Is it me, or is this column trying to normalize Bush II extremism by making it look moderate in comparison to the Trump circus's brand of lunacy?
Examples: the housing debacle was really a policy to help the middle class own a home. All that icky stuff just happened by accident. The Bush tax cuts were really aimed at the middle class.
This is the problem with today's Republican party: they go to extremes in steps, and normalize the last one by comparing with the current one. I don't want to think about what might come after Trump.
9
God lord ... Kansas was in the ditch well before Trump. Fact of the matter, the whole country was in total free fall when Bush tossed the flaming baton to Obama ...
"Another tax cut" ... everybody knows this will balloon the deficit. But because the GOP has its sweaty palms on the wheel - this is OK? Something we just have to have of, course, because, well, er ... you know, uh, uh, ... we're Republicans and this is what we do.
Basically Ross - all you got here is - holy cow - Trump make Bush look much better.
4
How about Attorney General Jeff Sessions in these senate hearings today. Embarrassing, doddering, almost childishly coy. Needs notes slipped to him as to whether he's been contacted by Special Prosecutor Bob Mueller.
Comparing the comportment of Conneticut Senator Richard Bluementhal, so polished and articulate, Sessions is outmatched, presenting as silly, little more than a figurehead, and obviously not skilled in this position. He is unsuited for this position, is so simplistic and defensive, you realize this is illustrative of an unsuited man as president appointing so inadequately for one of the most important cabinet positions. I am stunned the evasive Sessions is in this role.
His word finding difficulties are beyond belief. It is amateur hour.
1
Talk about being between a rock and hard place...looking back on Bush and Reagan and looking forward to Trump.
1
"Whether you live in Topeka or Manhattan, you just have to believe that some moral questions are more important than where to set the top tax rate."
when I was a young Conservative (late 70's early 80's), we actually thought that moral questions were not the business of the government. In those high and far off times, we didn't hate gay folks and thought that the teaching of Evolution and science generally were givens, and not political.
Co-opting the religious right was what changed all that, and it was a devils' bargain.
10
Oh Ross.
I don’t understand how you can accept the Religious Right’s excuse that their vote for Trump is “transactional” (and therefore, presumably, acceptable) with a straight face. This argument does not fly.
The Religious Right has thrown a tantrum- that has gone all the way to the Supreme Court multiple times- about their “deep moral concerns” about participating in, facilitating in, or being in any way affiliated with the “moral wrong” of someone else taking contraception.
Literally, that’s the argument. Even though someone else is “sinning,” it still “violates” the nun’s “sincerely held” (year sure) religious beliefs to *sign a form* because doing so will “trigger” some government action that would still allow the employee to obtain insurance coverage for birth control.
They’ve also taken this nonsense argument up to the Supreme Court- claiming that baking a cake is “participating” in a gay wedding (lol, no, it’s providing a baked good to a party. Words have meaning).
So don’t expect me to swallow the argument that their vote for Trump was “transactional” and therefore acceptable. If directly endorsing this man and taking steps to make sure he *is put in charge of the country* doesn’t constitute “direct participation,” I don’t know what does.
7
Mr. Douthat does his part to sanitize Reagan and Bush II, but in the end he merely shows that the difference between Reagan and Bush II and the Trumpist Republican party is a matter like that of how much a woman is pregnant, a little or a lot, which does not distinguish one from the other. It seems that many Republicans have accepted the bargain: Trump can destroy the programs that help everybody or help those who fall behind while he proposes further tax and regulatory relief for the very well off if in return he distracts the faithful with a phony nationalist culture war circus.
Mr. Douthat, did you really mean to say that Bush's push for home ownership contributed to the housing bubble and financial disaster? That is a clear departure from Republican holy scripture that it was the Democrats fault or Fanny Mae's fault and had nothing to do with lax regulation of the financial markets.
4
A "thousand flaws?" Yeah, that sounds about right.
3
What Douthat states as truths about Bush AND Reagan are simply what he needs to believe to justify being a conservative. There are so many things to touch on, and Paul Krugman has expressed them better than I ever could. But let one thing stand as an example. Bush manipulated the gay marriage issue with utter cynicism from the start. It's how he beat a rising John McCain in the 2000 primaries. It was cynical, dirty, and calculated. The Republican base ate it up and voted against their interests. It is simply untrue that Bush worked for the good of the ordinary citizen. If you want the details .... read Paul Krugman's old columns.
5
Trump and his 35% thrive on hatred and an irresistable urge to destroy. That they have nothing to offer is of little matter. Eric Hoffer put it well when he said that extremist movements can survive without a god but they can't flourish without a devil.
6
the difference is W. let Halliburton and Erik Prince in the side door of the West Wing, and Trump has let the Koch Bros in. Just watch EPA for proof of this.
6
Other than Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Don, Jr., Ivanka/Eric Trump, Mike Pence, James Mattis, Rex Tillerson, Betty DeVos, Steve Mnuchin, Gary Cohn, Scott Pruitt, John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, Vladimir Putin, Benjamin Netanyahu, King Salman, Abdel Fattah-el-Sisi, Recip Erdogan, Rodrigo Duterte, Steve Bannon, David Duke, Franklin Graham and Cliven Bundy there is nothing the matter with the Republican Party.
Since the Republicans have majorities in all three branches of the federal government along with state executive mansions and legislatures, the real question is what is the matter with the Democratic Party.
4
The problem with this is that Ross ignores the fact that the two wings of the Republican party are practically irreconcilable. For want of a gentler term the "racial conservatives" want and prioritize different things than the Randians/Buckleyites want. The fact is that ever since 1964, the Randian/Buckleyites realized that they could only get their policies enacted if they found a way to grow the party. They made an unholy alliance with the "racial conservatives" in which the former paid lip service to the cultural concerns of the latter. The latter don't want smaller government. They want a bigger social safety net, and they definitely think the wealthy should pay for it. Trumpism represents the moment in which the "racial conservatives" recognized their power within the Republican party and have demanded that it prioritize their concerns. An appeal to GWB's "compassionate conservatism" is merely a return to the old arrangement, which is likely to be unacceptable to the "racial conservatives."
1
I just was to add a detail. NCLB had nothing to do with helping the working class. It may have been marginally useful in cities with large populations of poor minorities, but Republicans don't live there. Republicans live in places like Fairborn Ohio where the public school is at least as good as one can expect with a population of poorer workers than 40 years ago.
And ignored here is the deep suspicion of those who live in cities, who have been labeled liberals and condemned to hell in the minds of small town America.
1
George W. Bush was president for two full terms and for six of those eight years, Republicans were in control of both houses of Congress. At the end of those eight years we were left with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. And this is the success for the middle class that Douthat wants us to repeat? How is it that conservatives like Douthat can't wrap their minds around the fact that Bush and the GOP are responsible for what happened during these eight years when they held power? If there had been a huge recession at the end of Obama's eight years, does anyone have even a flicker of doubt about who would be blamed? ... So tired of our pundits grading these losers on a curve.
9
All my forefathers and mothers grew up in far West Texas. My Grandmother divorced twice in the 1940 and 1950s, my Grandfather had a common law wife with a lady in El Paso (that no one knew about until decades after the fact), my aunt married a man who was already married, and my cousin was the character model for Cybill Shepherd in The Last Picture Show. Everyone dutifully attended Methodist Church on Wednesday eves and Sunday morning. Nevertheless they lived a creed of live and let live. Urban elite conservative evangelicals don't want to admit that rural America really doesn't buy into their version of morality.
3
"Trump would benefit from imitating Bush." If that alone doesn't indicate what a disaster Trump is, I don't know what would.
4
This article could be titled "What is wrong with Douthat?" The GOP have the alliance of the gun lobby, the religious fundamentalists and the wealthy. Without the first 2, the GOP is a minority. The GOP has some very good advertising people working for them, so they have succeeded. End of story.
5
You're wrong about most things here...nothing George W. did was successful!
Medicare Part D was a sell out to big pharma
No child left behind was profoundly flawed and sold out public education to a corporate model and private interests
and there was no interest in helping anyone other than the wealthy in the Bush tax cuts, and Bush bankrupted the US treasury
...so I don't think Frank's book was all that flawed.
7
I find it really scary that Trumpism is prevailing in relatively good economic times. The Weimar Republic, which spawned Hiller, was a German economy in free fall. What will we get if we experience another Great Recession or even depression if Trumpism wins in times of a record stock market? Republicans have the patriotic duty to shore up democracy rather than pander to a would-be flawed and narcissistic autocrat. The Republican formula for hegemony is simple: find scapegoats to blame for all our ills (Clinton and Obama come to mind) and spread lies through social media and friendly tv and radio then serve their greedy supporters with tax cuts and racial suppression. I am depressed but pleased that there may be signs of life in the Democratic Party and a chance to bring back compassionate liberalism.
1
Trump is who Republicans have been since Barry Goldwater first made a hostile bid for the party of Lincoln back in the 1960s. Reagan double this down by making 'greed is good' the GOP's defining creed. Trump just makes the con more visible. He lays bare the fact that what many of those 'values voters' value most is bigotry, racism and division. He doesn't even have to deliver any results. Turns out it's the culture war that's been getting their political pulses racing all along.
1
Conservative in my youth mostly meant someone who:
preferred to make progress in smaller chewable chunks,
and/or
clung a bit tighter to old fashioned rules/mores,
and/or
had a less adventurous, say hyper-cautious, mindset when it came to financial/social matters that valued certainty/security over potential progress.
Generally if they had any reactionary notions it was mostly because they personally feared change especially when it took them out of their comfort zones or they just could not accept that most of their upbringing/traditions were flawed somehow. It was tangibly personal for them - it wasn't institutionalized. Although certain churches mostly RC tried to institutionalize fear of change and more personal freedom most people sort of did and allowed what they personally found comfortable.
Republican voters included a most of the above, progressives like myself who might just be voting for the better candidate at the time, and business people who for whatever reason believed their fortunes would be better under R rule.
Today the R Party has weaponized bigotry, fear, and evangelicalism with the OBVIOUS aim of gaining and holding power so they can recast this Nation into a Plutocratic Oligarchy. And because they must cater to their base this R-Utopia will carry the stench of monied elitism, militarism, supremacism, and theocracy.
Since many R voter arrogantly thinks they KNOW God's mind allow me my arrogance: JESUS WOULD SURELY VOTE DEMOCRAT.
5
When I read this opinion piece I found myself being confused with his use of the terms “Republicans” and “conservatives”. But, then again maybe it is not me who is confused but it is Ross who is confused. I have come to understand that the Republican party is no longer controlled by conservatives but rather by those aggrieved, poorly informed Trumpsters with no real ideology, just ignorant tribalism. That is not to say that some of their anger is not justified. Be that as it may, once Ross comes to understand the GOP is no longer controlled by conservatives the sooner he will realize the a new conservative coalition is needed.
2
The constituency of the Republican intellectual has shrunk to the size of a postage stamp. Or should I say Republican reactionary.
"Values voters" are those who would punish fellow citizens for behaving in unapproved ways. There is nothing conservative in legislating the continuation of religious mores that have become mere legacy. To wit, imagine that the Amish had enough political clout to impose their sincerely held beliefs on the rest of us: I would be writing this reply with a quill pen.
So, Ross, your consistent attempt to dress up religious bullying as some sort of First Amendment right is what's at stake in a Trump presidency: Those whom you would lionize as the nation's backbone turn out to be merely its gall bladder. Their fear of change, through the years, has been the bass line of the GOP siren song.
Notwithstanding your mining for a nugget or two of middle class charity amidst a mad rush to enrich the "job creators," Thomas Frank had it right then, and the only difference now is that even you have to admit the cynicism of your chosen party.
However, nothing you say will alter the message or the goal: A few prayer breakfasts and then estate tax repeal.
Frank pointed out that there was no consistency then between the message and the goal. He was right. Today, the message has been drowned out by ADHD distractions such as unpatriotic African American football players and lying Florida Congresswomen.
You must be tired, Ross, defending such nonsense. Pax brother.
3
Such nonsense. Bush took a surplus and ran up a 9 trillion dollar debt with.....zero job growth... after 8 years. A tax cut that caused another 9 trillion in debt under Obama as the Bush tax cut was not allowed to expire. Plus, a ruinous Iraq war based on lies, the Cheney/Libby unmasking of Valerie Plame, trillions more off budget on the unfunded Iraq war,.....and a totally collapsed economy followed by a bank bailout while hedge funds scooped up tens of thousands of houses they now rent to the foreclosed upon.
Yeah, let's go back to that.
3
No, no, no, Franks was not wrong. Reagan's tax cut helped the very wealthy a hurt the poor and middle class. The top rate, that which affects the wealthy dropped from 70% to 50% and then even lower to 28% until he was forced to raise it back. It caused incoming revenue to collapse until it was raised several times to around 39%. It also reduced capital gains taxes, earned mostly by the wealthy from 28% to 20%. Likewise, G W Bush's tax cuts went overwhelmingly to the wealthy. The poor and the middle class has been left out of all the new wealth created in this country for most of the last 37 years and many were left bankrupt or destitute because of GOP policies over those years. And most of the social issues raised by the GOP are mostly racist, illegitimate, or outright lies to pull the wool over their base's eyes.
10
It's interesting that you included Bush's Medicare Part D as an example of Republican largess towards the common man. You obviously are not old enough to be enjoying this "perk" . What those of us who are old enough have observed is that it was another clever way to siphon away more money from those that can't afford it to those who don't need it. You may not have noticed that it created a captive monopoly for the pharmaceutical industry to increase their profits and eliminate competitive pricing. The thing I noticed right away is that my insurance costs for part B and part D combined was now higher than it was when I had a single policy that included medical and prescription drug coverage. As time has gone by I've observed that the portion of my drug coverage is growing faster than my medical coverage costs and for some strange reason Republicans have beaten back all attempts to allow competitive drug pricing. I'm eternally grateful for this great gift but I'm sure not as much as the drug companies and polititicians who receive their contributions.
7
We must keep calling out the dissimulation that Trump made this all happen de novo. The GOP harnessed the traditional racism, nativism, and anti- intellectualism that has always infected this country in the 1960s, tentatively in 1964 and wholeheartedly with the Southern Strategy in 1968. They nourished and fostered a movement of hate and fear thereafter and built an electoral majority dependent upon it. In short, they created a mob, and now feign surprise that it is acting like a mob.
Mobs create demagogues. The ascent of someone like Trump was as predictable as dawn following the night. Douthat’s and his colleague’s alligator tears cannot obscure their responsibility for this mess. And they augment rather than abate moral cowardice.
13
"a movement of plutocrats and grievance-mongers with an ever-weaker understanding of the common good." Perfect summary of the Trump movement Ross.
4
"The path out of caricature requires a different moral vision. It requires new ideas and new thinking and new models of leadership. But it also requires looking backward, to Bush and Reagan, to a Republicanism that had a thousand flaws but also understood a few important things Trump’s party has deliberately forgotten."
Yeah but... how?
As bad as Trump is, it may turn out that George W. will have done greater long term damage.
The Middle East and Europe will be paying for the Iraq invasion for two generations.
4
I agree with much of this analysis, but when Douthat advises us that "you don't have to be a dupe to be a 'values voter'" he misses the point. These value voters are being duped not because of their values. They are being duped by cynical Republican leaders who have long used these values (ones they themselves often fail to embody) to win elections which result in financial policies that value the rich donor class that pulls their strings, not Ma and Pa Evangelical.
7
have read Frank's book and Douthat should too. It very much considered "the importance of social issues", which were key to the Republican strategy. Republicans operated by running on issues like abortiion and without intending to deliver, and of course by fanning racism and anti-immigrant fervor.
5
Iraq war, a “disaster?” How about a war crime. Why is it that when the “land of the free” engage in near criminal behavior that it’s twisted in mere disasters? Tell me, what does it really take to bring my misbegotten country to account for its foreign misadventures?
9
We are right and they are wrong. It’s obvious, what’s there to discuss? Life can really be simple as long as you just let it.
I had a friend in the eighties who had served in the USAF after growing up in blue-collar New Jersey. Unions were important to him. He and his family were wonderful middle-class people.
Reagan fired him and his PATCO co-workers. He and his family had a rough time after that.
You don't know any personal stories like this about your sainted Ronnie, Ross. But there are many of them.
11
It's less about the appreciation of Bush, and more about how low the bar has been lowered.
2
From my perspective the Republican Party started going crazy around W Bush's first term, when after 9/11, anything that wasn't in exact lock-step with the President was considered sanctimonious. I realized that Republicans were practicing an ever-tightening form of Group Think. Since then, the party went absolutely insane (really, really irrational) after Obama was elected and Mitch McConnel made his life's ambition and the stated objective of the Republican Party to deny Obama a second term using whatever (probably) legal avenues possible. McConnel committed himself and the party to absolute contrast to Obama. The problem was, Obama was a moderate Democrat, so moderate, he embraced many Republican initiatives and ideas. In order distinguish his party, McConnell was forced to fall off the Right Rail of sanity, stating his opposition to logical, center-right pronouncements of Obama. The Republican Party, forced into Group Think and lock-step thinking, was forced to also collectively become a party of gross irrationality. But the human mind has a capacity to "rationalize" many things ... and so from a center or left perspective, the Republicans look like Lemmings jumping off a cliff and with hypnotized eyes proclaiming that they just climbed a tall mountain.
10
Is this the same Bush who got us to spend a couple of trillion dollars in the Middle East?
5
While I have not read the Frank work, I think this column is a bit revisionist.
Douthat names a few supposedly populist initiatives of the W Bush administration, but these aren't really what he suggests. Medicare Part D was largely a give-away to pharma companies more than anything else; NCLB nominally attempted to improve education, but it did so through accepting the wacky Republican notion that teachers just needed to be squeezed more to make everything work rather than by -- you know -- spending more money to get a better product. And the tax cuts, as I recall and benefit from, were largely one-time sops to the poor and middle class (a check for $600, if I recall correctly) paired with cuts to taxes on dividends and capital gains that save me a lot more than $600 every year since they were passed.
W Bush's administration was not (I think) completely cynical: they believed that tax cuts were essential to grow the economy; they believed that support for business interests was good for the country; they believed that we need a cadre of wealthy people to provide a backdrop of stability to the country; they believed that US world leadership demanded that we undertake military actions.
But they garnered support for these things by playing up, in the manner of Nixon, belief in things that would get them votes without requiring that they deliver anything: gun rights; pro-life; anti-gay; winking at racism. With full control of government and still no goods, the base rebelled.
8
Ross, You ask the question like you're not part of the problem.
How about an Eminem to clear the soul? Got it in you, Ross?
4
"promoting an Ayn Randian vision in which heroic entrepreneurs were the only economic actor worth defending." Douthat is talking about Paul Ryan here, I presume.
How can Speaker Ryan square Ayn Rand with Trump and Senator Tom Cotton screwing up the Iran nuclear deal and coercing the entire world to reimpose sanctions? Cotton says "ultimately, countries have to make a decision ... Do they want to deal with the United States’ $19 trillion economy or do they want to deal with Iran’s economy?"
So 'heroic American entrepreneurs' with deals in China, Russia, and EU find their global business depends on whether China, Russia, EU "ultimately" decide to cave to chaotic nonsense demanded by the U.S.? There are geostrategic issues for China and Russia especially but also for EU in caving to Cotton's 'coercive diplomacy,' This is China's chance to make its move, leading a global alliance against Nero-worthy coercion by the U.S.
Randian entrepreneurs view sanctions like environmental regulations or any other restriction on business - even when sanctions actually serve a rational foreign policy goal. Just ask Dick Cheney, who, despite being the Big Giant Neocon, opposed U.S. sanctions on Iran because they cost Halliburton money - and this was while Iran was actively developing nukes!
How can 'Ayn Ryan' impose global restrictions and massive uncertainties on American entrepreneurs while Iran is in compliance with JCPOA? By 'how', I mean both philosophically and practically.
2
The Bush family betrayed Ronald Reagan and ended up giving us Clinton and Obama.
The election of Trump was a repudiation of the Bush family and a reaffirmation of Ronald Reagan.
Trump=Reagan? How do you get there?
1
As long as I live I will never understand why people who oppose abortion also oppose homosexuality. Last I checked, it wasn't gay men and their lesbian girlfriends generating all those pregnancies destined for termination.
5
Because the opposition to abortion is not really about abortion. It's is about their opposition to non-procreative sex.
Let's get our terms straight, please. George W. Bush didn't win "re-election" to a second term because he wasn't elected to the first one. The world is still paying dearly for the one he stole.
12
The failings of the Republican party are obvious, and go back decades. I cannot name a single, lasting accomplishment that was in the best interest of the country as a whole in the last 50 years. But the Democrats have a tough problem to overcome. For whatever reason, despite being on the right side of almost every issue that matters to ordinary Americans, they have allowed the conversation to be dominated by the right-wing crazies. I'm in marketing, and the Democrats have a major marketing weakness. They are like a genius artist who has no idea how to promote himself, and so toils away in obscurity, hoping someone will take notice of his work. Yes, citizens united, and gerrymandering, and stacking the courts, are all despicable and undermine our democracy. But to allow the Republicans the upper hand on decades of policy failures--with no coherent strategy to change the conversation--is no less a failure than what we see in today's Republican party. What's the matter with Kansas? Tell, me, what's the matter with California? And NY? And Illinois?
7
Yep. This country is about selling stuff; it has been so ever since the Dutch arrived. Selling stuff is what Republicans do. The American left has regularly ignored this fact since 1952, when it was said that the car dealers replaced the New Dealers. FDR got it; do did JFK, Bill Clinton, and Obama. Reagan understood it utterly. By contrast, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry, and Hillary were clueless.
The insistence of the salt-water elite on ideological purity in all matters may sell well to their co-religionists but is a drag outside of the bubbles. We need leadership that recognizes what sells and goes about selling it. That way, other things come along, rather than everything being lost for another generation.
1
Ah Dr. Frankenstein, now that you've help create a monster, you are "shocked, shocked," that he's destroying everything in sight. Most amusing is that the mindless villagers with the torches and pitchforks whose homes and livelihoods he will be destroying next are cheering him on. Ignorance is curable, stupidity not so much.
7
"And if Trump wants to make his populism something more than just a con, he probably has to start with an issue...". He has an issue. It's some deluded, fantasy vision of himself. And not being 'just a con' is akin to asking the leopard to change its spots...
1
Ross,
These sentiments as laudatory as they are would have been appreciated prior to last November’s election. Where were you? The idea that you had no idea that Donald Trump would be like this is preposterous. You reap what you have sown.
9
But the GOP *is* precisely and nothing more than "a mix of Randianism and racial resentment" and as others have pointed out, Thomas Frank hit the nail directly on the head. Trump doesn't give a whit about the social issues, and the Reverend Pence was unpopular even in socially conservative Indiana.
5
"Ronald Reagan also accepted the New Deal settlement and sought to balance his donor base’s interests with his voters’ pocketbook concerns — and George W. Bush did likewise."
You seem to have misplaced an "'s". It is not his "donor base's interest", it is his donor's base interest.
5
Douthat's last point is his most perceptive. The Trump base wants to be part of the cartoon show. That base wants to be heroic, moralistically superior, oppositionally defiant yet ultimately correct, the smartest person in the room, the person who knows, like the hedgehog, one big important secret. What that base rejects is the fundamental premise of a republic, that the citizenry be informed and constructively engaged. Trump is the hedgehog leader, telling the base that it is safe to cross the road with him, and America's future may be , without correction, that which awaits ordinary roadkill.
5
I suppose it is human nature to attribute method, purpose or strategy to other people’s behavior.
To me, Trump is an impudent con man, who lives for the purpose of seeing what he can get away with. In other words, he has no orientation around specific issues. In general terms, it appars to m that he tends to side with the cons, not the consevatives, but with the religious, economic and other interests that are trying to see what they can get away with.
In the end, when we are facing war, there will be only one way out: I call it lightning impeachment, executed without publicity, so there can be no room for time consuming deliberation.
4
From the first day Trump began to campaign, I thought about the con man at the carnival who talked fast and would say anything to get you to come into his show. You knew he was just blowing smoke.... that the show would be a rip off and not nearly as promised. Most walked away, but the rest, for whatever reasons, were taken in. So it is with the Republican party.
6
So your only problem with the Values Voter Summit is that they don't see through Trump's hypocrisy? As a gay man, I deeply resent your narrowly moralistic, homophobic attitude. I will not be denied the equal protection of my country's laws. If you want to know something I consider immoral, it is that.
7
Douthat and others on the op ed page have long been excusing whatever the Gop does. Now when the atrocious Trump is elected and demeaning the presidency, they are dismayed? They wonder what's wrong with the party they rationalized all this time. Everybody tries to look good critizizing Trump, even after they were Gop-besotted believers for years.
2
The term "low information voter " is a misnomer. It implies that if they had enough correct information they would change. Trump's base are radical dogmatists who don't care about facts and don't want any information except that which nurtures their hate, fear and anger. Let's stop using this ridiculous, politically correct term, it's not accurate and it gives a level of legitimacy to these extremists.
5
Next election, vote against every Republican, for every office, at every level. Be patriotic, save the country.
4
No, Frank's assessment was right on the money. Our tax code has steadily changed over the past 40 years to favor the very wealthy.
Overall Republican policy has been accomplishing the plutocratic goals defined by Frank in his book, since 1980. Reagan created the blueprint. Slash social services while juicing up the military budget; tell people tax cuts for the wealthy boost the economy (false); and rack up trillions of dollars of debt.
Yes, Democrats are certainly responsible too, but the Republican Party claims the mantle of fiscal prudence, while its policies are anything but.
