who finds it "strange" that the Republican Party is in disarray hasn't been watching the last 30 years. The meltdown of that party has given us the horrific specter of a Donald Trump administration. Rivaling the tragedy of one American political party disintegrating is the bungling of the Democratic party which has been ineffectual in mounting any opposition.
Extremism is on the rise in both parties: Roy Moore, Bannon and his ilk on the right, Sanders and his cadres on the left. Political purity is their name, destruction of the polity is their game.
1
Trump and Moore are not Republicans in any historical sense of the word.
The Republican party's impotence results from a base that is more interested in halting the growth of America instead of governing it.
The Republicans are actually a minority party, thrust into office by subterfuges like gerrymandering and vote suppression and stealing a Supreme Court seat. Their margin for error is thin. And they have for years been telling their minority base things that are not true and making promises they cannot keep. This is a recipe for disaster for them and the country. They have made their own problems and pushing further into the corner of the racist , theocratic right is no solution for them. The country's majority (if not Alabama's) is better than that and ultimately will see through and reject them.
1
Mr. Stephens, as a former Republican who left the party in 1997, when Gingrich went nuts (not to mention all that's happened since), I am grateful that you've joined the Times as a columnist. This piece today is another good reason why.
And what would the GOP health bill have looked like in an ideal world? Nothing more than the dog's lunch it proposed each time it failed. Why? because the GOP is at war with itself and all they can come up with is an Edsel. They are a flock of angry old men, the a product of right wing media, a rabid dog chasing its withered tail. May they catch it squarely in their teeth.
Unfortunately for civilization, it is a lot easier to appeal to the worst in the average citizen than his or her "better angels," to stoke their anger and resentment rather than ask them to think and reason. This sorry truth about human nature has been endlessly exploited by the mendacious Republican Party, incited and abetted by nonstop ire-inducing Right Wing media. Together they have whipped up an ignorant and rabid mob of voters they can't win without but can't govern with - as the election of monstrous buffoons like Trump and Roy Moore and the ungovernable Tea Party caucus amply proves. I sorely wish it were only the Republican Party that bore the brunt of these cretins, instead it's all of us, the nation at large, and indeed the world. Thanks, GOP, you broke the government and we're all stuck with the consequences.
It's hard to feel sympathetic for the Republican leadership in Congress or the president. They can neither please nor satisfy their voters because for many years they have engaged in magical thinking with fairy tale promises that made those voters think they could become princes and princesses, go to the ball in a pumpkin drawn by mice/horses, and that it wouldn't all end at midnight.
"Tax cuts result in more money for the government." Right--and where does that magical money come from? Don't worry about that--we said it ten times so it must be true. "Mexico will pay for a big, beautiful wall." Right--and in a country so poor that their people come here to work illegally, where is the money for the wall going to come from? Don't worry about that--Trump said it and we take him seriously even if he makes it all up. He's rich so it must be true. "We'll repeal Obamacare with something better, cheaper and not named Obamacare." Right--and how will that new magic-care be structured? Don't sweat the details--it's complicated, mathy, you know, experts will do it all for us. And we said it for more than 7 years, so it must be true. Would we lie to you?
With impossible-to-fulfill lies about taxes, health and immigration that have been swallowed whole for decades, how on Earth can the Republicans hope to satisfy their crazy stupid base? Answer--they can't. Expect a lot of anger as reality sets in. And pass the popcorn--this coud be bloodier than Dirty Harry.
You've squandered the opportunity to put out a thought provoking piece on this unique situation. Smarminess never works well when you want to engage those whom may not agree with you but would like to discuss. This line...."to an audience prone to histrionics.".... have you noticed the Russia! Russia! Russia! histrionics on the left? Have you watched Rachel Maddow scream idiocies to her followers, the largest media audience out there? The Right is in disarray. But no more than the Left, arguably less so than the Left who just can't seem to get elected. Even with the full weight of the MSM as the official propaganda arm. And since the Left can't even see the opportunity given to them by a disorganized GOP future election prospects remain dim. You're going to suggest gerrymanding as the problem but you know it's Identity Politics that has given the Left too few votes to win. ssk Mark Lilla about it when he's hanging around your office.
The GOP doesn't realize it yet, but PACs and Citizens United are a big cause of their problems. When the uber-rich like the Koch Brothers, Mercers, Adelsons, Ricketts and the like give you tens of millions of dollars or more, they demand results and a return on their investment. They don't want you to govern in the best interest of the country or all of its people--they expect you to govern in the best interest of them.
The uber-rich would put their money into a political party of ferrets and weasels if they thought it would result in tax cuts and abolishment of all consumer protection regulations. But they won't keep pumping money into losers. If the GOP continues to fail at governing and does not produce results for them, they will find another bunch of rodents to back.
1
So we are a floundering country devoid of leadership and vision. We are a country running amok. Just put on your MAGA hat and keep dreaming. The light at the end of the tunnel has gone out,
Immigration? Why would anyone want to come to these shores anymore? Truly sad.
Bret Stephens writes: “But globalization, immigration and changing social mores have been with us for a long time without producing awful political outcomes.” Apparently, Bret Stephens has still not followed Dennis Prager's recommendation and read Douglas Murray’s The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam ”. He should.
Fissiparous? A new one on me. With that in mind one can split the Republican Party into those concerned about our republic and its governance and those who like to party. The latter love social gatherings, even if they have to get there on a government paid for plane.
Trump splits the atom into those for him and those against him. Some of his party buds are just as narcissistic as he is.so we can split the new world order into those who have done well with bad policy and those that haven't.
2
What you have in the GOP is actually two parties. We kissed the two party system good bye during the last election, if not before that. And with Bernie lurking in the wings, it could soon be four. My brother pointed out some years ago when I was bemoaning the travails of our two-party mess that I cast an eye toward France with its multi-party system. The gridlock becomes dysfunction, exactly what we have today.
It has been the end of a functioning institution, witness the Do-Nothing GOP Congress. The driving force behind the anger we see globally is the unfairness that these individuals feel when they see their futures and security undermined. This anger is very malleable and has been adroitly manipulated by the Right Wingnut propaganda machine to make them believe it is 'the other' (black, Muslim, Mexican, homosexual, liberal, etc.) that is responsible for their fate.
In reality, the real culprits who have caused this unfairness (inequality) in our system are the same people who have caused the 1% to hoard all of societies increased productivity over the past 37 years. More sunlight needs to be focused on these destroyers of civilized society or the destroyers will win.
2
Please thoughtful Republicans, vote Democratic. You know what you have in the Republican party, but you keep pulling the lever for them.
Lecturing on the "rage machine of Fox and Breitbart" isn't enough. Nor is saying you are now "Independent" although you keep voting for Republicans who go along with this nonsense.
4
Trump has just accused San Juan's mayor of "a lack of leadership"- the kettle calling the pot black if there ever was one. And projection of his worst flaws onto others once again.
Trump is just all of the worst elements of Republicans rolled into one big nasty package.
5
They simply don't know how to govern. They are good a complaining when they don't have power, but don't know what to do when they have it. Let's not forget they welcomed the nutty ones into the party in 2010 with the ginned up Tea Party foolishness. They once again took the uneducated and suckered them into voting against their own self interest once again./ Trum[p suckered them into voting for him. He says anything whether its true or not, but some his Stockholm syndrome base are catching on that he is unqualified
The GOP congress and certainly the POTUS don't even understand gov't. Trump would flunk 9th grade civics class.
1
GOP is a party against science, logics, common sense and decency. (1) Climate change: Based on the best efforts of scientists, climate change is most likely caused by human activities. But it is too "costly" to tackle the problem because the GOP coalition of interest groups all benefit from the business-as-usual. Government/tax payers will pay the clean-up bills afterwards. In essence, it is a robbery! (2) Moral high ground and God: Seriously, how can any reasonable person not turn off by this? Using the gay issue as an example, I an not gay so it "costs" me nothing to be anti-gay. Most importantly, if these people truly believe in God, who are they to judge and question the creation of gay people by God. If I follow their thinking, God has his/her plan and all I should do is to worship, celebrate and embrace. God is the only authority! (3) Gun control: Come on, GOP and NRA, please make some sense. Think gun control as equivalent of driver' license. (4) Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: The "surge" didn't work and it could never work long term. We all know it. Enough is enough. Just pack and leave. America should be first. Draining national treasure for the un-winnable wars only benefits certain interest groups. This wealth transfer should be stopped.
Finally, the western democratic institution is collapsing. The value of democracy is in doubt. America is losing the authority and leadership. We should all be concerned.
2
Perhaps I have been incurably naive for most of my political life but it used to seem to me that political parties existed primarily to govern. Winning was the means to get them there. Winning wasn't the end in itself.
Today in politics as the fabled Vince Lombardi once intoned, "Winning is the only thing!" Such a sentiment might work well in football; when the game's over, it's over. In politics, there exists that pesky interregnum between elections when the real stuff is supposed to get done.
With the ascent of the far right dyspepsia factories, the political base hardly cares about governance. As Mr. Stephens declared, "It can feel awfully good to be awfully mad."
Better to nurse the rage than to advance self-interest through voting. If, into this bargain, elite liberals get their noses bloodied so much the better. But the thing is, the base has to live with it's chronic fury 24/7, and without health care or fair taxation at that.
1
Revolutions eat their young. When a revolution fueled by rage stalls--for whatever reason--the call for even more rage, more extreme solutions seems inevitable. Don't just stop illegal immigration, build a wall, no, not only build a wall, make Mexico pay for it. Don't ban Muslims, outlaw Islam. The logic of this blind rage-organizing principle leads to what? Ethnic cleansing? Nuclear war with North Korea?
The Tea-Party-Freedom Caucus- Trump progression can only devolve into some virulent form of Fascism. Fortunately, the Susan Collins's , John McCains and Orrin Hatches and Lamar Alexanders's can remember a more civil tradition of debate, negotiation and compromise--in other words, they don't trust anger and outrage as a foundation for running government. The Democrats in both houses and the majority of citizens agree. This leaves it to the arcane ideologues (Rand Paul, Ted Cruz), religious fanatics (Mike Pence , John Kasichs) and inside power Mandarins (Mitch McConnells) to put their outlier ideologies and frankly strange ideas aside in favor of the civil tradition. This goes for Bernie and his confused call for "revolution" and "socialism", as well.
And Trump is too much a dullard and an incompetent to do anything more than himself into a corner of self destructive rage. He can only seek more fuel (NFL players are the latest) for his fire until it engulfs us all.
The one thing in common in the GOP is how to keep money in the hands of the monied driven by their wealthy backers.
Any doubts? Just look at the starting point of the GOP health care bills (3 x's!): how to rob our neediest of health care for tax cuts to the wealthiest. This goes for Trump's every cabinet pick.
--Tax reform? Tax cuts to the wealthy and a raising by 20% of the lowest bracket.
--Interior? Logging, oil drilling and coal mining in our nature parks.
--Health? A million dollars of private flights while cutting health care and health care information and access.
--Budget? Raise the deficit to give back to the wealthy.
--Infrastructure? Tax cuts instead.
--EPA? Destroy the agency and use the money for the paranoid and secretive head -- oh, include some private plane travel also.
--WH? Advertise and drum up business for Trump Hotel and properties. Oh, and give Sonny Boy and Ivanka opportunities to look for personal business loans, foreign trade rights and advertising.
It's no coincidence the number of approved appointees who have lied under oath, profited in office, and shown ignorance and opposition to the institutions they are supposed to shepherd is truly outstanding (and also approved by the GOP).
Some of the worst decisions of my life occurred to me in anger. The people I know who voted for Trump all listen to the anger-editorializing journalism that literally defines contemporary American politics from the right. Oddly, however, as I, from the other side of the political spectrum, listen to/watch my nightly dose of MSNBC I find myself going to bed angry--angry and fretful.
I decided to start reading Stephens, however much his "Obama-real-politique" annoys me. Brooks helps. Douthat as well. When some institution from the right attempts to place such editorial balance on their staff then I will have some hope.
Until then I am resigned to a political environment defined by anger rather than ideas. And, so far as I can see, the anger from the right is more entrenched, more virulent and hateful, and far more politically potent than anything the left has muster/sustain. And its face is that of a Moore!
The hatred this anger spawns terrifies me more than the face of North Korea.
Anger sells. Fear motivates. Karma is broken.
1
The trouble is that angry, disenfranchised middle class people keep expecting conservative and Republican politicians to hello them. They allow unions and progressive tax structures to collapse, even egg that on, then expect to be better off. Duh.
1
"The White House and both houses of Congress are yours. So are 34 governorships, matching a 1922 party record."
Time to get out of the market and to put your money in your mattress?
1
Wishful thinking, Mr. Stephens. The GOP is not only using anger to get elected it is also using it, effectively, to distract during governing. While many of us focus angrily on their failure to fully reverse Obama-era social program gains, the GOP platform has become the economic, social, environmental and political baseline at the national and local levels. While the Trump cabinet seems to have revolving door, their programs are not waiting for stable leadership. National economic policy focus has shifted, new environmental policies have been put in place to great effect, social programs are shrinking at all levels, social policies are more to the right now than anytime since the 40s, and while you were talking about the ineffective, angry, hapless GOP, the Muslim immigrant ban went into effect under a new name. So, where this failure to govern? I'm a progressive liberal so this is not a right wing defense. I believe the GOP has perfected Lenin's art of governing through chaos and anger. I just hope what follows is not Stalin.
1
The Republican party has been pandering to right wing anger for decades. Examples of Republicans standing up to that anger have been rare. Many Republicans despise the hard right, but it just isn't important enough for them.
I grew up with the Klan calling our house in the middle of the night because my father hired blacks to work on the floor of his store as clerks. Our small town had 1,500 Klan members. They didn't disappear in 1965. They and their sympathizers are still around, and there are lots of them. As a white southern male they approach me all the time, assuming I agree with them. They're Republicans now.
Tell me, what would be worth siding with the Klan, Mr. Stephens? Your party is the party of the Klan, and has been for more than 40 years. The difference these days is that you can no longer pretend it isn't.
4
I live in a town which is a Republican stronghold. During the recent primary I distributed flyers for a Democratic candidate. It was eye-opening. There were never more than five registered Democrats on a block, and our blocks are very, very long. As I trudged through the streets, feeling discouraged, I wondered if my neighbors voted for Trump, simply because he was Republican. If so, what Republican values were they supporting? How can one support a party which relies on so much anger and so little constructive action?
1
Suppose that the big "party" in the US is the Functionally Independent, a group which includes Republicans who are not strongly conservative or evangelical or alt-right and Democrats who feel disenfranchised that the party leadership seems more concerned about battles already mostly won than fighting for the working class and the poor workers (which includes "of age" children dependent on support from their parents.) Now present arguments against this thesis. Here's the for: Voters are weary of what is being offered them. I sense hue and cry because, as Bret has suggested, this is presented to Times readers who seem to believe that Republican evil is not only self-evident but endemic with its voters and it must be the mission of Democrats to smite them all (even though this has become increasingly a losing proposition.) The problem is the Independents disagree that even though there is truth that Republicans seem to feed on intolerance, smiting on a global scale and name calling does not solve national problems. And the problem is that both Parties' platforms leave the "silent majority," which is desperate for moderation, to decide among candidates who are not moderate. The Republican Party has been hijacked by the intolerant and the Democrats are so inept at taking advantage of this fractiousness that they are in danger of becoming irrelevant. The two party system is already split into thirds. It's time at least for the Democrats to become strategically competent.
1
The strange phenomenon about the party is not its impotence. The strange, even shocking, thing is its lack of any preparation to propose legislation, as if no one actually does his job as a legislator, only campaigns. Having taken power as a minority party after years of thundering in opposition, the national level GOP is revealed to consist of a platform of talking points, buzzwords "freedom! jobs! disrespect! middle class! swamp!" that serve as tells for lying, and no actual legislative plans. Impotence, under the circumstances, is the natural result.
Republicans spent generations building their party to withstand the onslaught of us, the unwashed masses of Democrats.
We Democrats come in all sizes, shapes and colors. We are fervent members of all religions or fervent non-believers. The gender and sexuality of our fellow Democrats are of no concern to us, except when someone tries to discriminate against those Democrats.
Republicans found an Australian who is a master at right-wing propaganda, and most Republicans get nearly all of their information from Fox News. Some Republicans also rely on the news manufactured by Breitbart and similar radical right sources.
Republicans, therefore, see the world very differently than Democrats. For example, Republicans are more comfortable around white, English-speaking Christians. They like men to do most of the talking.
For Republicans, building their organizations has been recreational, because most of them seem socially awkward on their own. Democrats have been too busy working or trying to get an education or having a real life.
The problem for Republicans is they built organizations designed to win elections, rather than to govern.
If governing means simply opposing any idea which might, even remotely, help a Democrat, then Republicans can do that.
If governing means only being against governing and against things which governments do – like levying taxes and regulating business – Republicans are up for it.
For everything else, Republicans are losers at governing.
From this perspective it's the left that's angry and fearful.
The right wing news/entertainment complex is a big profit machine using phony outrage to rake in the bucks. Your right the problem is you have a burn the house down coalition that doesn't understand that they are in the house.
1
"Still, the G.O.P.’s problems aren’t mainly a matter of personality. They’re a matter of mentality."
I would agree with that. If your definition of mentality includes celebration of ignorance, hostility to science, contempt for unfortunate fellow citizens that borders on sociopathy, flirting with misogyny and racism, and a readiness to substitute sanctimony for ethics and morality. Apart from that things seem to be in order.
1
Republicans fail because they do not have any good ideas. Ryan is labeled a policy wink and nerd implying intellectual powers but he's just a back woods hunter in a nice suit. Much Mc Connelly claim to fame is is wealthy Taiwanese family. They know only no. They still refuse to work with Democrats. They are wallowing in the cesspool of Trump politics - who is a non- Republican.
1
The 'moral majority' has become what it always was. An immoral minority only now they are
fully in control and doing what comes naturally, cannibilizing themselves. Unfortunately they're
also cannibilizing the country. Far from draining the swamp they are breeding even more venomous creatures and with the help of players like Breitbart, Fox News and McConnel the swamp is growing ever more thick and we have a president that neither knows nor cares until his personna is offended.
2
This aritcle has led me to this realization:
The D's need to take the house. If they get that, no matter what happens in the senate, every crazy idea can be stopped.
Forget the Senate. Take the house.
4
We are all hypocrites it is just a matter of degree.
The Republican party has been on the road to stupid for a while now and the chickens have come home to roost with the election of Trump. Republicans spent 8 years just being against things all things Obama, they never even bothered to think about what they were for, just how stupid is that?
They have appealed to the lowest of human emotions for a while now too. Now that you have total power these emotions are directed at yourselves. Did anyone not think wow this might not be such a good idea? Once you light the fuse it's pretty hard to put it out my friend.
And don't get me started on the blatant lying of the republican party and especially their past and current leaders Trump is quite simply the liar in chief. This will not end well for the Republican party now that the lunatic fringe is now the mainstream core. The sad thing is that the rest of the country is forced to come along for the clown car ride of the Republicans.
13
"What’s new is the existence — and metastasis — of the fury factories of the right, from Fox News to Breitbart to Frontpage Mag."
Bingo. And it seems it will only get worse, whether they be homegrown fury factory workers or imported Russian bots.
10
There is no constituency for a massive wealth transfer to the rich, nor is there a outcry for wrecking the environment or taking away people's healthcare. The US has a geography problem where the not-crazy live in densely populated urban areas resulting in disproportionate representation from the crazies. The so-called Republican party has no moral or ethical compass and so long as they can deliver to the donor class nothing else matters, up to and including the vileness that infects the very top of your party.
Not to mention you and your ilk continue to proffer falsehoods and lies and facts ("the economy is finally growing about 3%, the stock market hits record highs) all of which happened under Obama and all of which was ignored and instead described as weak and moribund. You are part of the problem (as is the MSM but that's another story.)
16
Your opening statement about how we have not seen this concentration of power since 1922 brought to mind what happened after 1922......the worldwide depression and WWI.......scary thought....
6
The vaunted "invisible hand" of capitalism is often just cronyism.
1
Im pretty sure WWI didn't happen after 1922
1
Brett,
Although only one of a number of factors, your saying "... the economy is finally growing above the 3 percent mark..." indicates you are at least partially drinking the trumpian Kool Aid. It grew above that rate at least 8 quarters during the Obama era, the most recent being 2015.
15
Great opening , Bret! On republicans reading the New York Times, suppose real hard...
Tea Party Patriots need to know their enemy but I doubt any knowledge or compassion comes from doing so. Even the President often tells his rallies the NYT is a failing newspaper LOL. He reads the National Enquirer if he even reads at all, not 'all the news that's fit to print.'
JFK was a speed reader and I remember reports that he would have more than a dozen papers every morning. For me on every day, my local Chicago Tribune and the NYT are mandatory reading. Both have a large kaleidoscope of reporting that keeps me informed.
Keep at it, NYT! You are worth the weight of millions of gold pica fonts!
8
Your phrase, "Political gerrymandering doesn’t help..." is as great an understatement as I've seen in years. Solving this problem would be the single most effective way to bring genuine competition to our elections and, thereby, an end to our national political polarization. Once there are no more "safe" districts in which extremist politicians can prosper, compromise will grow. When that happens our country will resume its previously positive upward trajectory.
27
Along with serious campaign contribution caps and total transparency.
It appears as though Mr. Stephens has lost hope as a conservative and a Republican, if that is what he is. He has not lived long enough to view the history of our country in regard to crazy politics. The Republicans were 40 years in the desert until they elected Reagan who was pretty phoney. Since then they have been unable to find a decent candidate but have gone nuts with trying religion, wars, extremity of all kinds, pure nastiness, and exclusion of everyone but white men. They will never succeed in a Democracy but they are rockin close to a darker more fearsome form of neo-facism with the group of inert brains now running the party. They are doomed.
9
Today's Republican Party is a grab bag of single-issue obsessives. No wonder they cannot agree on anything.
1
DolchstoBlegende. I had to look that one up. "Stab in the Back". Nice article in Wikipedia on this response to Germany's loss in WW1 that led to the rise of Hitler and the Nazis. This same ideology button is being pushed by the Republicans on many issues and fuels the anti-government trope. It is the excuse for why the Republicans have failed to repeal the ACA, and why we are losing in the Middle East, why we are losing in Afghanistan, why the police are failing to enforce law and order, why the coal industry is declining and why we lost in Viet Nam. The Democrats are portrayed as the one holding the knife. Ugly politics,,, but it wins elections.
5
Today's "globalists" are blamed for stabbing working people in the back.
1
Bret, suppose you’re a Republican. Since you’re working for The Times, suppose hard!
4
"What’s new is the existence — and metastasis — of the fury factories of the right, from Fox News to Breitbart to Frontpage Mag."
Yes, that's it -- "fury factories" that bloviate destruction and selfish self-serving at the expense of the common people. It's also called the Tyranny of Capitalism that has no moral conscience or innate responsibility to the Public Good.
A moral economy needs multi-billionaires who possess a moral conscience. Few of those types exist. People without a moral conscience are just a few, but they are vacuous souls who oppress the rest with their undeserved power.
Think of these most recent character types like Price and Mnuchin.
They are moral vacuums sucking out the life and spirit of Public Good.
You know who they are by their friends.
15
People compile $billions to dictate their own laws.
1
The Ruling Party is in a quandary - legislate for the people and lose the rich donors or legislate for the rich donors and lose the people.
So the solution is to gin up anger to distract the masses and to flat out lie to them. Trump is the perfect President for the Republican Party. He fans the flames of anger and he lies enthusiastically and often.
And, Bannon, the pot-bellied pseudo-philosopher Prince, has found a new target of faux anger - the “Republican Establishment”.
But, as always, follow the money. When you see “Republican Establishment”, you should understand Koch Brothers and the Oil Cartel, Icahn, Adelson, Walton’s. When you see Bannon, you should understand Mercer Family and Tech billionaires.
So, the Ruling Party fissures are just the battle lines drawn by the billionaire factions. And neither faction cares about the people. Nor does the President, his administration or the legislators.
20
The Gaullists were NEVER the far right in France. That would have been the Vichy-ites who survived as a political force although under differing names until the end of the 1960's. In one of their iterations after France quit Algeria they tried to assassinate de Gaulle on 34 different occasions. The Vichy-ites are now the core of Le Pen's front national party.
In fact the record de Gaulle (who believed absolutely in the state above all) was remarkably liberal and dirigiste during both his tenures of power in 1945/6 and 1958/69. The laws he passed in 1945/6 would make Stephens' hair stand on end.
de Gaulle well understood the passions of his countrymen on the far right and far left which is why he structured the constitution of the 5th Republic to ensure that both extremes were kept well away from power. His formula has worked ever since most recently in the defeat of Le Pen and elevation of Macron.
Stephens needs to improve his knowledge of French political history.
5
We need every one of these pernicious criminals and liars tossed out of Congress and the states like Kansa that they have rendered ecooic basket cases. They represent no one but the rich. And they are all but fascists who seek to destroy our democracy.
6
Apparently, the lack of a good education brings out the angry dummy in a human being!
15
I'm a liberal but your columns give me hope that some conservatives can still think clearly.
1
I don't know why Bret insists on drawing a distinction between *those* Republicans and *his* Republicans. To him, those Republicans have become the invading hoards who with their religious, racial, and regional hatred are destroying the peaceful, honest work of his Republicans.
To the rest of us, you are all just Republicans. Your leaders in Washington -- Price and other millionaires who steal free plane rides, McConnell who denied a sitting President his choice for SCOTUS, President Donald Trump, who is the biggest liar in US history -- are scoundrels. It's not that Republicans can't govern. They are too busy using gov't as a means to enrich themselves. In Donald Trump's America, all roads lead to a tax cut for himself and other Republicans. They are stealing from the people of the United States.
Americans see all of this. Americans who are Republicans support it. They want their gov't to steal from it's people. Well, not them and those like them, of course, just the undeserving ones who aren't "Real Americans." Know what I mean?
If you are a Republican who doesn't like what *those* Republicans are doing, your only option is to announce that you are leaving that party. Yet none of the "honest Republicans" are ready to do that. Until then, you are all Republicans and you all bear responsibility for what's happening.
642
Seconded.
6
Your comments help illustrate just how absurd a two party system is. It so glaringly fails to provide representation to the range of beliefs of 325+ million Americans. Forget nuance—you've got two choices.
Secondly I'm guessing that many conservatives (if one word can cover so many people) actually believe tax cuts are a good thing—not stealing. The 'trickle-down' myth is still very much alive and well, and decent people still believe it works. "They want their gov't to steal from it's people" is a ridiculous thing to say about everyone that supports tax cuts.
I'm not defending Republicans or conservative ideology; trickle-down is definitely a myth with a destructive dark side. But if our criticisms contain the same depth as a two-partys-are-enough mentality, we're not going to get very far.
2
Stephens appeared on Bill Maher a couple of weeks ago and characterized himself as a "former Republican."
1
As Yeats put it, "The best lack all conviction; the worst are full of passionate intensity." And the rough beast he predicted slouching toward Bethlehem has taken up residence in Washington.
14
Agree with all you've said here, Brett. Except for one thing: It's not anger that's driving those folks into Trump's base, into Brexit, into the European far right; it's fear. Sure, it looks like anger, but most of those folks are actually angry because they're afraid that a globalized, digitized world has passed them by and rendered them superfluous. It's not anger; it's fear.
341
Over population is taking over the planet: each of the many tribal groups want power.
1
Fear is an emotion that is not manageable and is converted to anger as that can be expressed and is more manageable to than fear.
2
Anger is the response to fear, a drug people reach for to try not to feel it.
3
I was thinking back to 1962 when Ted Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Strom Thurmond, and Richard Russell were members of the Democratic Party in the US Senate.
Are there any two Republicans in America that far apart?
4
Who are the Great people to carry forward this country and where can we find them?
Look around you, seek them out and let them know that this country and by association this planet needs them.
I have a hunch they are in the millennial generation. Tell them when you find them that money and power are man made but that selflessness and concern for all of humanity is not only divine but needed.
4
Re: "What’s new is the existence — and metastasis — of the fury factories of the right".
Wrong. Those fury factories on the right, have been very active for decades, misusing statistics to make listeners believe that welfare is most of the budget.
Those listeners have been enraged for years, at the *trade* deficit, lack of jobs, and low wages. Republican *voters* do not support tax cuts on the wealthy, nor an unrestricted global race to the bottom on wages. Republican leaders have been living in a bubble: Most voters (including Republicans) like SS, would support a higher minimum wage, want an end to shipping jobs overseas, and want controlled borders. Trump is just the first one to capitalize on the disconnect between the establishment, and actual voter preferences.
Re: "A tight-lipped numbers nerd like Ryan"
Ryan is a puppet for the plutocrats, whose numbers never add up. His proposals to privatize SS would result in massive unrest, and are not serious. His huge spending cuts are unspecified, and unrealistic. Ryan's (and Republican's) role in our Kabuki Theater, is to act as a pretend bogeyman, so that voters will elect (only slightly less bad) establishment Democrats, to do the actual cutting - and "save us" from worse cuts by Republicans. Trump has complicated this strategy, by forcing Republicans to formulate actual policy, which is then seen as what it really is: Hugely unpopular, even among Republican voters.
9
An outstanding and thoughtful column full of good ideas.
2
We don't have enough people who vote. We have Senators from states with too few people, so the Senate is no longer representative of the majority of the population. About 20 states can only fill up one or two cities. And, California has over 10% of the population and only 2 senators.
6
It is anger, Brett, but even more than that, it's a desire to be mean. That's the GOP brand now - not wisdom, moderation, focus on results or what works vs. ideology, incremental change vs. revolution. It's none of those.
It's a genuine desire to be mean, and to make people you've been told to not like to suffer.
16
The word, stonger than "mean," is *Bully."
1
Rupert Murdoch, the elimination of the "fairness doctrine", the monetization of television news, media consolidation, unregulated social platforms.... a free press is not necessarily a fair press just as free trade may not always manifest itself as fair trade.
5
Thank you! One cannot overstate the destruction Fox and far-right propaganda have brought to our democracy. Trump in the White House is the ludicrous yet logical endpoint of a cleverly packaged media war on truth.
When the moderate Macron won a surprisingly strong victory in France, a French analyst explained the rejection of extremism, "It's simple. We don't have Fox News."
Fox watchers are inoculated against reality. Theirs is a nonsensical world of cognitive dissonance and manufactured rage against decency. They will never encounter Mr. Stephen's excellent piece. So what can those of all stripes who value truth and democracy do to fight back, effectively? I mean this literally, what are some ideas?
7
Actually, anger doesn't feel good at all. It makes your heart pound, your hands sweat, and clouds your thinking. And it tends to feed on itself, and on the person feeling it. Anger breeds anger. It is hard to compartmentalize. A person who is angry at one thing is quick to feel anger at another - his spouse, for example, or his children.
The one advantage anger brings is it is better than no emotion at all. Better than mind-numbing boredom, or the emptiness of an overly routinized and unsatisfying life, or alternatively one with too little structure and nothing to do all day. Anger at least makes you feel alive.
My sense is that there are a lot of Americans who use the "anger guys" the way other people use opiates (and sometimes the same people use both). In a not entirely metaphorical way they are adddicted to the adrenaline. Without it, their lives feel unbearably dull and empty.
And as with heroin addicts, their addiction brings with it all kinds of reverberating social ills. Political dysfunction is one of them. A fraying social contract is another. Early death is yet another.
10
The reason that the Republicans are failing is because their policy proposals are based on lies. Even in our age of fake news, the truth has some inherent advantages. They have boxed themselves into a corner over the Iran deal, health care, taxes, climate change, the cost of government and much else. The Republicans are like a heckler in a comedy show: able to sneer from the darkness of the audience, but put them on stage and hand them the mic and they have nothing. They are a party of "principles," but turning their beloved "principles" into actual laws is impossible, because they laws they want won't work and they know it. (See Kansas on taxes, Houston's 50 inches of rain for climate change, the repeal and replace horror show, reneging on the Iran deal which is working, cabinet members living large on taxpayer dime, et al). When you base your arguments for years on lies, you are unable to govern when handed power. It's easy to call up late night radio shows and scream about Mexicans and Muslims, or name post offices after Ronald Reagan, chant "lock her up," and other fun emotional stuff, but governing a sprawling and complex nation is clearly beyond them.
13
The Republicans are hardly dysfunctional. They have very effectively managed to get many to vote against their interests, especially "independents," third party nihilists, and Bernie's babies.
He even offers proof: "The White House and both houses of Congress are yours. So are 34 governorships, matching a 1922 party record. The Republican Party has complete control of state government in 26 states, and full legislative control in 32 states."
This essay makes no sense.
2
"When nastiness sells, the worst rise."
Succinct and brilliant analysis of our international current situation.
We need a bloodless revolution by decent people to take back the world for the ordinary person to enjoy it.
3
The GOP’s real problem isn’t its emotional dependence on anger, but its ideological dependence on misinformation. If your idea of governing is solving problems that don’t exist (e.g. voter fraud, murderous immigrants), denying problems that do exist (climate change, racial injustice) and proposing solutions that are proven failures (tax cuts for the wealthy, returning to pre-Obamacare health care policies), then you end up accomplishing very little in the real world. Instead you depend on House gerrymandering, an archaically unrepresentative Senate, the electoral college, and voter suppression to retain power as a deluded, incompetent, yet highly vocal minority. And that’s something we should all be angry about.
15
Nature abhors a vacuum. Brains deliberately left empty of civic and historical knowledge, used to reducing the most complex problems to the simplistic, are empty vessels for Fox News and the right wing anger factories.
How long will it take for the Republicans to realize that they have mid-wived a monstrous apparatus of destruction by turning over the leadership of their party to outside media forces with no stake in actual governing, but a multi-million dollar, fame seeking, massive investment in disorder and continued disharmony?
It is not only the millions who sit with blank eyed stares at the nightly disgorgement of anger on Fox News who are led by media. Over a period of 20+ years, the people who actually occupy the offices of responsibility have been swayed enormously toward anger over solutions, any solutions, to existing problems. The Freedom Caucus in the House is the prime example. They are the product of this negativity, this propaganda system that calls for tearing everything down rather than building anything up. They have been mis-educated and they are bound like barnacles on a ship's bottom to their well groomed ignorance.
The key moment was when these media figures, like Limbaugh, started appearing at Republican gatherings. There was no push back from the party. They became, first, de facto spokespeople and then the actual, un-nominated, un-elected leadership themselves. Whatever wild and crazy things go through their heads is now Republican dogma.
5
The Republican Party will suffer for its dismal response to the tragedy in Puerto Rico. From yet another weekend off to golf, Mr. Trump again attacks a mayor facing a crisis-- the mayor of Puerto Rico.
His response to the crisis demonstrably slow, he bizarrely speaks of the size of the ocean.
His lack of focus easily tracked throughout his own Twitter feed. Comparisons made to George W. Bush's poor handling of Hurricane Katrina.
In contrast, after earthquake hit Haiti in the winter of 2010, Barack Obama immediately mobilized our military for ground personnel + direct aid to the island.
And went into Haiti as if invading that miserable earthquake.
The US Southern Command arrived immediately, military helicopters dropped water and food.
But showing no sense of urgency, Trump focused on Puerto Rico s "bad debt," and impact on Wall Street. Then fixated on NFL players for days on end.
Meanwhile, that hurricane hit 19 days ago yet there still isn't sufficient assistance.
Day after day we see the lines of people waiting for a bottle of water or a bit of ice. Elders without medication. People crying. Nowhere to live. Not even a tarp to cover their roofs. Or a tent.
10 days later.