The larger problem is that after 40 years of hearing anti-government rhetoric and tax cut magical thinking, the Republican Party is now full of true believers who REALLY see government as the enemy (when it's the only entity that can level the playing field for the middle class) and can't conceive a compromise. They're reactionary ideologues. The rhetoric came home to roost.
The "Religious Right" has been baloney from the start. Reagan never went to church. Bush 43's campaign used dirty tactics to derail McCain in 2000. Sarah Palin's daughter was an unwed mother. Democrats would be pilloried for such offenses. I've seen the very definition of a double standard from that "Christian" crowd for decades.
There is a straight line from Reagan's rhetoric and Republican plutocratic-favoring fiscal policy to Donald Trump. We're reaping what's been sown by Republicans for decades, Ross.
15
Or maybe Thomas Frank had it right all along.
6
The problem with the Republican party is that it's become the Anti-Democrat party: If the Dems say "go left" Reps say "go right", if the Democrats say "don't eat that poisonous mushroom" the Republicans say "absolutely eat that poisonous mushroom", without any apparent thought as to whether this is smart or not.
Some of this is the fault of their own rhetoric. Republicans, including yourself, have come to characterize their party as the party of God's values, and if you represent God your opponent must be the devil, and if your opponent is the devil they will always suggest doing the wrong thing.
7
Reagan and Bush were flawed in a thousand ways and more. Using Trump's obscene and grotesque "caricature" of a presidency to somehow make hopelessly flawed policies, couched in milder lies, a virtue is also what is the matter with Republicans.
Democrats are also guilty of timidity, flawed policies, selling out, and undervaluing the humanity of their base as well as the opposition's.
From my perspective what this calls for is not populism but certainly a movement. Away from the hopeless game of party first and anti - intellectualism. Both the left and the right have poisoned the atmosphere with the endless take - a - side mentality. All or nothing. The media is certainly complicit in perpetuating this farce.
In the long run it is ourselves who must take responsibility and action. As a citizenship we must learn and practice thinking for ourselves. We must hew closely to our values and we must recognize that playing fast and loose with our ethics ( I am just appalled that there is no substantive discussion about the similarity between Weinstein's and Trump's behavior towards women) because it is convenient for us to avoid the hard questions. That takes real thinking and real courage.
Are we going to be the home of the brave or the swamp of the craven?
1
"Far too many Trump supporters, far too many conservatives, have seen the then-inaccurate caricature that Frank painted 13 years ago brought to blaring, Technicolor life by Trump — and they’ve decided to become part of the caricature themselves, become exactly what their enemies and critics said they were, become a movement of plutocrats and grievance-mongers with an ever-weaker understanding of the common good."
One might also argue that Frank was right, and that what was incorrect was the determined support of conservatism that demonstrably did not then work any better than it is now.
1
when a person or a group chooses to defend "principle" over integrity, ethics, and critical thinking,, it ends up a monster. when the monster is out of power it is simply a freak show, but when it is in control it can destroy us all. trump said that american is a "nation of believers." what if we were a nation of thinkers?
1
Haven't heard anyone mention Bush's "ownership society" since 2008. Tell me, how did that work out for you?
1
One thing I gather from your essay is that Republicans are forever making the last Republican administration look good by making the current one even worse. Imagine how bad some future Republican administration is going to have to be to make the Trump administration look good. I suspect they're going to have to resurrect Joseph Stalin to accomplish that miracle.
8
Frankly, I would have thought there were two or three, maybe even four, levels of dreadfulness that GOP Poti could have sought before descending to the level of Trump.
What will Trump's GOP successor have to do to make Trump look relatively good in comparison?
"..become exactly what their enemies and critics said they were, become a movement of plutocrats and grievance-mongers with an ever-weaker understanding of the common good."
More accurately, for quite some time they "have been" what observers said they were; and the most important observation is "the ever weaker understanding of the common good."
Now ask yourself, honestly, what such an understanding requires.
And if you are really honest, you'll realize that this is not a short-term temporary phenomenon.
2
Call it for what it is. Republicans have been in a disinformation campaign for a generation and have won over a very vulnerable group. The dislike that voters in red states have of the coastal elites, who talk down to them (in reality, are trying to help them and bring them up the economic ladder -- which ends up helping everyone, including the 1%-ers) have made them make irrational choices.
The truth is that the Democrats will never abandon this group and will continue to be their shield and defender.
2
"What’s the matter with the Republican Party?" Are you serious Mr. Douthat? All of us know what is the matter. Even the Republicans who have created the current atmosphere of hate filled, race-baiting, demagoguery and political dysfunction that now exists. They all know.
What is the matter is Republicans have embraced ultra-rightwing conservatism at the expense of Democracy and normal ethical and moral behavior. They have embarked on a road to self-destruction and at the same time they are taking everyone, every institution and organization in America on the same ride.
The Republicans and their agenda is filled with venom and hate for everything Obama or former New Deal. This is their time for vengeance.
Republicans want to undo everything that they have vehemently opposed since the administration of Franklin Roosevelt. They want to dismantle Social Security, unemployment compensation, civil rights legislation, income tax, the IRS, the Equal Rights Amendments, Women's right to vote, the right to birth control, access to abortion, desegregation, voting rights, public schools, sick leave, unions, paid holidays, workers rights, women's rights, the 5 day work week, welfare, food stamps, medicaid and medicare. The list goes on. And so do the Republican efforts to dismantle America. That is what is wrong with Republicans.
14
Republican have long been the agitators of "identity politics": overwhelmingly white, male, often evangelical and infused with ultra - nationalism as its main characteristics.
6
Republicans only care about one thing.
Money.
They don't care about anything else. They figure that if they have enough, who needs country. And if there is no country, no regulations.
The country was founded on working for the "general Welfare".
Republicans are selfish. They don't want anyone else to have anything.
What was the last thing that Republicans did for the average American?
Take all the time you need.
11
Ross, Ross, Ross... Let's go back to the Republicanism of Reagan, when we didn't have the smartphones to document police brutality (though there was Rodney King), when racism was more subtle in the public realm (Reagan talking about the "young buck" on food stamps buying T-bone steaks, "young buck" referring to a young Black man), and when minorities knew their place (certainly not on the media, except for the acceptable Huxtables) and certainly were grateful to be playing football, so they didn't get involved in protests. Ah, the good old days of Republicanism!
4
Thee's really nothing defensible about the Republican party, which has in far too many ways become both the party of no when it comes to governance and the implicit party of yes in regards to the loathsome idiot man who is now president. Even though some truly do have reservations or dislike this incompetent-in-chief, there is no sense that they are stopping the angry narcissist from doing endless stupid things while having the personality of a sociopath. Lying as a way of life. One can only hope the Republicans pay dearly for this complete dereliction of duty to their country and to the greater good in 2018.
Eclectic Pragmatism — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
5
Anger is so easy. If your life isn't what you hoped for, your boss wants rags on you, women demand more respect, your community is filling up with people who don't share your values and you don't understand that beer, chips and meat are why your clothes don't fit then you put all of that into a big place in your brain and stir. Change is hard - like dieting because if you need to lose weight the food that got you there is also the food you have to remove. Who wants that?
And while you're grumbling about the unfairness of it all - not least of which is getting older but not better - along comes an orange topped, loud mouthed, promise tossing, so rich he can say what he wants, on his third trophy wife, kids in line or no money and it's love at first sight. He is saying exactly what you would if you didn't have to suck up to just about everybody to keep what little you have. He is you! Or at least who you'd be if you inherited money and could strut about building high rises and casinos that let you play for free. Buildings with your name on it, famous people calling you for donations, lording it over all those idiots who are just jealous when they say you have no class. Yup, you relate to him so much, he speaks for you, he is you. With him you are somebody again, even if in your own mind. Without him, you have to find your own way in a world that is upended from everything you believe.
The others just want those tax breaks, it's always about money.
12
"Note that I don’t mean the religious conservatives who supported Trump reluctantly and in a transactional spirit..."
"...transactional..." Is that what they now call "selling your soul to the devil?"
Even in their own Christian mythology that never turns out well....
11
Trump voters represent an underclass of white working class voters who don't know how to succeed in a changing world and changing economy. For generations they've struggled with family discord, economic struggle, drugs, divorce, alcohol.. Basically they'r the poor white families many of us came from and some never left. They don't read, they don't go to college, their dreams are small if any. They don't understand, feel threatened by and thus threaten those not like themselves. Their entertainment? Like the Shakespearean mobs or the Roman hordes, they want to see blood sport. With Trump, they get that. The incomprehensible educated class' blather about foreign policy, economics, the environment, education, constitutional crises, etc. bores them. It doesn't matter. Entertainment they get.
11
You're just asking this now??
4
Well said!
1
Republicans are efficient demagogues who appeal to voters emotions better than Democrats do; winning an election by making people think is difficult work.
4
Douthat incorrectly interprets Franks’ assertion or analysis about the ways in which Republicans catered to blue collar/working class voters in Kansas at that time . Frank didn’t assert that incorporating social issues wasn’t important to these voters, to the contrary,he recognized their importance. However, Frank thought the more important issues that faced these voters are usually economic considerations. The main point of the book is about the ways in which voters harm their interests by focusing on social issues; i.e. abortion, planned parenthood, contraception,faith based concerns,etc. instead of concrete economic proposals.
Sadly, this approach is still a common practice by Republicans. Look no further than the way southern politicians pander to their religious constituencies. Prayer breakfasts and speaking at religious universities, constantly pandering to the anti-abortionists.
5
The "matter" with Republicans is that they're unable to reconcile their religious beliefs with their political beliefs. Most Republicans today are devout Christians. Unfortunately, most would rather vote for a candidate who promises to put women, gays, and minorities in their place and have "faith" that everything else will work out than vote for someone who truly represents their best interests.
3
Two points. Just because you call yourself value voter does not make you so and the best example is the behavior of Gingrich in his private life. More important Frank was completely right if you judge it by facts and data rather ideological beliefs. Since Reagan presidency and the following Republican presidents and control of the house the income inequality and concentration of wealth was increasing steadily. This country wealth concentration is the highest in the industrial world followed closely by Russian and double the rate of France.
2
Values Voters don't care about tax reform or economic growth because they believe they're in a war for the soul of the country. After decades of developing a Pavlovian-type response to certain catchword issues like abortion and gay marriage, the GOP doesn't have to do much to work this group into a frenzy. In fact, there's little work required period. In the eyes of the Values Voter, Trump has been chosen by God to lead America back to it's Christian heritage, so anyone who accused him of doing something unsavory is just trying to bring down God's man. Who cares if there's video footage of Trump mocking a handicapped journalist and a war hero, of attacking a Gold Star family, of calling Mexican immigrants rapists, of bragging about committing sexual assault and walking in on undress teenaged girls -- it's all fake news. It doesn't matter that he doesn't know much of anything about the Bible, he can read the right words off the Teleprompter well enough and they lap it right up.
It's so simple, it's literally insane.
24
You hit the nail on the head so superbly, the nail went right through the wall!
4
OK, Ross, I'm with you all the way, except that you forgot a qualifier after "overpaid" and that's "black", "brown" or in any case "not white".
But beyond that, at the risk of being painted by my liberal, woke friends as overly sympathetic with people who are often transparently bigoted, frankly racist, or classist in a blinkered way, I must say that you and your buddy David B. do NOT stress enough just how YOUR party and its assorted lackeys in the press have, with breathtaking cynicism, lied to these poor white suckers, promised them the illusory moon of a return to some imaginary Valhalla, all the while ripping the living daylight off their very hides.
You say that after Obama the Republican party embraced the theory of a league of ubermenschen faced with an underserving working class. Well, that was finally an honest GOP.
5
So here's Ross again, frantically flailing around, trying to find some morsel of decency, some crumb of merit, in any of the exponents of the warped worldview he clings to so desperately. Bush 2's regime wasn't so bad; there's something to be salvaged from the daily national disgrace that is the current occupant of the White House, and worse, the "legitimate" Republicans who continue to appease him.
It's all trash, Ross - it's ALL trash. Grow up. Repudiate it. All of it. Cleanse your pious soul.
8
If you want to know, "What's wrong with Democrats," read another op ed in today's paper: "Why Democrats Need Wall Street."
There you can find a Clinton pollster and political adviser telling Democrats to once again ditch its own base on the left to suck up to Wall Street, because of the reality of money in political campaigns. Lose the $15/ hour minimum wage because you don't want to regulate business.
He says Clinton lost the election, because she "lurched to the left," after the primaries! Lol. She did the opposite. She and her crew dismissed Bernie's supporters as Bernie Bros and misogynist (insulting all if his female supporters) and ran to the right of Trump, who basically promised south Bernie did, except tax increases on the rich.
Since the Democrats took over the Party, Democrats have lost 2/3 of all elections, but somehow that is the left's fault.
He also doesn't mention that Bill Clinton teamed up with the Republican Party to deregulate global banks, directly contributing to the Great Recession (Don't worry Bush gets plenty of blame).
Democrats come on these comment pushes to rip into Republicans, then they want to emulate them and be a center right party.
There is no center base. There is a right base (the Trump fans that love confederates and Putin), and there is a left base that wants to get big money out of government, take care of the working class, and save the environment.
The right base is taken. The left base is up for grabs.
5
Those awful Clintons and their move to the center - just destroyed the party.
Better we Dems had stuck with the likes of McGovern, Mondale, and Dukakis.
Dear Ross, where to set the top tax rate is a moral issue. Just ask your pope.
6
We get it Ross. You still love both Bushes and Ronnie boy and refuse to apologize for any part of their disastrous presidencies. We all know how you roll.
7
I would suggest that an article w/the title "What's the Matter With Ross Douthat?" is in order, as it's apparent that he has a very difficult time grasping reality.
4
Hmmm.... Manhattan is about an hour's drive from Topeka. Not sure I get your point.
1
STOP IT!
George w. Bush,appointed a lacky to head FEMA.
1800 people died in Kitrena the hurricane Bush said WHATS HAPPENING?to.
I can't and won't forgive his ignorance,it's not because he's a Republican
Necessarily he's stupid and unqualified to be President.
Travel forward to Trump time.Puerto Rico still has a hospital ship and no patients because the man who called himself President is unqualified and
Ignorant of leadership on ANY, I REPEAT,ANY level.People are dying every day
WHY? Leadership is missing to bring the sick to the ship.
Please ,impeach this horror Trump, and get rid of Pence who is another nightmare presented by your Friendly Republican Party,to destroy our country
4
Ross, you have a Manichean blindspot. In your calculus, you must indulge in Reagan and Bush 43 hagiography in order to contrast with the uber-boorish, uber-cronyist Trumpism self-manifested by our American culture. It's unwarranted. This phase of the cultural sleight-of-hand by the plutocracy is just further along a Reagan Restoration continuum that got out of hand (unsurprisingly - it's difficult to put the populist resentment genie back in the bottle). No, W was Ronnie's godson, and Trump is his illegitimate stepchild.
1
Ridiculous. Thomas Frank called it, and the fact that it has gotten worse is why I wish that more had read it.
He was correct, I am not even sure you read the book.
Sad.
5
two things Mr Douthat forgot to mention about today's Republicans, or at least the 37% who will follow Trump no matter what he does or who he kills.
1. rampant and unapologetic bigotry towards minorities and the LGBT community. indeed, they don't apologize for it they're PROUDLY zenophobic.
2. their wonton disregard for anything scientific, including or maybe especially facts. the notion that we should abandon all regulatory gains made over the past 30-40 years is the height of stupidity. one reason people like trump have made so much money in real estate is that Nixon started the EPA and they cleaned up the environment in our cities. the Pittsburghs of the 60's and 70's were cesspools. ignoring facts is a dangerous game and it doesn't only apply to environmental regulations. you don't have to "believe" in climate change. Scientists measure the earth's temperature and can clearly see it rising more quickly in the last 37 years than in all the years before that.
6
The better angels of religion, it's deeper truths is fairness for all it's citizens, especially the weaker who need support. Wealthly and very clever (not so ethical) agents such as our current Koch bro. have repackaged religious morality to protect the wealthy, careless capitalists who perhaps unknowingly drive our society to a "red tooth and claw" world that may bring the whole country down. Trump is just the latest of a dangerous, ammoral sociopath like DT. Things can get so much worse in the direction our country seems to be taking.
1
Ross,
Can you please write a column about how intellectually bankrupt (and plain bad) Ayn Rand is as a philosopher [sic] and writer [sic]? Also maybe you could explain why it is that the people who most admire her books tend to be those who would ironically occupy the bottom rungs of her meritocracy [sic]?
On a related matter, could you please write another column about the role of "taste" in the visceral opposition between the Right and Left? (Hint: the left cares deeply about it, intellectually, philosophically, aesthetically, and the right does not.) I understand that may sound offensive or elitist (that's kind of the point), but it strikes me as true enough and relevant to the discussion.
1
Mr. Douthat,
If your read this piece out loud to an audience of today's Republicans, I suggest that you pause when you come to the phrase, "common good," and spell it out. It's not in their vocabulary any more.
7
I am sorry, but it is simple. Trump voters are in general: white, borderline or very racist, homophobic, nationalists. They are voters who refuse to accept facts, and who will never be educated about reality because Trump has delegitimatized the medial.
There are no longer facts.
Congress is not moral, it is not looking to improve America, they are all looking to be re elected, and they will cater to the loud base.
Believe me... not a single Trump supporter reads Ross, much less the NY Times. We are preaching to ourselves.
6
They key phrase here is breathtaking in its plaintive naïveté: "...if Trump wants to make his populism something more than just a con.." Why you assume it's ever been anything more than precisely that? Poor "liberal" Republicans, who just can't admit that what their party has become is the party they made. If they want to save the soul of the GOP, they should start by owning up to the decades they spent closing their eyes to political practices that made Trump not just possible but inevitable--the golem-like consequence of the manipulative, Moral Majoriarian, "wealth creator"-worshipping faux-populism that won them elections and has now nearly lost our republic.
2
Excuse me? When Obama took over from Bush the economy was in a death spiral. How was that working out for the middle class? My house JUST came out from under-water. 911 was on his watch. Then the Iraq war which did not go after the perps and cost 10000x what Wolfowitz told Congress it would. The car makers begged Bush to fix health care. It was bankrupting them. Maybe that's why they went to Mexico, eh? Finally, Obama pulled the economy out of the hole, got us out of Iraq, and there were no major terrorist attacks here under his watch. Oh and the ACA. You can leave your Bushes in the garden, thanks so much.
8
The tired refrain that middle class and working class people vote against their economic interests by voting republican is pure snobbery. Of course they do, and why shouldn't they? The ability to vote on issues over self-interest isn't limited to the liberal intelligentsia.
1
Sorry to say but Bush's "No Child Left Behind" was no favor to the middle class. It helped ignite the fervor to corporatize American public education.
4
Yes, you don't have to be a dupe to be a values voter. But no, just because you are a values voter, does not mean that you are not a dupe. Whether or not values voters are more "dupe-able" than non-values voters is an open question. What is not an open question, at least for me, is that some values voters have indeed been duped. They have been duped by hypocritics and cynics that will uses value-laded language as a wedge and a lever to gain votes.
2
"Republicans are like Red Sox fans, they're just not particularly gracious people"
1
since the GOP doesn't believe in government, it needs to change its name. Now let's see, what would OP stand for? ... how about Odious Persons.
3
"Whether you live in Topeka or Manhattan, you just have to believe that some moral questions are more important than where to set the top tax rate."
Did you do that on purpose Ross? Assume that New York readers would assume you meant Manhattan NY rather than Manhattan KS, about an hour west of Topeka? Oh the irony.
If war were not profitable we wouldn't still have Eric Prince running a mercenary army under a new name. If crime didn't pay we wouldn't have Wall Street, or our profit prison system. If drug dealing were illegal big pharma wouldn't be profiting from the deaths of thousands of Americans per year. Legally. The core mission of America has always been exploitation. Of the poor, the disenfranchised, the weak, and is the logical extension of our origin story: Genocide and slavery. Since the birth of the nation the only unforgivable crime the rich can commit is failing to turn a profit. We preach human rights but we practice property rights at the expense of all else. This is what the rest of the world sees and we don't. Cheap low class hypocritical huckster that he may be, Trump really is us.
1
Douthat frames the question correctly: not what is wrong with the Republican Party, but rather what is wrong with Republicans. The party as we see it today exists because its voters are willing to buy "the rhetoric of populism over an agenda that so far offers little or nothing to the middle class, making appeals to the religious right that are notable in their cynicism, and rallying his base through culture-war controversies distinguished mostly by their ginned-up phoniness." You get what you pay for.
This leaves many of us, including former Republicans such as myself, feeling like we have been invaded and occupied by aliens from some horrible sci-fi flick. Reality has been in some way suspended.
I am reminded of the old canard 'never try to teach a pig to sing - it wastes your time and annoys the pig.' This group of Republican voters will not accept contrary comments, no matter how well supported by facts, and especially from Democrats, and will only learn by suffering through a bad experience - a process that unfortunately for the rest of us would take years if not decades. Since they cannot be reasoned with, they must be defeated. Simple, but urgent.
2
I will ask this of Mr. Douthat -
1. When is racism/ bigotry moral?
2. When is hate and fear-mongering moral?
3. When is vilifying the poor, the powerless and the desperate “Christian”?
4. When is morality defined by “abortion” debate alone?
5. Why is morality determined by “values voters” who are a small minority in this country?
And on and on ...
In short, GOP and social conservatism conserves nothing but hatred, decisiveness and a smoke screen for the Rich to steal away more power and money than they already have.
5
Kirstjen Nielsen, Trump's new appointee for Homeland Security (which oversees FEMA), was the key to the failures that led to 1800 American deaths in Hurricane Katrina. She was the critical point of contact who did NOT notify those in charge that the levees had breached and that immediate evacuation had to be carried out to save lives. She was President Bush's aide, and simply let the ball drop which led to the devastating 1800 deaths that occurred. Why hasn't the NYT pointed this out in a front page article? The Republican-controlled House of Representatives came to this conclusion, with all Democrats abstaining from any participation in the investigation of the catastrophe. This was the consensus of the Republicans that a key member of the Bush White House, who was specifically charged with this duty, failed at her post, resulting in the massive loss of lives in Louisiana.
Yes, people can be forgiven, but they should NOT be put back in charge where their negligence to duty has already caused a catastrophe.
1
Nothing much is the matter. Why if the club for tax cuts didn't have hordes of religious paranoids to mobilize through pleas to their fears and aggravation if their anger, we'd just have problems of de-industrialization and nuclear proliferation among pre-modern religious and neo-Communist militarist fanatics to worry about.
Of course, if our current President were a little further up the IQ, erudition and equanimity scales, it'd be even easier.
1
A very wise person many years ago told me "Watch not the nits while the elephants run amok." In reading this piece(I did read Mr. Frank's book) it occurs to me that the people who classify as value voters are in severe danger of being run over by the elephants as they are fixated on them while they focus on the nits. Only I don't think it applies only to tax rates but the important hypocritical stances that many who pander to the value voter push. One recent blaring example is the fine representative who stood adamantly against abortion while telling his lover that should she be pregnant he wanted her to have an abortion. So not only was he hypocritical on abortion but he was cheating on his wife. In my book this type of behavior (and there is not room here for me to list them all, nor the people in involved) may be more important than the tax rate at least for voting purposes. AND please, throw Ayn Rand under the bus and move on. The people who stick to her shtick are brain addled and confused. She wrote novels, we live in real life. Give it up already.
3
there is a straight line from reagan to bush2 through palin (big uptick there) to the hockey stick at trumpism. the propaganda of the right political pandering aided by the right media crazyness just became more and more outlandish. it has reached a level that is hard to understand. it makes one realize that the basest instincts of opposition to the "other" which was used to create a republican voting block over 30 years is really a part of our country. SAD ! really.
The short answer to the question is Fox News. Look at their headlines for today focused on Hillary's emails and a plutonium deal from the Obama administration. Until someone is able to distract their audience with regular doses of reality it's difficult to imagine enlightenment.
1
One problem with Republicans and libertarians is that the models they use are outdated and oversimplified. The concept of "market distortion," for example, means that a laboratory model of simplified decision-making has leapt out of its "is" housing into "should" policy, now untethered from the original ceteris paribus conditions. Thus, preference is restricted unnaturally to prices and utility. Sigh.
But it is much worse. Libertarians ignore the knowledge economy that floats all boats, making "commoners" today better off than kings of old: it's not the cash, it's what you can buy with it. All one needs to go from the savanna to modernity is access the growing knowledge base. Yet, Johnny-come-last libertarians mistakenly think "I did it all myself," and so refuse to chip in to, say, taxes for education. Parasites, then.
But there's more: conservatives are not systems thinkers, so they miss the links between phenomena and say, a healthy ecology and sustainable agriculture. Across the board, incomplete and misunderstood reasoning explains the idiocy of today's "dang certain" political right.
The final paragraph shows how devorced from reality Republicans are, assuming the writer is serious.
The Party, since Reagan and Norquest has done nothing but impoverish the middle class,in order to cut taxes for the
.01%.
Democrats need to start using the same line with working class and middle class voters that the GOP tried to use with black voters: you've given the other party your vote almost 100% guaranteed, what have you gotten in return and have your lives improved?
1
I got married to a man in 1983 who worked for HBO. He was a Harvard MBA. This was the heyday of cable television. Every seemed to have a bright future. I remember a co-worker that he had, lovely family, white, no college degree or whatever, donating the family's used tennis shoes to the "less-privileged (black) people in downtown Atlanta. This struck me as odd because at the time the less privileged people in downtown Atlanta were wearing $100.00 Air Jordans. My point is this, These are the same people who believe and identify as Republicans. They are the voters who now feel betrayed by the Repubs.
2
Mr. Douthat:
You really think that :
A: the GOP of Reagan, Bush cared about middle and lower class people?
Seriously?