4
When a political party is willing to elect unqualified angry people who prefer to divide the country and are divided ideologically themselves, we get Republicans. In examining this anomaly we have to consider the right wing media the article refers to as well as Republicans simply having to say "No" to everything for the last eight years because they were fed a diet of Barak Obama either being a Muslim, a Liberal, or simply because he's a black man. This began with Mitch McConnell and his comments about a one term president at any cost including the destruction of the Republic from within. Supporters of this position are absent of any critical thinking skills. When considering a candidate, an assessment of his /her positions, accomplishments, intent if elected and his or her desire to compromise should be the first thing a voter should know before voting. This was lost a long time ago and culminated during the Obama presidency. Checking facts and policies that have failed in the past must be a part of an informed voter's criteria in choosing a candidate as if they support failed policies how can anyone seriously consider them for elected office? So the matter comes down to education and the willingness to have information on the issues the nation faces, not partisan politics which is what got us to where we are now. Bumper sticker policy positions and simple talking points does not make an voter educated in their civil responsibility to choose a true representative.
3
Mr. Stephens, you just described the dinner gatherings I have been going through for the last two months. Although being the lone democrat in the room, I am taken back by my neighbors disdain for the Republican establishment---"weak," "cowards," "embarrassments." The more moderate Republicans in the room, the ones I can have a rational conversation with, are now considered part of my party. Any talk of rational strategies for governing--like a bipartisan health bill---is met with absolute anger at that traitor, John McCain---that word was actually used. My wife, a psychologists, famous comment when my children or myself would start railing against some perceived injustice/problem, was "are you done now." The Republicans need a leader now, who, will make the same courageous comment: "are you done now."
1
Calling a con man like Paul Ryan a tight lipped number nerd is a hoot. One has to be able to count to be a number nerd. As in is negative 1.2 trillion greater or less than zero.
29
Ryan a numbers nerd? You should read some more of your colleague Dr. Krugman's columns.
34
Utter moral and intellectual bankruptcy -- that seems a simple enough explanation for this "strange impotency".
Who on earth -- literally -- is inspired or even influenced by today's Republican Party? Nobody --outside the Americans who have inherited or bought its myths, and those strange political creatures abroad who have seized on its recent success in selling "nationalism", aka the will to ethnic cleansing (slowly and quietly, of course).
The confusion, hypocrisy and anti-historicism of this posturing makes no difference to its adherents. It's just about convenient political victory.
One can only hope that the current travesty is enough to rid the country and the world of these charlatans.
Sadly it seems more likely their stupidity and arrogance will kill us all.
18
The Republican Party cannot succeed because, at its core, it is nihilistic and has a strong component of those like Bannon who favor anarchy as a means to "destroy the state," and "bring everything crashing down...."
14
A political observer of 1930's Germany, whose name I did not take note of, wrote: "No happy person ever became a fascist." Fascism is about anger, and fighting fascism is about addressing that anger...
26
Interesting that the author mentions an "audience prone to histrionics", since Mr. Trump fits the criteria of "Histrionic Personality Disorder" (besides narcissistic). The definition, published by the American Psychiatric Association in its DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), can be found at the following shortcut http://bit.ly/dsmhpdnpd
The 8 criteria used are:
1) The person is uncomfortable in situations in which he/she is not the center of attention;
2) Inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative behavior;
3) Rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotion;
4) Physical appearance to draw attention to self;
5) Style of speech lacking in detail;
6) Self-dramatization, theatricality and exaggerated expression of emotion;
7) Easily influenced by others or circumstances;
8) Considers relationships more intimate that they are.
43
Congratulations on "fissiparous." It is truly sesquipedalian.
So having had our vocabulary lesson for the day, let's think about being a Republican. I was one, actually, Brett, until the Party up and marched so far to the right that when they looked left, they saw Ghengis Khan standing there. That left me having to vote for Democrats who kinda-sorta took the old fashioned GOP stands.
The Republicans are an epic fail because their ideas are truly awful. Loathsome. Deleterious. Noxious. Some are even catastrophic. So elected officials who depend on voters not noticing the Sword of Doom hanging over them are safe, but those who think that voters will react negatively to being thrust into misery have to hold the line. And those whose voters cheer on the Sword of Doom have to hold the line on purity.
A two party systems forces ideas and ideals to compromise - some more bent to collective ideals, some more bent to personal. Some more bent to industry and some to workers and consumers. When it gets out of skew, the system fails.
Want success? Figure out how to sell the angry hordes reality, and real solutions. Figure out how to help people who are never going to see the factory re-open. Don't sell Free Marketism as a religion. Represent someone other than the Koch Brothers and ALEC. Give it a try, GOP.
99
Any high schooler can use a thesaurus to throw in a rarely used word to give the illusion of literacy. Congratulations on congratulating Bret for nothing.
1
The reason Republicans are dysfunctional is they have run out of people to blame. And as they have gone through all the sub groups to blame, the number in those groups get smaller. They don't really have a plan that will make average people's lives better. They just know that Democrats are bad. Organized labor is bad. Environmentalists are bad. Minorities are bad. The poor are bad. Women are bad. Public education is bad. Public healthcare is bad. Globalization is bad. Muslims are bad. The press is bad. So as they have added to their lists of bad groups, they are forced to concentrate on fewer and fewer people until they got to Obama is bad. Hillary is bad. Bernie is bad. So literally they have written off like 90% of Americans. And all they are left with is: Trump is good. Wealth is good. Guns are good. White people are good. Liars are good. And fake news, despite their stated opposition, is good. So they are now left with no one to blame. But they have their followers hungry for more people to blame. But there is no one left. Except themselves. Go at it, Trump base. There's still a little bit of meat left on the bone.
157
Trust me, they will never stop blaming and demonizing Obama.
Amen!
And so now they have started to turn on each other. See French Revolution and Robespierre...
This article is full of examples of how bad our political system has become. What it, and most articles about our political system fail to do is offer suggestions on how we can fix it. If the premise of any political argument are fixed on the negatives, it will NEVER be fixed. That’s the problem. What would happen if both (or more sides) would start with something that we could all agree on? Example: Could we all agree that our Health Care System needs to be fixed? Could we all agree the our infrastructure needs to be rebuilt? To me, regardless of what side of the see-saw or Teeter Totter you’re sitting on, you would have to agree this is a problem that has to be fixed. Why can’t we at least start from here?
13
Eric, I think this article provides the suggestions precisely by pointing out the problems. The fixes are for the Republicans to do the opposite of what they've been doing. That they refuse to do so is why I left the party last year and became in Independent. I won't belong to a group of people who can't or won't recognize their failures, let alone address them.
I don't know a single American who wouldn't agree that health care needs to be fixed or that our infrastructure requires rebuilding. We also all agree on being patriotic, the need for security, good jobs, better education, etc., etc.
The problem is not that we don't agree on the need for those things, it's that our opinions on how to address them instantly diverge, in part because we can't agree on the *facts* (an unforgivable and illogical error), and in part because we are so politically, economically, religiously, philosophically, culturally, and ideologically different.
The latter half of that reason for divergence is understandable to a point, but the former half is absolutely not (disagreement on facts). A fact is a fact, but there is a growing sector of our population who would disagree with that statement, and that ignorance is what's dooming us to decades of second-nation status and a crumbling republic. Because the truth of the matter is if we can't agree on *facts* we can't agree on anything. That prevents compromise and governance, and the result is bedlam.
The author is right. Trump needs to go.
5
We can agree. But the the GOP instantly begins to figure out how to take money while doing so. Look at their health care legislation: the starting point was in how to rob the present system of money. Look at their failed infrastructure: how to arrange it so that private companies profited by the public works.
With such a starting point, there can be no consensus as there is no common language.
Impotence? One wishes that it were true. With Trump, I could tolerate, and laugh at, the narcissism, the risibly obvious mendacity, the illiteracy, the physical and moral ugliness. Boss Tweed with a dash of spoiled brat is annoying, but not frightening.
Now we've moved four square into the realm of frightening. Spoiled Brother has become Big Brother. The efforts of the DOJ to obtain personal information from social media about those who were involved in nothing but peaceful anti Trump protest would be bad enough had it been done above board. But the Sessions DOJ attempted to do it in full-bore, Star Chamber secrecy. Facebook had to fight for months in secret for the right to fight publicly! That should terrify us all. How many victims never fought?
And another thing. When, as a callow youth, I publicly excoriated Roger Stone's first man crush, I di so publicly and cheerfully, inviting rebuttal from one and all. Now I have become anonymous, out of unbridled fear.
14
There is no lower bound to Republican conduct. The bad drove out the good long ago.
32
That snappy, sarcastic opening line typifies much of today's political discourse. Perhaps Republicans should read The Times. Well, yes, many Republicans do read The Times. The Times has helped some Republicans realize that the Grand Old Party is no longer so Grand, and the roadblocking, the go-along with President Trump and the far right avengers is getting to be pretty Old. Trickle Down economics is also a tiresome discredited old hoax. But if Republicans are strangely impotent, the Democrats are not far behind. Both parties are beholden to and enthralled by big money. Most politicians these days worship at Follow the Money altars. As for money in the bank action, that Republican everything-old-is-new-again tax plan is, as so much of politics seems today, a strange device concocted of hypocrisy, lies and greed. As for Stephens' final line, it might instead be, "Whether it should be the end of the Republican Party as a dysfunctional institution is the question." For many, the answer to that question is obvious.
Doug Giebel, Big Sandy, Montana
14
Vacuous column. The Republican Party can't govern because it has no ideas beyond tax cuts for the rich and deregulation. It is simply the party of greed, no more, no less.
60
Well, and racism. Greed and racism.
1
As is evidenced by current and recently quit cabinet members and their boss. Who are the real elitists here, some rumpled professor or that man in the White House and his cronies?
"Anger is an excellent emotion for pushing ratings and winning elections and a terrible one for agreeing to compromises and crafting legislation".
The Republican party, beginning with the president and most definitely including senator-elect of Alabama Roy Moore should ponder these words of wisdom from Ephesians 4:26-27: "do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil".
Is it no wonder then, why the GOP has fairly resorted to cannibalism, feeding upon itself with savage internal party warfare and absolutely no defining governing philosophy or vision for America's future? Republican party, heal thyself.
10
In life, everything needs balance, overwise things trip all over themselves.
Greed or too much of anything can be its own worst enemy.
Think of what happens when one person consumes a giant size pizza with all the trimmings at one setting.
5
The corporatization of education ensures top down management putting graduation stats above learning. This benefits those in power and their benefactors–Republicans. The working class students (a large percentage) graduate to a world where there are few union jobs, places in the past that put collective progress above individual prejudices, the rank and file voting accordingly to preserve wages and their way of life. The Right, seeing this and the changing demographics of the country as a permanent threat, set out to dismantle unions by breeding white resentment with dog whistles to race. These gains are permanent if districts are gerrymandered properly.
3
Thank you Bret for consistently thoughtful and illuminating commentary on the amazing politics of our day. You are appreciated and admired by Times readers who are brave enough to be challenged by their news sources.
5
Restore critical thinking and learning how to learn and you've restored the country.
Renovate and restore can displace repeal and replace.
Other countries have succeeded in doing this.
We can too.
5
Richard Marius, the biographer of St. Thomas More, opines in his life of the saint, that the ferocity of both principal parties of the age (late 15th to early 16th centuries), the Protestant reformers and the Catholic traditionalists, was partially attributable to their shared sense that their cherished orthodoxies were both fundamentally on the wane. As we now know, and as they may have then deeply perceived, the Enlightenment loomed and beheadings over papal authority or garden variety heresy would seem mere folly a century later. May not the true wellspring of Republican fury (exhibited by senatorial candidate taking the stage ridiculously brandishing a pistol and dressed with cowboy hat and leather vest) be their perception that their fundamental beliefs about government and religion, despite widespread office holding, are also on the wane?
6
It might just be that when the party in power cannot "get anything done", there is nothing that seriously needs to be done. We must view this as something to welcome.
As a Republican who leans libertarian, I am not perturbed by what some will call inaction or gridlock. What is troubling though, is the vitriol coming from some in both parties. Compromise is almost always necessary to get meaningful, but not necessarily pressingly important legislation passed. If members of both parties are seen by the other party as bad actors, then do not expect much cooperation.
1
I'm quite relieved that the GOP isn't able to govern. Their ideas exhibit complete disdain for most of the populous. Hopefully, they'll start losing big and if that happens I hope the Democrats finally get their act together and stop pushing issues that are not near and dear to most Americans.
6
Excellent column, Mr. Stephens. And now we get to the dangerous part: having exploited anger to get to a position of power, their angry supporters now actually want to see results - immigrants deported, Muslims obliterated, A Great Big Wall, etc., which was never really the intention of the party, but the party empowered them and gave them a voice. Better take the money and run, republicans, because the people who put you in charge expect something you never intended to deliver.
4
I have a theory about good human evolution: it makes humans look like animals and the universe look like something totally unconcerned about them. Hence Copernicus and Freud show good human evolution.
In this context the impotence of the Republican Party has an explanation. The human population on Earth is possessed by i-phones, pornography, and other entertainments and has become hedonistic children. Republicans too. They understand that war, rebellions reduce the level of pleasure they can enjoy, so they avoid it. This is a schizophrenic recipe because children, left without adult supervision misbehave and their society's fall apart. So children demand immigrants leave, and other things of populists’ lore, but violence does not occur. Violence would make Republican's potent: forced conversion to their ideology is the ultimate idea of right-wing rule.
The only real solution is for the world to evolve into adults that control their biological impulses with evolved minds -- no more low level pointless fun. Without such maturation, we will remain children unable to control ourselves and we will likely become extinct – just like all the other extinct species in our tree. Our success will have made us incompetent and incoherent. We got out of pain and suffering (our genetically honing environments) and then became infantile babies in an artificial world, an execution chamber from which we could not escape. In our case, success breeds extinction.
Think it over.
4
The GOP is not "impotent". It is,in fact, way too powerful, to the detriment of our republic.
The GOP has succeeded to build the pillars of control with gerrymandering, Citizens United and its Fox News propaganda machine. So now, as you point out, they occupy the majority of state legislatures and governorships, Congress and the White House.
While they may be in disarray with respect to a strategy to dismantle government, they have stopped progress, thwarted justice, blocked immigration reform, undermined the credibility of Planned Parenthood, financed wars, advanced the NRA's agenda,turned a blind eye to police brutality, and advanced the military-industrial complex with a bloated defense budget.
And over the past three decades, they have succeeded in a massive transfer of societal's wealth from the middle class and poor to the top1% and large corporations -- or to those targeted to benefit the most from Trump's tax overhaul.
I could think of more appropriate labels than "impotent" for the Republican Party: greedy, sinister, undemocratic, haughty, myopic, disingenuous, misogynist and downright dangerous all come to mind.
15
I am a Republican. The problem is the do not govern. They do not address issues. The do not compromise. They do not legislate for middle America. Only for themselves. But... Neither do the Democrats.
2
What do you expect from a voter block created by appealing to a collection of the most base and fissiparous traits selected to cleave election results with surgical precision?
GOP success is not so much a success as winning many battles but forgetting about the war so badly they are not unlike those Japanese soldiers found years after WWII was over still fighting not knowing they aren't part of a battle or war anymore.
The GOP is not an elephant blind men feel the tail, trunk sides feet, tusks each determining the elephant is a wall or snake or whatever, the GOP is an Edsel, the car cobbled from the supposed best parts of popular cars that it's makers missed was an abomination to all cars.
Why? There is no point to conservatism except exploitation of fear of change on the part of the base and fear of losing power on the part of it's elites.
Fear as it's chief motivator fundamentally places irrationality as it's sole arbiter. Everyone knows there's nothing more dangerous than a frightened elephant on the rampage--except GOP leadership.
4
This hits the nail on the head. Angry people are bellicose people, and even if they can't govern, they might succeed in starting a war (as in WW III). Somehow, somewhere, they will find a pretext.
Your argument fell apart when, in back to back sentences, you conflated cultural changes with social mores then went on to omit wage stagnation. You then launched into bemoaning the right's vituperative smoke and mirrors campaign.
I suggest that you are engaged in similar distractions but in a more polite and high minded way. It's so distressing to talk about people's incomes, especially for the rich. It simply isn't done. With the looming 'tax reform' debacle, income inequality and tax cuts for the oligarchy ought to be front page news until this national nightmare is over.
3
Just real quick, before I read the article, the first line is a winner!
1
The issue with the "modern GOP" is a lack of integrity and morality! I applaud McCain and Collins for their recent actions, but still deep in their so called conservative mentality is an unfounded ideology. The GOP, in pretty much every major policy proposed, have proven that they care very little for how their propositions ultimately erode society. History has shown this to be true, yet they continue to pursue an ideology that runs counter to reality. Another version of insanity!
2
I think you are exactly right that the Fury Factories have marginalized any opportunity for consensus - for both parties I am afraid. And any recognition of fact versus fiction is hopelessly lost in this environment. You did however forget the master of this technique -Rush Limbaugh. The inventor I believe of “RINO” and the perspective that if you don’t completely agree with his views you are unacceptable
2
My naïveté is about to show. Republican legislators: appeal to compassion instead of anger. You'll feel better.
"Bill O’Reilly is now the right’s historian, Mark Levin its go-to legal expert, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham its moral conscience. These are not ideas guys. They’re anger guys."
And who are the "ideas guys", Mr. Stephens? You? Ross Douthat? David Brooks? Look around and notice where you work. Notice too how seriously you are all taken by the mainstream, center left and how respectful it is of your ideas. Now, where is that reciprocity on the right? Nowhere. My point is that you have a forum in which to shape broad public opinion by virtue of the fact that you've been invited into the discussion by the left. The same can't be said on the right and that's why it is an idea-less echo chamber.
3
At some point, the Republican Party could fall victim to factions between radicals and uber-radicals. This is the Dems only real chance.
1
I think the Republicans face an even bigger problem than an inability to govern. The heart of governance is, after all, the ability to put the party's shared ideals into action. However, what would happen if these Republican snake oil salesman made their profoundly cruddy ideas law? Nothing good and certainly not what they promised. Therefore the bigger problem is that the current Republican party's ideals rests on a profoundly faulty and slipshod foundation and any legislative success would almost certainly expose the party's true impotence.
1
"What’s new is the existence — and metastasis — of the fury factories of the right, from Fox News to Breitbart to Frontpage Mag."
I have long believed this is the key, and for the past few months I've been reading Fox News and Breitbart. The lies and distortions are incredible. And the news they bury. Large parts of the country watch Fox News all day. Because Sinclair and rich conservatives like Adelson and Mercer continue to take over the media, and use microtargeting of ads on Facebook financed by unlimited dark money, its only going to get worse.
2
Interesting. Not much new, though - Republicans vituperative nature, conservative right wing crazies like the House Freedom Caucus, hatred of all things Democratic or "liberal", incompetent skill sets of leaders in important positions, "fury factories" in right wing media, gerrymandering which is to be left for another day. Yep.
OK. So where's your solutions? Changing the personality, character and values of the Republican voter? Electing more competent leaders with the same voters in the same mind-set? Banning right wing media fury mongering? Requiring the GOP to have real policies instead of "nastiness"?
Just how do we turn this thing around, Bret? As one who knows these people much more intimately than many of your readers - what will get through? We know it's not facts that are not "alternative", or news that is not "fake" (another oxymoron - if it's fake it's not "news") or statistics or science or logic or consistency or even failure to achieve their own stated goals.
So what is it? How does it change?
I think we both know it must come from the grass roots up - that GOP voters must get sick of their venting and see how their not getting any better, and turn off the radio - or at least dial in to more stations - and insist on the teaching of critical thinking skills, and teach the proper way to receive and assess information in this new age.
In essence, you must not be yourselves, the party must not be itself, the President not himself.
Supposes hard.
2
No kidding, Bret. Those of us who are done supposing are still asking of you, "suppose you were more vocal before the election..."
2
When Mitch McConnell announced that the Republican party would block any and all of President Obama's actions it was pretty clear that the Republican party had become the face of bigotry and racism.
Governing was not in their agenda. Apparently nothing has changed.
2
No civics, no civility. Also, there can be no shared history or canon if there are no agreed upon facts. Rush Limbaugh confessed years ago that he was just in it for the money. It's hard to believe anything else of Hannity and the rest of the Fox virus: true believers usually have at least some consistency of thought. Instead we see them all reveling in their obvious hypocrisy. And at least 40% of voters think this is normal. No wonder therapists are cashing in.
2
So the GOP rises to power on the basis of rage and incessant lies about what they are really doing in terms of policy. They cannot be honest about what their agenda is, because no one would buy it. So they make up lies about progressives, create enemies, and even collude with hostile foreign powers to win.
Wait - wait - here is the good part. They all themselves Patriots! Isn't that hysterical?
1
Sorry... Paul Ryan is not a "numbers nerd". He is about as phony (in the words of the commentator) as politicians come these days.
2
You can't serve two masters. The Republicans have been inflaming the uneducated, uninformed Base with gibberish while serving the interests of the Rich. It's easy to tell lies but it's impossible to make the work.
3
Fraud is also a MAJOR reason Republicans are not good at governing. Repeated lies certainly win both some general elections, and all Republican primaries. Trying to build policies on those lies often does not work. Have you followed Republicans on the ACA or the deficit for the past 7 years?
2
This column is so spot on. The Outrage Industry, as I like to call it, has been the central cornerstone building block for this version of crazy since Rush Limbaugh found out he could make gazillions of dollars for himself by spewing his hatred and nonsense. Until someone with a conscience at Fox, Breitbart et al says enough, or our citizenry wise up, this roller coaster ride will, sadly, roll on.
1
A man who continues to proudly deny the overwhelming scientific evidence of anthropogenic global warming offers lukewarm criticism of the political party he continues to proudly support.
You are part of the problem, Stephens.
1
Brett,
You nailed it. Anger and blame are easier and more satisfying than compassion and compromise.
There are many Americans who have been disenfranchised by automation and globalization. There's nothing new about that. And finding bogeymen is hardly a new phenomena is America. In fact, it's a time honored tradition. Having trouble at work? Ban or persecute some Irish, Italians, Jews or...Muslims.
Instead of working hard on solutions for Joe Sixpack, the GOP is working on ways to enrich the rich and reinforce bigotry. Sooner or later Joe is going wake up and notice that the swamp got swampier and his life is not improving. The pendulum will swing. Not fast enough...but it will swing.
In the meantime we have a president who spends his energy telling a football league what to do while Americans in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands suffer for lack of food, water and shelter. Mind boggling.
The real reason the GOP is collapsing is the fool in the White House. Trump is a fake Republican, a fake leader, a fake President. He doesn't know how to do the job and he is not interested learning how. Trump is a narcissistic psychopath obsessed with being the center of attention. That's our "dear leader".
Republicans got their anger expressed alright. Now what?
7
Fists in the air and heads in the sand. Thanks, Billy Joel.
3
Very well stated. A case of Chaos Theory run amok. How it will all end is anyone's guess. All we can do is continue to pay attention and persist in voicing concern. A bit of luck is always welcomed.
6
It makes one wonder how long it will be before some of these far right kooks start proposing legislation that supports their anti-American agenda, and getting it passed by the possibly less kooky but infinitely more impressionable voters they claim to represent. Protestant Christianity as the official state religion? Sure. Homosexuality criminalized? Why not? Fines or imprisonment for non-English speakers? Black and brown Americans counting as 7/8ths of a person? You'd think those ideas would be as likely to find favor as Americans voting to abolish the NFL. Well, don't bet on it.
16
In 1971 I ran for my high school's student body V.P. When the president quit suddenly, I had to take over and oversee our student legislative assembly. At the age of 17 I had no experience with that kind of leadership. My dad gave me a piece of advice that not only saved my butt, but I've also used ever since. It was simple - if you have a gripe and want to complain, do so. But you cannot go on at length unless your complaint is also accompanied by a suggestion to fix it. Needless to say, complaints were few and we actually got a lot done
7
Smart piece. Wait till Goldman takes Breitbart public .
1
Besides a lack of a curriculum that includes civics, who reads a newspaper anymore? Who takes the time to understand the complexities of the issues facing the world? Who votes?
24
This factor--the total disregard for rational evidence and now Trump's gang of imposters like that despicable Huckabee and Conway who tell you there is no truth unless it supports their con jobs is more destructive to our American Democracy than anything else.
You can blame the Republican Party all you want as well as rich Progressive Dems like Clintons and Obama but it's Trump's base of True Believers who allowed our nation to descend into a Idiocracy.
It remains to be seen where all this will get us.
The Bible has it: God and manon do not blend.
3
It's "Mammon". Matthew 6:24
God and an opéra comique in five acts by Jules Massenet do not blend?
I would hope not.
1
Mr. Stephens, you had me at 'fissiparous'. A term that has a sysyphean tinge all over. I've noticed that when you dialogue your conservative eyes have a tendency to send darts of animus; when on GPS with Crysthia Freeland observed that Occupy Wall Street protesters had real grievances to which you retorted that they are but “anarchists who do not represent anyone except some extreme fringe”. With brings us back to "fissiparous!
4
The conservatives, allegedly Christian, mucking up the Republican Party don't want to govern...they pine for their theocracy to replace our democracy and to Rule us infidels - and to get there are willing to lie, cheat and sin! Leaving gridlock, dysfunction and political chaos in their wake.
Entering the fray, twice removed, former and disgraced judge Roy Moore, another far-right false-prophet who has taken up the conservative's pipe and gone pipping for stupid...watch them flock.
21
What we are seeing is the culmination of 50 years of a party that sells itself to its base with platitudes about individual freedom and responsibility that are actually in service of the plutocrats. Finally...finally the the disconnect between the grand rhetoric and the manipulation of the working class has burst like a pustule and madness reigns. The worst, most incompetent plutocrat as hero of the oppressed angry base? Rod Serling could not have come up with it. This does not end well.
28
The only political skill Mitch McConnell ever had was blocking anything and everything that Barak Obama proposed because he objected to the President's ancestry and skin color.
His ability to make sure no major legislation ever gets passed appears to be functioning in exactly the same way it was functioning for the previous eight years.
54
Not so strange. The Republican party has one plank in it's platform: Funnel as much money into the gluttonous maw of the Rich as can be gotten. All other policy stems from that: global climate change and science denialism; destruction of the EPA and the planet it was created to protect; deregulation of all business, especially oil extraction and financial chicanery. Cut services for the workers and cut taxes for the rich.
So Republicans have to enlist a constituency who are unable to think critically about the source of their problems and apperceive viable solutions. Maybe they are simply poorly educated, trump's favored demographic. But to win nationally, Republicans need an even bigger tent. So they open it up to all the deplorables who will willingly vote against their own economic interest if it means their deplorable views are validated and those they hate will get taken even worse: white supremacists and other xenophobes, religious zealots and other authoritarians who hate the elites; those who still hate gay people; the rugged rancher who grazes his cattle for free on public lands but will scream bloody murder if asked to help fund society; those that would defame their political opponent. Rather than disavow these people, most Republicans pander to them.
And Republicans still wouldn't win without cheating, gerrymandering, voter suppression, outright lying. Whatever it takes, win at all costs.
So it's not so strange a house built on such rot can't actually govern.
31
Trump is a role model for one sixth of Americans.
I think the important question is how to keep the rest of the 38%, trump's followers, from becoming part of that 1/6 (or whatever the percentage) that actually respect and admire him. Many are now claiming they never really did like him, and only voted for him because he said the things they wanted to believe.
WaPo's latest expose on "the forgotten man" that turned to trump in the last election is a little bit heartening. Many people are now claiming they voted for trump because they really did simply believe trumps claims about how he was going to bring back their manufacturing and coal mining jobs, and make everything 'great' again (disregarding the 'build the wall' crowd for the moment).
And we may be on the cusp of a sizable percentage of trump voters starting to finally realize trump isn't going to give them their jobs back. He's not going to give them cheap market-based health care. He's not going to make Mexico pay for the wall, drain the swamp, etc.
We'll see if ultimately trump's support starts to erode. And if the people actually learn something from this whole fiasco.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/seniors-financial-...
The Republicans may indeed be impotent to govern.
But they are not impotent to destroy.
32
Nobody knows that better than Vlad Putin.
1
Today's Republican political leaders have by and large become equivalent to angry, stupid, ignorant and greedily cruel human beings. Thus, the dissolution of the GOP would be a great development towards the restoration of civility, wisdom, decency and sanity in American governance.
14
What's up with the GOP? Same as with the Democratic Party. Same as with political parties all over Western Europe. As far back as 1960, this condition was predicted, was even seen in embryonic form (E.E. Schattschneider, The Semi-Sovereign People). Irish writer, Peter Mair, laid it all out for us in his book, published posthumously, (Ruling the Void, The Hollowing of Western Democracy, Peter Mair, 2013). His editor summarized much of Mair's work thus: “This hollowing of democracy has become a very widespread process…
Across contemporary Europe, it is [seen in] the deliberately depoliticized
institutions of the EU. But it is also visible outside Europe, and particularly in North America.”
We think that pockets of voters in the new Rust Belt feel forgotten? Many voters have felt that for generations--and that's what motivated Schattschneider.
3
Bret,
I'm a big fan. Love your essays, even though I've been a progressive since before the flood.
But I gotta tell ya. The problem is the Conservative Movement. The math is always wrong and the assumptions about human behavior are just weird. Even if you could fix those issues you'd still have to deal with the Wicked Witch mannerisms.
You need to find some new friends.
Sorry,
Laurence
4
"This won’t end as long as Trump is in the White House. Whether it won’t also be the end of the Republican Party as a functional institution is another question."
It should be the end of the Republican Party as a functional institution, but it won't be, Mr. Stephens, in no small part due to pundits like you.
You see, no matter how deranged the Republicans become, they will remain one of the two major parties in American politics. And that means they will be quoted in every article as if they might have something meaningful or sincere to say; they will be quoted on every policy dispute as if their numbers might add up. Since drama equals pageviews, their worst tendencies will be ritually scolded, but mostly just given oxygen and enabled.
Eventually the bar will be set so low that when the President sullenly reads out a speech written by someone else, full of menace and bog-standard reactionary cliches, he will become "presidential," since usually he offers up incoherent, improvised, and bigoted rants. When he negotiates with the other party - once - he will become an "independent" and a "maverick" before anything has actually happened.
And you'll continue to cluck your tongues at the crazies on both sides - you know, the far right with its neo-fascists, religious zealots and corporate looters in high places - and the loony left with its "political correctness" and its pie-in-the sky ideas about health care!
Mr. Stephens, the madhouse is functioning as intended.
8
There is reason to believe that overcrowding makes people crazy. There are 8 billion humans, a fraction of them heavily armed and angry. The fact that there are so many people of like mind with djt is a sure symptom of species wide personality disorder.
I'm glad I'm 71.
19
"What’s new is the existence — and metastasis — of the fury factories of the right, from Fox News to Breitbart to Frontpage Mag."
Amen. And Twitter. And Facebook. And bubble residential enclaves and social circles. And, yada, yada, yada.
Anger sells. It inspires action. Right now, everyone seems to be angry in America.
But, and of course, I'm prejudiced, only one party is angry for some very good reasons. All a Martian would have to do is read the NYT, still a reasonable, reality-based media giant, to see the lay of the land, and this stranger from afar would be angry too over how one party is systematically coopting democracy.
Maybe anger can be a force for good if it inspires an even greater anger to emerge from within.
22
I'm too angry to even consider it.
The simple solution is birth control. With lower population numbers tensions would decline, partisan politics recede, wages rise, and overall well-being increase. Pollution and greenhouse gases would decline, the earth would become more healthy. Everyone would have more space, more resources, and fewer conflicts.
What's wrong with that?
11
Uh, Cain slew Abel when only four humans existed. The darkness is within all of us; it's our animal natures and our serpentine brains. All is vanity, thus sayeth Freud.
Only a matter of time before WWIII brings population down significantly
(is '0' a significant number?)
I think your getting to the nub of it here. Republicans are addicted to righteous indignation. And its been a long time since they had anything real to complain about. Lacking the real stuff, they've been on a fentanyl binge of phony outrage, from abortion to sentencing laws, to death panels. Yes anger is a high that the aptly named Rush has taught the the rest of the G.O.P. to push.
But fantasy outrage does not lead to real solutions. When to their own amazement the addicts found themselves behind the wheel of the car, their hearts raced but they were too high to drive. They forgot how to do it, if they ever really knew.
Of course they can't govern.
29
In the “good old days” Southern bigots were Democrats, and the GOP promoted a fairly consistent set of principles. Democrats were in the majority, but at war with themselves.
In 1980 the Southern Democrats morphed into Reagan Republicans, then into the Tea Party, and now call themselves the Freedom Caucus.
As a consequence, the bigots have enabled the GOP to become the majority party. But now the GOP is at war with itself, without any clear policy agenda. Democrats are united, but find themselves in the minority.
The upshot is that there are three political parties in America, but only two listed on the ballot. The party with the commitment of bigots wins the most seats, but becomes ungovernable. Prior to 1980, Mitch McConnell would have been a Southern Democrat trying to block social progress, but today he does that as a Republican.
16
The goal of the 1% is to remain the 1%. However, to reach their aims they must win at the ballot box. It's hard to win an election when your vote counts the same as the poorest person who was able to obtain an ID and made their way to the voting booth. How can the 1% convince at least 49% of the voting population to vote against their own interests?
The answer of course is to pretend that somehow the least educated of the population- the most vulnerable to manipulation- share many of the most important beliefs and goals of the 1%....Christianity, the Constitution, capital punishment, ethnic purity (cloaked in disguised language), the second amendment, putting America first, discrediting science and the media, seeing the world as 'us and them', enjoying rallies together in an orgy of emotion organized around simplistic views of the world, making abortion a black and white issue with no gray, etc.
Is it possible that manipulation and lying and gerrymandering leads to impotence?
12
I wonder if governance is but a hobby, a toy, for the Masters. Like owning a pro sports team, it's a diversion and a fascination for them. It must help pass the time. Like the gods, they have no real skin in the game.
"The...Republican Party...cannot...govern."
The Party has it all to destroy and nothing to replace it. The failure of "Repeal and Replace" says it all.
Come the next election the Democrats will have it all to replace; but, will they be ready. The Democrats need to put up now, the sooner the better.
Hmmm..."since 1922"...will 2017 be the precursor to another depression coming sooner rather than later?
5
The Republican Party ceased to be a functional organization years ago. It has been devoid of ideas and real policies since Newt Gingrich convinced his fellows to impeach a president over private behavior, mostly because Newt had been humiliated by that same president over seats on an airplane. What positive agenda items have come forward from Republicans since then? Tax cuts for the rich, nope. Wars to stamp out terrorism? Nope. Billions on the bloated Pentagon? Nope. Taking away healthcare? Nope. The Republican Party is a party of rage and grievance, not of governance. It can win elections thru lies, gerrymandering, voter suppression, vote shenanigans (see Wisconsin 2012,2014,2016) and foreign interfereance. But it cannot govern. It cannot even deliver on the demands of its donors.
10
It's refreshing to read an article that steps away from the float like a butterfly sting like a bee mode; you're a Jake LaMotta kind of guy with years to go. I am going to try to outline two responses. At a certain point in history, the Pope was perceived as being too remote from his base ... out of touch. Some of the folk who reacted to that were idea people, some were more motivated by pure feeling. Some of the feely guys wound up early martyrs. Maybe what is new is not the existence of the fury factories of the right but the technology that allows people with feelings to express them without shame.
Someone like yourself might regret this development, since you have decided that there are 'Bad Republicans' as well as 'Good Republicans'. No doubt one should be ashamed when one is bad.