That's why they systematically destroyed the Unions, encouraged out-sourcing of jobs, always opposed benefits, etc. etc. etc.
B: you think the current abomination of Trump is somehow disconnected to this same GOP that started with Reagan?
That all of these people just suddenly went mad?
That Trumpism has nothing to do with the last 37 years of GOP/Fox news/culture wars?
That the inability of the modern GOP to govern has nothing to do with the sainthood of the President who famously said that "the government can't solve problems because the government IS the problem" ?
You cannot see the through-line?
Wow.
Just.
Wow.
If the Trump supporters want to vote against their own self-interest, fine; but it's my self-interest that hurts. Their immaturity is costing me in numerous ways and for that I'm bitter.
Ross mentions "moral stakes."
Well, what is less moral than refusing to fund health care for Americans?
I'm not buying these "moral" arguments. Essentially they boil down to bigoted "Christian" avatars of patriarchy trying to tell everybody else what to do with their own private lives.
Is that "moral" or is it simply authoritarian? I think it's authoritarian. I don't see the harm to the "ecology" of living and letting live.
But I see tremendous harm in depriving people of health care, a clean and thriving environment and civil and human rights.
I see a lot of harm in abusing women, yes abusing them by refusing to provide women with affordable health care and respecting women enough to allow them the privacy and dignity to decide what is best for their lives, their health and their families at a given time.
Frankly, Ross Douthat, these private decisions are nobody's business.
But the life of the commons is EVERYBODY's business. Nosy busy bodies whose interest, not a little prurient in other people's sexuality are not moral. They are just busy bodies.
Denying people economic justice, health care, good public education, privacy and a thriving environment IS immoral. To the max.
You know what? Karl Marx was right.
1
The country was founded on working together for "the general Welfare".
Ronald Reagan told us that this was nonsense, and that we were "rugged individualists". He put forth the idea wasn't "We the People" deciding what was best, but a bunch of outsider telling us how to live.
And after Reagan, instead of working together we were now trying to protect ourselves from all the "rugged individuals" we were surrounded by.
Reagan succeeded in the new incarnation of the gilded age, where the rich could get richer by betraying the people.
That's what's wrong.
1
"Whether you live in Topeka or Manhattan, you just have to believe that some moral questions are more important than where to set the top tax rate."
The problem with this kind of thinking is that it leads to (as some persons I know do) adopting the position that if a cure and a vaccine for AIDS were found, they would actively try to discourage or prevent the widespread use of the vaccine or the cure, because the people 'whose iniquitous behaviour lead to their becoming infected with HIV' need to suffer their just punishment.
Hopefully, normal people could agree that such a position is inhumane and immoral.
Republicans seem to be one to the past-- Pres. Obama and Obama care for example. But they have been fighting Social Security since the inception of that program. To govern, one must be wedded to the future-- tomorrow, next month, next year, and next century.
How come Thomas Frank's books, which are always retrospective/historical, are always so "prescient"? Because they were/are true; and they keep getting more and more true (per Douthat's description). You just didn't see it. Frank's most recent book, "Listen, Liberal" (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/books/review/listen-liberal-and-the-l... is also one that describes our current political situation compellingly, but given the Democratic establishment's schemes this past election, just keep getting more and more true. Our problem is that we have a duopoly of two misguided, economically neo-liberal, parties separated by culture wars. Remember (as per Frank) that Clinton gutted welfare, gutted labor (NAFTA, unions defanged), deregulated the banks, and was scheming with Newt to privatize Social Security. We need at least two more viable parties (with duopoly broken): both economically progressive, and representing cultural left and cultural right. No broken duopoly yet, but I choose the American Solidarity Party (solidarity-party.org), which is pro-life and pro-universal healthcare. It is essentially center-left on economics and center-right on culture. Though I think it needs to move a little more left on economics (which it can, because we're building it), such a party is what Kansas (and America) needs.
1
Are you quite serious? The Republican agenda is, and has been for decades, to starve the government of income until it collapses, because the increasingly Rand-ian party abhors public control and sharing of anything. That's what was behind GW Bush's entire tenure, not some idea of helping the working man. He launched the trillion dollar Iraq war and, yes, Medicare D, *while simultaneously lowering taxes.* Rather than tax and spend, he simply spent. The effects on the working class, among other things, is our current eroding infrastructure and disappearing social safety net... which of course makes people trust government even less, which only bolsters more anti-government sentiment. What we are seeing is the endgame of a GOP plan. And come on, Ross, you must know this by now.
Mr. Douthat, have you looked at the real Kansas recently, the one that Sam Brownback and those true-blue conservative policies have taken to the very edge of disaster? That's what the matter with Kansas.
1
One of the most influential books I've ever read. Keep in mind it was written about Kansas, which has it's own history and culture, not about the GOP in general.
The author was a newspaper reporter, at the time, and largely stays with "the facts". The book can absolutely be read on that level, and the reader left to form their own conclusions. By the time Frank starts adding his analysis you will have a boatload of your own theories. Having asked a question, and the books title itself is a question, Frank had to provide some answers.
Some things that would help:
End gerrymandering
End Citizens United
End voter suppression
Open primaries (one primary for all parties)
Proportional Electoral College in all states
1
Although there's a lot in this Opinion piece with which to disagree, the one topic avoided by Ross is deregulation by every Conservative president ever. The concept is that deregulation encourages economic growth, which trickles down to, well, everyone. In fact, time and again, it does not. What sunk Bush II is not that he wanted to expand home ownership: all presidents from Regan onward, tried to do so. Bush II continued to deregulate industry, including the banking sector. Expanded home ownership did not cause the economic crash, but deregulation did. The culture wars have be contrived by the industries that would like their sector to be deregulated so that their profits can be driven higher. This administration is no different in that fundamental Conservative thought. Deregulation does not benefit the middle or lower classes. When will the Conservatives learn this lesson?
One of the first actions I remember Reagan taking was firing the striking air traffic controllers. I'd love to hear you explain how that was good for working people.
1
I generally respect Douthat as an astute observer of politics and culture, but I think he really misses the mark on this column. Frank nailed 13 years ago what should be painfully obvious today: that the GOP is totally beholden to the donor class, and has been for decades. Their agenda is (partially) disguised by populist sounding double speak, and by throwing the occasional bone to the middle class (read: Medicare Part D). But the proof is in who really benefits from their policies. To pretend that this agenda is more associated with Trump's rise than inherent to the Republican playbook is disingenuous: all Trump did was rip off the veneer of the the rot of the republican party that's been obvious to at least half the country since the Reagan administration.
1
As someone who attended a conservative "Christian" college and who listened to lectures about the evils of situation ethics in the philosophy class I took there, I'm not willing to give "religious conservatives who supported Trump reluctantly and in a transactional spirit" a pass, as Ross Douthat seems to want to do. I know that there are many intelligent religious conservatives who must have realized how unfit Trump is for this office and what a bad deal they were signing on to, and yet they supported him anyway. Helping that man, with his obviously bad character and extremely questionable judgment, attain the most powerful office in the world, with access to nuclear weapons, was unforgivable.
"You don't have to be a dupe to be a 'values voter' of one sort or another: Whether you live in Topeka or Manhattan..."
Manhattan NY or Kansas? Most Americans don't even know the latter exists. Just an observation.
"...for all its failures, not everything about the Bush era was disastrous...."
Well, that is certainly a ringing endorsement, isn't it? Yes sir, that kind of rationalization is what leads to president Donald Trump. Let's see what similar endorsements of Mr. Trump history revisionists will be able to come up with, assuming civilization survives the Trump madness.
"What's the matter with Republicans?" Look in the mirror, Mr. Douthat.
2
I've seen a variety of responses - obviously the country did not vote economics in 2016. But one respondent mentioned that he voted his 'morals' first and everything else 2nd. My own philosophy is that liberty is more important than money. So neither of us vote on economic principles, but of the two major parties, he will vote Republican and I will vote Democrat. Because the Democrats ARE the party that supports liberty and Republicans have been known for defending morality (not sure why a morality voter would touch Trump though).
The problem arises in that morality is subjective - it's fine to live a moral life, but your morals and mine may differ - and you're in the wrong when you push your morals on anyone else. So voting for morals first is against the ideals this country was founded on. Voting first on liberty, however, is exactly in line with what those men who wrote the Declaration of Independence and then the Constitution thought most important.
I don't mind if you keep your morals. Why do you want to take away my liberties? What happened to "I don't agree with what you say, but I'll fight for your right to say it"?
8
How wrong thee are, let me count the ways........
(With apologies to William Shakespeare)
1. They're just plain evil
2. They only think of themselves
3. It's all about the money
4. They'll rip the wings off any legislation that was good for everyone
5. They have no good morals
6. They enact legislation counter-productive to women
7. They are holier than thou, and cannot do anything wrong
8. Their was is the only way
9. They are prejudiced against certain groups of people
10.They are just plain rotten to the core
12
Whether you live in Topeka or Manhattan, you just have to believe that some moral questions are more important than where to set the top tax rate.
*********
Dear Ross,
Kansas State is in Manhattan. Manhattan is in Kansas. Trickle down still doesn't work, and the "moral stakes and their role in shaping the ecology of everyday life" does not give government the right to tell me what to do with my body. What's wrong with the Republican Party is that it adherents choose brief over fact, and deny science.
7
So if you're voting for morals, I can only assume you're voting Democratic across the board.
1
I remember getting a one time tax refund check of $600 for my "middle class" tax cut.
Except there was a deficit.
Which means he gave me a check and put the bill on my credit card, and the credit card of our children and grandchildren.
Of course, W. was just following in the footsteps of Reagan.
And wait till we see the Trump / Ryan / McConnell tax deficits they give us and our children and grandchildren.
But the Republicans are great at marketing their brand and people still think the Republicans are the fiscal conservatives.
13
I remember that check. That marketing gimmick that had no other purpose than to trick average people into falling for more tax cuts for the rich.
Very slick.
The Republicans want the money, and if it means destroying the country, all the better. No government means no regulations - the perfect environment for the crooks that they are.
1
In other words, people can't be trusted to recognize a threat to their own interests.
The tragedy of democracy is that raw numbers of votes have become starkly more important than any content or intent. What distinguishes the GOP from the Dems in this respect is that the former unabashedly exploit this. Both by the rhetoric they use, which is often devoid of provable meaning but tailored exquisitely to excite the basest of instincts, and by their command of lower tier legislatures, which seek to perpetuate electoral majorities through a variety of barely legal measures, at least when tested against the intentions behind the relevant legislation.
At the end of the day, a signal failure of (American) democracy is that it counts constituencies, rather than voters' overall preferences. Add to this the decidedly outdated Electoral College and its practice of handing entire States to one side or another, and the people's will becomes subjugated to the whims of surprisingly small number of voters.
These are easily identified and manipulated. The factuality of having only two options to choose from makes this even easier, as highlighting (caricatures of) specific policies proposed by the opponent as particularly odious will often suffice to obtain an abstention at the very least.
To make matters worse still, even the ones who do see through the mist are likely to abandon the process altogether, often entirely thereby handing the keys of the kingdom to a demagogue like Trump.
7
The moral vision the Republican religious supporters really need is one that comes only from a clear view of the Constitution, specifically the part about the government NOT favoring one religion over others. The "moral" issues these people want the government to promote are just their religious beliefs, not everyone's and so they should not be promoted by the government. It is not "moral" to want to force your opinions about birth control, abortion, and gay rights on everyone. It is your right to live your own life according to those beliefs, but it is not your right . . . and it's not "moral" . . . to force those beliefs on everyone else. If passing laws against everyone else's freedom is "moral," I support immorality.
5
But the question, "Where to set the top tax rate?" IS a moral question.
6
Thoughts:
Republican “values voter” is simply a polite way of saying someone who would impose his/her beliefs on everyone, if possible.
There is not a single part of the New Deal that Republicans have not railed against or longed to over turn.
The Republican Party has been race-baiting since Nixon. Reagan, both Bushes. Trump. If one considers the Dixiecrat Party of the late '40s as a precursor to today's Republican Party, even longer.
"The path out of caricature requires a different moral vision. It requires new ideas and new thinking and new models of leadership." Nice sentiment, but if conservatives (is there really any other kind of Republican today?) had "new ideas", new thoughts, "new models of leadership" they wouldn't be conservatives, would they.
As the founder of modern conservatism, William F. Buckley, Jr. famously stated, unequivocally, in the first issue of “National Review” (1955), his conservative mandate was to stand “athwart history, yelling Stop.”
8
There is very little "moral" about Kansas, whether Topeka, Manhattan, Wichita or Dodge City. It's been Brownbacked into third world status.
13
Unfortunately, the 1% still are doing fine, and that was the real goal.
No one else matters to them.
3
What we're seeing is what happens when you sell your soul.
10
True, IF you had one in the first place.
2
You don't only have to believe that some moral questions are more important than the tax rates. You also have to believe that moral questions should be decided by the government and enshrined into law.
1
Well, Bruni is right about Republicans voting their values. Middle class Republicans wanted the economy to work for them, but they decided that issue wasn't as important to them as having a government that represses gay people, keeps out brown immigrants, and keeps minorities in their place.
9
Don't forget the desire to control women's bodies, too.
1
"So “What’s the Matter With Kansas?” was a poor guide to the party of Reagan and George W. Bush . . . ." Um, no. First, Frank's book claimed that the change in Republican strategy started in the early 90's, well after Reagan -- so the book wasn't supposed to be a guide to Reagan's party. Second, the Bush tax cuts were heavily skewed to the top 1% (roughly 30% of the benefits went to the top 1%) -- so the book was in fact an accurate guide to the party of G.W. Bush. Trump's tax cuts are even more heavily skewed toward the super wealthy. Trump is just continuing the Republican strategy that Frank identified -- only, he's doubling down on it.
7
Douthat fails to mention the unfathomable, unwritten epilogue to "What's The Matter With Kansas?". Since that book was written, Kansas elected Gov. Brownback who enacted extreme Republican economic policies. The tax cuts failed to trickle down, the state economy tanked, severe cuts had to be made to public education to help pay for the mess he made... AND THEY RE-ELECTED HIM! What's the matter, indeed.
13
If you lived through Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush's political campaigns you would understand Frank's thesis. It was born from the premeditated culture wars launched by Lee Atwater and his Republican acolytes. The entire game was to separate the Democratic Party from non-college educated white voters by distracting them from the GOP's elitist agenda. Ross, how else do you explain the elder Bush's embracing of the Willie Horton ad? Do you remember that ad? It depicted a very large black man going through a prison turnstile. The ad was the work of none other than Roger Ailes — he of the family values wing of the Republican Party. Does anyone recall the biggest issue of the 1988 campaign? No, it wasn't taxes, trade or the deficit. It was the pressing issue of flag burning. Bush took the bold position of opposing it. All of this continues today and gave birth to Trump. Republicans paved the way for the Monster in the White House through their relentless promotion of culture wars.
9
Some moral questions *are* more important than where one should set the top tax rate.
For example, "Why does your leader lie so much?" would be just one such question.
8
Ockham's razor would imply that Frank was right rather than prescient. Because you can point to a few policies that might have helped the middle class it doesn't undermine the overall thesis.
3
If you'd like to know the main difference in the political climate between now and 15 years ago, and why gop politicans seem so much more beholden to their donor class (the ultra rich) and their needs than the desires and needs of their voters, I have two words for you: Citizens United.
5
Nicely argued. Sadly, however, there is nothing smart and caring conservatives can do about Trump. He is what he is, and he's not going to change.
Sad. Very very very sad.
2
Bush's "Social Security Reform"? You mean where he tried to mandate that Americans had to buy retirement insurance (sorta like the ACA mandate for health insurance) but he would also keep paying existing SS benefits but without any more inflow of payroll tax? You mean the scheme that would have enriched the mutual fund industry, removed the guaranteed income of Social Security, and blown up the deficit by nearly a trillion dollars? Yeah, reform.
10
"Republicans, in the Bush era and before, did make a concerted effort to deliver for the middle class." You probably mean Bush Sr. These type of republicans all died when Bush Sr left office. George W Bush did nothing for the middle class.He did Medicare Part D reluctantly and then gave billions to big pharma. His tax cut was almost as bad as Trump's.
I think it was Clinton's Presidency that did something to republicans. They have been lying ever since about their goals - working exclusively for the rich.
4
The distribution of wealth has far more effect on society - particularly on morbidity and mortality - than "some moral questions". It is THE overriding moral question.
Mr. Douthat conveniently selectively interprets Frank's book. What happened to Kansas wasn't simply about "where to set the top tax rate". It was about middle-class people voting for an economic agenda that laid waste to Kansas and to their own communities because those who wished to redistribute wealth to the wealthiest used "moral" issues to effectively hide their agenda in plain sight.
Jesus mentions the poor and castigates the wealthy many, many times. He mentions the hot-button issues of the fundamentalist christian right - virtually never.
He would be as scandalous today as he was then - to the same people.
9
Reagan said "government is not the solution, government is the problem." He then cut taxes and ballooned the deficit. The rest is history.
This is a good start Ross, but I think the mendacity goes far deeper than you are willing to see.
3
Yes look what W did for (to?) the middle class. A pittance tax cut, runaway deficits, a seemingly permanent war, and a close encounter with the great depression.
Please add the rise of the so-called Tea party (basically a front for the Koch brothers).
We then follow that up with the Obama years where a coterie of maniacs have taken control of the government with the ongoing blessing of the leadership in their enforcing what was once called the Hastert rule.
Oh, and don't forget that the Bush tax cuts were built on a lie where a 'sunset' provision would make everything all better.
Where were the Republicans when armed people showed up around Obama rallies, why were they mealy mouthed about the 'birther' controversy.
Face it, you and the rest of the 'conservative intellectuals' stood silent as the current party was built, lie by lie, hate by hate, constantly trying to sell what most actual surveys show the actual people don't want.
Oh yes and supporting a mad man for the Presidency.
7
Mr. Ross, would you compare the Sam Brownback Kansas experiment to the Jerry Brown California experiment?
4
Taking a page out of Bush's playbook, or contemplating "real conservatism" is a waste of time at this point; mainly because the Republican billionaire donors (Koch, Mercer, and Co.) are 50 steps ahead and wanting what is best for middle America is not on their agenda. Why do you think the TeaParty was formed? They don't want America as it was or is and they don't want what is best for the country--they want what is best for themselves and the rest of the 0.1% and they want it now.
1
Hey Koch Brothers, that's what I what too.
The 800 pound elephant nobody wants to talk about is the right-wing media complex, feeding anger, resentment and bile 24/7 to 35% of my fellow Americans.
4
I rather wish that Trump was like Conan, who, upon becoming king, sided with the common people against the predations of avaricious nobles.
Trump is an avaricious noble.
1
case of cutting off the nose to spite the face.
1
If anyone wants to know why Donald Trump will continue to be popular in the heartland, just read the article by Lindy West in today’s NYT. Also, browse the comments.
Trump voters don’t believe that either party will help them economically. They are not stupid. But, they know what they don’t like, and they know what they fear about the future of this country.
1
Look at where many of the commenters supportive of Ms. West's essay are writing from: South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New Mexico, Maine, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and, yes, New York, Massachusetts, and California.
You don't get to define "the heartland," or speak for everyone out there.
2
And why do they believe the Democrats won't help them economically? Because centrist Democrats refuse to try to promise the working class anything.
1
Selfish, bullying, all trump really wants is to cut the estate tax and the AMT--the only two taxes that have or will hurt him and his family.
Just like milking the government for his hotels, his estates, his golf courses, his only plan is to enrich himself.
1
The conservative answer to everything--look backwards. Thanks Ross.
1
Before Ross Douthat succeeds in seatng George W. Bush in the pantheon of the greats, next to Jefferson, Lincoln and the Roosevelts, let's not forget for a minute that Mr. Bush's unnecessary tax cuts favored the wealthy, greatly increasing wealth inequality, and are responsible for approximately 40% of the present federal deficit. He began with peace and a surplus and gave us deficits, Iraq and the Great Recession. In his favor, he didn't grab women by their genitals and assault female magazine reporters in one room while his pregnant wife waited in the adjacent room. That isn't setting the bar very high. The Republican Party is a fraud and a con and has been for decades. Republican leaders and their deep-pocketed supporters, mix greed with stupidity and call it governance. Morality is a minor consideration for them.
5
I really couldn't get beyond the title of this column. It would take an encyclopaedia to answer this question.
They're pontificating "holier than thou" hypocrites.
2
To those of you who hate the government: Have you ever used 911? Did you drive on a public road today? have you ever been in a car accident and were grateful that your seatbelt worked? Do you appreciate your Fireman, policeman, Air Traffic controller, National Park Ranger? Did you ever feel a bit of Schadenfreude when the Highway Patrol officer pulled over that idiot driving at top speed and weaving in and out of traffic? Do you still hate all government, want to make it so small that you can drown it in your bathtub and free you from paying any taxes...taxes which pay for all of the above? Instead of whining about how you wish for the good old days when Reagan was selling arms to Iran, Bush lied about WMD's in Iraq and led the country to the very brink of economic disaster; fix Kansas. Stop government promotion of marriage, family planning or promotion of one religion. Republicans, want to win again? Start governing and stop whining. No moral issue is involved in building bridges, and schools, paying teachers and firefighters or helping those brought low by disasters. And if you believe that there are, that some roads are too morally corrupt to deserve fixing, that some firefighters hold the wrong religious beliefs to fight fires, then there is something wrong with your values.
4
Wow, never thought I would agree so much with Ross Douthat.
No he was right. He was right then. He is even more right now. They see the writing on the wall and they are pushing hard and faster and being more obvious, but he was right then, and he is right now.
5
When conservatives bray"...some moral questions are more important than where to set the top tax rate", it has a chilling effect. It is kind of like claiming the cause of the Civil War was about states rights and the limits of federalism. These days, the moral question generally is about sex; and the holy grail seems to be passing laws to discourage and punish all but heterosexual married couples who are trying to have children who do it. Ross Douthat is never shy about proclaiming his faith, which as an American, is his right. Morality is a personal matter, left best to individuals, families, and willing communities. In its narrowness, it is a lousy basis for public policy. Setting the top tax rate, on the other hand, is what public policy, and politics, is about. So is guaranteeing the rights of all people to live their lives according to their own beliefs. Not his.
3
I am struck by a comment from Speaker Ryan, today, regarding the Republican tax reform/cut framework. His profundity is deeper than I have seen in the past: "Higher wages lead to bigger paychecks!" This must become the first plank in the Republican platform. And even Trump, a non-economist, can understand it-----I think. Maybe its that new Wisconsin air, the Scott Walker stench wafting across the plains.
I’m trying wrap my head aroma d the difference between higher wages and bigger paychecks. It sounds tautological to me
1
"Far better to have a president who really sticks it to those overpaid babies in the N.F.L. and makes the liberals howl with outrage — that’s what a real and fighting conservatism should be all about!"
This just follows the argument used a lot in the GOP models of economic policy , namely that the most important part of a business plan is to get maximum returns for the investor. The NFL is getting maximum return for its investors but paying their players, you say overpaying, for a product that would not exist with out the players. If more business models realized that the most important player is the employee EVERYONE would succeed. Remember this, they would not be "over payed" if the owners weren't making loads and loads of money.
5
What's the matter with social conservatives may be that their values blow away in the face of a gentle breeze of prosperity gospel. Said another way, in their view God wants them to be wealthy more than he cares about their adherence to the 10 commandments. In that light, it's easy to see why Trump is their guy.
4
Trump is the result of Republican ideas all along. They have promoted ideas with no evidence, or worked to suppress the facts. Spiro Agnew was famous for his dismissal of intellectuals. Dick Cheney, divided CIA data about Iraq into two piles, agent reports that supported his ideas, and those against, he buried the latter. Ignore the science behind global warming. Ignore the number of guns in this country and its link to murders in this country. Ignore the healthcare needs of this country. Let them buy cheap health insurance, which as most people who buy cheap insurance know, it's great as long as you don't need it. Ignore data about the top 1% richest who are not making decent jobs for Americans, why not make them richer and then they will start creating jobs. Drill for oil in pristine waters, it's safe. Dig for coal, workers are fine, the air is clean. Abortion, no one favors abortions. Laws were enacted because rich women could always get safe, clean abortions and will continue to do so no matter what restrictions are made, the less well off had to resort to dirty back room abortions. Women died. Republicans have for a long time ignored facts, rather choosing, their own financial benefits. Open market for health care? shop around for the best care when you have been injured or diagnosed with cancer. Their first priority is themselves, Trump is the epitome of this.
7
Personally, I think one reason the Republicans in Congress don't repudiate Trump is because down the road they can run just about ANY candidate and that one - by comparison - will seem reasonable and voters - relieved to see the Republicans return to "sanity" - will happily vote R.
2
It is hard to defend BUsh's economic policies to help the middle classes when he cut taxes which created a huge deficit and brought on the financial crisis.
4
We would have to agree on what is the "common good" for this article to have any effect. And, of course, that will never happen.
1
Thanks for this observation, which ranks high in the annals of faint praise: "not everything about the Bush era was disastrous."
5
Well, I am glad you see that Trump is a con. But Kansas itself validated Frank's argument before Trump. Kansas took supply side economics to its logical conclusion and it was a disaster. Eventually the Republican legislature had to overrule Brownback and raise taxes.
Nixon invited disaffected Democrat racists into the party. Reagan pushed the lie that the government is the enemy. According to the constitution, government is how democracy does things. By be willing to do or say anything to get tax cuts for the rich, the Republicans and Fox trained their base to love a Trump.
The reason why the social issue wars are fake, is that neither party is really trying to solve these problems. Instead they are used to distract from economic issues, on which about two thirds of the country want higher taxes on the super rich and global corporations, universal healthcare, cheaper education, and infrastructure. Even Trump ran on the of these four issues.
Meanwhile economics determines who gets the basics they need to thrive. Social issues are not as important.
What is wrong with Democrats? They do not push the economic issues that majorities of voters agree on.
Why not?
2
What continues to be missing from critiques of Trump policy proposals is who is making them. Certainly not Trump, who has neither the intellect nor interest in formulating complete sentences, let alone policy. Trump is a garbled messenger for someone in his circle of advisors. Is it still Bannon? Is it Miller? Not enough attention is being paid to those who are pulling the strings.
7
The GOP donors seem especially interested in the tax cuts.
2
Grover Norquist on the GOP candidates: All we need is someone who can 'handle a pen' (or something to that effect) The Rep donors sure got what they wished for, didn't they?
Ross I have news for you the Republican party you seem to speak of is dead and gone. The election of this man to the White House was it's end. Right now as we speak the party is split into 3 factions that cannot stand each other. Look for a far-right Bannon party to take over or be a third party.
4
Correction: Gingrich was the beginning of the end.
2
And Trump is the end of the end.
As a general thing, I have not 'duped the world' nor attempted to do so... I have generally given people the worth of their money twice told. P. T. Barnum
Describes the Republican Party.
4
What's wrong with the Republican Party?
Well, when you consistently get into bed with people who simply want to Believe, sooner or later that's going to rub off on you and make you abandon reason and fact based argument.
Behold the modern Republican:
I believe that tax cuts for the wealthy create jobs rather than simply increasing profits for businesses and wealth disparity.
I believe that deregulation spurs economic growth rather than creating bubbles that burst to the detriment of the economy.
I believe that free markets and unrestrained capitalism can solve all problems rather than leading to poor working conditions, expendable employees, child labor and unchecked environmental damage.
I believe in limited government as in the divine right of the federal government to limit the rights of anybody's world view or concept of morality does not agree with mine.
I believe that liberals are evil because they believe that government can be used to solve problems and they've had successes that would be inconvenient if I actually believed in facts.
13
What's the problem with Republicans?
One word. Trump.
Republicans went for the tawdry glitter and now they may
have the White House but they also have a huge problem.
2
Trump is a symptom, not the cause.
You need to distinguish between Trump the carnival barker and the legislation he is willing to sign. Trump did not design the trio of failed GOP "repeal and replace" bills. I doubt he has had much input on taxes. The naked Trojan horses Trump has wheeled into the EPA and other regulatory bodies as are the judges he has nominated were fed to him. If Douthat wants to chastise the GOP for tolerating Trump, fine. But the policies Trump is pushing are the GOP's. The problem is the GOP.
3
Is this an admission of error by a GOP member? It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that. All dissension has been shut down since Saint Ronald’s first commandment of never criticizing another conservative was issued in the 80’s. Maybe the party is truly over.
2
You're conflating "values" voters and "culture war" voters. In the process, you ignore how bloody-minded Republican voters have become. And that change isn't necessarily Trump's fault. He didn't cause it. He just exploited it.
If the "values" voter from Frank's book cared more about religion and wholesome Americana than his or her economic interests, the "culture war" voter of the Trump era doesn't care about anything but his resentments.
The old-timey values that might or might not have motivated these people in the early 2000s are empty tribal totems now. Does anyone really think "Christian conservatives" care about either Christianity or conservatism if they voted for Trump?
The Frank thesis implied that Republican voters were making a calculated decision to prioritize their values in their political lives. In the Trump era, it's clear they have no policy preferences or moral agenda beyond having Trump reflecting their resentments back at them.
7
Good analysis, especially that Trump "exploits" culture warriors. He is also an expert at exploiting global corporate mass media.
1
More than a century back, when Theodore Roosevelt was our last great Republican president, many Republicans sometimes cared more about morality, values and the general welfare than their own personal wealth and power. Between then and Goldwater's initial flirtation with southern segregationists, a few Republicans such as Everett Dirksen were outstanding statesmen of high moral stature. Commencing with Nixon's and Atwater's notoriously successful Southern Strategy, "the problem" with most modern Republicans reduced to this flow diagram:
fear --> insecurity --> powerlessness --> anger --> scapegoating
Most modern Republicans are cowardly American failures who are feel compelled to blame others for their own inadequacies.
3
So - what's the matter with Kansas? You mean the Great American Tax experiment, the trickle-down Reagan/Bush the Elder/Bush the Younger policies that failed miserably? I like how you dismiss the housing bubble and the crash and the "hands off the free market" deregulation that took down the entire finacial structure. Obama pretty much built it all back up, and you having nothing to comment on the finger pointing at him as a failure and a fraud. Face it. The divisions started with Gingrich. The republicans have created both the monster and the pitchfork and torch carrying mobs.
8
Yes and the Great Recession wasn't caused by Bush encouraging home ownership. It was triggered by liar loans, made by bankers who didn't care of the loans were repaid, because they were sold ofr, repackaged as AAA securities, and sold off again. And eventually the Federal Reserve bought then up with newly "minted" money, so the banks didn't even lose anything on the scam.
It was caused because the Republican congress and Clinton took down the barrier between investment banks and insured banks, and the Bush administration defunded the regulators and let the banks run wild until none of the banks trusted each other any more. The mortgage bible was just a trigger.
1
Compared to Trump, George Bush seems like a descent guy. Instead of turning Americans against each other, he tried to unite the Country. His Iraq policy and deregulation were terrible for the world and our nation. However, George Bush was never a racist; not was he personally corrupt, amoral, erratic, or vindictive. Then again, Richard Nixon have us the EPA and tried to normalize relations with China. White less than wealthy people have been duped by Trump! C. Avrin
Nixon created the EPA because he was afraid of the protesters springing the White House. That's what Kissinger said.
You're a magician, Mr. Douthat. Even though I'm a Democrat, your column caused me to fondly recall the days of G.W. Bush's global public health campaigns, for which he didn't receive enough credit at the time.
I've pasted below some material from the Bush White House archives to pique the interest of "values voters" and anyone else inclined to revisit the days before "America First" took hold:
"In his 2003 State of the Union Address, President Bush announced the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to combat global HIV/AIDS. Later that year, President Bush signed the initial 5-year, $15 billion authorizing legislation that had been approved with strong bipartisan support. This President views this commitment as a central part of our foreign policy to help alleviate the despair that allows extremism to take hold."
"As of September 30, 2008, PEPFAR was supporting life-saving antiretroviral treatment for more than two million people living with HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa.When the President announced PEPFAR in 2003, only 50,000 people in all of Sub-Saharan Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatment."
"The United States is also working through multilateral organizations... [as of 2008 the U.S. was] the largest contributor to the Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis, pledging $4 billion and providing more than $3.3 billion since 2001."
(from georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/bushrecord/factsheets/global... )
1
"This doesn’t excuse the disaster of Iraq..."
Other than that, Mrs Lincoln, how was the play?
6
Or the falling asleep at the financial helm with all the deregulation. President Cheney? Remember him??
2
In short: willful, gleeful, prideful ignorance. Period.
5
Douthat badly distorts the fundamental message of Frank's book, which was an uncanny forecast of what has come to pass with the election of Trump. In essence, Frank said that middle and working class Kansans were voting for socially conservative Republican fat cats not because they were so stupid as to vote against their own economic interests, but because they had seen the Democrats abandon those interests in favor of social change decisions made by the courts. Frank's pathbreaking book was less about Republican flim-flam than it was about the failures of liberalism and its traditional promise to look after the economic well-being of ordinary Americans.
6
Nice. Exactly. The Clinton's took over the DNC and made it neoliberal instead of liberal, and the party had lost two thirds of elections ever since.
1
Three fifths
1
Tepid as this column may be, it's nice to hear conservative commentators calling out the GOP. Unfortunately none of the "caricatures" are going to be swayed by the stilted musing of a highly-educated, New York Times conservative. Douthat is easily dismissed by the deeply red folks he is discussing.
2
republicans only care about money…rich,middle,poor that's all they care about.
2
You know what's really wrong with Republicans, Russ? It's called fake "philosophy"?
What's wrong with Republicans? the party leadership. they run hateful race-baiting, fear-mongering campaigns (e.g., Willie Horton, White Hands) and they ridicule Obama as a Kenyan Muslim except when they blame him for Chicago violence. Then he lives there.
You can't be subtle about bigotry. If you let the camel's nose under the tent, you end up with white supremacists and nationalists and the Klan and anti-semites and Nazis eating your lunch.
The best thing that could happen to the pubs is to split off from Trump who will purge the party of rabid reactionaries and outright bigots. Then the adults in the party can return to the center right majority they tell us we have.
3
Several of Bush's "middle class" initiatives were not geared toward the middle class. Medicaid Part D was a giveaway to big pharma. A middle class plan would have allowed the government to negotiate prices. Home ownership push was a giveaway to the banks and Wall Street
5
In retrospect, Bush had policy ideas and a vision for government that while we could disagree about those ends, the failure of his administration was more about competence. Now we have a Trump administration that has no policy ideas nor vision for government and even less competency. The only things that are getting done are by wrecking ball appointees whose credentials were to detest the government agencies they now run.
Trump is way more than transnational in his thinking and actions. It was always that he would follow the course of self interest which we assumed was business self interest, but now we see it is petulant ego self interest.
I am not the only progressive who would love to see Bush back in the White House instead of this infantile, faith driven bunch. Thank you, President Bush we didn't know how well off we were.
2
Thank you president Bush? Trump is so bad that a war based on lies that cost the lives of 4,500 troops, and a great recession caused by pure greed are good now?
How are you a progressive? Lesser evil is still evil.
"What’s the matter with the Republican Party? ... Far too many Trump supporters, far too many conservatives, have seen the then-inaccurate caricature that Frank painted 13 years ago brought to blaring, Technicolor life by Trump — and they’ve decided to become part of the caricature themselves, become exactly what their enemies and critics said they were, become a movement of plutocrats and grievance-mongers with an ever-weaker understanding of the common good."
What's wrong with the Republican Party is insistence on this kind of faulty reasoning. Frank was wrong, even though Republicans are exactly what he painted them to be?
"It requires new ideas and new thinking and new models of leadership. But it also requires looking backward, to Bush and Reagan, to a Republicanism that had a thousand flaws but also understood a few important things Trump’s party has deliberately forgotten."
Again, perfect contradiction in two sentences. They need new ideas, but they need to go backward?
Trump's slogan "MAGA" came from Reagan's campaign. Every Republican in the primaries praised and name-dropped Reagan every chance they could. They stuck to his campaign platforms as well. Tax cuts for the rich, Christian "values", increasing military budgets, gutting environmental protections, denying women's rights to choose what to do with their bodies, opposition to universal healthcare, opposition to civil rights acts.
The problem is that they all wish to be Reagan and can't move forward.
2
Tax reform offers a chance pf meaningful Republican resurgence. Deficit hawk? Supporter of defense and infrastructure investment? Skeptical there's a cut that can actually pay for itself? Hate add-ons and bundling a mish-mash of gimmicks and giveaways that dangerously confuse voters’ tax cut understanding?
Asking why there's so little in the current proposal for individual income tax filers? Why it's so out of balance between individual and corporate cuts and between the wealthiest and the middle? Seeking a clear-cut tax cut… that every Republica can buy?
A clear-cut, tax cut simply reduces the rate in the lowest tax bracket and, along with a tweak for taxpayers below the threshold, means equal savings for all.
Americans know how to comparison-shop. More taxpayers will see more tax savings - more than disproportionate corporate and business cuts.
American middle class conservatives want financial security, not the biggest slice of the economic pie. They're looking for a tax cut for “getting ahead” – concentrated on the first taxable dollars of everyone, not the next million of a few. Every dime of tax on their first, taxable earnings delays the time American taxpayers can stop scraping by and start getting ahead.
They want a cut that counts - not crumbs or a handout, but a real chance to save for home, health, education and retirement.
3
Very good, Ross, but too little, too late. Trump accurately reflects what this country has become, and there's no turning back.
3
We can learn from our mistakes and move forward.
Who is we? The "people"? Perhaps you'd like to explain just how you intend to influence the ruling class who control ALL the levers of power. The rest of us are merely chips in their poker games.
Frank wasn’t wrong, initially, nor was he prescient. The strategy and policies since Nixon’s Southern Strategy have simply come to roost in a most obvious way in Trump. Frank saw what was plainly on the wall. Many others have, too. You just can’t avoid it, sugarcoat it, or plausibly deny it for anything other than what it plainly is.
4
While I appreciate the many times someone in your party has asked this question of late, and you today by citing Frank's very good book, there are many things that spring to mind in my limited history of your party.
First let's start with Karl Rove and the campaign to incite values voters.
Then let's add the donor class that calls the shots on policy.
Throw in a mix of demonizing people for being poor and needing government help.
Then how about the campaign against reproductive rights and the elevation of the anti-abortion wing who want to speak for all even though women have legitimate reasons for abortions and in case anyone has forgotten, Roe v. Wade is the law.
Throw in the courting of the tea party crazies who never could legislatively or morally demonstrate what their point was.
How about the campaigns against Hillary Clinton that only demonstrated hypocrisy but nothing illegal.
And finally, few spoke against Trump even when he crushed the weakest list of candidates and elevated Russian interests over this country's interests, added to his obvious character flaws..
If I've left anything out it's only because I have forgotten everything because I cannot remember when I lost all respect for the GOP.
3
The same donor class supports the democrats.
Different donors
I don't think Republicans and Democrats can even agree on what "America" is anymore. The Republican party has so thoroughly rejected the understanding I have of democracy (Citizens United, attacks on voting rights, changing Congressional rules and precedent to their continual advantage, probably now even collusion with a foreign power to undermine the idea of representational democracy.) The white supremacist bent has been there, but is now rampant, and unconfined due to a complete lack of moral leadership. They are waging an all out war on women's freedom. Let me say this: there is no claim to "morality" when the result tramples someone else en route to the bank, when the moneyed and powerful conspire to diminish our voices and freedom/agency in this world. The "morality" the Republicans lay claim to is in fact an instinct to repress/oppress people who don't fit their idea of a neat, normal, orderly world where women and people of color are subservient and men don't have sex with other men except in secret. I used to respect (even if I disagreed with) my Republican friends, family and neighbors. Now I don't even know how to talk to them about the future of our country.
8
Poor old Douthat can't seem to figure out that morals don't cover all the bases. Some things we used to see as a "moral outrage" are now known to be a normal part of (some) human development. If the republicans would just give a little more credit to scientists and their findings, a lot of these problems would just 'go away . . . melt into the pages of quaint history.' But he'll be raggin' the moral bone for the rest of his life, good religious soul that he is.
4
Ross, Bush only looks good in hindsight because of Trump. Never forget that it is on the Bush II watch that the United States was attacked by Arab extremists. It is on the Bush II watch that we invaded Iraq based on a lie. It is on the Bush II watch we opened military action on two fronts and, at the same time, pushed a tax cut through Congress. And, as even you conceded, it was under the Bush II watch, that mortgage lenders were encouraged to approve loans to people who were in no financial position to purchase a home, contributing to the worst economic downturn in 75 years. Upon reflection, it is hard to believe that Trump could be any worse.
2
To cut down on abortions, first make sure that people know how to obtain sexual enjoyment without getting pregnant, so that they will not be needed. Second, create a moral climate where people can be talked out of getting abortions. Such a climate must include making them legal, because otherwise the talk will be about society's right to impose morality rather than what an individual should do in a difficult personal situation.
The conservative defense of morality is actually an attack on any sex that does not include the possibility of procreation, which has nothing to do with the defense of innocent lives and everything to do with the pleasure of making other people behave. Further, it does nothing to prevent abortions by anyone who can afford to get to a place where they are obtainable, so in reality it stops abortions only among poor and young people while leaving society's leaders free to do what they want. To get people who can afford abortions not to get them, only persuasion from a secure moral base will work.
The conservative position is not such a base, since it is not honest about what it is trying to do and ignores the practical effects and deficiencies of its approach. In stressing the letter of morality rather than the spirit, it winds up defending not morality but rather its opposite, the hypocritical appearance of morality.
On both morality and policies in general, Republicans have lost the ability to distinguish truth from hypocritical appearance.
9
Ever since 1987 when I came to this country, I have been amazed by the terms conservative and liberal being used in completely counter-intuitive ways. Douthat's defense of Regan and GW for helping the middle class is just mind boggling. The examples he cites are not recognized by anyone as helping the middle class. On the other hand GW could be complemented with single handedly making the rich richer by reducing the tax on interest income on equities. Conservative is someone who spends as much as he takes in. Well Regan would be the exact antithesis of it. Now suddenly these folks have Trump whose only governing principal is to give the middle finger to everything good that anyone did. It is getting hot enough for the like of Douthathat they are suddenly realizing they have created a monster.
Herad a really good discussion by Charly Sykes on Book TV about his book on "Republicans have lost their mind". The chickens of the outrage machine are coming home to roost.
8
What is wrong with the Republican party is they are totally owned by a very few, very wealthy individuals--and will do exclusively their bidding.
What is wrong with the Republican party is their willingness to discard any attempt at fact based (as in science, or provable, and not "what my biggest donor wants") policy or programs.
What is wrong with the Republican party is an utter disconnect between what they say and what they do.
What is wrong with the Republican party is the "you will always have a job as a politician, or as a lobbyist, or at a well-funded think-tank" if you put loyalty to party above all else.
What is wrong with the Republican party is their absolute refusal to address malfeasance or unfitness in their officials.
What is wrong with the Republican party is their oaths of allegiance to Fox News talking points, the NRA, Grover Norquist,... all superseding their oaths of office.
Republicans would rather support treason than act to prevent damage to the country from another Republican by acting against him.
Republicans will gleefully trade the lives of 10's of thousands per year for a few more dollars in the hands of people who already have more than they will be able to spend in their lifetimes.
Ross: Start with requiring basic honesty. Denounce lies. Be a man.
8
Trump has figured out that he can offer his insatiable base the drug they crave most; unhappy Democrats. Other than that he isn't offering them much, and they don't seem to want much else. Of course they are insulated from many of the problems associated with the Republican Party's policies. We hated blue states subsidize the angry red states. Mississippi and Alabama are practically wards of the state.
This might explain why Paul Ryan's Ayn Randian proposals (it's not like Trump has any policy ideas) keep going down to failure; vulnerable Republicans know that their voters don't really want to lose their government benefits, they just want to make sure that 'those people' don't get anything for free.
6
This is the crux of the whole issue. People in those states don't enjoy being in the system, stuck in a perpetual state of barely scraping by. Democrats are always confused about the lack of thanks they get for keeping these people trapped in a system that is not productive and offers virtually no off-ramps once you get tangled up in them. Bill Clinton's welfare reform policies were based on the welfare queen stereotype, and were designed to force lazy people to go get jobs instead of collecting welfare checks. Well, most of them already did work, do work, and still need that assistance. States that were able to postpone those more punitive restrictions on programs like food stamps did so for the full two decades they were able to -- and in the last few years, as that time has run out, they've had to force desperate people who can't find paying work right off their rolls and onto the streets.
No one wants to give those people the benefit of the doubt, but they actually would much prefer having gainful employment and self-sufficiency. They simply live in areas where that is really hard to come by. If Democrats started campaigning on filling THAT need, they'd suddenly have the support of every struggling conservative who doesn't love the bible more than, you know, putting food on the table and having self-respect.
2
Why is it so hard for Douthat to just simply admit that Thomas Frank was right, and that the Republican Party specifically, and conservatives more generally, have long been intellectually and morally bankrupt? You don’t have to be a liberal partisan to acknowledge that modern conservatism has always had at its core “a mix of Randianism and racial resentment.”
3
I've got news for you Ross: there is no mysterious difference between the Bush/Reagan/Gingrich era of Republicanism and the Trump one. Trump is the culmination of the longstanding Republican agenda of worshiping the wealthy business elites, American militarism, xenophobia, dog-whistle race-baiting, Confederate flag defending, belief that blacks are lazy, a feeling of inherent white superiority, etc. All of this stuff existed and emboldened the Republican Party for decades, and it probably has its origins in the civil rights/Vietnam/Goldwater/Nixon era. That's where the seeds of this chauvinistic ideology took root in the Republican party. Trump is the natural overgrowth of this phenomenon. It's intellectually dishonest to say that the Republican party somehow could have been avoided him or that Trump was not inevitable. Just listen to his voters. They believe racism never existed before Obama (an actual quote). Reflect on that for a moment. It's undeniable that a sickness has existed in Conservative America for a very, very long time and it has finally metastasized across the entire country.
9
Even when describing the faults of the GOP, Douthat manages to put lipstick on the pig----i.e., the policies of Reagan and subsequent GOP administrations. It would appear that Douthat is still unwilling to acknowledge that the party he supports has no interest whatsoever in honestly helping working Americans.
6
I don’t think you could be more wrong in your conclusions, but you might at least deem them tentative.
1
The problem with Republicans is that they are single-source news junkies. Plain and simple.
Here is an easy experiment to try that will prove my point next time a Republican is intent on regurgitating lies to you.
Watch for your Republican friend to get going and all lathered up, and wait for them to run out of talking points. At that point you interject politely and say “Ok you just regurgitated all the talking points and world view you got from Fox and Friends” “Now let me give you my Rachel Maddow world view and facts” The look in their faces will be priceless, as if wondering how you know those things about them.
You see, we the elitists are voracious consumers of reading materials and news sources. We don’t base our world views and get our facts from a single source. Contrary to popular beliefs, there is such a thing as an objective view of the world based on science and facts. Republicans have even got their views of God all upside down now. They can’t even see God as all loving and benign anymore, and seem to be constantly imploring Him destroy their enemies. Sad is you ask me.
Truth is true and the sooner we come to grips with it, the better off we will be as a nation.
1
Like usual, Douthat hits it out of the park. The Republicans have fallen so far that I wonder if there is any hope for them. Trump has turned them into a throng of fools worse than the most morbid liberal fantasy. I am truly ashamed that I used to count myself among them.
That's the defense ? Bush....BUSH...was 'better' for the middle class ?
4
I really enjoyed your takedown of Thomas Frank, Jonathan Chait and Peter Suderman. Truly, being a progressive means never having to say your sorry for your sloppy history and your preposterous stick-figure caricatures of Republicans. Why it's almost as awful as the rants in the Comments Sections of the NYT.
Please keep on rubbing their noses (and ours) in it when they/we don't do their homework. That is a noble cause, and sorely lacking elsewhere in this propaganda sheet.
I generally agree with your own critique of past GOP Presidents. Notably I have never been a fan of steep tax cuts -- especially without compensating spending cuts, but sometimes even then. But then I read a fascinating blog entry by the completely sane Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution who argues that a corporate tax cut may do more for low income workers than an increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). (Cutting corporate rates vs. boosting the EITC, Oct. 17, 2017).
Finally, may I put in a good word for sticking it to those overpaid babies in the N.F.L. and to their Hollywood counterparts who take big dollops of hush money but then want their 15 minutes of fame too as victims -- the most exalted status that an American can aspire to today.
1
One has to laugh. Ross Douthat is pleased to find the "flaws" in Thomas Frank, but once again he's incapable of seeing his own fingerprints on the dumpster fire that the GOP has become.
5
Oh Ross, how to respond to yet another insipid hand ringing Op-Ed regarding the problems with Republicans. What is the matter with Republicans is that they are Republicans just as what is the matter with fleas is that they are fleas . . .
3
Ditto :/
That headline!! So many answers. So little time...
I agree with most of what Mr. Douthat has to say. And in the beginning of a movement it is important to have a lot of conversation and a lot of details. However, after a while this can get in the way.
Shift the focus to Senator McCain. If there was ever a person ready to cut through the chaff and go right to the heart of a matter it's John McCain. His time on this earth is limited. His energy is limited. His support in the Senate is limited. So he combines years of gathered wisdom and patriotism and speaks as great political and spiritual leaders do- he conveys volumes in a few sentences.
We could analyze the Republican Party til ad infinitum and we would continue to find new insights but perhaps move farther away from the answers. The answers are the same as they have always been. Reach across the aisle- love thy neighbor as thyself. Put country first- love God with all you heart, mind, and soul. Transparency- confession, bare your soul.
Senator McCain is our country's best hope to rediscover what made our country great. President Trump is our best hope of remembering what went wrong.
2
Such drivel. One did not need to be "prescient" to see the falsity in the Republican claim that tax cuts for "job creators" would drive economic growth, nor to be appalled by the daily menu of pure hate that movement conservatives served up via Fox News for years before we reached this point, in order to limit rational analysis of their true motives. One merely had to be conscious. Is the author longing for the good old days when neocons could just start wars to enrich each other at taxpayer expense? Or what?
7
>> This dispiriting contentment is the sentiment you see from some of Trump’s blue-collar supporters, who love his uncouth rhetorical war on his fellow coastal elites so much that they’re willing to forgive him his threadbare policy agenda or else trust that gridlock and inertia will protect them from Republican bills whose actual contents they might probably oppose.
Or worse, they actually aren't paying enough attention to his threadbare policy agenda and malevolent Republican bills to see what's going on behind the uncouth rhetoric. Before you can object to that stuff, you have to understand it at some level and recognize what it's going to do to you.
2
"Note that I don’t mean the religious conservatives who supported Trump reluctantly and in a transactional spirit, and who welcome his conservative judicial nominees."
This is a nice way of saying "sold their souls."
6
The belief that it is a good idea to take from the poor and middle class, while giving more to the rich, is also a moral issue that speaks to one's values. Using race-baiting, religious fear-mongering, and other forms of xenophobia to achieve plutocratic aims is collection of values. Denial of facts, reason, compassion, and decency are about one's values.