Your article could be the lead piece in an anthology of assertions that
governance is impossible in the Trump era. Bear in mind that a governor on your car's engine will prevent accelerating beyond a certain limit. They might not have a unified agenda, but they can stall or reverse yours.
Give us this day or daily bread; but we cannot live by bread alone. There are folk out there who might get the opportunity to see OJ taking a knee next weekend; and they are already riled.
Anyone who has experienced the sordid GOP impulses since Nixon, Reagan, and the Bush clan would hardly find it "strange."
It's standard operating procedure: Watergate, Iran-Contra, Voodoo bankrupting economics, Iraq, the destruction of the Supreme Court, the destruction of the middle class.
And now, in complete character, more tax cuts for the 1%.
Strange? How about typical and predictable as the rising sun. Only a Trump apologist would fail to see.
5
When you live as long as I have you come to realize the main reason the country has survived is because at its start it was the greatest idea concocted by man ever.
That and a few truly great people to agree
with the idea.
86
This country was founded on genocide. Please prove me wrong.
Let me offer Mr. Stephens another explanation for Republican legislative failures: their ideas are bad. They have dined out electorally for years on trickle-down economics, climate denial, opposition to gay marriage, and more recently on repealing Obamacare. The uniting factor in all of these
major pillars of Republican orthodoxy? They're wrong and unpopular. They range from empirically false to morally repugnant. They are all, now, highly unpopular in the country at large. So Republicans forced by their longstanding ideology to foist these ideas upon us, an unwilling public, are in a quandry. Their heart may (Ted Cruz) or may not (John McCain) be in it, but their reptillian brains recognize that implementation of these policies, rather than just bloviating about them, to wit would be devastating for their chances of re-election. So they're stuck, and are OK with being stuck so long as the money rolls in from their donors and they can keep convincing white people to vote for them. It's become a game of flash and mirrors and dissembling and fake numbers (look at their latest blatantly disingenuous attempts to "sell" tax reform) rather than fixing big problems, because they don't have any answers within their ideology that will actually *do* that. And that's where we'll stay so long as they stay in charge.
5
Where the author goes wrong is assuming that Trump and Moore are not ideological and emotional soul mates. Trump wanted to endorse the kindred spirit Moore but Kelly et al convinced Trump, against is instincts, to make half hearted speech for "Mitch's guy".
Trump stated he will campaign strongly for Moore and he will no doubt do it and be welcomed by Moore. You will see Trump, Moore and Bannon on the same stage in Alabama being cheered wildly by the GOP's white supremacist, religious base. That is the same base that is at work everywhere that the GOP has a majority.
Moore will win in Alabama just as Trump won in the US and GOP wins everywhere, good people don't vote and leave the field to anti-American GOP.
6
The Republicans have set out to make the US a one party state by means of voter suppression, gerrymandering, voting by hackable machines run by a private business, and a very successful play of the race card or racism card. In a one-party state, the party can easily tear itself into pieces without a powerful leader with charisma and talent. With success in their grasp, the Republicans are stuck with Trump who may blow it. To be very politically incorrect, voter suppression may have won the election for Trump without Russian help. The voter suppression drive is on steroids now. And gerrymandering works.
6
What the right-wing rage machine has most effectively destroyed is the ability of progressives and conservatives to agree on a common core of fundamental facts, otherwise known as reality, as a point of departure for rational debate and compromise.
To put it another way: The right has committed intellectual suicide.
10
The Republican Party has successfully branded itself as the anti-establishment party, the party that opposes "the urban gentry that reads the Times and wants to tell everyone else how to live while taxing them into poverty to give money to . . . well you know who."
But it's hard to pose as defenders of ordinary folks when the programs you've actually been planning to implement so cruelly work to the disadvantage of anyone who doesn't live in a Manhattan penthouse, or at least a gated community.
So the opposition part was easy, but the governing part is virtually impossible, because every step the Republicans take to do what they actually hoped to do will cost them the support of a shocked, bewildered, and probably very angry cohort of red-state voters.
2
As we wander aimlessly just trying to undo what the past administration did we move further and away from the people we really wanted to be. We always think we are compassionate caring country. We were proud that we helped immigrants who were persecuted in their own countries. We were proud that any poor man can have an idea and make millions. We were proud that when other countries had a disaster we were first to send in aid, We were proud to be a generous people. We were We were proud of our government and held it up as a beacon of light for the rest of the world. It is sad what we have become for it certainly is not making America Great.
2
It's strange that Stephens, who aspires to be a wordsmith as opposed to a propagandist. never DEFINES "GOP governing."
Because he doesn't, this reads as a faux criticism, an attempt to persuade the reader that he's a critical fair thinker.
Let me help him out. GOP governing takes the form of depriving millions of health care, cutting taxes for billionaires, elected segregationists, and denying humanitarian aid to fellow Americans, except if they happen to live in a red state, all of which Bret approves.
If the GOP manages to permanently actualize its agenda, Bret will be calling it the most effective governing coalition since FDR.
1
Second time this week this man impressed me. And I walk on the completely opposite side of the street. Great column and strong add to the paper's Op Ed
Yes the unleashing of anger from the frustrated put the GOP in the drivers seat. As Mr. Stephens points out, not everyone is a good driver. They also generally have no answers for all the people...or most of the people. A couple Mitch-like southerners have been manipulating the system skillfully, with Machiavellian meaninglessness. But their maneuvers cannot cover the fact that they have no answers, ideas, for all the people...or most of the people. We are adrift. While Donnie is in office the entire game is to limit his damage and the profit he and his billionaire club can take from the country.
1
For all the fear generated by the American left, the American right is really a very timid animal. It is populated by old white dads who lack completely any element of political militancy. They are afraid of fighting, and genuinely scared of being racist/sexist/bigoted.
Thus, the right wing movement barely even exists in America. Not a single Republican politician endorses social hierarchy and open inequality, only trivial things like low taxes or "small government". What the right needs is a militant youth wing that makes leftists suffer serious political consequences for their words and actions. Rural patriotism, flagwaving and Christianity is not going to crush leftism.
Americans would do well to look at nationalism in other countries, especially growing ones like China, India, and Turkey. These countries have dynamic, adaptive youth nationalism on their sides, ready to counter and break leftist organization at any time, with or without government support. That is the ideal the west should aspire to.
1
Lin-Manyel Miranda wrote it best: winning is easy, governing's harder.
The Republican Party ceased to be a functioning institution gradually. The original sin was abandoning conservatism in favor of self promotion. Nixon was much more interested in ceasing power and keeping it than he was in ending the War and promoting economic competition and fiscal conservatism. A compounding factor has been electing figureheads as leaders. The figureheads kept the image of conservatism while extremists took control of the party. The Republican Party is now a party of extremists, not a functioning party of conservatives. They’ve become obstructionists, whose purpose is to maintain power.
1
So the founding fathers had it right all along. In the seemingly Rube Goldberg structure of the federal government debate, compromise and consensus building is the only path to legislative success. An optimist would hope that we are now on the path, however painful, to coming full circle to that outcome.
1
The rise of the demented right in Europe and America since 2007 runs in parallel with the deepest and longest economic crisis/downturn since 1929, the other period in Western history when the demented right surged. History never repeats itself, but... When the brutal inequalities of Reaganomics and Thatcherism, exacerbated by the crisis, are corrected, and we have a new version of the New Deal and post-war socio-economic awareness, the demented right will go back to the rocks it normally lives under.
I want to be hopeful that the current situation is an indication that at long last, average Republican voters (with the exception of the most hard core base) are beginning to turn towards a very basic reality: the Republican party has nothing to offer them and is doing nothing to help them.
And I mean nothing.
1
Maybe we can thank Trump for helping to cause such disarray within the party, for the emergence of some moderate Republican voices to save the day by stopping the Republican healthcare wrecking ball, and for infuriating the party by going around them and reaching across the aisle to make deals with the Democrats.
2
Gerrymandering -- that topic for another column -- has played a crucial role. Whether it has helped is a question open for debate. I'm looking forward to reading that column.
2
What we are witnessing is the "Revenge of the Southern Strategy.". Just about fifty years ago, Republicans, led by Richard Nixon devised an ingenious plan to devide Americans along the lines generated by rage over the Civil Rights movement and, more specifically, civil rights legislation passed under Lyndon Johnson. Ronald Reagan proved that the Southern Strategy could be spread into other areas of the country, using dog whistles like "Welfare Queen" and "Big Buck" in barely veiled references to African Americans. Donald Trump and Roy Moore are the inevitable outcome.
3
If you are looking for a way to make your head explode, just listen to the fans who call in to the shows of multi-millionaires and 1%'ers like O'Reilly, Levin, Hannity, Ingraham (and let's not forget Limbaugh), to thank them profusely for caring about and speaking up for them, "the little guy."
2
Exceptionally insightful and well-written column. Nails it.
Governing and campaigning are two very different things. Tapping into the anger of the angry in order to be elected is not the same as being able to lead an entire country.
"Republican" and "Democrat" are merely labels, albeit inconsistent ones. What they do and have stood for over time varies. More important are the fundamental concerns faced by the electorate, and their motivation to express those where it matters most: in elections.
Republicans, at this point in time, appear to have the edge in capturing the hearts of voters, though not necessarily the minds. Perhaps it is because the bloviation of political pundits and candidates is cathartic and channels the anger that lives within those hearts, and even if the purpose of whipping the electorate into its frenzy is simply to get elected or make a way above average living.
It does not take a genius to realize that much of what has been promised by Republicans-perhaps-only-in-name, is not in the best interests of middle America and the downtrodden. What we require is an electorate that is willing to hold their officials accountable, regardless of party label, and demand a changing of the guard in every single election, until our supposed leaders get the message. That would mean "throwing the elected bums out" every two years, "tuning the media bums out" every single day, and to start thinking.
Can that happen? I don't know. I'm still thinking about it.
Merely substitute "Democratic Party" in every mention of "Republican Party" and you have the next column, equally telling of internecine fracture. The larger and more important point is the rise of the populists, their eventual - and soon - takeover via Trojan horse of each party's nominating process. What comes of this, irrespective of optics and rhetoric, will be radical by American standards. Class warfare is a given. Racial strife is a real possibility, and war as economic engine a certainty - and it will matter not which no-longer-fringe element is in ascendance. Need a signpost? Brush up on Roman civil war following Caesar's murder. Civics is no substitute for messianic orthodoxies.
2
"These are not ideas guys. They’re anger guys. Their specialty is the communication of rage to an audience prone to histrionics. It can feel awfully good to be awfully mad."
To wit: nursing a grievance, that is what provides an almost addictive rush, that is what they share in their community. It makes them confused and unfocused, and seeking some daylight of clarity. But they can't reach it because their grievance, their anger, overwhelm them.
As Nietzsche, the actual father of psychoanalysis put it:
"The psychological explanation of this. To derive something unknown from something familiar relieves, comforts, and satisfies, besides giving a feeling of power. With the unknown, one is confronted with danger, discomfort, and care; the first instinct is to abolish these painful states. First principle: any explanation is better than none. Since at bottom it is merely a matter of wishing to be rid of oppressive representations, one is not too particular about the means of getting rid of them: the first representation that explains the unknown as familiar feels so good that one “considers it true.” The proof of pleasure (“ of strength”) as a criterion of truth.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Portable Nietzsche (Portable Library) (p. 497). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
2
I've only just begun to notice the growing number of Stephens' op-eds. Kudos and thanks to the NYT for hiring him -- the closest to a replacement for William Safire so far!
"Trump has the authority but not the skills." Certainly. Trump does not have the skills: greasing palms in the NYC realty business is not a skill. But I totally disagree that he has "the authority," unless the Constitution was changed while I was asleep. Trump acts as if he has the authority. Even Sarah Sanders acts as if she has the authority. But the Constitution is clear in its separation of powers. If there's an Alfred E. Neuman on stage, it's Trump telling us all what his budget will do for us. He has no authority to enact or impose a budget. Remember what happened when Obama last sent a budget proposal to the House? Same fame as Merrick Garland: it didn't get a second of consideration. In fact, Ryan, petulant and vindictive announced that he would ignore it completely, and that it would be DOA.
2
The Republican Party has become the place--in the Jim Crow South it was the Democratic Party--where prejudice is welcome and utilized. Nixon made it a successful political strategy. Even though we're not supposed to mention it anymore, see also history of how prejudice and resentment and economic hardship worked together in Germany after WWI. The Alt Right and the others that Stephens mentions have and are driving moderates out of the Republican Party. Why does this work? Human nature? One of the narrators in the new Vietnam documentary made the point that military boot camp did not create killers out of good young men. He said that their training was "finishing school," that we all had that violent aggressor inside and pretty close to the surface. Perhaps it was the same or another narrator said we wage war to bridle that violent instinct. It was a powerful moment that I did not want to hear. We Americans have a long violent history of racism and prejudice of all kinds. It's as apparent today as it was during the 60s. Are we as divided as we were then? Yes. I think so. We're not "post-racial." Will we change? Ever learn? See Bob Dylan. The answer is "Blowing in the Wind." Today's racism feels different, however, than the 60s because it's trying to undo institutional change we made for the better in the 60s and at great cost to many. That is extremely disturbing.
4
". . . the end of the Republican Party as a functional institution . . . ."
Where in heaven's name has the author been? The Republican Party as a functional institution ended towards the end of the last century, when President Bush the Elder raised taxes because it was the only ethical thing to do, and was roundly and soundly condemned for it. It's been a basket case ever since.
1
New York Governor (1959-73) and Vice President (1974-77) Nelson Rockefeller was a Republican born into vast inherited wealth. His politics were left of Hillary Clinton. Sounds like fiction but it's true. Imagine that!
1
Mr Stephens would like you to believe that all screaming and vitriol come from the left. Perhaps his cable subscription precludes MSNBC? One thing for sure is Democrats vote as a bloc. Even after being stomped in many federal, state and local elections, the still hang together seldom uttering original thoughts. What's really sad is the accurately described party disunity has created gridlock. If that had only been the case in 2010, the country would not be suffering the ACA. Public anger over the arrogance of elitists making so many bad decisions created the Trump opportunity. I guess we can be thankful that no real "progress" is being made....we can't afford it!
You can make a good case that the Republican Party has been very successful. However, the measure of their success is how closely they resembles a party ushering in an unapologetic Gilded Age. Tom Price, Steve Mnuchin and his wife jetting across 'fly-over country' in luxury. Donald Trump jetting every weekend to Mar a Lago during the winter and Bedminster in the summer. Trump International in Washington D.C. and Trump Tower in Manhattan as go-to places for political donors and international movers and shakers looking for deals. The lifestyles of the rich and famous in Trump's Administration are pretty blatant now. There is no attempt to hide it. In fact, Trump has suggested that's it's a plus for America to have wealthy people at the helm. All of this opulence is the backdrop for a populist revolt with people like Steve Bannon and Fox Network on the ramparts. I don't know about you, Bret, but I can recognize a case of national schizophrenia when I see it: All Hail The Commoners! Long Live The Plutocrats!
"The political paradox of 2017 is that a Republican Party that cannot seem to lose also cannot seem to govern."
The political scientists Paul Pierson and Jacob Hacker identify the reasons behind this paradox in their book, "American Amnesia." First, the Republican party does everything in its power to make government unpopular, and then they blame Democrats--the "party of big government"--for government dysfunction. Hence their success at the polls. The GOP is aided and abetted by other forces hostile to government: big business and wealthy conservatives like the Koch brothers and the Mercer family, who spend millions attacking and weakening government in order to amass more power for themselves.
This means the Republican candidates who attack government most aggressively--people like Donald Trump and Roy Moore--have the best chance of winning. But they have absolutely no idea how to govern. Indeed, they don't seem very interested in the enterprise.
8
Sooooo .. are you so tired of winning yet?
I'm no Republican, but don't need to suppose very hard to understand the Republican's plight; it's unfortunately simple. The entire credo of the party is the destruction of government, cooperation and comity -- so what you you get?
Bobby Jindal is not around anymore, but the Parry of Stupid just keeps getting stupider, and angrier, and less able to cooperate ... with anybody.
7
Strange:
Not even one comment from a Republican!
Why?
3
How do you know this?
1
They don't read the NYT.
1
"Suppose you’re a Republican. Since you’re reading The Times, suppose hard."
Chomsky said that the Republican party was the most dangerous organization on earth. I believe he's right - unimaginable power in the hands of the unbelievably stupid and ignorant. What could go wrong?
31
Bret Stephens, may I suggest that the American two-party system lets the worst, read most racistic, factions of the Republican Party, remain unseen or seen as harmless.
Today in Gothenburg, Sweden, no such hiding is possible. We have an SD party with deep roots in Sweden's Nazistic past, and right now we are all following the gathering of probably 1000s of NMR (Nordisk motstånds rörelse - read Nazis) supporters from all over Europe at designated places. Then these 1000s will gather at a point in downtown Gothenburg where they will begin their march with flags held high and boots sending out their Hitlerian message.
If there were a multi-party system in the US then American Nazis, called alt-Right in the gentle language of the NY Times, could be seen directly for what they are, neo Nazis.
Perhaps sanity would prevail, perhaps not.
We all over Sweden fear the worst in Gothenburg, a city where one of the finest schools, Samskolan, was founded by Jews, one of whom I used to know, part of my extended family.
The Republican Party is completely blind to NMR's counterparts in America, or, perhaps, embraces them.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Dual citizen US SE
26
The GOP embraces them. They are the shock troops of the plutocrats.
1
@ myself - SVT (Swedish public TV) is providing continuous live coverage of a march that was supposed to start at 13:00 h CET but apparently has been delayed. In contrast with Charlottesville and University of Virginia, there are 100s, perhaps 1000 or more police keeping the NMR (Nazis) separated from all other people. And, in even greater contrast with Virginia, the NMR members are not carrying guns with live ammunition in them. It appears that something may have happened that has led the police to consider cutting off the march - polisen överväger att avbryta is what is being said right now.
14:02 h CET
Just seeing those green and white flags raised high by the NMR is unbelievably troubling. Why are Republicans not troubled?