No, you don't have to be a dupe to be a "values voter". You can be a values voter while knowing exactly what your intent is. You can simply make your net income, your fear of loss of an unbalanced dominance, xenophobia, and your party affiliation as your highest values.
But are these worthy and respectable values? Are these what we wish to call American values?
4
I own a working-class apartment in community in Oklahoma City. We have gone out of our way to provide our residents with a peaceful and caring environment. But it has gotten a lot more difficult to do over the years.
Since the downturn of 2009, I have witnessed first-hand the decimation of the working class. The tenant base has undergone a radical change. More and more tenants struggle to make the rent each month. Job stability, even at Wal-Mart and Home Depot, has diminished. The level of drug addiction has soared. It is heart breaking.
Please forgive me if I seem judgmental, but I have learned over the past several years that nothing erodes morals and values more than poverty. There is, without question, a correlation between the two. And I dare say that state politics and the economic policies of Oklahoma over the decades have played a large role in this outcome.
Energy companies control the state legislature. It passes laws that serve their interest. This has not only exacerbated the economic inequality of its citizens, it has also greatly harmed the environment.
Yes, values do play a significant role in shaping the political landscape, but we cannot ignore -- as I believe Douthat does -- that Republican economic policies have tragically undermined them, in more ways than one. The values of the market place serve only the market place. Rarely do they address human need.
13
How about this? How about the "Christians" adopting a moral understanding of tolerance, empathy, compassion, equality for women and work for the common good?
I recently purchased a beautiful 4' x 8' periodic table, mounted and framed by a frame shop owned by a former vet and gave donations to Houston and Las Vegas. Puerto Rico next. The money for all of this is available simply because I do NOT donate to any Christian church building/staff overhead.
Also sponsor five Latin Americans, volunteer and donate regularly to other local and national charities and care for 10 cats.
Have been chided in the past for being "too generous." By whom? By strict "Christians" who scorn single mothers, birth control and abortion while they advise more materialism and firearm ownership.
11
Yesterday’s CNN poll brole out the percentages of his supporters (37%). In response to the question, “The way Donald Trump is handling his job as president” the breakdown of his supporters are: registered voters (38%), lean republican (82%), conservative (51%), white non-college (49%), men (47%), $50k + (42%), age 50-64 (36%). Those are his majority supporters. Anyone else should be contacting Congress and VP Pence for his removal!
1
What is the matter with Kansas?
Kansas elected Sam Brownback Governor in 2010 and re-elected him in 2014. He famously introduced the "Kansas experiment" where taxes and regulations (except for abortion) were drastically cut. The Kansas experiment was a colossal failure that almost bankrupt the state. By 2016 the voters caught on and polls ranked Brownback the least popular governor in the US. In 2017 the Republican legislature raised taxes ending Brownback's experiment.
Kansans are slow learners. Trump supporters are slower.
6
A moral vision would certainly help Republicans right the ship. I would suggest that an even bigger requirement would be respect for the truth. Republicans have felt emboldened to ignore the working/middle class or even actively make their lives worse because they could simply lie non-stop about what they were doing and count on a vast network of right wing news/propaganda outlets to pass their claims off as fact.
Republicans recently proposed a tax plan whose benefits skew heavily to the rich while insisting that it's focused on helping the middle class. They've created a whole industry of partisan hacks masquerading as economists to say the kind of blatantly untrue things that real economists (even conservative ones) wouldn't say: corporate tax cuts benefit workers, minimum wage increases hurt workers, etc.
Their health care repeal efforts were built on a mountain of lies. An honest approach would have been to say, we know Obamacare increased coverage, but we are philosophically opposed to a health insurance mandate, Medicaid expansion, and state exchanges even if repeal means fewer people having access to necessary health care. That doesn't sound good, so instead they said that Obamacare didn't increase coverage or that it did so against the will of the newly insured. They claim that it made coverage worse and that their repeal plans would somehow give everyone better health care for less money.
As bad as Trump is, most of this has come from the GOP establishment.
7
In 25 words or less, this boils down to 'come on, Republicans, we're better than this, this isn't who we are.'
To be perfectly honest, no you're not; and yes it is.
9
"Bush’s domestic agenda, including the way that one of his middle-class-friendly policies, the push for homeownership, contributed to the housing bubble and the crash."
This is revisionist history baloney. The Democrats were the motive force behind lowering lending standards in an effort to make home ownership more attainable for their low-income constituency. A noble cause, but not worth torpedoing the financial markets.
1
Bush, a middle class booster? Well, in a way that's true, the way a pusher is an addict's booster. He boosted middle-class prosperity with loose credit and the housing boom, which camouflaged the hollowing out of the middle class by "my base, the elite". The end result was the financial meltdown and the middle class going cold turkey into poverty.
2
I agree with this collumn, though to claim that Trump support is only limited to a portion of the evangelical christians is wrong, some have disavowed him, disgusted with him, but the majority are now still in love with Trump. Bill Bennett made the statement "Saints often started out as sinners" , implying somehow that Trump's problems morally are all in the past, and what that says is many of the evangelicals love Trump being a bully, love his jingoism, his nastiness and childishness, which doesn't say much about their faith.
The real problem I think is that the book was right, that many of those, religious or not, who support the GOP did so, not because they helped the working or middle class, but because they fed into what was once an undercurrent of racial resentment and hatred and anger that the GOP used (the southern strategy, Wilie Horton/Lee Atwater, Reagan promoting "states rights", etc), has been blown into the open and it is apparent the support is more about Trump the hater in chief, angry white man, then in the economics that supposedly got him elected. He has made it okay to be a bigot, a bully, a jingoist (the national anthem is about the military? Really? And how about anger at the NFL with its 'yay to the troops' that was paid for by the military, not because the NFL cares about the military), it has made it okay, to use the term of one blue collar guy I know, to be "white again".
1
I just had an awful, fleeting premonition.
It's the year 2028. A Republican columnist is telling us that, for all of Trump's flaws, if we just remember his "good" sides, it'll help us find our way back from whatever truly unimaginable horrors the GOP is inflicting upon us *then.*
4
I expect no improvement until Republicans can deal with facts and until Republicans can get comfortable with talking to more than their base. Now any Republican that disagrees with the current noisemaker is labeled a RINO. The only thing that keeps the party alive in its current condition is a few very wealthy donors.
2
Mr. Douthat,
Your second paragraph, two flaws... has a flaw. If there is no society in which to exercise your values, of what point are values?
Thank you,
SSG
Well, if facts no longer matter, you vote against your own economic interests to benefit the top 1%, and are upset for reasons that aren't actually correct (e.g., immigrants aren't taking your jobs, Obamacare is working quite well, we had record income and net worth under Obama) then you shouldn't be surprised when people laugh at you.
3
It was so exciting voting for President Regan and Bush during my wonder bread years.
The young republicans threw magnificent parties in Charleston, South Carolina back in the 80's, and the speeches were thoughtful and inspiring.
Having Russian bankrollers, and immorality and sexual harassment and lie after lie during the 2016 election was horrifying. Watching the world's greatest losers support a bankrupt hustler, who could not remotely carry the city and state he called home was disheartening.
Watching the acting attorney general and FBI director fired over Russian cooperation, was almost as bad as being in a men's athletic locker room shower with Mr. Bannon.
1
The fallacy of those who believe that “some moral questions are more important than where to set the top tax rate” is that any particular answers to those questions can be imposed on all of society. It’s a fallacy because it’s unworkable in a society as diverse as ours, as demonstrated by the polarization on “moral grounds” that has frozen our governance for years. It always was unworkable if we would ever recognize that diversity and empower our different parts, which we’ve been doing now for some time. It wasn’t necessary before we began, because only one worldview of “morality” pretty much governed – the one embraced by white, Christian, straight, mostly propertied males. As soon as that power structure splintered, the notion of any one splinter’s conception of “morality” as a universal social template went the way of the Dodo.
What’s left that IS workable is to agree on basics. Where to set the top tax rate might be one of those basics, except that it’s enmeshed in this “moral” conviction of some that the earnings of our wealthiest are fair game, to any extent, for mining to support the “needs” of everyone else, regardless of rights of property or the desirability of maintaining incentives to drive innovation and growth.
Ross sees desirability in Trump adopting a policy framework more in line with Dubya’s, but I’m not so sure. There was a great deal more cohesiveness in America under Dubya than now – more “one worldview” unsplintered by the voices of the many.
Seems to me that Trump really needs to define the basics that are as little enmeshed as possible with that raucous and endlessly different cacophony of voices on what is “moral”, and seek those principles on which we all can agree with the right arguments. One of them is might be makes economies grow so as to benefit the broadest swath of Americans, and from there tactically to the nature, focus and extent of sensible regulation, the extent and targets of taxation, trade fairness and the availability of necessary skills that an immigration policy might support; and strategically to such things as education and basic research.
I suggest that Ross’s call for a new “moral vision”, which requires a grounding by Trump and others in some particular set of moral VALUES, simply is too one-sided to be workable in a society as diverse as ours. He also risks the possibility that the “vision” might coalesce around values HE doesn’t embrace. Better to seek and pursue those policies that can be used to unite a diverse people because they DON’T threaten basic convictions, but are aimed merely at increasing our general prosperity.
Well, what IS the matter with Republicans?
I'm not sure who we're talking about anymore. My grandparents were staunchly conservative Republicans. Their core beliefs that I, a progressive liberal, proudly carry on were that
-- There is no free lunch
-- Rights carry with them Responsibilities
-- My Rights end where your Rights begin
-- You cannot legislate morality
-- Public officials have a sacred duty to be honest in word and deed.
I don't see much of that in the current Republican party.
1
There is much to comment on in this piece. First and foremost I want to take issue with his remarks about the Bush era tax cuts. I am now retired but at the time of the Bush tax cuts I was working and making a solidly (I think) middle class salary (between $60 and $80K per year) as were most of my colleagues. After the 2003 Bush tax cut I went around my office of some 50 people and asked what the difference was in their take-home pay - the answer was between $13 and $15 (in a twice monthly pay period). I thought then and I think now that they could have kept their $28 a month and cut down on the national debt. I've no idea how much the really wealthy made but I'm guessing it was a lot more than that.
I'm middle class and I would prefer to drive to work on decent roads that don't have lanes blocked for repairs on a regular basis than the $12 a week I got from the Bush tax cuts.
4
"What's wrong with the Republican Party?" They are Liars and are not to be believed! They have no moral compass> They have no plan for the future. they cannot govern because they don't believe in government. They owe their complete party to rich right wing extremists Other than that they are our grandfather's party!
2
Spoken like a man clinging to a past he could rationalize. Now that its product is laid bare for all to see, it clearly hurts.
6
What's the matter with Kansas? Mr. Douthat? They have elected Mr. Brownback as Governor who installed the Laffer curve brand of Voodoo Economics, that goes all the way back to St. Ronnie and Jack Kemp, with disastrous results for Kansans.
Now Republicans have control of the 3 branches of the Federal Government and 2/3 of the state legislatures and governors, and one of the latest polls finds 74% of the people think the country is headed in the wrong direction. Why if the Republicans are in charge of everything are we headed in the wrong direction? Trump is ready to install Laffer curve 2 for the whole USA and Republicans expect a different outcome. What's the definition of insanity again? What's the matter with Kansas? H.L. Mencken had the answer - No politician ever went wrong underestimating the stupidity of the American voter.
9
Sorry pal, but your party owns Trump, including his policies and personal views, lock, stock and barrel. You can't parse it out to only a section. Your party supports him still today.
10
I bet that Frank did not think his work would become the road map for a disastrous GOP administration. Frank was not wrong about the Bush era, given that tax cuts for the rich help no one, except the rich. Frank's ideas have also played out with Brownback as governor, as Kansans have rebelled against the no-tax crowd. That said, Bush or Reagan is preferable to Trump any day. There are so many concerns with Trump that it is hard to keep them all straight.
3
As much as I thought I hated Bush, I cannot imagine him comparing himself with a "great and very brave soldier" for his hard work dodging STDs in Manhattan during Vietnam.
And it's utterly beyond me how any "values voter" would be willing to elect such a morally empty man to the White House.
Note that there is nothing about transgender bathrooms in the Ten Commandments. But there are prohibitions on adultery, coveting, bearing false witness and idolatry.
13
The obvious thing to do is to attack this revisionist history of the Bush years with a vengeance. Rip the lies and misrepresentations limb from limb in a violent exposition of editorial review so fierce as to leave the Bush apologists weeping in their cubicles. I'm not going to do that though. I'll simply offer a literary critique instead. Ross Douthat rambles as a means to hide the hollowness of his arguments. The ginned-up vocabulary and offhand references complete the effect. Douthat is selling a house built on sand. An honest appraisal of the Republican party wouldn't require this many words.
2
Douthat inadvertently shows what's wrong with republicans by taking seriously as a fact that "values voters" are somehow moralistically driven to support republican candidates in spite of economic agendas that are harmful to them. No, no no. These people are not moral, they are not really Christians and what they pass off as virtue is a toxic mix of faux patriotism, identity politics and racism... nothing more. And they are too blind to see that the republican party manipulates them via emotional hot buttons to get their votes. THAT is what's wrong with republicans.
7
What's the matter with Republicans, you ask? Are you kidding me? The hopefulness of this column is built on two things. First, a few Republicans threw some bones to the middle class once-upon-a-time. Second, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II get a pass because they were supposedly nice guys. Sorry, but the Republican Party has thrived on division, resentment and fear since Barry Goldwater. It wasn't until Donald Trump came along that they found the perfect vehicle to represent all of the worst impulses of the Republican base. He is the essence of all that is and has been wrong with Republicans for over 50 years. Unfortunately for the party, he's neither competent nor controllable. So, Ross, where you might see glimmers of hope, the rest of us see it as wishful thinking for a party that doesn't deserve to survive.
7
Its really funny to see ppl comment with outrage over Douthat's nuancing of Frank's view of the GOP, when he essentially ends with saying, "In fact Frank was right!! Just 10 years after the fact!!"
"How dare you admit I'm right only 90% of the time!!"
1
I’m confident the author was speaking of Manhattan, KS in the piece, right?
Ross ignores the obvious, glaring fact - Trump supporters would rather revel in their stupidity, racism, sexism and xenophobia with their man-child president rather than voting for Democratic politicians whose policies would actually help them.
Let them eat racism!
7
" ... perpetual distraction of Twitter feuds and pseudo-patriotic grandstanding ... an empty, strutting nationalism ... brutish braggart’s style ... really sticks it to those overpaid babies in the N.F.L. and makes the liberals howl with outrage ... an ever-weaker understanding of the common good ... " But other than that, Mr. Trump is ... never mind.
This editorial vastly overstates any progressive policy impact under Reagan and Bush. There has been one balanced, pragmatic, Republican President since Dwight Eisenhower, and that's George H.W. Bush, and the party cast him out for trying to be responsible about the budget deficit. Trump did not create the current Republican party, he merely fully unmasked it. The Republican party of today is full of a lot of very dark and dangerous thinking, governing out of animus and resentment, all from a base of ignorance. It's bad out there.
228
No, HW's loss was not because of budget. When he was CIA director, Ross Perot asked him several times to intervene when his employees were arrested and jailed in Iran. Perot held an enormous grudge and ran for President to steal votes from H.W. I have inside info on that.
This Republican Party long ago abandoned textbook conservatism for policies that bear little resemblance to Republicanism but have moved toward totalitarian government. What we see now with Trump and Company is open scorn for Constitutional governing. Trump operates with a "catch me if you can" agenda of dictatorial excesses as President. Executive orders designed to wipe away any vestige of the presidency of Barack Obama regardless of harmful consequences to the country and its people as a whole. His open taunting of North Korea's dictator most certainly can lead to WWIII. Has he considered China or Russia's response if he fires the first nuclear warhead missile on NK? North Korea does not have the firepower to take out the U.S. but those two countries do.
Trump is a reckless fool and his Party of hate driven white supremacist thugs fully intend to carry out the mission they have announced. I don't see a Democratic Party tough enough to adopt a message to derail this bunch. Even if possible, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act and red governors have stripped voting rights from millions. Elections are rigged in enough states to retain control. The future is foreboding.
Let's not forget the elephant in the room Ross 'forgot' to mention, spelled T-E-A P-A-R-T-Y. Ross, how could you possibly leave that out in your retrospective of Republican policy stances over the last several decades?
America is building to a Category 5 political hurricane if the track of the Trump storm builds and stays consistent. Do we have the political FEMA to give aid to We the People?
As the political hurricane approaches we need to reform our political building codes to prevent the damage that's this storm is inflicting and will increase.
The dominant US party that controls our 3 branches denies the reality of climate change, science, health care, war, racial unfairness. See OECD and Gini score comparisons that show the US is behind the modern world in so many socio/economic factors. Health care one of the main ones, directly impacting life & death.
The political climate change is intensifying---to the right, increasing power and wealth of the economic elites. This is a big climate change from our past generations, when American’s middle class was the world’s strongest and a role model for the world.
One of the main causes of the change is election funding. Other capitalist democracies don't turn their elections over to economic elites and corporations for funding. Thus their lawmakers can be freed up to try to work for the citizen majority. They've had health care for all at affordable cost for generations now. While even ACA, that we idealized in the face of Gop destruction, is still the most profitable, exploitive and highest cost system in the world, leaving out millions. Yet a big improvement over the previous non –system.
6
I'm working on a theory: by the time you've established the education and career necessary to get your opinions published anywhere of consequence, those very credentials render you incapable of understanding this situation.
Newsflash: Bernie and Trump campaigned on the same issue. How's that for a hot take? I've been waiting for someone else to say it, but if you haven't noticed by now, you're incapable of understanding Trump's base. The frustrated left wants reforms related to student loan debt, because they were raised viewing a degree as the gateway to the workforce; the frustrated right wants reforms related to outsourcing and offshore production by US companies, because they were raised viewing a diploma or GED as the gateway to the workforce.
Do you see it? See that common thread there? We're all being crushed by the economy, we just view it in different terms. I honestly cannot believe a self-proclaimed Republican is out here buying into the idea that Trump voters were secretly motivated by something other than the ONE issue he campaigned on. What was his platform? "Bring back jobs." Meanwhile the collective American think tank is out here trying to read tea leaves and chicken bones to discern what motivated voters who chose him. Jobs, buddy. It was jobs. And I'm from a Muslim family, so frankly, a lot of those people DO hate me, personally; but a lot of them simply listened to the words coming out of Trump's mouth. Do with that what you will.
2
Perhaps you should re-read the column, specifically paras six & 13.
I just did, hoping I missed something, but I don't see how either addresses this. They acknowledge the specter of this matter yet evade it. Referring to Trump's rhetoric as a "possible return to middle class focused politics" is laughable. It resonated with people who maybe were once, and aspire to be middle class in the future, but are not there today.
That attitude here is frankly as offensive as when Democrats talk about red states "voting against their own self-interest." A lot of people out here don't need tax credits, and don't want to languish in the welfare system. They want good, steady work that pays a living wage and doesn't require a college education. Unless we're gunning for complete over-saturation in degree fields, which we're already close to, that would benefit everyone.
Did Trump turn out to be a total dud who was incapable of delivering? Obviously! But the leap of bad faith required to reach "ergo his supporters are just bigots" is astounding. They never seemed to grasp that presidential powers don't come with completely control over the economy! It's ludicrous to conclude that they understand how to spot ineffectual public policy, but simply don't care because they just really, really love bigotry. Again, many of these people yearn for the days of mining and manufacturing jobs being reliable career paths. Their communities are crumbling and overrun by drug use and deaths. Pretending none of that is real or relevant gains us nothing.
Mr. Douthat's argument might seem to have a grain of truth in it, if you are willing to accept that all of the political identity of a party flows only from the words and actions of its leader. But that's not how it works. The Republican Party has long counted among its ranks of elected officials the kind of caricatures Douthat is decrying—the plutocratic grievance-mongers, as he calls them. Douthat is now pretending that these have just sprung up overnight, as if Trump summoned them to life, but many have operated in Congress or in state governments for years. What the Bush's and Reagan were able to do was keep these legions calm and placated—with promises of tax cuts and cuts to social programs. Mr. Douthat is still in denial about the true motivations of the movement he has supported for so long, a movement that was rotten long before Trump came along to expose its reeking core.
2
Thomas Frank was just on The Open Mind PBS. See transcript of his interesting talk, titled What’s the Matter With Democrats.
Frank asks---Why is the right wing able to win and win?
He says, “The benefits of Republican rule are showered on a vanishingly small number of people. How are they able to win and win and win …, when they serve just this tiny group of people?
A big part of the answer has to be the feebleness of the opposition party. The fact that the nominal party of the left in our system is not interested in doing what parties of the left used to do.”
We have to ask why is that? They’re dependent on big money to run against Gop. As the corporations invest more and more money in our campaigns for excellent returns on investment, the Dems are competing for that money.
See NYT Sept 2 that the fundraising is already starting----‘Democrats with money on their minds’. And what limits will this place on their real policies, even as they try to sell to the mass of voters.
We saw how in 2016 the candidate that raised the most money from small donations by average people, and who wanted to restore FDR’s New Deal, and LBJ’s Great society, was systematically undermined by the Democratic Party.
Maybe in the future a better candidate than Sanders will emerge—but how will he/she get the money to compete and win?
4
One thing that Trump and the GOP will remember from the Reagan and Bush years is that when your popularity starts to wane, start a war.
1
"But as president, Trump has essentially become the Frankian caricature in full,...??" As president? Trump was this and offered this as candidate. American voters chose him base on his campaign. He hasn't changed. We're all now getting just what he offered: empty promises, lies, and division.
Sorry Ross but perhaps spin, distraction, or rewriting history through journalistic gymnastics aren't your strong suit. Thomas Frank had it right then and his theory still applies now. It's a hard pill for Republicans to swallow, particularly those that actually care about the common good in the U.S., but it's best to just try and get it down.
It's a very good column. My reservation: I don't think Douthat has understood the longevity of the shift by the rich and the cynicism that prompted it.
Pearlman, I think, in his book about the Goldwater election, pointed out that in the late 1940s the rich chose to marry their anti-communism to the fervent Christianity of others in search of a popular base. Their goal was to promote capitalism and kill socialism and the New Deal.
For the past few decades, the rich have added the "social agenda" to Christianity-- abortion, prayer in schools, patriotism--and racism, which since at least Goldwater has been standard for certain kinds of Republicans, and now anti-immigrant sentiments. What a brew!
I don't know how it can be countered, but identify politics doesn't work, not least because it divides people in the center and left into groups that sometimes seem to prefer to be single actors rather than parts of a coalition. Not without reason, they're afraid they will lose what they cherish most to compromise or betrayal. That, and the difficulty of finding coherence and longer-term planning when the party doesn't have the White House. Against Trump and this idiot Congress the Democrats seem dead in the water. If there is a Democratic strategy right now it must be "give them enough rope . . . "
So this, I suppose, is what Ross Douthat admitting he was wrong looks like.
Franks's thesis was, and still is - essentially correct. That Trump was going to be a boorish, self-obsessed buffoon was obvious to anyone who had ever picked up a newspaper in the past 30 years, but the essence of his policies - the reason he is tolerated by essentially the entirety of the GOP in Congress at every possible juncture - is a Republican vision. A deadly wrong vision on economics, and a vision that says that "value voting" means that because of your religious beliefs you have the right to prevent someone 5 States away from having an abortion they need, or from marrying someone they wish to marry.
You and the GOP own Trump, Mr. Douthat. While I appreciate your criticism of the man - something any thinking person would agree with - I do not appreciate your hedging your bets by trying to shift the blame by drawing misleading distinctions.
6
The caricature was always the truth of the Republican party. It's just that there was enough of a Democratic counterbalance to keep them from declaring, and following through, on their worst intentions. Bush really wanted to privatize Social Security, but the backlash was too strong. The combination of the plutocrats money and racial resentment leading to their capturing Congress and the Presidency has torn away the constraints and their true, ugly Id has been revealed. Douthat wants to imagine that there was some other motivation in previous Republican administrations, but really it was just that they couldn't get away with what they really wanted. And Mr. Douthat? You helped.
3
What's the matter with Douthat? Polishing the Bush legacy by minimizing the lies that led to the Iraq war which led to Viceroy Paul Bremer, which led to the decision to push the Bathhists out, each of whom left enraged with weapons in hand, which led to massive destruction and tragedy including destabilizing of the entire Middle East, the creation of ISIS and millions of refugees, leading to the immigration and humanitarian crisis in Europe... Add to that giving massive repeated tax cuts to the 1 percent! Great job Bush and Douthat!
3
Let me save everyone some time. Paraphrasing the entire article as The Republican party is overwhelmingly flawed and with Trump as its leader is completely devoid of morals. In essence, it is a complete disaster.
1
What?
You didn't mention Lord Cheney and the torture and the fakery to invade Iraq.
You didn't mention that Bush and Co. blamed Clinton for 9/11.
You failed to mention that Obama was blamed for a "tepid recovery"!
McConnell's only goal was a one term president.
The Katrina response, the fraud that Bush perpetrated with Kathryn Harris in the
2000 election. That was Bush, and now we are facing an existential crisis with a
clueless film film man.
Maybe the religious right wants to hurry up heaven, but I can wait.
3
Sorry Ross. No Child Left Behind was a plan to dumb down the populace by "teaching to the test" rather than teaching people how to think for themselves. And it worked! Exhibit A: the Trump voter.
And that big home ownership push you mentioned?
A relaxing of loan rules which were meant to protect the buyer from foreclosure and losing everything he/she owned. And we all know how well that turned out!
As a tried and true conservative, I guess you must either believe your own lies or are assuming we are all brain dead Trumpists in this day and age and can't remember the truth of what happened in our recent collective past. Next I suppose you'll be telling us that NOBODY predicted that Bush's invasion of Iraq was misguided, pointless, and would turn out to be a huge multi-trillion dollar mistake....
2
In addition, no white President would have been, or ever was, subjected to the
"You Lie" accusation thrown at him during a state of the union speech. And I never heard of the opposition leader in the Senate ever overtly committing to
not supporting anything this president does (Obama)to assure his demise. This was the Republican mantra during the Obama presidency and not one of them
stood to refute the "Birther" arrows slung . This was the height of racism - in our government, by the Republican party which thoroughly disgraced itself and it's history.
3
I don't even know where to begin when Douthat glosses over the Iraq war in this column, i.e. "THis doesn't excuse the disaster of Iraq.....but it is still a mistake to dismiss the Bush agenda as merely a failure and a fraud."
I would call the expenditure of blood and treasure for non-existent WMDs, the generation of "wounded warriors" who will require constant care until the day they die, and the depletion of our budget surplus a major error that will haunt us for a generation. And I didn't even start on the birth of ISIS, which came about AFTER the botched invasion of Iraq.
Bush and Tony Blair made the world a less safe place, and they did it with the blood of their countrymen, with nothing to show for it.
2
This piece spouts revisionist history at its finest. The Reagan and Bush presidencies, with kindling supplied by the propaganda factories of Fox News and right wing websites and talk radio fueling the fires of hatred for Clinton and Obama, led us directly to what is now the worst Presidency and Congress in the modern era. When RD asks "what is wrong with Republicans?" he simply needs to look in a mirror and take a long hard look at what is staring him in the face!
3
Ok. Republicans vote on moral issues, many of which turn on sex. And at the same time they voted for trump? Seems like they must have voted on the basis of something else. My guess is race.
1
Part D is to Medicare as No Child Left Behind is to education. That is: flawed programs that inherently weakens their stated objectives - leaving both education and people who need medication in a much weaker position. Thanks, W.
In todays' America, the tag "Values Voters" is an oxymoron. It's hard to get one's head around the idea that "Randian economics" overlaps white, evangelical "Values Voters" support of Trump. Since Ayn Rand was an atheist who promoted self interest, and scorned altruism, seeing supposedly Christian women cheering for the racist, misogynistic Trump is almost laughable--except that the man they elected is dismantling the precious safe guards for all contained in the Constitution.
And it's no laughing matter that the misguided women depicted at the 2016 Values Voter Summit are cheering for a man who is dealing a serious blow to their well being. It would be merely sad if it weren't so threatening to all we hold dear about our country.
The majority of Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton need to find a way to make the hypocrits who sit in Congress impeach a man who has made a mockery of the office, and Mr. Douthat needs to make a greater effort to confront the reality of what the Republican party has become in 2017.
4
Douthat writes of Bush's "marriage promotion," among other social policies.
Excuse me, but I remember his marriage promotion. It involved demonizing LGBT Americans for political gain. It included a midnight appearance by the president to call for an amendment to the US constitution to forever cement their status as second-class humans.
Marriage promotion, indeed.
2
Good and wise commentary but one thing brought me up short."[S]ome moral questions are more important than where the top tax rate is." Nah. That's an essential problem with the Republican moral vision. The glorification of greed and the blindness to our country's need to be the land of the generous-hearted as well as the free: those attitudes are basic to our growing IMmorality.
Nope. Trump's election was in large part demonstrated the realization on the part of R voters that the R establishment didn't have them in mind at all when setting policy. Eric Cantor losing his seat was one of the first signs of this. Trump didn't initiate the let-down of R voters - he was their reaction to it. The let-down started long before him.
The hope of the left was that once these voters realized they were being conned, they'd come around to the Dems' proposals. What they didn't count on was these voters pulling the lever for an even bigger con.
3
"...they’ve decided to become part of the caricature themselves, become exactly what their enemies and critics said they were, become a movement of plutocrats and grievance-mongers with an ever-weaker understanding of the common good."
I respectfully dispute two of your assumptions. First, Trump fans did not and do not engage in a decision-making process when it comes to their support of Trump. They recognise dog-whistles and exercise a Pavolvian reflex in response to stimuli they cannot articulate or comprehend, yet that simultaneously activate and quell their deepest fears.
Second, Trump fans have no concept of the common good. Their only priority is their own wellbeing and satisfaction without regard to any effects on neighbor, community, state, nation, world or universe.
A dear friend of mine, a Trump supporter (who remains a dear friend because when it comes to politics, we each keep our teeth together), said something over 20 years ago that illustrates both of these points. He was extolling the econmic advantages of nuclear energy, and when I asked him what will happen to life on Earth when the nuclear waste decays and leaches into the environment, he said, "I don't care. I'll be dead. But I'm saving money now."
Trump confirms, not creates, the worst impulses of his followers.
3
greek goddess: Good heavens. A dear friend? hard to fathom....
But Bush was also the president of Medicare Part D,(mostly benefitting the pharmaceutical industry) No Child Left Behind(didn't work, but a good try), a big homeownership push (which, in part, led to housing market and financial collapse of '08) and a larger child tax credit and lower rates for almost everyone, not just the upper class(but with the large bulk going to top 1%). And Reagan was anti Medicare before and after it became law. Ross, do you too now think facts don't matter?
1
Douthat does not mention that the Republican and Conservative establishment created and fed the monster that eventually devoured them. Starting with Nixon, they thought they could gain electoral advantage by appealing to the anger, disillusionment and, frankly, subliminal racism in the South and among the lower middle class. But they also thought they could control it with a few sops to the culture wars. It all reminds me of the scene in Fantasia where Mickey Mouse, as the apprentice wizard, tries to get the brooms to fetch the master's bath water.
If you went to dinner with a friend and your friend ate 80% of the meal and you ate 20% but when the bill came your friend only had to pay 10% of the total would that be fair? Would you go along with it and pay the other 90% of the dinner bill? In America today individuals pay 90% of the US government's annual tax revenue(the money the US government receives annually from all sources) and corporations pay in total 10% of the US government's annual revenues even though corporations receive 80% of the money generated by our economy. Would you go along with paying 90% of your dinner bill because at a later date your friend might invest back into the economy the money he saves on dinner ? Would you go along with a system where you have to pay 90% of all meals and your friend only has to pay 10% because you are pro life and supposedly pro life politicians are who set up this system where you have to pay 90% of every meal?
I think Ross is onto something important and that many of the commentators below are missing the point. Whatever the faults of Bush, Reagan and other past Republican leaders, none of them were bullying, inexperienced narcissists. The most depressing thing about the rise of Trump is that a sizable percentage of the population really wants a bullying, inexperienced narcissist to be president and and another substantial percentage didn't see it as a major problem when they cast their vote last fall. Add it all up and you get to nearly 50% of the electorate. I'm concerned that there has been some permanent sea change in what the electorate wants or considers acceptable that does not bode well for the future, even after Trump is gone.
144
All great civilizations - the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, the British Empire, the Ming Dynasty, etc. - have had their rise and their fall. Why should America be any different? Trump and his rabid followers are just accelerating our fall.
1
Sorry Francis, but I think it's Ross (and you) that are "missing the point". Trump won with overwhelming support from Republican voters, despite his OBVIOUS awfulness, and Republicans STILL largely support him despite boatloads of confirming awful behavior and destructive policies. And most Republicans STILL refuse to take responsibility for their own party's politics and policies of the last few decades, (and especially the last ten years or so) in bringing us to this awful, ugly, and perilous state. For you, or anyone else "concerned" about this "sea change", it's imperative that you understand and acknowledge this starkly real point. Only then will we ever have a chance to change this nation's politics and policies for better - instead of for worse. And without this realization from a whole lot more Republicans, we're going to be dead in the water. We need HONEST and fair-minded Republicans to make this country work. Democrat's and independents can't do it alone.
Two comments about Bush II's record of caring for voters' pocketbook concerns:
1 Medicare Part D - he didn't really fund the program, did he?
2 Big homeownership push - no, that was lax regulation on securitized junk mortgages - investors gone wild.
Reagan did one thing right - he backed out some of his tax giveaway to the rich. But he also paved the way for GOP demonization of all tax revenue - a change from a party that didn't -like- taxes, but understood the -need for- taxes where government services needed funding.
Gemli, the GOP didn't rise on hot air, it rose on the shoulders of fools. Trump is an obvious conman with a long history of business failure and dishonesty. But millions believed his strutting, flamboyant pledge to fix everything, to give goodies to everyone, and to do it at less cost. Who believes that kind of nonsense?
Douthat brings up the allegedly wonderful years under Bush Jr. (How's that for shocking chutzpah; why, it's Trumpian.) What's truly shocking is that in 2004 American voters looked at this duplicitous knucklehead and said, "yes, I'd like more of that please."
Remember that in the midst of the housing bubble Bush Jr. used the Comptroller of the Currency to stop state AGs from using their own state laws to halt predatory lending. Stunning.
1
I think Douthat is wrong in suggesting that Frank's characterization wasn't right all along. When Reagan kicked off his presidential campaign in Neshoba County, Mississipp, and; when G. W. H. Bush ran on a platform of "Willie Horton" and "card-carrying member or the ACLU," they were being exactly what their critics said they were: morally bankrupt cynics pushing plutocracy and not unwilling to use the most cynical means to obtain it. Trump is not something different, he is merely the next generation of the same thing.
This OpEd nicely characterizes the current, horrific state of dysfunction of the GOP. However it also carefully differentiates this current state from the less dysfunctional times of Reagan and GW Bush. I am not so sanguine with that characterization of these earlier times. While I concur that Reagan and GW Bush were not as incompetent, ignorant, and downright deplorable as the current occupant of the White House, this does not absolve them of building the foundation for the mess the GOP finds itself in right now. History didn't turn on a dime when the current President entered the picture.
Reagan accepted the welfare state? What a strange claim. Reagan slashed the top tax rates, gutted unions, and got the privitization ball rolling. This was Make America Great Again 1.0.
Reagan paved the way for Trump because he convinced many white Americans that government a hostile, wasteful machine that was robbing them to help black and brown people. He created the blueprint for the Ayn Rand extremism that Gingrich, Norquist, Paul Ryan and the Kochs have made into a kind of common sense for half of America.
Trump is a fulfillment of Reaganism, even if Reagan Republicans didn't recognize the full consequences of the vision they sold to Americans.
2
I believe that Republicans are threatened by cultural, social change more than Democrats who view change as progress. In other words, many in America are experiencing an "identity crisis." There's an uncomfortable sense that America is not what it was and uncertainty regarding who it and we will become.
Thus, many, mostly Republicans, want to apply the brakes. And the right, including Trump, is attempting to by promising to restore those earlier more homogeneous times when we at least felt were comfortably "melted." And that was before the vast migration of peoples from countries with completely different cultures and approaches to life.
Those fears and underlying concern regarding change and a felt crisis regarding loss of a national identity was ignored by Democrats. And even though going back is impossible, Trump is making believe it's not.
This simple truth, in my opinion, is the source of much of the conflict we're presently experiencing. And addressing it head on by first understanding it and finding a middle ground is the starting point that would remove the radical element that sees no other way to get their point across.
1
"....become exactly what their enemies and critics said they were, become a movement of plutocrats and grievance-mongers with an ever-weaker understanding of the common good".
Very well stated, but actually those criticisms of republicans/conservatives have been correct and fully on display (for anyone caring to take notice) for at least 35-45 years now. Depending if you believe Nixon or Reagan started this movement towards making the wealthy even more wealthy while convincing republicans and conservatives that everyone is against them and tearing apart our social fabric as a nation. The only thing that has changed is the President, in 2017, is now distasteful to the elites who prefer their oligarch-supporting, grievance-enabling, common good-destroying Presidents to be less crass and disgusting than Trump.
I read the book about Kansas--and live in Nebraska--so familiar with what is going on in the middle of the country. You completely gloss over the damage to the country the irresponsible fiscal policies of Bush & Reagan did. They added tremendously to the debt/deficit. While promising great things on social issues which was a manipulation (and admitted to as a ploy) to get votes with little intention of resolving those issues because then there wouldn't be anything to attract the 'values' voter to the gop. The facade of moral superiority would be exposed as the sham it is, hiding the rapacious greed of pols, donors, and top 1% and their insistence on receiving their political/tax payoff.
1
Frank was right all along, from Reagan to Trump.
And all of those hypocritically named "values voters" who voted for and still support Trump? They have stripped themselves of their righteous facade to reveal the moral bankruptcy beneath. What they really value is greed, selfishness, their bigotry, and the right to control women's bodies and choices.
The Republican Party is a political Dorian Gray - Trump has just revealed the image of its true self for all to see.
1
I refuse to give a liberal howl about Trump. But what I won't do is feel any empathy for the so-called Values Voters who put the guy in office. Rural hospitals in Oklahoma that serve these Trump voters are starting to tank in this state that proudly refused to expand Medicaid. How sad, oh well, they knew what they were signing up for.
4
I wonder what greeting a so-called Trump "value voter" from the South or Midwest gives a counterpart from the East or West Coasts when they discover one another at one of these confabs, since Douthat seems to think that somehow people out here in the West and in the East have a culture found only on distant planets.
All these 501(c) groups which purport to advance religion, values, and spiritual awakening are nothing more than front groups to raise money for the far-right conservative agenda. Those with a bit of history know that the same type of groups were formed to oppose the New Deal; to oppose restricting tobacco advertising; and to bring it a bit more current, to oppose gun control efforts and restricting sale of certain types of rifles and handguns.
No one will ever convince me that these groups even care about advancing morality. Tony Perkins, Ralph Reed, Franklin Graham, Jr., Pat Robertson, and the rest are fishoil salesmen promoting not virtue or commonly held values, but operating to raise money for themselves personally and GOP politicians all of whome get fat and rich from donations. My bottom line is this: they have little interest in religion, less interest in virtue, no interest in convincing people to become more spiritual, but a great deal of interest in how much money people have to give them.
What both Douthat and Thmas miss is race. The Republicans play to racial fear and privilege. White working class voters who vote for Republicans are voting for the racial interests. Add to that national interests, American born working class Republican voters are supporting their interests as native born Americans and against the interests of immigrants. Christian working class Republicans are voting for their sectarian and against the interests of non-Christians. It is true, all of this is against their class interests but no one has only one set of interests.
Baloney. It has been donor class all the way, all the way back to Reagan. Medicare D was bought and paid for by the drug companies, that's why a primary element was no negotiation of prices by Medicare or Medical and home ownership was encouraged to promote banks and lenders who made zillions, while the homeowners take the hit.
Douthat is still asleep, drugged by the mythology he helped to promote. Now it seems crass, now it seems shady. Go back to sleep and save us from your platitudes and excuses.
The America that Trump and his supporters are dragging us down to was bought and paid for by the Republicans and their donors and they will be sitting pretty at the top of the dystopia they are creating.
Mr. Douthat attempts to make Trump voters seem more interested in "moral" voting than pursuing their best economic interests. By that he fails to acknowledge that most Trump voters are so conned by the GOP propaganda that they've become deeply ignorant to reality to the extent they believed a vote for Trump is a vote for their best economic interests. Mr. Douthat is trying to distract from an ugly reality by rationalizing the irrational.
Don't try to rationalize the vote of a middle-class voter who votes for a billionaire whose only demonstrable interest in the middle class has been in how to get more money from it, legally (hotels), immorally (casinos) or fraudulently (universities).
Don't try to rationalize the vote of a religious voter who votes for a corrupt, indecent, sexual predator whose attempts at faking reverence for the Bible are laughably transparent.
Don't try to rationalize the vote of a frustrated voter who is tired of politicians serving the interests of the rich instead of the actual voters yet ends up voting for the very rich themselves and thereby removing the middleman!
What's wrong with the GOP is that it kept on feeding its base falsehoods and distortions until it became a concoction of contradictions. That's what's wrong with the Republicans.
1
Ross Douthat writes as if he had slept, Rip Van Winkle-like, through the last 37 years and was reacting to "What's the Matter With Kansas" in the light of what he was told the Republican party was up to during his prolonged nap rather than what they have actually done. That would also allow him the plausible deniability of not being able to recognize that the horror show of Trump, Trumpism, the Trump campaign, and the Trump administration are in fact the culmination of the way the Republican party has acted in the public sphere over the past nearly 40 years.
Of course, in the real world, Mr. Douthat has no such plausible deniability. So one can only conclude that his painfully obvious dissembling, by citing the GOP's extremely threadbare legacy of doing just slightly more than nothing at all for non-wealthy Americans, is the product of some very willful, and desperately defensive, faux-ignorance. But the fact of Trump, and of his continuing support by a majority of the very voters that the Republicans constant and purposefully divisive fear- and hate-mongering tactics were designed to bring out (and tacit support by GOP officeholders more interested in present-day power and access to money than our future), cannot so blithely be explained or wished away.
2
It is so very telling that Mr. Douthat is capable of lines like "the sort of public decency that Bush or, in a different way, Mitt Romney offered," making no mention of the most remarkably decent president we've had in a generation.
It makes one think that he might be omitting other realities from his commentary: The pernicious influence of Fox "News", perhaps? The stellar performance of the US economy under Clinton? The policies that handed trillions to the very richest 0.1%, and pillaged the middle class to do it? Even the misery of the Bush recession has been conveniently ignored.
Ross, when you have to go to such extremes of self-delusion in order to praise the GOP and its policies, it might be time to re-think your whole premise.
Ross, I would say there are two footnotes to attach to your "praise" of Bush: the first would be the war in Iraq, and the second would be the recession. With Cheney and Rumsfeld at his side, he was an utter failure as a president and we are stuck with even a worse one now.
1
What was the matter with the Democratic Party in the last election: "hardworking heartland Americans were being duped by a Democratic Party that whipped up culture-war frenzy (identity politics uber alles any one?) to disguise its plutocratic aims (support Clinton's Wall Street-backed agenda). Middle-class and working-class Democratic voters were voting against their own economic self-interest and getting worse than nothing in return" in contrast to supporting Bernie Sanders.
1
This misses one key thing: Trump doesn’t want to govern. He wants to be president, but has no real interest in policy beyond what He’s heard second-hand on Fox News or experienced in his business dealings. He’s like the little girl Enamored with bridal magazines but clueless about marriage.
1
The path out of caricature for the entirely debased and failed GOP is progressive democratic ideals. There is nothing in the GOP platform that is redeemable. It wasn't redeemable for Reagan or Bush, and it certainly isn't for the violent clown show that is the Trump era, which shows off this risible GOP agenda to least advantage. Stop blaming Frank's analysis and admit there is no way to turn the out-of-date values and useless policy dross of a failed coup into gold; it's unseemly and a waste of time, even the moron hardliners who support bad policy that will hurt them the most.
5
Amazing how Douthat can't quite make himself recognize that what Trumpians most resent about NFL and NBA players is not that they are overpaid "babies," but overwhelmingly black men.
8
What's the matter? Hypocrisy. Racism. Religious zealotry. Idiocy.
3
Surely you’ve noticed what condition Kansas is currently in? As Warren Buffet says, first come the innovators, then come the imitators, and lastly, the idiots. Nixon set up the republican party as the last bastion of the white and moral. The much over-rated Reagan became a demigod and inspired imitators by the millions. They keep promoting the same disproven ideas because they were associated with Reagan, completely ignoring the damage done by trickle down economics and the like. Now we have the self-entitled idiots, the imitators of the imitators, who just keep yelling and pounding the table to cover their ignorance and greed. Their attitude is “Either we get to drive, or we’ll grab the wheel and wreck the car!” Sounds like Kansas to me.
6
all fine but interesting to see conservative embrace of this chait fellow, since he has declared Trump's not a racist, and further belittled minority concerns. just what you'd expect from white racists.
1
Seriously......you have to ask.....we don't have enough time for this in detail
so let's just say everything!
2
The problem with the conservative movement (whatever that is - seriously) is its belief that it occupies a moral high ground, and its belief that an edited, scrubbed, rewritten past can somehow be the future. The Laffer Curve? Supply side economics? A rising tide floats all ships? Really? (I've read Wanniski's "The Way the World Works" and it's provocative but ultimately not correct).
The culture war belongs to the conservatives and the Republicans. Trump is the Republican Party and the love child of the conservative movement. To paraphrase Harry Truman, the liberals aren't giving you hell, they're giving you the truth, you just think it's hell.
3
Keepers of the fastidious flame, from William F. Buckley's snotty verbosity to David Brooks' hapless brooding today, have always misgauged the malevolence they were so pleased to manipulate in favor of Sound Principles. That is what this present lamentation is about. It is not about a highly probative work of social science and its untimely conclusions; it is about the foreseeable end of snarky debauches, in a degenerating chain of demagoguery.
3
What's the matter with Republicans?
Everything!
They are heartless, greedy, self-serving, disingenuous, culturally myopic, hypocritical, morally askew and often intellectually bankrupt.
Ross misses completely that Trump is just a logical extension and more vulgar, bombastic, petulant and vindictive version of Republicanism since Goldwater and Reagan.
Just look his appointees -- all from big oil and Goldman Sachs -- spewing out the same old anti-government, deregulation, damn-the-social safety-net, lower taxes, pro-business only voodoo economics, laced with tinges of white male christian superiority.
Oh - and don't forget to salute the flag.
5
If you're not gay, whether or not gay people can marry isn't important to you, unless you want to make it important to you. If you voted for someone who is intent on destroying your union, your social benefits, and your future because what matters to you is the pleasure you feel when gay people are persecuted you are a fool. Insert every other "values voter" cause Frank mentioned here. Doubthat happily blames Hugh Hefner for moral decay, but ignores the effect of a few hundred million people supporting bigotry on the moral fabric of this nation he claims to understand and be defending.
5
A terminal combination of ignorance and arrogance?
3
Looking further back to Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt would open the Republican party to the untold millions of Americans who do not identify with plutocrats, racists, and authoritarian religious sects.
2
Of course stumpy is no conservative.... nor is he a nationalist.
Look at his policies, such as they are, and his appointments.... ditto! It becomes clear that he is a traitor in service to a world-wide autocracy of oligarchs who intend to use our beloved nation to serve their aggressive, greedy agenda. War? Nukes? No problem...
stumpy and Putin, working together, are delivering for this heinous, anti-democratic constituency...
With steve bunion as his festering comrade in conning, they will destroy this nation and the world while they kept the G.O.P. just close enough to maintain their own grip on power....
Clever, evil men, who ruthlessly manipulate out of their sociopathis hate for humanity and their own self-loathing.
1
Republican values today -
Racism
Anti-immigration
Anti-abortion
Anti-anything "liberal", "democrat", or "socialist"
That's all folks!
5
A: Greed.
... and racism, and willful ignorance...
“Make the pie higher!”, “A rising tide lifts all boats” (money is not water, people are not boats.), “Voodoo economics”, false Christianity, etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum, ad nauseam...
: ) L
1
"but for being simply boring"
If politics is really just entertainment, then a reality show star who can keep it from being boring is the winner.
Does our media treat politics as entertainment? Clickbait and eyeballs before all?
Does our entertainment industry embrace politics to promote entertainers?
It should not surprise that voters do too.
Their economic interests? Their votes hardly matter anyway in most places, and they have not gotten anything by way of economic interests in their lifetimes. They're left with entertainment as the only reality.
I write this as sad realization, not as support for it.
1
Beyond convoluted logic
2
President Archie Bunker!
1
I have no doubt that there are those on the right who have a true moral objection to abortion. However, so many make their moral opposition to sex outside of marriage, with the associated zeal to deny contraception to women by making it unaffordable, are guaranteeing more abortions than would otherwise occur.
As for the hypocrisy of these moral exemplars, just as I find Trump to be the most unpatriotic person in the country as opposed to the football players exercising their first amendment right to protest the nation's racial/social inequities, I find Piss-Christ less blasphemous than preachers turning Christ into a used car salesman.
3
Trump is the Republican Party of 2017. Catch up.
2
As events over the past couple of years in Kansas have shown, the people of Kansas actually figured out that there was something very wrong with the GOP agenda there. Douthat overlooks that for what reason one can only guess. Perhaps it is that that reality does not support his long-winded thesis. Back to the top, on his proposition that social conservatives know that the tax rate is less important than some moral issues-- funny also how the writer does not tell us which of these issues would be more important than the tax rates, particularly for the upper brackets.. He seems to forget his Bible. There is nothing more important than the poor, and in this country, when the deficit rises due to tax cuts for the wealthy, the programs for the poor are cut--it doesn't take much to connect those dots. A pitiful piece, Douthat.
6
Apart from the unshakable adherence to the flimflam that coddling the rich benefits everyone, what's truly depressing is how addicted Republicans have become to fact-free cant, reflexive hostility to immigrants and fascist-flavored white grievance. Not to mention an alarming new weakness for grade Z demagoguery and a disturbing new animosity toward the press and First Amendment rights in general. The GOP long ago stopped solving problems. Instead it either ignores them or makes them worse, healthcare and the environment being the marquee examples. In fact, the GOP itself has become a problem.
7
What's wrong with the Republican party? Listen to hate radio for 5 or 10 minutes. This is the heart, soul, and energy of the Republican party. Frightful to behold.
14
Wasn't the book about Kansas and not Washington D.C.?
1
Or, the Republican voter base has jut become disillusioned with the Republican elitists, who are little more than Democrats in disguise and who have abandoned Republican principles, federalism in particular. And, they reject in entirely the notions put forth by the radical left wing collectivist progressives who have co-opted the Democratic party, along with their forced and fascist social engineering.
Mr. Douthat - consider yourself among the duped.
3
Douthat gets it perfect with this line from his column:
"Far better to have a president who really sticks it to those overpaid babies in the N.F.L. and makes the liberals howl with outrage — that’s what a real and fighting conservatism should be all about!"