@ Nora M from my very own New England - Nora I fear that you are exactly right, the GOP can embrace them without having to admit this clearly.
At this moment the police in Gothenburg have told the NMR marchers must stop moving and they have. We await a statement from the police.
The NMR marchers with their flags raised high show us what Hitler's storm troopers looked like. I have replied to myself over at the main editorial about voter districting.
You are right, it is easier to be against something than to be for something. Also gerrymandering has insured lunacy, and bumper sticker slogans are more effective than logical arguments. The last is what Republicans are good at doing.
The Republican strategy from "the southern strategy" to "make America great again" has won elections but hardly is the stuff that mak3es governing possible.
There are no Rockefeller , Heinz, Javitz, Scott Republicans around anymore. An d there is only one Republican Senator that loves his country more than his party. We all know that one. The closest thing to a moderate Republican Senator are a couple of smart women.
Fox News will continue to be a salesperson imitating a used car pitch man and the party will continue to win while America loses.
21
The U.S. would be better off IMO with a multi-party system similar to European democracies. It would offer a number of advantages over the constantly fraught two-party system by forcing governing coalitions, thus permitting a number of voices to contribute, and making it easier for individuals to migrate to the party representing their thinking at the moment. It would also dilute the buying of elections, extreme loyalty demands, and fire fights built into two parties while permitting changing ideas to grow. Getting there is not simple, but the current warfare evident on the right offers the best opening if it can be exploited by the middle.
8
Republicans or Democrats - there is no majority. The maturation of the PAC - special interest model and unlimited spending controlled by a few thousand of the richest individuals creates no real centralized party(s) that stand for anything anymore. It's just single issues and tribes that band together under a label - not a real set of shared values or consistent messages.
Trump is unique - he's not of any real party - he can say what he wants and his followers accept it in spite of it's contradiction to a party message/value or anything he may have said before. Trump doesn't govern thru leadership - he campaigns for attention, divides people and then reacts to events.
Republicans do seem to share one thing in common along their diluted spectrum - and that is they generally look to disenfranchise someone or a large set of people - either socially or economically - as the answer to all things. It fails as a governing approach because it consistently benefits a few and doesn't provide progress for a majority.
34
The Republican ideal is a government that is too small to stand up to businesses and will serve them instead. But if governments are weak or small, businesses will fight to use them against other businesses of the same sort, other types of business, workers, or consumers. Since what is really going on is these fights, the Republican Party cannot avoid getting dragged into them, and if it formulates an independent agenda it will find itself a relatively minor and powerless participant in these fights. The fights are waged with money and the propaganda money buys, and the party has no independent source of money.
7
The underlying issue Mr. Stephens touches on in his excellent column is that neither Democratic or Republican control of all three branches can any longer assure legislative success for either party. On the national level we have become ungovernable, but on a regional basis were doing OK, thank you.
One explanation for this resides in the fact that the United States of America of 1789 wasn't really that united as the close ratification votes for many states indicated i.e., New Yorkers voted 30 to 27 for the Constitution. Today, we no longer see each other as states but regions of which there about 11 as Colin Woodward described in his 2011 book "American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America".
Seen from the perspective of the US having become more of a federation of 11 regions with widely varying economic and cultural aspects, it's no wonder that the Senate and House can rarely agree on national issues these days. In looking to where all this might lead a look at the European Union might be instructive if not particularly encouraging.
15
Thank you for recommending Colin Woodard's "American Nations". It is indeed a book worth reading to understand our divided nation.
Gerrymandering is political fentanyl. You touch it you die.
10
The claim that the Republicans currently control both the legislative and the executive branches of the federal government (as well as, we might as well admit, the judicial one) is a commonplace, but it may be misleading. The GOP actually consists of at least two "parties": the "social conservatives" (the Roy Moore types) and the "fiscal conservatives", working to promote the interests of people like the Kochs and the Mercers. Along with these, there's a fluctuating cluster of smaller groups, including for instance the libertarians, the "Freedom Caucus", and a small and diminishing number of "moderates". Finally, there are the Bannonite (Bannonesque?) "disruptors", who seem just to want to make trouble for everyone. The metaphor of the "big tent" may once have worked; today it definitely doesn't.
And then there's Donald Trump, sitting up there in the White House. He allies himself more or less ad-hoc with any one of these groups (or indeed the Democrats) at any one time, depending on what it will do to appease his insatiable ego, to satisfy his rabid base (who are happy as long as they see him irritating the liberal "elites"), and to promote his own material interests.
How can such a "party" possibly be expected to govern?
23
'When nastiness sells, the worst rise.' Talk about describing a complex situation in a nutshell. That statement, in many ways, describes the present political landscape in the U.S..
41
It so much easier to destroy than construct. It so much easier to criticize the efforts of others than mount those efforts yourself. It is hard to govern- all constituencies are diverse in numerous ways with varying needs, and resources are limited.
The Republicans spent eight years criticizing OBAMACARE without an idea of their own. They could not address healthcare as a necessary good that should not be tethered to employment. They rail against every increase in healthcare premiums under Obamacare without acknowledging that healthcare has been increasing in costs for the past forty years. This is the way with many other long term problems as well where Republicans rail against any plan or tried solution when they have no plan themselves and they do not even recognize the trajectory of the problem.
18
Bret Stephens has penned a sensible and entertaining piece- however, he completely overlooks the central conflict in the Republican party- that is, what the billionaire donors want vs. the needs and wishes of their white southern working class base.
The Koch brothers and other deep pockets working from the extreme right to dismantle Social Security and every other social program the federal government offers know that most struggling Americans don't want what they want.
Working people are not the least bit motivated to lower the tax rates of billionaires or to assure that endless generations of their progeny will benefit from the fortunes they leave when they die. These donors must pursue their goals dishonestly and indirectly to get what they want. Anger and division is their primary tactic.
Many aging white people of little intellectual curiosity can be motivated by the idea that Democrats only care about Hispanics and blacks, but that doesn't mean they want to give up Medicare or the Medicaid that provides some relief to their stressful lives.
Bret Stephens can pretend that the Ann Rand wing of the Republican party is simply the inevitable crazy right wing minority, but as long as it represents the GOP's primary infusion of funding and think tank derived propaganda he'd better respect their influence if he wants to be genuinely informative instead of merely another clever columnist.
31
Yes, but WHY do the Democrats give the very distinct impression that their lives are entirely governed by guilt over racism and slavery?
For years, the electorate, especially the Republican party has been focused on image, not substance. We watch murders occur on television at incredible rates. News is often uninterrupted coverage of police pursuits of car thieves or robbers. Horror movies involve ax murders, vampires, zombies, and other fantasia.
Yet the next day everyone goes to work or party.
We root for pro sports teams as if their fate will rule our lives. Yet after the tragic losses, we wait for next season.
We are used to living our passions in fantasy, and then earning our incomes in reality.
So now celebrity has infested our politics, and sloganeering has replaced reality. Control of government has passed from the reality of social democracy with compromise and pursuit of common goals to reality show contest and combat.
The morning after the election, the public expects to go to work, and to have firemen, police, flight controllers, paramedics, traffic, and air quality to function as well as before. Unfortunately, the celebrities elected the night before have no interest in the reality of governance. They are looking to capture higher ratings in the next campaign, and sweeping up the financial benefits of providing specialized representation to "special interests". So the Republican impotence is a reflection of the import and commitment that the electorate and the celebrity candidates place in actual governance.
11
When 70% of the National electorate is white, and 55% of whites (for whatever reason) automatically vote Republican, this is what happens. In a place like Texas, where the Democrats and their constituents have been marginalized, the only ideological divide that matters is between conservative Republicans and extremist Republicans (in the Roy Moore mold). The evidence continues to mount that white voters are behaving “tribally” more than ideologically. This suggests that demographic change — which I strongly suspect is the main factor driving white voters to the G.O.P. — will take a perilously long time to return us to political equilibrium. A lot of white “Baby Boomers” will probably have to die off before this populism loses its potency. And what state the country will be in at that time is anybody’s guess. I, for one, am filled with dread.
10
The statement by one of leading(?) rep senators regarding the latest health care fiasco that we Reps should pass the ACA aka Obama care because we Promised to do so in the campaign. No other logic, no reasoned passion, no understanding of the bill (if it had been read at all) and no care for the millions of Americans who stood to become non insurees or the economic impact in rural America where the health care system was the largest employer as well as the caregiver.
Intelligent representatives ??
Just like a little kid - but mom you promised me!
Just pass it because the reps promised to do so.
4
Since the advent of No Child Left Behind, education for critical thinking has dropped off the radar. Teachers are now forced to teach to the tests, leaving important subjects like science, civics, and history to fend for themselves. There is a reason why Trump loved the "poorly educated" on the campaign trail, and a a reason why an inexperienced, corrupt, and incompetent Betsy DeVos is the secretary of education. This is why Roy Moore may be elected to the senate in spite of (or because of?) his beliefs such as evolution is wrong.
A significant minority of Americans will continue to believe in the most outlandish, damaging and hateful rhetoric of the fury factory if we can't begin insuring our students actually learn lessons of history and real science.
8
"No Child Left behind" was a rotten scam on the American people, but critical thinking died in 1981.
Please give us a party that embraces values of faith, family, and fraternity with a thirty-something sense of openness and individual liberty.
Mr. Stephens nails it when he says that "civics is taught poorly (and, increasingly rarely)". Are school districts too polarized politically and afraid to be accused of bias to the right (or more often the left)? This is not only nonsense, it is going to contribute to the demise of our democracy if we don't turn it around and start to demand a working knowledge of our political system of all students who hope to earn a high school diploma. We demand this of naturalized U.S. citizens, i.e. immigrants!
5
I'm an unabashed liberal yet consider Bret Stephens one of the better columnists writing for the Times today. Of course, my appraisal may entirely be due to cognitive bias; I agree with him (or at least this column) fully. Still, this was an exquisitely written and – more importantly – thought provoking, important piece.
It's one thing when partisan criticism comes from the other side or aislee: on schedule, de rigeur, and tequisitely ignored. Hopefully that criticism such as this comes from within causes more of a stir.
I'm not holding my breath but I'm also hopeful.
3
" I agree with him (or at least this column) fully."
Then you couldn't possibly be a liberal as you claim. Stop the games, or learn how to read beyond Bret's word games.
These diagnoses, like the diagnoses of Hillary's loss, remind me of the parable of the six blind men and the elephant. There's some truth in all of them, but not the whole truth. I'm happy to agree with Mr. Stephens that the propaganda empire that Roger Ailes built over contributes substantially to our political dysfunction. But Rush and Sean and the rest have been around for decades. And globalization and automation should not be dismissed as "nothing new." And Charles Colson deserves a sentence or two as one of the architects of the political weaponization of religion, no? One of the phrases that I think captures a lot of what's going on is "movement politics." We have it on the Right. We have it on the Left. And people who think of themselves as soldiers in movements find it very hard to imagine compromising.
13
The left used to have fury factories whose fuel was class awareness, classes, and class struggle. Communists hijacked this fury and used it to build systems that did not work, and anticommunists used these failures to discredit the whole idea of class struggle. But in reality, class struggle went on and the investor class has won decisively, at least in this country. The evidence for this victory is increasing income and wealth inequality.
The inequality should give rise to a new or revised class consciousness, and Bernie shows that this is possible, but generally the inequality is producing a dissatisfaction and outrage with the system that produces it and with those (the establishment) that run the system. But without the idea of reducing levels of inequality, the outrage lacks a focus and can be diverted into areas that will leave the victory of investors untouched. Among the most popular diversions are blaming the government, blaming immigrants, and blaming a decline in morality and personal responsibility.
Taking diversions and their illusions as real makes governing impossible; real problems do not go away because they are not seen or ignored. Republicans decry deficits but make huge ones, deny the existence of racism while making racist appeals, praise competition while enabling oligarchy, extol morality while doing anything to win, and celebrate limited government while policing bedrooms. They are, in a word, nuts.
70
Thank you for calling out the metastasizing fury factories of the right and their incredible impact on our society. Well said! I really enjoy your columns and I enjoyed your appearance on Bill Maher last week. Good for you!
10
The Establishment GOP knows: Steve Bannon and the Trumpian-Evangelicals Fury Voters are coming for them. Bannon is not content to be the ventriloquist to a Presidential figurehead. He wants to be the Leader. He is going to do that by leading an enraged army to attempt a beheading of the presently sitting GOP Congresspeople. He's told them so: he is "gunning" for them.
Would this threat lead the Establishment GOP to harden its support of the Mueller investigation? Getting rid of Trump by manoeuvring him into impeachment or resignation may be the only way to save their power, albeit temporarily. In the longer run, it would be easy enough - and totally in character - for Trump to run as a third-party candidate in 2020. There isn't even any law that prevents him from running for President again even if he is impeached.
The GOP may stay in power because of gerrymandering. But it will never be able to govern in any positive way. It can only destroy through neglect.
12
It is not so much impotence as incompetence that is GOP's problem.
Just take a look at Kansas. Republicans had complete control of the government and they managed to make a mess. Kansas, under Gov. Brownback, did what the GOP wants to do at the national level: cut taxes drastically, reduce the size of government and so on.
The result? A disaster of epic proportions that even the Republicans, as the Times put it, "turned on him [Brownback] and his austere approach. Fed up with gaping budget shortfalls, inadequate education funding and insufficient revenue, the Republican-controlled Legislature capped months of turmoil by overriding the governor’s veto of a bill that would undo some of his tax cuts and raise $1.2 billion over two years." https://nyti.ms/2sSTCxn
Trump, Ryan, McConnell and their GOP colleagues want to now try what Kansas did. If they succeed, we are in for big trouble. I suppose there is something to be said for impotence.
36
The problem the Republicans face is that American Conservativism is a phony self-serving philosophy whose only aim is to enrich the already wealthy.
Trickle down economics, supply side economics, tax cuts for recessions, tax cuts for boom economies, cuts to the social safety net; cuts to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid; repeal Obamacare; repeal and replace Obamacare; pulling yourself up by your boot straps; 'self-reliance'; privatization of government services; 'reforming' the tax code; 'ending welfare as we know it'...are all just expressions of one single idea: squeeze money from the poor, working class and middle class and redistribute it upwards to the wealthy donors of the Republican Party.
They can't govern because they don't believe in government. Why else would ANY politician in their right mind support the recent proposals that would strip millions of constituents of their access to health care? In what crazy political universe would that be even considered as a desirable policy to pursue?
Now that the Republicans have won their gerrymandered elections and have the chance to enact their 'big ideas', Americans can see their policy proposals and are having none of it.
We may be a divided country now, but we are becoming more united every day. We are going out into the streets by the thousands, calling legislators by the millions. When people are free citizens and have the vote, arrogance and impunity will only get you so far.
22
It's because there isn't a single Republican party anymore, at least not one that stands for anything.
Today's Republicans can be better described as "Not Democrats".
Some don't like Democrats because they fear that their liberal attitudes towards gay marriage are eroding the nation's moral tradition.
Some don't like Democrats because they don't want to pay taxes.
Some don't like Democrats because they don't want "over-regulation".
Some don't like Democrats because of pure hate/racism.
If you made a Venn diagram of all the things the Republican groups stand for, the only thing that all of them would believe in is "we don't like Democrats." That is why the Republicans in their current form will be doomed to be the party of opposition.
695
This sounds credible until you stop to think that Republicans have been getting more and more ideological. They have run on a combination of rhetoric that feels good: anger, outrage, a perverted patriotism and, yes, racism.
The principles of the party have become more rigid. They stand for individual responsibility, small government and low taxes, an obsession with the military and, sometimes, states rights. There is a strong appeal to religious belief, as long as it's the "right" religion. Their economic theories rise from faith in free markets. All these ideas mesh together to create a fabric that is anything but conservative.
If a politician doesn't follow the party line, he or she becomes a RINO. When someone like John McCain gets put in that basket, we know that the world has turned upside down.
The victory of Roy Moore in that Alabama primary suggests to me that it's going to get worse before it gets better. Trust that the electorate would not lose its mind helped elect Donald Trump. No one has really figured out a way to counter this. We might want to ponder why it seems to be an international trend.
2
Swap "Republican" and "Democrat"... your comments would look the same to at least half the country.
1
Exactly. This is, for me, the definition of reactionary. They have nothing to offer but reactions.
1
The Republican Party doesn't govern or pass legislation because it doesn't want to govern or pass legislation.
It wants to gut government, cut taxes and funnel the remaining tax dollars to big business and the military.
We have a Republican Administration and Congress full of people who despise the institutions that they are supposed to be stewards of. They're not impotent; they're intent on making government impotent. And they are succeeding.
33
The oligarchs and plutocrats pulling the strings that animate Republican puppets like Ryan and McConnell want dysfunctional government. They have prospered exponentially since the Reagan years and are still prospering. When you are measuring success, don't look at the employees, look at the owners. U.S. government is bought and the buyers have done very, very, well. The party has been a wrecking ball for a long time, and it's still doing very well at tearing things down.
666
You seem unaware of the self-serving mega rich that support the Democrats.
1
There should be a distinction between small business, which has also suffered, and corporate business which has done very well.
1
Trump rode the politics of resentment to the Presidency but that is a horse will only take you so far because successful governance requires a positive agenda to move things forward as opposed to voters who can vote against something, legislators have to vote for something for successful governance
3
The GOP sold their souls when they embraced the Tea Party radicals in order to counter the effect of Obama's presidency. Shame on them. I used to be one of those people who, in my interest in politics, could have energizing, exciting political conversations with my conservative friends. But the GOP has now gone to the fringe...and with gerrymandering, the very fabric of a sane, fact-based government seems beyond the pale. I remember when one Congressman said something comparing a portion of the US to a banana republic, and there was a great hue and cry. Well, guess what...we are becoming very close to the template for all those regimes that for decades we have dismissed as being corrupt and ineffective. My optimism is in short supply, but lives within the brave and tireless resisters. MAYBE we can return to sanity!
6
Thank you, Bret Stephens. Not only do these pundits stoke anger, they peddle falsehoods with such single minded ferocity that many viewers will not believe the truth even when it is both simple and incontrovertible (see Doubts about Barack Obama's birthplace if you doubt this). How do we remedy this? Willful ignorance and uninformed anger are destroying our democracy.
8
It seems that you are surprised about all this, Mr. Stephens. I am not. The entire history of the Republican Party from Reagan on was built on lies: "trickle down economics", "government is the enemy", "Hussein has WMDs", and "humans do not contribute to climate change", to mention just a few. Lies can never be the foundation of successful and effective government. If the Republicans had to tell the truth, they would have nothing to say but "I want to be richer".
11
I have been saying this for years: The failure of our political system lies squarely at the doorstep of FOX news and Rush Limbaugh--and millions of unhappy listeners looking for a quick easy fix for their resentments.
7
They have promised their base things they can't deliver, because it was always based on intellectual dishonesty.
4
Smile Republicans! Trump is president and he is sticking it to the liberals as promised. Nevertheless, Fox news continues to mainline outrage to their addicts. Trumpers can't go without their daily hit of rage or they might sober up. I grew up in a conservative red state and the change in tone over the last 20 years is really something, really something and not good.
4
Mr. Stephens asks "So why is [the G.O.P.] in such obvious disarray?"
He provides some plausible answers, but misses the main reason.
The G.O.P. wants a weak central government to enforce strong rules against abortion.
It wants a mighty national defense and low taxes.
It favors local over federal control, and it opposes sanctuary cities.
It wants to punish activist judges and to reward Roy Moore.
The G.O.P. cannot get what it wants because it wants contradictory things.
The G.O.P. is not battling the left, or the media, or the elite. The G.O.P. is battling facts. And the G.O.P. will lose because "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts."
16
The Republicans are starting to have the same problems that the Democrats have experienced. They seem to have difficulty in deciding which direction their party should be going. Some like Susan Collins want a more progressive party and others like Rand Paul want it to be more conservative. This was the case in the recent failure of the healthcare bill. They could not agree as to what was to be included in the plan. Maybe they need to be more moderate in their thinking and compromise. They are having difficulty in getting bills passed due to their differences. This is not good for our country.
Maybe they should start talking to their constituents and ask them what they want. This is what President Trump did and he won the election.
1
The Republican Party is the party of lies. What they campaign on are self contradictory policies. Yes, we can cut taxes, but no it won’t bring back jobs to the many. Yes we can make government smaller and turn power back to the states, but this won’t somehow generate cheaper and better healthcare for the many - and the many includes white workers who still vote for Republicans.
We can argue that Democrats lie too. But their lies are smaller. If they held sway we might be trying government run day care (a program perfect for working families) and community colleges across the US might be free. And unlike with Republican programs which do one thing - enrich the donor base, Democratic ideas will help the people.
The people see this. They may not vote their interests, but this spring and summer they have conveyed their disgust in ridiculous ideas about how to reform the ACA and now it is clear that they are not convinced about the tax program either.
Still, Republicans tell the same big lies.
494
So true Terry from a North Jersey guy. I wonder if the white working class will love Trump, when a reducing 1% tax cut for them whilst the rich get huge tax cuts with richest continue their tax cut as the rest of us don't.
Note: With very good times with unemployment rate at 4.4% trending lower, we should be reducing the Debt that we pass onto our children & grandchildren. Remember your economics classes in school.
1
The opening line says it all. Modern Republicans do not read a range of material, let alone material that is counter to their own positions. It has been well documented that Trump makes his staff bring him headlines from papers that speak glowingly of him. This sums up where the modern Republican voter stands, at least the ones I know. They do not want to listen to counter arguments. They just want more support for their position, which FOX and Breitbart gladly provide. The downfall of the modern Republican Party is certainly what I hope to see, not because I want a Democratic Party that runs unopposed, but because I want multiple parties that support candidates running on evidence based ideas, not myths.
45
A real problem is the fact that neither "average" Republicans nor "average" Democrats read media that would raise doubts about their opinions Just look at the comments to columns in the NYT and compare them to comments in the WSJ. It seems to me that at least 80% of those submitting comments to the Times believe Republicans are to the right of il Duce, and the same percentage in the Journal believe Democrats are direct descendants of Friedrich Engels. Stephens' column last week about finding ways to disagree needs to be reread at least weekly.
One of the greatest political derelictions and disappointments has been the intellectual failures of reporters and columnists in describing the country's mood and trends. In the current season, the most common, often repeated off-the-point claim is that anger is driving voters to ballot decisions. The claim misses the point of basic emotional understanding: anger is a temporary emotion. It is heightened for a short term. It is hard to sustain. It burns out. Instead, comfort with the new racist rhetoric of labels, blame, and scorn Trump added to the public narrative, comfort with the old shibboleths of division, power, and privilege, with wealth elevated above the working class, comfort with diminishing women through personal and physical attacks--comfort with lies that fit imaginary make-believe. Voters, while flaring anger, found long-term comfort in Trump's positions, which is why it is so difficult to shake his support and more accurately describes the challenge for his opposition. Comfort--not anger--is his glue. Miss that fact and the opposition will lose again!
27
This is a thoughtful column by Mr. Stephens, but I have a question. With all of those majorities, governorships, and Supreme Court seats, does the GOP represent the majority of the US population? The opinion numbers and even overall votes would say no. It's hard to effectively wield power without such legitimacy even though (or perhaps because) those votes and opinions reside in cities and coasts. That represents perhaps the core dysfunction of our decaying democracy.
407
..."democracy" that never has been a true representative democracy due to the flaw of the electoral college. The accompanying photo to this piece says it all...
1
I think this is a terrific article, but you make a very valid point. By any chance did you read Michele Goldberg's debut opinion piece this week?
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/opinion/trump-electoral-college-minor...
We are being tyrannized by the few, and one of the culprits in this dilemma is the electoral college, which needs to be fixed quickly or we will break apart.
1
I think a corollary to that would be the fact that Mr. Trump has NEVER reached out to or acknowledged the people who didn't vote for him.
1
As I have said previously, you need to have a PhD in lying to become a GOP legislator. Eventually the lies, prevarications, obfuscations and alternative facts catch up to you. The GOP does control all those legislatures, they have done it with Gerrymandering and voter suppression. They took rule with less than 30% of the popular votes, Wisconsin case is a prime example. 47% of the voters have 75% of the state legislature.
Eventually all but the most hard core brain dead conservative voter get fed up with them. It took awhile, but it suddenly dawned on a great many of those middle income GOP voters that their medical insurance would return as it had been, the ACA kept many of them from bankruptcy, some of them even have a conscience, don't want to see people losing their homes and jobs due to medical bills.
The voters see the GOP financiers living like potentates, they make the Morgans, Fords, Mellons look like paupers. Incomes of $30K a day, and in the case of one Walton, $1.2M a day. Oh let them keep it,it will trickle down, to whom I ask. The wage earners, not these days. If you worked for Howard Hughes, you got good wages, insurance, retirement, medical, dental, vacations, and turkeys and hams on the holidays. Do you know any employer like that now. No, incomes are regressing to the mean, and Republicans are responsible. They are becoming a hated class.
They lie, cheat, swindle, they have become the dregs of society.
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Their employees overseas?
But Freedom.
The Walton family has cheated & exploited their workers and their vendors for years...that is where their wealth came from...not something to be admired or emulated at all. Walmart is one of the problems w/ America and they have done much to destroy our manufacturing base w/ their anti American business model while they actually pretend to be All American....they are not. Boycott Walmart, we do have choices and do we really need more cheap toxic stuff made in China? No, support authentic American business and producers...NOT Walmart.
1
Clearly, Bret wants a third party. He wants a Conservative Party purged of the Republican inheritance of LBJ’s 1960s racial and poverty programs that foisted the cross-burners and holy-rollers on us as the only place left to go, and focused on somehow striking that perfect conservative balance among our major elusive priorities – support our least fortunate adequately but just adequately, arm the capable with skills and access paths to prosperity regardless of artificial barriers tied to gender, race, ethnicity and perhaps even sexual identity, but above all else preserve incentives and the primacy of the individual in our public policy.
It’s narcotic enough to someone who lists right anyway that I might join him if I thought that such a party would consist of more than a dozen intellectually elite oddballs with absolutely no real political power. So those of us among the Illuminati who are not susceptible to pipe dreams are left with Republicans.
In the picture provided of Roy Moore one can easily see in that priceless face why he appeals to so many in Alabama. There’s something to be said for the draw that some feel to others whose forebears also appear to have had more than a passing fancy for close relatives. Alfred E. Neuman undoubtedly is dead by now; but, then, we have Roy Moore, don’t we?
10
Yet Bret’s two central arguments resonate: 1) Republicans are sufficiently distracted by the many priorities beneath its big tent that they fail to focus on traditional priorities that kept them viable for so many years; and 2) anger sells, establishments that accomplish nothing are moribund and if you select for anger you consciously DE-select for other abilities, such as legislative effectiveness.
They’re compelling arguments, but I don’t see the same outcomes as Bret does. Then again, I’m not seeking to diminish the viability of what we have in an attempt to flog the viability of something new consisting of a dozen intellectually elite oddballs with absolutely no political power.
Republicans will become during Trump’s time sufficiently “potent” and focused to roll back excessive regulation, turbo-charge our economy to provide, for now, millions of new jobs and higher wages rising organically from increased competition for skills, arrest the march toward making 1,000 people responsible for funding the entirety of our governance, define and impose some sanity with regard to the balance between immigration needs and cultural protection, diminish the importance of an elitist political correctness that has gripped our society, and perhaps even do something useful with healthcare. It’s possible that in simple self-defense against Trump Republicrats may learn to work effectively again with Demolicans. And that ain’t hay.
And they’ll do it with or without Roy Moore.
5
The thing is, Richard,that your party doesn't believe any of those things you say. Oh, sure, they claim to believe them, but since at least Reagan they have had one idea and one idea only: cut taxes on the rich and increase military spending and the heck with everything and everyone else. This single idea has failed every single time -- the result has always been massive deficits and new debt (at historically high rates of increase) and, usually, recession. It's happened time and again. Reagan, Bush the Elder, Bush the Younger...
But it is such an obsession that the party has, at times coyly (Bush 41), at times more obviously (Reagan), and at times with a staggering blatancy (the current occupant), tolerated and/or courted the worst elements on the right: the religious extremists, the shamelessly greedy, the ignorantly nationalistic, the openly racist --including outright white supremacists, etc. The current configuration is a muddled and toxic stew of all of these, led by an incompetent whose narcissism and anger at anything which is not an homage to him has, frankly, made him patently stupid.
And the GOP's response? Cut taxes on the rich again.
Seriously, how anyone who has paid attention for five minutes can support this chaotic, shameful, nation-destroying 'party' is beyond me.
When the country's only hope is the continued incompetence of its majority party, the swamp has surely not been drained.
2
A couple of things:
1) Richard, why do you feel entitled to "double-comment" on a lot of threads? You seem to think that the more you say, the smarter you appear to be and that your arguments hold more weight. So sorry, but your comment today illustrates my point. You drone on only to tell us what we already know- you believe (wrongly) that the fraud in the WH is actually going to lead the U.S. into a wonderful future. As Ramsey Snow famously said: "If you think this is going to have a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention."
2) Exactly how will republicans "turbo-charge" the economy? Oh, I know, with a good dose of trickle-down economics! Ya, that'll work!
4
At this point the GOP has become a race to the bottom- of the barrel. The moderates were long ago driven out of the Party by the hard right and it's now plain that the hard right will soon be driven out by the lunatic right. The McCains and the Collinses are hanging on by their fingertips, and they'll soon be joined by the McConnells and the Ryans (unless the latter decide that holding their noses and joining the loonies is preferable to being beaten by them). What's being forgotten is that the great majority of Americans are no more hard right than they are hard left. Nationalism and the thuggish version of populism that The Donald represents have some appeal to the angry middle, but once their leaders' policy proposals inevitably result in failure (you can't tell a member of the long-term unemployed out in the Rust Belt that those failures are "fake news" when he or she still doesn't have a job) the middle will realize that they've been had. At which point, Democrats will need to be there with solutions that can work for the 99%, and without breaking down that percentile into race-based, ethnic-based and gender-based demographics. One hopes that by the time that happens the next Democratic president will not once again have to clean up the mess that the loons have left behind.
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Those white working class Rust Belt voters will get what they deserve from Trump—Nothing. So if they're foolish enough to still vote for the GOP or Jill Stein n 2020 then let them. (Stein got 55,000 votes in MI!) They're not coming back to the DEM party anyway.
DEMS must focus their efforts on getting out the urban voters who lean DEM to begin with.
2
We had that and still do in Bernie who is trusted by everyone except the leadership of the DNC, whose agenda is threatened by his honesty.
D's still haven't learned that focusing on such demands as to who gets to use what bathroom is not a winning agenda. It may be several more elections before the ultra-PC/ethnic identity cohort wakes up and suggests their candidates take the time to visit Wisconsin. Can't win America with just CA and NY. Fact of life.
Goodness gracious that is some fine wordsmithing! Clever premises too, but I think the problem has deeper roots.
The people around me seem to be mostly goodhearted, generous, and oblivious of the challenges and dangers they really face. They're captured by infotainment and marketing/fashion. We are becoming a wholly owned subsidiary of marketing, whose gods are waste and - sadly - toxic waste, both physical and mental.
We humans need some inspiration, some encouragement to reach for the best in ourselves. Starting with Saint Reagan, we were encouraged to think we would benefit by reaching for our less generous impulses, and to worship our greed and possessions. It went downhill from there. Hate became a thing to embrace, not to overcome.
Trump is the apotheosis of human baseness, the lowest of the low. Envy and otherblaming and selfishness to the max. He helps us reach for the worst in ourselves. But his fans forget he doesn't care about them either.
This will not end well.
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reply to susan anderson :
"This will not end well." - you write.
i'd like to add that, in view of the fact that our situation on MANY
fronts, in many areas, is pretty bad indeed - one wonders who, in the position of responsibility, such as our elected leaders, really paying attention to what's going on. this will not end well is the greatest understatement i've heared in a very long time when referring to our present reality
18
"Trump is the apotheosis of human baseness, the lowest of the low. Envy and otherblaming and selfishness to the max. He helps us reach for the worst in ourselves. But his fans forget he doesn't care about them either."
What a wonderful comment !
5
If all hate is really self hate then the Republican Party hates itself and is on a trajectory to crash and burn. What's taking so long?
Take a que from today's lead editorial and let's end gerrymandering once and for all.
Take to the streets if necessary, but strike while the iron is hot to restore our disappearing democratic system. The time for complacency and television watching is ending.
The time to act is upon us.
1
More than anything I would blame the very poor civic education starting from elementary school. There has been much alarm about STEM, which is important for a technically savvy population, but not enough attention has been given to history and civic instruction. Reciting the pledge of allegiance every morning does not real patriots make. Understanding how government works, what makes for a civil society and how the US has evolved since its founding is essential. Also important is the history of other nations and how they are governed, the US is not the center of the universe.
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Restore critical thinking and learning how to learn and you've restored the country.
Renovate and restore can displace repeal and replace.
Other countries have succeeded in doing this.
We can too.
3
Right on I say.
1
Even at the university level at the schools that most US students attend (ie., not the most elite universities and most selective liberal arts colleges that the Times likes to report on and represent as the whole of higher education), 'general education' requirements are being reduced and squeezed out of the curriculum to allow for more 'training' in so-called 'job-ready' skills. This is the case even as most US university students don't even major in liberal arts subjects but tend towards what they see as (and what is sold to them as) practical things. It's very difficult for students whose K-12 education in civics and history, to catch up at college. And don't look for college administrators to help out --- most of them are more than happy with the trends as they are.
"...a Republican Party that cannot seem to lose also cannot seem to govern. "
The Republican Party has yet to learn that back bench bomb throwing does not conflate governance.
“I have no future, but I am a force.” The anarchist bomb maker on Joseph Conrad's "The Secret Agent"
47
Rage itself is usually about impotence. So Faux News and the others are on to something deep in the american psyche. It's not that republicans have made themselves impotent so much as they're reflecting america at large. But not to worry. When rage fails, we have the second amendment.
22
The Republican Party already has failed as a functional institution. Their actions regarding the bills they support have little correlation to the policy positions they take. Fiscal responsibility? None to be found. Not that their task is easy; they are the ones who have a clueless, volatile narcissist as their leader.
Perhaps a do over with a legitimate president lol.
17
Though the sad reality is not only do their supporters fail to see the incongruence, but it doesn't even occur to them to look for one. We're a world of 30 second sound bites, raging talking heads and 140 characters now. How we feel about "winning" or their team is all that seems to matter now.
1
Among the masses, the only thing that "unites" the Republican party is racism and obsessive religion. And among the Republican elites, lower taxes - to make them even wealthier. There is no unifying belief. No higher vision. So it is no wonder that they can't agree on any legislation other than that which gives the middle finger to Obama's legacy. This is a truly sick nation.
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Actually that IS the formula--god and flag for the poor and money for the rich. It is what the Republicans have been doing for...ever. Reagan executed it deftly, the Bushes not so well. Trump....hopefully terribly.
4
And the former just cannot see that the only thing the latter wants is to take more and more of their dwindling assets....
1
Not exactly, they can't seem to agree on anti-Obamacare legislation either.
It is quite simple, really. The Republicans have invested so much in ignorance and bigotry and so little in reality-based, intellectually sound policies that political incompetence has become their trademark. For more than a decade, they have only offered slogans about religion, abortion and the demonizing of government, without even bothering to study any workable solutions to pressing issues like health care, budget, infrastructure and foreign affairs. So they have been swallowed by the monster they have created, from the Tea Party to Steve Bannon. They are literally paralyzed and their demise (at their own hands) is now imminent.
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Your last sentence gives me hope.