I experienced this first hand last year when I was having a beer after 9 holes of golf. The TV was on a sports channel with clips from NFL games etc. I was the only one in the bar (besides the barkeep) when a man walked in and started talking non stop as he passed the TV screen about how worthless those black football players were and then included the NBA players also. He claimed they owed their livelihood to "white people" who buy tickets. I was only half finished with that one beer (which was paid for) but got up and left. But before I did I approached this guy and told him why I was leaving.... to get away from people like him. I later thought this guy could have been someone like the Joe Pesci character in Goodfellas. I'll never forget the look on his face, dumfounded.
7
Obviously, Frank WAS prescient.
2
Republicans are shams! Double faced liars. Most of them. The rest are influenced by these shamans using rhetoric of religion, false patriotism and nonsense economic and social concepts. Unfortunately difficult to inculcate sense into someone who have stopped to think and get influenced by the fringe party!
Period.
1
Republicans have never cared about, or even understood the concept of a common good.
they are in it only for their own very narrow self interest and don't give a flying fig for anyone else... unless they actively hate them.
these are people who have brought selfishness to a level of pathology seldom before seen.
how can you not be embarassed?
4
Another good column Mr. Douthat. I am a liberal who suffered the tortures of the damned when we invaded Iraq during the Bush Administration. As ill advised as that misadventure was, as destructive as the subsequent economic crash turned out to be, Bush is far and away the better man and president. In comparison to Trump Bush appears to be Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR and George Washington rolled into one, though at one time I would have said he was among our all time worst presidents. Would that Trump would follow his lead at least to the point where we have some experience of normalcy rather than constant never ending chaos. At least Bush was capable of expressing humility and humanity, two qualities that are conspicuously absent from our tweeter in chief.
I do think "What's The Matter With Kansas" was onto something. I think we have seen the proof in what has come to pass. I believe the GOP was heading in this direction slowly but surely for a long time. But in Trump and his administration we have such a feckless greed for power and wealth, such a reckless disregard for knowledge, experience, expertise, history, logic, truth, reason and common sense that it is easy to believe him a Russian plant, put into office to dismantle our once great democracy rather than lead it. Bush, as terrible as he was, was a master statesman and a saint by comparison and he certainly knew how to duck a flying shoe. One thing is certainly clear; we are not in Kansas anymore.
Oh Ross....There you go again. Of course, where to set the top tax rate IS a moral question.
2
To sum up: The Republican base is really enjoying the hate.
6
Uncertain of your circulation patters, we cannot imagine there are many who believe there is something called a republican party, coherent and responsive, that does not include plutocrats, striving consumerists or delusional right-of-center apologists for a vanished cohort. Like it or not, you have been eclipsed and now find yourself captive of the binary choice: side with that which you are lamenting, namely populists with a chaotic bent, or abject statists evincing their liberal fascism and detestation of church-going voters. Hee - what a dilemma for heretofore comfortable conservatives, sanguine all the years they happily collected their dividends from companies sending good jobs overseas who now find themselves anathema to their one-time fellow party members, and of course, unwelcome in the salons of the pitiable left. Thus, the political equivalent of Philip Nolan, sitting alone in the NYT lunchroom, crafting dandy prose for a depleted audience. We happen to know BBN is always looking for talented scribes...if you can get that proboscis out of the air.
Ayn Rand was a fascist in sheep's clothing. Republicans need to stop idolizing Rand. For the most part Thomas Frank was right about Kansas and the Republicans duping the white middle class as Trump recently did. Too many whites are racists, bigots, and xenophobes. The rise of white supremacists is no accident in that Trump's tacit approval of they philosophy has empowered their sick and twisted views.
1
When you take out the objectionable parts of the Republican party -- give-aways to plutocrats, racism and other bigotry, opposition to science and education, jingoism, religious fanaticism, and crazy gun worship -- you're basically left with moderate Democrats. There's no good reason for "conservatives" to exist at all.
3
McConnel started the war with his determination to make Obama a one term president. Under him the Republican Party has openly pursued a racist agenda. Not one of the leading Republicans spoke forcefully against the fraudulent charges that Obama was born in Kenya, that he was a Muslim. This energized the racist fringe which is now taking over the party.
3
Good god, Ross, if all you can do is advocate a return to the days of Bush and Reagan then you really have no idea how to make the Republican party work for all Americans, do you?
1
You lost me at "appreciating Bush a little more..."
2
"You don’t have to be a dupe to be a “values voter”", but it sure helps.
2
Mr. Doutha you and your ilk have fed this conservative agenda, have given it life and have acted as cheerleaders for the last 8 years. You have written piece after piece after piece extolling the virtues of modern conservatism. You are partially to blame for the rot that has consumed conservatism and the GOP. You and your ilk help create an environment that paved the way for the disaster that is Trump.
Something was wrong with Kansas 15 years ago, but at the time, and ever since, you were too busy cheerleading to notice, too busy carrying water for the oligarchs to care.
1
What’s the old joke? A priest is asked to say a eulogy for a deceased mafia head, Don Giovanni, whose reign was only moderately less brutal than his older brother’s. The priest hesitates: the Don is covered with sins. Finally, the promise of a new parish house finally persuades him. He begins the eulogy: “Don Giovanni was not a perfect man, . . . . but compared with his brother, he was a saint.” Douthat has done the same. But nothing can be done to redeem George W. Bush, other than to say that Trump has displaced him as the worst U.S. president.
4
Because Hillary Clinton was such an unsavory candidate, I'm willing to give a pass to Trump voters who mistakenly thought he would make a better president. But if you still support Trump today after witnessing the past 11 months of hell, then there is something profoundly wrong with you. You have been so deeply wounded psychologically or emotionally that your moral compass is now shattered. Pundits are amazed that Trump's "base" continues to support him even though he's accomplished almost nothing while the agenda he is pursuing will only hurt the very people who support him. How can this be? The answer is obvious. Trump gave his supporters permission to hate. That's all that really matters to them.
3
The sadist thing for me about the course the Republican Party has taken, gmyformer 48 yr belonging, is the weird way in which it has entangled itself with the far right of the Christian movement. As a main line ordained clergyman I cannot for the life of me conceive of how these, who in my eyes are "pseudo Christians," can endorse a present occupant of the white house who lies, treats women as objects, destroys our relationship with our allies, breaks down our duty to the environment, and, for all appearances is a party to Russian criminal skull duggery. Lincoln, T. Roosevelt and Eisenhower were last seen vomiting in the hallway.
5
What’s the matter with CT?
Democrats.
You seem, at some level, to hope that things will change and that thuggish buffoon will “get it”, and do the right thing. Wake up! The Republicans have embraced the caricature and will cling to it until they go down in flames. Unfortunately they’ll take the rest of us with them. Too bad you didn’t want to see this before the election.
1
Ross, one of these days you're just going to have to give up and write how much you truly loathe Trump and how dangerous he is. Just remember, when your religious faith and morality gets in the way of our new Great Leader's mass movement, you'll be accused of a having "fake religion" and targeted for not being patriotic and fascist enough. Maybe you'll need investigating by our new Justice Department. Finding it tough to swallow. Welcome to Trumpland.
2
For a staunch Catholic Ross you do see sin in very equivocal terms. Reagan with his union busting & general oligarchic vision was all about creation of a party, ideology and system of attractive racist fibs to beguile the dumb working classes. Bush being American royalty followed right in with the program, even creating a phony war to kill the sons and daughters of the sucker class. Trump is just logical extension backed by many years of mud throwing and powerful Fox, enabled by slow and sure destructors of education, ethics and congressional functionality. Its tough Ross to confess, but how they say - good for the soul. I think you need a religious retreat to take a look at how your personal values have been eroding - hey its OK, you are middle aged now - happens to the best of us - but fix it or St. Peter´s gonna git ya.
3
The picture painted here is of legions of Republican voters following Trump like puppy dogs, their unwavering support the result of having fallen into the caricature painted by Thomas Frank. It is Trump as con man cum pied piper, leading his followers off the inevitable cliff as he stands to the side and watches.
What, then, to make of the run-off victory by Roy Moore against the Trump-backed Luther Strange? Here we have a man who was twice removed from the Alabama Supreme Court; who believes that homosexuality should be illegal and compared it to bestiality; who has been firmly in the "birtherism" camp; who advocates for an evangelical Christian influence in all aspects of government; who has called Islam a fake religion and claims that there are American communities currently under Sharia law; and who believes that strict adherence to the gospel will resolve racial tensions.
Here we have a man who's opponent was backed by Donald Trump... and lost. Where were the cloying, following masses, the non-thinking, blind True Believers of the Trumpian Way?
What scares me about this is the inability of even the svengali-like powers of Trump to overcome the are-you-kidding-me behavior of white, evangelical, hard core conservatives who are supposedly his minions. Not for a second do I believe that voters of this ilk are voting against their best interests. They see the Roy Moore's of the world as representing exactly their best interests, and not even Trump can tell them otherwise.
1
Greed.
RD asks what's up with Republicans, provides a good list himself, turfs out all accountability for failures to 'liberals', i.e., anyone and everyone else.
That is what Republicans do.
1
Greed.
It's nice to reminiss about Bush. Even Democrats are beginning to see him as part of the "good old days" when they compare him to Trump.
Unfortunately this article completely fails to address the fact that the Republicans have put a crazed narcissist who can't tell the difference between people who are Nazis from people who are not, who thinks that soldiers "signed up" to die in service (and so are probably bigger losers than soldiers who got captured), who insults nuclear armed enemies in tweets and who now has his finger on the nuclear button with apparent enthusiasm to press it and except for a few rare, noble exceptions the Republicans are doing NOTHING about it.
The only thing the Republicans are trying to do is pass tax cuts for the rich and tax raises fur most of the test of us.
1
Question: What’s wrong wlth Republicanism today?
Answer: literally everything.
1
Given the "ever weaker vision of the common good" shared by Trump supporters, where is the path toward a "different moral vision"? The "values voters" worship a president who shamelessly lies, brags about sexual assault, mocks people with disabilities, and savagely undercuts their economic interests--trashing them like the poor contractors he fleeced in Atlantic City. His die hard fans are not going to help drain the moral swamp Trump is building. Our president has brought us to the brink of nuclear war and ripped up agreements that took years and impressive skill to negotiate. But his supporters roar their approval, and the consequences be damned. He has defiled the institution of the presidency and destroyed the esteem in which the U.S. has always been help by the rest of the world. Where, indeed, are the Republicans who witness this debacle but care more about hanging on to their seats than to leading our nation out of this fetid mess?
"Note that I don’t mean the religious conservatives who supported Trump reluctantly and in a transactional spirit, and who welcome his conservative judicial nominees."
No, those religious conservatives are just as bad. Do you think their motivations are any less cynical? Or that they relied any less on a "ends justify the means" rationalization? Or that foisting "conservative judicial nominees" on the rest of the country is not at its very core insidious in nature (what's wrong with supporting political candidates who want qualified and impartial judicial nominees? You know, judicial nominees that are rational jurists first and partisans or ideologues last)?
Every religious conservative who voted for Trump, regardless of their motivations, are just as worthy of scorn. They put their narrow ideology ahead of what was best for the country, consequences be damned. May they have to answer for it at the pearly gates.
2
To assume that the Republican party has something going wrong, is to assume that they were at one time in no need of repair. Contrary to they, they were always flawed as a group of people, and a party.
1
It turns out a majority of the GOP never really cared about small government or free trade. They just longed to put liberals and minorities in their place—and have no problem using violence to do so. In fact they pine for it. It’s funny to watch the conservative columnists like this guy just starting to realize what their party is really about.
14
MIddle class tax cuts?! Donald has free up racism plain and simple. If you want to hail George Bush, despite his compete disaster of a war, hail him for not being a racist or an Islamaphobe. He kept culture wars from exploding after 9/11 and gave America a chance to appreciate strong African American leadership with Condi Rice and Colin Powell. He probably had more to do with Amercians trusting a dark-skinned facet to be president. No one, and I mean no one, in Donald's base cares about taxes. They care about being white, beign glorified for it, and being freed up to say it out loud.
6
Sorry, Mr. Douthat. As more eloquently stated by other commentators, it's been a straight and sponsored road from Reagan to this dysfunctional media novelty act that the Republican Party has driven with abandon. A predictable journey from welfare queens to Nazis as people of good intent. Good government is the governor that prevents runaway capitalism from blowing itself up. Republicans don't like that and have tried to dismantle social, economic and environmental safety systems at every turn since the sixties. They have allied themselves with and enabled the worst angels of our nature for the sole purpose of individual advancement and now sit bewildered--decrying the ruins they have created. Republicans should take responsibility for the benighted decisions; embrace science, logic and compassion; be truly inclusive to all our diversity and create programs that help every individual directly instead of sabotaging those efforts. Then we might see how great America can be.
16
Bottom line of this piece - Replicans are now supporting a president worse than Bush II.
9
Ross, odd how you're still whining about Thomas Frank's "liberal" book well over a decade later. Reality is, it was so spot on, you're still trying to get over it.
Good.
7
In essence, Thomas Frank was right about Bush and the Republican party then, and he is more right about Trump and the Republican party now!!!
5
So elephants do forget after all?
1
What's the matter with Republicans?
They think they can tell everyone else how to live.
8
Totally agree with the only relevant insight of this op-ed: Only Trump could make W. Bush look good.
5
"You don’t have to be a dupe to be a “values voter” of one sort or another: Whether you live in Topeka or Manhattan, you just have to believe that some moral questions are more important than where to set the top tax rate."
Really? How did that work out for Kansans?
7
What’s the matter with Republicans? A good many are simply bad people who are spiteful and sadistic. They enjoy harming people different from themselves. No amount of veneer, especially holier than thou veneer can hide this fact. To a white male Republican they pose no threat. To a minority gay male like myself they are a literal threat to my life, and it galls me to no end that people like RD minimize this very real danger.
251
Paolo,
Very well said. Thank you for speaking out.
1
Thank you for pointing out what a lot of straight white males do not see.
Yes, if you are not in that demographic, be very afraid.
1
The problem with the Republican party is it's war against women and those "others". If we could only control women, mere vessels, is their mantra, all will be well. Chain these women to fetuses, the society demands that they raise. As to those "others" the illegals, blacks, Muslims etc., those people are stealing your lunch. Please look at those "others", and forget the failure of the "Leader" hiding behind the curtain.
In this problem, lays Congress, mostly white men who have made their life's work to run for reelection and receive those golden handshakes from Lobbyists. These individuals don't care a whit about the people's business. Congress does the bidding of their true masters the money people, the 1% and Corporations.
All this encompasses, the Supreme Court, pack this Court with true Conservatives who will mandate the will of Religion and Party.
We currently sit atop of the Republican vision, total control of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch of Government, what could possibly go wrong?
7
Will somebody kindly explain to me what the "New Deal settlement" is?
Revisionism...it's a wonderful thing ain't it?
3
"Not everything about the Bush era was disastrous." You've outdone yourself, Ross. How did you manage to get past thousands of American casualties in Iraq and the hundreds of thousands of dead civilians? How did you get past the trillions of dollars spent in this national disgrace?
2
Nobody knows anything. We're adrift. God help us.
Frank saw in the Bushes and Reagan what you still fail to see. If you want to lok backward to a decent Republican, try Eisenhower.
4
Nihilism, egotism and misanthropy?
You should know it - They are Republicans first ans last and Amercians ony when it is convenient. Are you willing to take them on like McCain did?
4
Hey Russ, maybe Liberals were not actual making a caricature/strawman portrait (the way FOX news does of Liberals) of 'conservatives', but were actually making a stone cold sober realistic portrait.
6
How many conservatives share Ross's awareness of the Republican party's mendacious, self-serving abandonment of the 99% but support it anyway?
3
If we are asking what is wrong with Republican voters, as opposed to the Republican Party, I think the answer is pretty depressing.
The conservative Republican voter -- religious and otherwise -- has been left in the lurch by history. Everything from desegregation to women's rights to gay rights has left them on the wrong side of history, and that must not feel good.
Plus, they are mocked and ridiculed for being so behind the curve. The entire Bush years was a pretty bad ride for the country, but on nightly comedy shows, everyone from Stewart to Colbert to Letterman was skewering them as ignorant, dim-witted rubes. That must not feel good, either.
Which brings us to Trump, and what the problem is with Republican voters. They are full of resentment for being wrong for so long, and they are full of resentment for being made fun of for it.
Which is why it seems the sole concern of the Trump voter -- and Trump himself -- is simply to stick a finger in the eye of the liberal status quo, and to vote of office any "RINO" who would have even the slightest whiff of wanting to come to a truce with it.
They are angry. And, can you really blame them?
3
Yes, I can blame them to some extent, at least for their hypocrisy. They are the first to rail against anyone receiving government assistance and insist that they "get a job." Yet, when their jobs disappear through a changing economy, automation or outsourcing, they are the first to cry for someone in government to do something to bring their jobs back or otherwise bail them out. It is certainly true that life is not good when the economy in your area is depressed and there are no jobs, but that's just as true for inner cities as it is for coal country. Either the government should help everyone or it should help no one, and insisting everyone but you is undeserving, especially because you are white, male and Christian and they are not, is really not a good way to create allies or win friends. And maybe, just maybe, your time would be better spent not trying to regulate everyone else's sex life, but instead aligning yourself with everyone who is getting hurt by the upward distribution of income.
Ross, you conveniently ignore Reagan's race baiting: Philadelphia, Miss., welfare queens, etc.; Bush 41s race baiting: Willie Horton, Lee Atwater; Reagan's anti-middle class union-busting; Reagan's voodoo economics that stole from the middle class and gave to the rich. Bigotry and elitism are cancers that have been metastasizing throughout the republican party for 40 years. You would do better to acknowledge it rather than lying about it.
6
The "matter" with Republicans is that they have become the all-too-willing shills and accomplices of the manipulative, unqualified president who hijacked their party.
They've done it for the sake of political expedience, recognizing that to antagonize Trump's core supporters means risking their own sinecures and lifestyles. They have exposed, into the open, the true nature of modern Republicanism, which is to masquerade as theological populists while not genuinely caring about either true Godliness or Main Street America.
It's one heckuva scam. The wonder of it all is that so many people are being sucked into it, and it almost makes the ubiquitous robo-callers pretending to be from "Windows Technical Support" look like rank amateurs.
2
What's wrong with the GOP? They embody and embrace the three causes of suffering identified by Buddhists: greed, hatred, and delusion.
4
Yes, Ross, it's only recently that Republicans have become Luddite, xenophobic, racist, sexist caricatures of the people mentioned in Frank's book.
Do the names Goldwater, Ailes, Chaney, Norquist, Gingrich, mean anything to you?
Seems this caricature has had more than a morsel of truth to it for a long, long time.
4
Bush compared to Trump is a disaster compared to a calamity.
3
Trump has exposed "value voters" for they've always been: bigots of one strip or another. Whether it's race, religion, or health care, they always have it in for somebody.
4
I try to look at the whole mess from a much simpler perspective. I do know several Republicans in my circle of friends and they all have very similar behavior and thinking patterns. 1. They all seem very susceptible to sloganeering without facts. 2. They seem very adept at regurgitating demonstrable lies fed to them. 3. Their thinking goes circular as soon as you refute them with the facts. All they seem able to do at that point is repeat the same lie you just disproved to them. Almost, as if they are hypnotized automatons. It is very odd to me every time I see it.
3
This is one of the most confused and almost laughable opinion pieces that I have ever seen appearing in the NY Times. There is simply no doubt about that. It minimizes everything.
There is a giant leap in time from Reagan to Bush. The article seems more like an attempt to separate them from Trump, than a rendering of the de-evolution of the Republican Party, which Mr. Frank was describing, ever so accurately, that began long before Reagan. Let's be clear though, I like Reagan. He raised taxes.
Unless you specific the moral questions, we have no clue as to what you are talking about and whether or not it has any value, and whether or not it represents a single issue voter that ignores everything else to their own detriment, which, again, Mr. Frank was describing, ever so accurately.
Mr. Ryan has been in the House since 1998. He helped Mr. Bush over the edge. Mr. Bush was full of bull on most of the issues relating to the middle class, and if it wasn't for his wife, he would never have given a second thought to education. There are a long linage of social deviants and socially pathetic Republicans that include Gingrich and Hassett, in addition to Ryan, who had no problem with bringing his family to a photo op shoot at a soup kitchen, where he pretended to wash pots that had already been cleaned. If he exposed his children to this kind of charade, so much easier to fool everyone else. Mr. Trump is only the latest edition.
I can picture Mr. Frank chuckling now. Pen in hand.
5
"What’s the Matter With Republicans?"....the answer is quite simple, they chose to give white nationalists, the Alt Right, and white supremacists a seat at the table. They gave voice to white resentment and white victimhood. They chose to collapse the tent than to expand it. Trump chooses to govern on the most extreme fringe end of his lily white political base. And he will run the same playbook again in 2020.
5
What's the matter with Republicans? Nothing that a good old-fashioned World War won't fix. Be patient.
3
Shorter version: Dubya was a merely a bad president. Trump is something different.
1
Headline: "What’s the Matter With Republicans?"
Ross, you should have asked yourself that before you went all in to get these miscreants, who serve their corporate and plutocratic masters and not their constituents, elected. Now, you're part of the problem.
4
What's the matter with the Republicans? Fox News and the screaming AM ranters won the media wars. End of story. At my downtown YMCA in Richmond, VA, where there are plenty of African Americans, TWO of the four televisions are tuned to Fox. Can anyone explain this to me? To me, the real question is: Besides ratings, what do these liars, fear-mongers, and treasonous pundits - who take no responsibility for anything and have never sacrificed a day in their lives - get out watching their country disintegrate on every level?
4
What's wrong with republicans? Their morality of which you speak is only an obsession with abortion and gay rights, not loving your neighbor as yourself or working for the common good. They love divisiveness. They overlook that their big money controllers use social issues to manipulate the gullible to vote against their own interests. Even republicans with some decency embrace a disturbed, immoral president--just to get control of the Supreme Court. Finally, trickle down is a lie.
2
No, you don't have to be a "dupe" to be a values voter; you just have to have real values, something in short supply on the right, Mr. Douthat.
1
The author is twisting in the wind, but far too slowly still. He needs to look at the mirror longer and harder to see the caricature staring back. Embedded deep in his own history.
"So Frank was wrong"
What?! How can Douthat believe that in a few disjointed sentences he has refuted the nuanced and detailed arguments in Frank's book? Typical.
2
Who’da Thunk it? Ross has described Trumpistas as well as anything I’ve read from liberal pundits. The paragraphs beginning with “but if you prefer pessimism...” are wonderful descriptions of the ignorance of Trumpistas and willingness to cut off their own noses...or worse...in order to happily bray at political rallies while watching the quicksand devour them.
2
Um, ding dong, just because Trump is even worse for the middle class doesn't mean W was good for the middle class. He wasn't. Frank was right. Oh, he was right about "social issues" being puffed up dumb distractions, too.
2
Speaking of flaws, it’s inconceivable that you wrote this entire article (which has some valid points) without mentioning race. And, yes, that word doesn’t mean what I think it does.
1
Very wise. But do remember that you are singing to the anti-choir who will brush aside your insights.
You are offering us an insight into a complex reality - rather like an Indian or Chinese dinner.
But what most people here prefer is the plain hot dog of anti-Republican hatred.
I wish there were more like you and were heard more often. America badly needs more insight, more discussion and less hatred.
If morality is so important, the Republicans are bigger fools to let hypocritical politicians use them as tools to manipulate American people. How many "value" politicians got caught with their pants down? What is Trump's morality?
Policies and values aside, Douthat omits the biggest Republican sin -- their incessant lying. Climate change is a hoax, Obama is not citizen, tax cut pays for itself with growth, guns don't kill people (then why block federal funding to research gun death?); the list goes on. They even do it to their own -- McCain had an illegitimate black child, remember?
The Right created a culture of making words meaningless; truths and facts irrelevant. They destroy the civil discourse that grounds our democracy, and thereby nuke our democracy and self destruct our great nation.
It is convenient for Douthat to think Republican Party's problems started with Trump. Trump is president BECAUSE of how the Right intentionally savage truths and facts for many years until their base no longer think for themselves and take FoxNews as gospel.
What American values accept mocking disability, sexually harass women, use our soldiers as props to tell lies, threaten to jail one's political opponent....?
There is a distinction to between wanting controlled immigration to being racist. Just as there is distinction between being pro choice and pro abortion; for that matter, pro life and anti-abortion. But we can never get to those nuances if we can't even establish facts.
2
So Bush's problem was that he was "boring"?
Now I've heard it all.
The hits just keep coming from this space.
How odd? I actually agree with you column. And even though Busch was a plutocrat, in retrospect, he did think about the other classes in economic terms. Even his tax rebate was to all consumers. Trump "rhetoric" is just the guise under which he picks the pockets of his own followers. But there is a whole media apparatus, which doe snot include the "failing New York Times," to help him con the people 24/7.
This column should be re-titled "In Defense of W." For that is what it does, sugar-coating the presidency of a privileged, oft-illiterate ("Is our children learning?"), war-mongering ("Mission accompllished!") scion of an entrenched elite family (let's not kid ourselves with all the Texas moves; these people are blue-blooded Washington elites) with the veneer of "common man." As Molly Ivins said, "If you think his daddy had trouble with 'the vision thing,' wait till you meet this one.'" Stop trying to make W. a visionary when he was nothing of the sort.
2
As a lifelong Democrat, I have always looked across the aisle and scratched my head at the goings-ons of those crazy Republicans. And still, I don't know what motivates them. All I see is hypocrisy, self-righteousness, greed and ignorance - how can any of that amount to something positive? The Republican party has destroyed America. At least the Democrats TRY to do something for people - Republicans are awful troglodytes.