SA, they cynically courted the brain-dead of society for votes. Period. The oligarchs control the GOP and their sole objective is to appease them, not the schnooks they preyed on for votes. At the bottom is the lure of wealth at all cost for the few and the GOP is the broker.
1
Really hope that is not wishful thinking.
it has a simple explanation - mental illness.
15
Do you think maybe, just possibly they spent too much time in the Havanan Embassy?
Kudos on recognizing that the right wing media outrage complex (aka Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and all their progeny, national and local) are the root cause of the turmoil we are suffering.
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Look in your own back yard at Rochester. The thriving city, which in 1950 ranked between Atlanta and San Diego in population, is now a classic donut and hole. (Fortunately you are in the donut.)
This is a result of NY regulations, taxes and white flight to the suburbs.
Backed by their uber-rich corporate owners. They're just overpaid shills for those nefarious oligarchs trying to ruin our democracy.
1
Stirring up Hate and fomenting rage is, unfortunately, useful for winning elections. But, it's an absurd and abysmal failure in actual governance.
It's a vicious cycle, the GOP " wins", and causes disaster. Next, the Dems win, and clean up the mess. Please, could we just skip the disaster part???? I'm tired. Enough.
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The Republican Party has fiercely recruited the least intelligent, most racist, most misogynist, anti-immigrant, phony religious and zenophobic vote for decades now. And they have succeeded in getting it beyond their wildest dreams. First came the southern strategy, then the small government tack, then the no taxes pledge, then- and here is where they started to lose control of the monster they'd created- the loonies of the Tea Party. And now the lunatics have taken over the asylum and put the most uninformed, corrupt, incompetent, criminal, childish, egomaniacal blowhard of a confessed sexual predator that the nation has ever seen in its highest office. But for some reason, despite the fact that overt racism, misogyny, and every other kind of corruption has worked wonders for the party, they still don't want to admit that this is what they are. God help us if they ever start to embrace the utter immorality of their party. There will be no stopping them.
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Morality? They don't "stretch the truth"; they take sheep-shearers to the truth.
Shameless lies about real facts aen't moral, and neither is cheating in order to win. We have become a nation who cares only about themselves, and our small tribes. No moral fiber, no democratic society.
1
Thank you, Bret. Well and accurately diagnosed. The failure to educate our populace on civic duties, obligations, and responsibilities and the creation of cancers like Fox News and Breitbart have brought us to this turn. Pray for us all.
10
I have to really wonder in what universe you esteemed and observant . If memory serves, '08 and '12 were the years that the gop were engaging in deep introspection , analysing their missteps, surprised that the country chose Obama. ( Shocked, more like it) It is 2017 now ,and they have more control...yet the pundits continue to claim that the gop is a cannibalistic bunch, killing themselves off,shooting themselves in the collective foot. Perhaps it is wishful thinking? Here we have "groundhog day"in Anerica looming:reaganomics, environmentally indifferent businessmen in charge of our lands, every cabinet member running the agency that he/she is known to be diametrically opposed to. Labor laws being incrementally repealed or eliminated; and all the other rollbacks occurring under this gop control. So, please, how ,exactly, is the gop falling apart?
10
The answer to most of our problems? Bernie Sanders.
24
Really? I vividly recall Mr. Sanders' dismay at the disruptive behavior of disappointed progressives at the Democratic Convention. I believe Mr. Sanders is well-intentioned, but no more in control of his followers than tRump, as the Alabama primary clearly exposed. I also witnessed Sanders' inability to connect with appallingly low information tRump adherents at post-election town halls hosted by cable news. Still waiting for the horse-whisperer who can communicate effectively with that crowd.
1
The Republican party has been centrally animated by anger instead of optimism since at least 1998. Bill Clinton's pecadilloes, turrists, and a black man winning the office have been the central motivational call-to-arms over this era. Nihilism, and hate, it is what it is. Thanks for hiding that under a principles banner, Brett.
Anyway, you need racism to kick up the base. And tax cuts, which is what donors really care about. Tax cuts are magic.
11
A very logical explanation on how and why we got here.
2
Supporters of Trump are like the compulsive gamblers who keep on playing and losing, on the off chance that they will eventually win big. What Trump promises is to give them what they want, even though he can never deliver. But they will keep supporting him because he is promising what they want, and the other guys never promise anything that the base wants. Some day, a wall will be built, Moslems banned, taxes lowered,Obamacare repealed. That fact that it will never happen is irrelevant. But someday.....
17
Trump et al are the republican Id.
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"Beware the monsters of the id"
Remember the old adage, "Engage brain before putting mouth in gear?" The internet is all mouth
This sounds correct me. It is very discouraging. It discourages me because the root cause is so deep;. you mention the diminishment of civics education, and the poor quality of what little of it there is. This has been going on since some time in the 60's, I believe. I don't know why it happened, but it is clear that not many of our fellow citizens have a decent grasp on how our government system is supposed to work. I am 83 years old, and hate to think I will be going out on such a low note. I would do something if I knew what to do.
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"Anger is an excellent emotion for pushing ratings and winning elections and a terrible one for agreeing to compromises and crafting legislation."
This.
11
Bret Stephens asks, "Why is [the Republican] party in such obvious disarray? Why can’t it pass its signature bills?"
In my opinion, Mr. Stephens does a fine job here sowing sound reasoning and then plowing toward the answers. All quite worthy toward understanding why the Republican leadership is such a sham.
However, that said, I believe the answer to why the GOP is in such disarray is pretty elementary. It's: egotism.
Flaming egotists are running today's Republican party. And everyone knows: Egotists have little-to-no use for anyone else's ideas.
15
I'm beginning to dislike these smug little pieces about how the Dems used to think this, and now the Republicans showed them that. It presumes the overall playing field of our politics to be otherwise fair, rarely mentioning the legalized cheating that is necessary to install a majority government from a minority of the nation's voters. (It's true, look it up. The last 3 Republican majority congresses all came into being by receiving a MINORITY of nation's votes. That used to be an anomaly, now it's virtually the norm.) Yes, the Democrats carry some blame for their predicament. But it is a blame for the hubris of believing the Republican redistricting machinations wouldn't amount to much. That might've been understandable in the 1990's before an entire industry of private, profit-making companies appeared, whose sole purpose was to design district maps on contract. Usually from newly-elected majorities in states that now wanted those majorities to be made permanent. Not by some miracle of better government, or convincing more voters to vote for one party and not the other. Rather, it was to be done with the electoral equivalent of playing poker with marked cards. When that happens in real life, people can get killed. When it happens in our politics, we could lose our country and the republic it was founded on.
Let's not pretend 'both sides do it' in equal measure. Only one side branded their plan the "Red Map Strategy of 2010".
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You mentioned something and it is the alternate in disturbing but I still do not understand the idea of "redistricting" or some of the other things that The courts have been ruling on ; I may be slow, but I'm not that fast… Or something to that extent and the idea defining districts (voting districts that is) is something that goes over my head (and these days that's really easy)
Paul Ryan is not a "numbers nerd". There is no evidence in his tenure as Speaker to support that claim or classification or to refute the conclusion that when it comes ability to use and/or to explain numbers competently and accurately he is either merely average or somewhat less than average.
470
Not quite -- Ryan does use numbers, he talks about numbers, but what he says makes no sense and does not add up. See Krugman for finely reasoned refutations of Paul Ryan's numbers.
4
Ryan, who lacks in all else, has a brand. It is that he is smart and a "numbers guy". He is neither. He is a Koch guy. The branding works for him because it works for his party. As the Irish say, " if you're known as an early riser, you can stay in the bed all day." You don't have to be anything, you only have to have a reputation for it.
4
Conservatives need to believe that there really are conservative intellectuals. They need examples and constantly use Paul Ryan as one. Worshiping Ayn Rand and believing in trickle down economics does not make one an intellectual, only an ideologue.
Longing for a past that exists only in your mind, either-or and zero sum thinking, distrust of those "others", obsessive individualism at the expense of the common good, these are things that make a conservative an "intellectual".
4
The Republicans are indeed on The Good Ship Lollipop. But the Democrats are arguably still stuck at the dock. There are moderates like Tim Ryan, who can possibly recapture the non-minority base. But to progressives, ideological purity is more important than winning. So they’re still beating the drums for Bernie & Elizabeth. If you thought Hillary took a drubbing, the Republicans would wipe the floor with Bern & Liz. The country is turning right, not left, folks. It’s time to be pragmatic.
And I’m a lifelong Democrat. And yeah, I’m a straight white male, too. I would’ve voted for trump before I ever pulled the lever for Bernie.
5
David G,
Hillary didn't take a drubbing.
Bernie is currently the most liked and trusted politician polling. Just as he was during the election.
But your siding for Trump over progressive candidates says it all about the Dem. Party doesn't it. Continue Right and continue to lose. Why vote Republican Lite when you can have the real thing?
Sanders would've won.
2
Why has the Republican Party turned so fiercely on itself? It did so because rightist Republicans are part of an unplanned, accidental coalition that has come into existence uniting them with leftist Democrats.
Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has spoken about the need to defend Main Street against Wall Street. She expressed the same view that gave its name to the leftist Occupy Wall Street movement.
Bernie Sanders wrote a book entitled "Our Revolution: A Future to Believe In." Sanders is supporting the revolution that Republicans are fighting against our constitutional system of checks and balances.
"The worst rise."
At least Mr. Stephens recognizes what opinion journalism has wrought.
2
"But globalization, immigration and changing social mores have been with us for a long time without producing awful political outcomes."
No not really.
Twenty five years is a blink of the eye in the great scheme of things. Change is accelerating and with that acceleration opposition to change will intensify.
2
Trump's election has awaken a sleeping giant. Many people who previously paid little attention to politics woke up to the Republican Party's attempts to destroy good government programs, and are protesting loudly against the GOP actions.
The nationwide protests are a big reason the GOP is failing to succeed with its agenda. They've put pressure on politicians to justify their actions.
25
Why don't we talk about gerrymandering and restricting the vote. Some of these statehouse districts have been so gerrymandered that nothing's going to ever change, and it a Republican candidate wants to win, he has to please the extreme conservatives who are in these very safe, non-competitive districts. They're stuck. And, we're stuck. We can talk all we want about Fox news, anger on the right, etc., but the basic mechanics of the thing make change impossible. Welcome to the new reality, Bret. Kansas here we come.
Our problems are the result of our (gerrymandered) solutions.
33
The inability of the establishment Republican party to deal with President Trump was allowed to happen by the party itself. They have turned a blind eye and enough bruised cheeks to countless embarrassments, insults to their intelligence and tests of their patriotism that the common laws of decency and truth may not be there save them. In the play "A Man For All Seasons" Sir Thomas More upbraids an assistant for advocating breaking the laws to get to the devil. The Republicans have broken every law of governance, ethics and logic to give us President Trump and I ask them "And when the last law was down, and the devil turned round on you-where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country's thick with laws coast to coast - man's laws, not God's - and if you cut them down - and you're just the man (party) to do it - d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?" One of the most pitiful aspects of watching the rise of Trump is seeing how much abuse, the once noble, GOP is willing to endure in order to grasp at and retain power.
25
When the first healthcare bill was pulled from the House, Paul Ryan chalked it up to inevitably growing pains of going from an opposition party to a governing one. Now, with eight months of legislative failures, the GOP has no excuses. Political leadership is not an rite of maturity, it is a great responsibility. Republicans, in Congress and the White House, have no recipes other than taking away from President Obama's legacy and blaming him for their own ineptitude.
Democrats, Mr. Ryan, are a minority but still interested in governing. The problem is not with numbers, it is about the use of power. And Republicans are leaving no doubt that they are unworthy of theirs.
32
Repiblicans are in control because of fear and hate, not better ideas. They gerrymander success, and stifle opposition by supressing the vote. I fear for our souls.
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See above @Bill for another opinion, otherwise
It's history. When was the last time conservatives governed well? (crickets). The right, going back to the Dark Ages, literally, has never governed. They rule sometimes but never govern. Anger is great for winning elections but not so great when it comes to compromise, which is essential for governing. The Democrats can't win elections but they sure can govern, right down to the smallest detail. The right sure can win elections but can't govern worth a whit. Trouble for the GOP is, anger is not sustainable for the long haul and they're always angry about something.. That's why the Democrats will win in the end and always do. Just wait. We can and we will.
45
The Republican health care plan failed, because they didn't have the patience and courage to actually write a serious bill. There is a great need to improve our health care system beginning with the breath-taking unfairness where some people have excellent health care at a reasonable cost, others pay a high price for mediocre health insurance, and still others have almost no access to health care and sometimes die unnecessarily. Addressing these problems will require hard work that the the Republican leadership just didn't have the stomach to even try. Instead they went for a superficial political solution that would have caused great harm. The leadership knew this, but went ahead anyway. This was a profound failure on so many levels.
This is just the most obvious of the multitude of failures. The Interior Secretary produces a report on national monuments full of easily corrected factual errors. There is a down-playing of the role of science in informing public health and environmental policy and a failure to hold the president and his appointees to the bare minimum of ethical standards. Tweets and public statements are peppered with lies and half-truths that confuse and divide the public. In the long run this is the road to ultimate failure. My heart hurts.
15
It is hard to write a serious healthcare bill when the ACA is the Heritage Foundation's bill. Hey GOP, you want a win?--write a bill that fixes the problems within the ACA, not just repeal. Do not dismantle Medicaid. You could call it a new name. One thing, you have to give up your tax cuts for your donor class. In fact, in your "tax reform", why not tie the corporate tax breaks to full-time employment that carry strong benefits? How about a corporate tax penalty for every dollar sheltered overseas instead of being invested in workforce below the executive level? On infrastructure--instead of selling ownership of roads, airports, trains, bridges--why not sell naming rights? It sure works for colleges, etc. I can see the Telsa high speed rail, and the formerly known Interstates 80 and 70 as the Wal-Mart and Amazon Expressways. How about a Google-(insert city name here) airport in every state?
Very on point and very scary. But you left out something that is only found in America, not in any of the other countries you mentioned as having conservative parties that cannot govern and that are contested from those further to the right: And that is the prejudice, ignorance, and hypocrisy of so many evangelical voters. Having a significant group of voters motivated by hatred rather than compassion and ethnocentrism rather than a common humanity; a group that subscribes to the nonsense that a belief in God requires ignoring science, and that is willing to support candidates without a moral or ethical compass, all of these elements have made it difficult for a responsible conservative movement to emerge.
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How ironic. Republicans have spent the past several decades assiduously cultivating the deplorables. Now, their party is deplorable. Obama took a lot of heat for his observations about republican voters, "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." It's time to acknowledge that Obama nailed it, the GOP is tethered to its deplorable base, and is unable to break free.
1017
John, you took the words out of our collective mouths. Great submission!
5
At a terrible cost to America and from which we have yet to establish an escape plan.
1
Yes, Obama nailed it, as he did in many ways. One of the big problems is so many white Americans, especially those in the former confederacy, just couldn't accept, much less admit to themselves, that a black man (actually a half white, half black man) did so much a better job than the good ol boy white Texan.
2
The Republican Party has run its course and we are now watching it self-destruct. A party that can't use a majority to govern has no positive role to play in our country. Mitch McConnell is the perfect leader for this party at this time, a man whose small view of government is to win every battle for the sake of winning, with no vision of what to do beyond winning and no concern for the shredded institutions he leaves behind. Time for this party to go away!
60
it all comes down to American voters who want these people like Trump and Moore. They are almost 100% working class whites who want to maintain
their majority status and feel threatened by changing demographics which would make them a minority. Basically a case of racism.
38
People on the left saw this decades ago. When I first heard Rush Limbaugh, I was struck by the obsession with mocking and criticizing the left without offering any ideas or solutions. We knew right wing media was manufacturing outrage years ago. What took the right so long to see it?
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I'm sure they saw it, but only now, faced with destruction, are they admitting it.
5
It's the Ponzi scheme of rage. Seems to work for a while, but at some point it fails.
5
The republican party can't get it together to rule because their dominance isn't real. it was attained through fraud lies and chicanery.
Effective rulers need legitimacy.
147
The GOP agenda based in hate and denying others of their equal rights and protections under the law makes for a party that cannot and will not win even if in the majority. The Universe won't reward such.
10
Au contraire, mon ami. Mean-spirited candidates can only be elected by a mean-spirited electorate. We live in a cruel society. Look at the response to the catastrophe in Puerto Rica (we managed to get help to Texas oh so quickly) and the nasty insistence that we deport youngsters who were brought here at the age of 3 and had no say in the matter.
2
Bret’s excellent column really hits the nail on the head in the next to last paragraph.....the Hannity’s , Levin’s and others are not conservatives but entertainers. Intellectuals appeal to our reasoning and logic while entertainers appeal to our emotions. Thus the reason why Republicans cannot govern is too many GOP’ers are following “conservative” leaders who only care about web clicks, book sales, eyeballs at 9pm and listeners on radio. In order to entertain you must appeal to emotion, in this case anger. Only when the current party abounds these fake conservatives will the Republicans actually be able to be s functioning party again.
5
You are on to something Bret. The GOP in its current form has to solve its internal contradiction: it wants to control a government it is against and doesn't know what to do with, like the proverbial dog that catches the bus it chases. It will never happen and the voters will finally figure out that the bus needs a driver.
12
You say Tump and Moore are 'nutty' but I say they are incompetent.
The Republican Party seems almost unable to put up a serious candidate for office and Republican voters really don't seem to want one. From Sara whatever-her-name-was to Trump and Moore and many others, barely a statesman or an intellectual in the bunch.
Not a single person (democrat or republican) would board a plane with Trump as the pilot. He is unqualified and we all know that. He is no more qualified to be president than a pilot--and yet, there he is.
Until we can explain how a significant percentage of our republican friends and neighbors can miss all the signs over and over again, the country is in real danger.
181
The Democrats nominated the only person in America that couldn't beat Trump.
This year in a Georgia congressional race, their candidate was a Jew who didn't live in the district.
This is a majority party in America that cannot get people elected outside of major cities.