4
"The lady [or gentleman, in this case] doth protest too much, methinks." This article seems to be a very convoluted, backhanded way of saying that Thomas Frank was right after all.
2
This guy is depending on the same reaction all Republucans do, that readers have no memories, nor do they have the ability and/or initiative to consult actual empirical data. Unfortunately, he is mostly correct.
2
So being prescient is somehow wrong? Something was deeply wrong with Kansas as events have proven. But a tiny taker state can't take down the entire country. It was just a useful book selling metaphor. It is the twisted hateful "values" of the right and your election of a sociopath that can destroy us.
Oh, and I am an agnostic with far superior values to the Christian right. Y'all might try actually reading the new testament.
3
Thomas Frank knew then what is so glaringly obvious now.
4
I am continually amazed by the failure or refusal of editorial writers to recognize why Trump was elected and why he continues to have impenetrable support from nearly half of America. It was, and is, all about race, his at times veiled and at times open attacks on Blacks, Muslims, Latin Americans and Jews. He can endorse any religious, economic, health care, international relations, trade or other policy without fear of losing his support as long as he continues to hammer out his racial message.
4
What amazes me is not just what you say, which is true, but this absurd insistence that "their enemies and critics" said they were all racists, so they decided to become that. No, no, no. Right wing conservative media and the Newt Gingrich playbook on using language to denigrate political opponents is what turned them into what they are. They did it to themselves. Now they accuse "enemies and critics" of causing them to be what they made themselves into. Can it get any more ludicrous than that?
The fake binary of Liberal/conservative for all issues has to stop. It is being used to make lies acceptable, bully people, and allow this president to avoid responsibility for his actions as long as “liberals are howling”.
It is costing us our democracy. Our duties as citizens are to uphold our Constitution not provide “good TV”.
186
What a bunch on nonsense. Not only was Thomas Frank right - he was dead on. What he (and most of us underestimated was the vile, racist and greedy undertones to it all. It's like Republican voters embody and embrace the seven deadly sins. Reagan and even Nixon were the instigators. We're in a soft Civil War 2.0 with gradual escalation to real confrontation - don't any other way out, unless the current crop of Republicans gets voted out ASAP.
2
Come now, Ross...why can't you just give Trump a chance??? Why? Give him a chance! That's what all the Trump voters keep saying. What they don't say is a chance for what? What they don't admit is that he's had his chance to bring the country together and he's doubled down on tearing it apart.
Where Ross nails it is his claim that what Trump supporters like about Trump is that they see him sticking it to liberals. They don't care that he doesn't help them, just as long as he is hurting others, they love it. And that is what the "moral majority" is truly like. And that is what the "Christian right" is truly about. Stick it to "others". They would rather see other's punished, rather than help for all. I get it now. The common good? Not something the typical Trump supporter gives a thought to...in fact, the opposite. Stick it to anyone who needs any help if they don't have political power. The republican party has become the party of punishment...the party of anti-social behavior. Why bring the country together when you can tear it apart?
Thanks Ross. Thanks for pointing out the sordid truth behind Trump and his supporters.
4
To sum: Douthat liked Bush and Regan better than Trump.
My thinking is Trump is pushing the same agenda but in a more brazen way. Tom Franks book captured this idea and was true then, and is true now.
2
My issue with the Never Trumpers is that they seem content to go for the dignified loss instead of going for the imperfect win. We need to win, sitting idly through another 8 years of Democratic, while they open America to more immigration, install hate speech laws, will shift America beyond anything recognizable to many middle class America mentioned in the article.
Mr. Douthat, given your views, I would also be seriously concerned by the bizarre and remarkable support that Trump has from evangelicals.
The self-styled "values voters" make a mockery of Judeo-Christian ethics when they so blindly follow a man who is personally, financially, professionally and publicly immoral. A man who possesses limitless cruelty.
Fealty to such a transparently awful human being is repelling open-minded people from religion. "You shall know them by their acts."
6
This was an interesting analysis but it was also all over the map if the best criticism of the Republican party is it's patterning itself after Donald Trump. It is true that in some upcoming elections Republican candidates are trying to pattern themselves after the flambloyant, racist president in hopes of a win. The problems the Republicans have go far deeper. Many have abandoned their citizens and their own sensible conservative agendas for a cold and calculating hard-heartened set of values that leads them to back-room dealings and secret meetings with the Koch brothers and other special interests groups that offer plenty of money to our elected representatives to do their will, not the people's will. Government is basically corrupt right now. When the people of this country become educated enough we will demand this end and vote honest men and women into office. I wonder when that will happen.
1
I read the Frank book when it came out and found it illuminating. Kansas continues to be the poster child for what hard economic policies can do when fully enacted. Kansas is a disaster today.
But the central takeaway from the book is that the plutocrats use social issues such as abortion, gay rights and gun rights to gin up support with ordinary conservative folk for the candidates these elite Uber rich business people select to run for office. They care not a whit about the social issues, only wanting their taxes cut and regulations eased, but recognize that the only way to get their candidates elected is to stress social issues which will get voters out to the polls. The Koch’s and Mercer’s are the very elite that flyover country folks hate but are being manipulated by them.
Once elected, their selected office holders owe full allegiance to the plutocrats for financing their campaigns and also will work to enact conservative social policy to please their voters.
Add Citizens United to the mix, and you get the disaster Kansas suffers.
2
"not everything about the Bush era was disastrous,"
So Ross' solution to the Trump disaster (and thanks for his honesty, at least in acknowledging it) is to go back to the Bush era?
It was the terrible Bush policies that launched President Obama into office--and with good reason. The disastrous economic policies, the war-mongering, the fiscal dishonesty (hiding the costs of the Iraq conflict), and the social scapegoating of every minority--sexual, racial, ethnic--are the Bush-era policies that tarnished the Republican brand.
As Ross points out, the Bush era was simply a platform for the extremism of the Trump supporters. Bush established a kind of watershed for Republicans. If they could be that extreme. The bigots and haters stewed for 8 years of the Obama presidency only to come roaring back on steroids in 2016. They were convinced that every woe, every ill that they suffered was because of "those people," and they voted for a bigot who they believed would make their lives better by ridding the world of sexual minorities, uppity women and little brown people both domestic and foreign.
Now we have people like Steve Bannon who are trying to take this politics of hate to a hyper level, and the bigots are out in force, cheering every attack on their fellow citizens and residents who don't look or act like them.
How does the party purge these people, especially when Mitch McConnell and the party leaders are willing to sell their souls in order to stay in power?
3
i literally did a spit-take on reading "The success of Donald Trump’s populist candidacy seemed like a partial repudiation of this Randian turn..."
Yes, I do believe many Republicans have forgotten the common good.
2
Let’s not forget that the union busting, Saint Reagan was the original Tea Partier.
And racial resentment has always been a big part of the Republican position. Anyone remember the myth of the welfare queen? It used to be a dog whistle. Now they just say it out loud.
As for the Bush Tax cuts: most folks got a one time $300 or $600 check while important programs were being cut. Meanwhile Dick Cheney was making the case for the cuts for the rich saying “We won the election, we deserve this.”
And so the looting began.
And we can’t forget Fox News’ role in promoting and shaping the Contract On America and Bush era lies.
2
Douthat and George Will have much in common one of which beither can write a column without bashing progressives liberals democrats or what ever you want call them.
Franks book was hardly a caricature. He respectfully explored the state he grew up in. Looking at what has occurred since Brownback became governor Kansas has come to its senses.I hope the rest of the republican party does also. Otherwise the gop is "the Wrecking Crew" Franks other great book.
2
Most of the comments to this article trivialize and caricature mainstream Republican policies that liberal Democrats have stymied for years: smaller more efficient government, lower tax rates for all, school choice, free market incentives, strong defense, regular order budgeting, no identity politics, and incentives to retirement savings. The express conservative policies of the GOP platform have been in place over a number of election cycles since 1968.
We don't hear much about these things since the media is obsessed with Trump and the demonization or misrepresentation of Republican policies as "War on ....," [fill in the blank, women, blacks, immigrants etc.], white supremacy [look to history: the GOP has never been the party of "white supremacy, but the Democratic Party in 1868 announced that it was the party of the "white man." and until the 1970's, segregation ], the rich [ most Republicans are not rich and for every Koch brother there is a Soros or celebrity supporting the Dems], the corporations [who employ & give a middle class lifestyle to millions of Americans]. When you talk about the "alt-right, you should also mention the extreme left. Both parties are touched by extremism but so far neither party has succumbed to extreme policies.
So, caricature the Republican policies all you want in this new age of Trump but the hyperbole and misrepresentation will not fool many Americans who know that there are better GOP policies then those espoused by the Democrats.
1
"smaller more efficient government,"....Please provide us with an example. As far as I am aware the standard of living is at or near the very bottom for most of the red states. Smaller yes. More efficient, highly questionable, provides a better outcome for the citizens of the country, no way.
W. Bush took a balanced budget from Clinton, zero deficit, and turned it into a whopping $1.1 Trillion deficit.
That was the budget on October 1, 2008. After housing bubble burst, a housing bubble caused by "the home ownership" society push and the cutting back on Wall St. enforcement, the actual deficit was $1.4 Trillion.
And since you don't get the deficit down overnight, the effect will be for a long time.
That is what W. Bush did for the middle class, an enormous debt for us, our children, and grand children.
Add the Iraq war.
Add Medicare Part D that was unfunded and a give away to the Pharmaceutical industry because the government couldn't use its buying power for negotiating discounts.
Mr. Douthat knows all these things.
5
I recall Bush II's economic stimulus gesture of sending a check to every taxpayer http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/02/13/bush.stimulus/ in order to prove that Republican tax policy really did benefit somebody other than large corporations and the 1% who own them. Maybe that token gesture helped some voters to believe the lie that a Republican tax plan actually benefits them.
Ross, I have the highest regard for your thoughtful perspectives, but what you seem to be saying here is that if Trump could somehow manage to revert to a thoroughly flawed but less god-awful approach to life and governing, you'd be ready to cheer. Well, apart from the unlikelihood of such a morph, I think it would not be unreasonable to shoot for something better.
Could we begin by counting the votes in our elections observably in public and see where that got us? Perhaps it has not been voters voting against their interests (economic and cultural), but computers counting those votes against the voters' interests -- i.e., shifting votes and altering electoral outcomes in the pitch-dark of Dominion-, ES&S-, and Command Central-ruled cyberspace.
Leadership has veered further and further out of sync with the public will since the computerized voting era began, culminating in Trump and a hegemony of right-wing enablers at national and state levels. I don't think one stinking observably and publicly counted election would be asking too much - let's get the heavy thumbs of voter suppression and secret vote counting off the scale and see what is really what in our endangered land.
4
I agree with the concept of voting moral values ahead of economic interests - I am a values voter. I believe in individual freedom. Therefore I believe in LBGT rights, including marriage - everybody should have the freedom to spend his/her life with the one they love. I believe in legal abortion - this should be a decision of an individual woman, consulting with whoever she wants (loved ones, doctor, God?) certainly not something the government should meddle in. I believe that religion should be private, between myself and what/Whoever I believe in. I believe I should have the freedom to leave my job and start my own company (I did that once) without having to worry about losing my healthcare and being unable to get it back due to pre-existing conditions. Therefore I belong to the party that defends individual freedom - the Democratic Party. Yes, they will tax me more. It's just money. Republicans want control of my soul.
4
These sorts of pieces always miss the big picture. People don't vote on issues, they vote on emotion. Trump won because he would say what other people wanted to say when traditional pols went to talking points instead of saying what they really think. Of course that's Trump's biggest flaw as well - he can't seem to hold in a single thought before he has to blurt it out or tweet it.
There will be people who will vote for Trump just like there will always be people who would vote for Bernie Sanders. Until someone can put up a centrist candidate that's articulate and doesn't sound like every utterance is written for him, then we'll be stuck with these sideshow acts leading the country.
1
Tax cuts should only follow spending cuts; dynamic scoring created an excuse for Republicans to cut taxes first without spending cuts.
Since Reagan this is their "winning" formula, lie about the resulting revenue increases to come from cutting the taxes, spend those new imaginary revenues to create still more deficits while adhering to an actualized belief in "starving the beast" to kill our governing bodies. Blame the deficits on the other party.
The GOP keeps repeating this pattern over and over and over. It was proven to fail in the 1980s, and it will not work now.
If the GOP's conservative base is to be satisfied, make massive cuts to services and programs, own the disruption and then cut the taxes when you achieve a need for less funding.
I suspect the GOP leadership knows that the real cuts will stop them dead in their tracks. Go ahead, take medical services from the elderly and see how long you stay in office.
2
What's the matter with Republicans? Most fundamentally, the fact that they are and always have been the party of division and difference. Black vs. white, straight vs. gay, rich vs. poor, "makers" vs. "takers," godly vs. godless, native vs. foreigner, the list goes on. They see everything in terms of "we" vs. "them." It's been that way at least since Nixon coined the term "silent majority" as a euphemism for white Americans who felt aggrieved by youth protesting Vietnam and the rise of blacks newly empowered by civil rights legislation. Reagan continued the thread with the myth of the Cadillac-driving welfare mother with six kids. Governors like Scott Walker update it with shibboleths about public sector workers (many of them minorities) getting fat and happy at the expense of "hard working taxpayers," more code for resentful suburban and rural whites. Trump is merely the latest clever politician to exploit the inherent appeal division has for many Republican voters.
The problem is that when you win campaigns based on division and demonization, it's impossible to effectively govern a country as diverse as ours. A few sensible Republican officeholders are genuinely interested in and capable of compromise and accommodation. The rest know their path to re-election depends on their continuing exploitation of the long list of prejudices, jealousies and grievances that seem to motivate so many Republican voters, all while quietly appeasing their corporate sponsors.
2
The REAL question is what's wrong with America. The answer to that question is that America died. It never held well to its founding principles, and now it doesn't even pretend to try. Shame on anyone who has reasonable intelligence and still hopes they can live in the House Divided. They should be looking for the #calexit instead.
No-one has to defend the arguments of Thomas Frank. He is one of the most incisive thinkers of our day, always penetrating to the economic facts that underlie the rhetoric, in order to ask middle America, both conservatives and in his most recent book, "Listen Liberal", liberals we well, why we endorse leaders who so consistently keep us unequal and under the heels of the financial class. He is a realist.
Ross Douthat cannot ascend to Frank's stature, because he is always concerned about liberal and conservative positions, always straining to rescue one brand and pan the other. He doesn't talk to all of us. He practices conservative homiletics. And he doesn't stand for anything when it comes to the economy, busy taking the temperature of our morality in column after column. I'll take a realist any day who can do the real work of caring about this country's people, all of us.
1
It's true that the Bush 43 administration relied much less than Donald Trump on racial resentment. They used homophobia instead. I don't see much of a moral distinction in this choice of which minority to demonize for political gain.
1
"Whether you live in Topeka or Manhattan, you just have to believe that some moral questions are more important where to set the top tax rate."
Yes, moral questions are important. Ethics is a key to the good life.
But NO, when moral questions is codeword for promotion of one branch of one religion's views on gender roles and sexuality, those belong NOWHERE in our politics. Hello, First Amendment separation of church and state. Does Mr. Douthat still not get this?
The rest of us do. That's why most of the country voted against Trump and his pandering to the religious zealots, and most of the courts have ruled against them for decades (actually, centuries), and most of Trump's followers have simply given up and turned to naked racism instead.
1
"It’s also what you see from a segment of religious conservatives, like those gathered at last week’s Values Voters Summit, who cheered rapturously for an empty, strutting nationalism and a president who makes a mockery of the remoralized culture that they claim to seek." It's this dynamic that I will never understand. How "good Christian" people could vote for a thrice-married, immoral, mean spirited, vile man and at the same time say they are the party of "family values". Trump has no values - family or otherwise - unless you count himself - he certainly values himself. I just don't get it and I never will.
Typical republican transferring the blame to someone else and can see the trees through the forest but that is your right as a American.
You did not even mention the Kansas experiment that governor Sam Brownback tried out on those citizens "trickle down" economics. Please report the fiscal health of Kansas with your eyes wide open.
Reagan was a likable, pleasant waterboy for left over Nixon people to enact policies that would begin the destruction of our democracy and transfer of wealth to a view, Bush II carried on that wish list and Trump is just a disaster that we all cannot keep at with.
What a mess of illogic this is. When a writer associates the Bush attempt to destroy Social Security with the word "reform," that writer is being dishonest (and yes, that also extends to Obama's cat food commission as well) - and the rest of the text is just as fraught with an astounding volume of white wash.
From trickle-down to union busting to wars that are 'paid for' to ignoring security briefings to engineering and reinforcing trickle-up, the republican party has only one constituent concern - enriching and entrenching the power of their own core group of friends. Period.
For years, Ross Douthat has been advocating just what Trump and the GOP is doing. He has advocated in favor of right wing "christian" values of hate. Now he is wringing his hands a the destruction that policy is creating. When do we hear a heartfelt apology from this apologist? he is still blaming the liberal Democrats for the lies told by the Conservative Religious Right. Trump and the Republican Congress are unmitigated disasters. Douthat should admit that he is part of the disaster.
In the last year I've often been struck by how on-point the columnists on the right have been, how refreshing their willingness to condemn Trump has been. And then I encounter this column, and remember that it was partly their lickspittle, eyes-wide-shut, Republican willingness to fall in line that got us in this mess. Their current disavowals are too little, too late--and are perhaps, disingenuous to boot. Douthat sees Thomas Frank's "What's The Matter With Kansas?" as applicable to Trump, but not to George W. Bush? W. took a grieving nation to war--a war that is the longest in the nation's history, and that still has no end in sight. He essentially broke the post-WWII order, squandered America's political capital and sucked dry a nearly inexhaustible well of good will for our nation across the world in the wake of 9/11. If the right-wing columnists had possessed even a fraction of their new-found moral courage and intellectual honesty before the United States embarked upon a land war in Asia, we might have avoided the mess we're in now. If even a few right-wing columnists had shown the courage to question the anti-Obama cult among Republicans, we might not be witnessing the WWF exchange of words between Trump and Kim Jong-Un, a tiff that may well escalate to an exchange of missiles.
Hmm. Yes. This just happened. Starting 37 years ago.
Mr Douthat - I find your argument that Frank was wrong 13 years ago, but right now, to be intellectually indefensible. The base of the Republican party, the media outlets of the party, the donors to the party haven't changed in 13 years. The only thing that has changed is that the lies have become less transparent with the race-baiting president Trump. The party is today, what it was then - the only difference is that people like you and Charlie Sykes, among others, did not recognize the rot, underestimated the rot, or chose to put up with the rot for your agendas.
What's the matter with Republicans ?
Forget the Christian Shariah Law, Reverse Robin Hood, Guns Over People and Grand Old Pollution sensibilities that have made its political party an oasis for cranks, charlatans and religious misanthropes, their true defining oligarchic feature is that they can't stand democracy and actively suppress the vote on a full-time basis.
Dubya's brother Jeb cleansed the Florida central voter file of enough Democratic-leaning voters long before election day in 2000; minority voting districts without enough voting machines forced voters to wait hours to vote while lily-white voters waited one to two minutes to vote; when that wasn't enough to rig the vote, Democratic votes were discarded or not counted to ensure a Republican 'winner'.
Since 2000, Republicans nationwide have been a voter suppression tear making sure that it's hard to register to vote and it's hard to vote if you're pigmentally challenged.
And if that doesn't work, then Republicans just change the 'electronic' black-box voting totals to ensure victory.
http://bit.ly/2ffFURN
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2017/08/10/silencing-vote-data-shows...
http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/vote2000/report/exesum.htm
A political party running a tyranny-of-the-minority enterprise has no business in American democracy and seems much better suited to a Kremlin back-office.
Republicans can't stand democracy.
61
Douthat's opinion piece underscores why I no longer am able to call Republicans, "Conservatives." Preserving values, liberties, community, the environment and infrastructure have been abandoned for Randian "freedoms," a status quo social order and a nightwatchman state, and they have become "Rightists" because they believe that only they are "right" and only they have "the right" to govern others from their crabbed view of what our country should be.
9
Douthat wants us to believe that Frank's book describes the Trump administration, but Republicans before Trump were honest brokers who fully had the concerns of regular working class Americans in mind when they deregulated Wall St, gave most tax cuts to the "job creators" and demonized minorities to get voters to the polls.
I believe that most Trump voters understand that they're being used. They rejected the Republican establishment because they're sick of the game, and even though their "champion" is a mirage, they're not going back to their place in the Republican tent - a bunch of patsies whom the oligarchy can use to make sure the ultra rich get theirs.
Douthat had better get used to how things are now. The old Republican strategy is dead.
5
Excellent article. Amazing how any such an article can trigger a tribal response from both sides.
Simply stated, there is legitimacy to both the conservative and liberal ideologies; there is no legitimacy to Trump and his progeny.
6
I wish that someone would explicitly state the “values” that the Republican Party stands for. Then it would be fairly easy to refute their stance. About the only value that is difficult to refute is the anti-abortion (pro-life) position. This position would be difficult to oppose except for the fact that it is held more to control women than to protect life as evidenced by the remainder of their legislative efforts. It certainly isn’t a Biblical position.
13
It's too late, Ross. Your "..new ideas and new thinking..", nobody's interested in that. They just want someone to make so much noise it will drown out the terrifying voices in their heads. Trump is the guy for the job. That's why they love him. He soothes their fears.
3
Trump likes to blow things up, but he hasn't got a clue about how to fix anything. What exactly do his supporters think he's done for them? Soon they will find themselves with higher taxes and no medical insurance. That's progress?
Sure he speaks crudely and insults widely. I guess, in a deeply negative way, that might feel good, but how does it help anyone? What does it add to anyone's pay check or to the well-being of anyone's family?
Please everyone, remember that in July 358 of the jobs he claimed to have saved at Carrier were moved to Mexico and that another 300 will be moved in December.
Now, someone tell me exactly what he's done for the average American worker.
10
what Trump has done for them, as always, is merely psychological: he's temporarily certified and encouraged their social pathology. of course, this snake oil con man trick never works in the long run, and it won't work this time, either.
even then, most may not believe they've been snookered.
gotta love the poorly educated for they can't seem to think, nor even see.
Mr. Douthat wrote "Note that I don’t mean the religious conservatives who supported Trump reluctantly and in a transactional spirit, and who welcome his conservative judicial nominees." You are wrong, sir, and I'll tell you why I think you are wrong. A woman I knew for some years, a devout evangelical Christian, I considered a kind, understanding and empathetic friend who accepted me even though I did not believe as she did. She worked with children to help them develop reasoning and discipline skills through chess, as well as the lessons of good sportsmanship. I thought she respected the rights of others. She did not. When I saw a post of hers on Facebook one day encouraging people to pray - very hard - for Donald J. Trump to be elected so that he could appoint Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court because he would overturn a woman's right to an abortion in this country, I was shocked, horrified, and saddened. She wasn't a Christian at all, it turned out. She was just another hypocrite who wanted to shove her narrow belief system down the throats of others. She didn't respect my views at all, it was as if I - and millions of my fellow Americans who think like I do - either did not and do not exist or don't count because we are not like THEM. I discovered that this so-called "Christian" was just a fake and phony like so many other allegedly religiously devout are; she is a hypocrite, and in this light she is NO different than the "other kind of Republican."
11
What's wrong with the GOP? They've been working towards this for a long time.
The big money boys gave W alot of money for his campaign; but he blew through it and needed more. What to do? Throw good money after bad? They gave him the money but demanded new Wyoming resident Dick Cheney as VP. Well, they didn't get far with trashing social security or drilling more until after 9/11 when they could go after Iraq oil.
As far as congress, the GOP has been gerrymandering every state they can; and, gerrymandering favors the most extreme candidates. Now they can't control their own party. Or what's left of it.
4
A lot of what's wrong with Republicans is this sort of historical rewriting; the Right has had Trump's lunacies in it since the days of the John Birch Society and Buckley.
And Reagan, and Gingrich, and Bush the Second, all took advantage of it, besides. In their separate ways, they all summoned this particular zombie back up.
Speaking of Minitrue, I've never seen a Douthat column more amenable to Orwell's "Politics and the English Language." Note the strings of adjectives? Note how clear facts and explanations get dissolved into abstractions you can't really follow?
That's what Orwell was talking about.
5
Strikingly, this column has *entirely omitted the race factor*.. As Ta Nahesi-Coates has pointed out, it was whites of all ages, genders, education and incomes who elected Trump. Whenever I see that he's a "populist" or that he has "blue collar" or "working class" support I just cringe. C'mon.
8
"The path out of caricature requires a different moral vision...."
The path out of caricature requires a massive national GOP electoral defeat. Only when the GOP is forced, for it own survival, to turn away from its current path will change be possible.
3
Douthat misread What's the Matter with Kansas as a critique of the Republican Party. The book was just as much a critique of the Democratic party that in Frank's (and my) view had stopped connecting to ordinary people—who then, indeed often based on "values", ended up voted Republican and thus against their own economic interests. So the whole premisse of this column is wrong.
2
Many of the comments on this article, both from democrats and republicans, show a belief that people of the "other" party are actively trying to tear our country down. How did we end up in a place where people fail to recognize that democrats and republicans alike want to make our country great? We ALL want a strong economy, great schools, functional health care, etc. We simply have different ideas on the best way to make those things happen. Why do we demonize each other? Can't we focus on what we have in common, and work through our differences? Or am I just being naive?
"How did we end up in a place where people fail to recognize that democrats and republicans alike want to make our country great?"....Educated people read books and newspapers, they think and analyze the needs of the country, and look toward future needs. Uneducated people listen to Fox News and watch reality TV. They don't read or think, and they want things to always be the way they were 50 years ago.
Well, Ross has described the overt aspects of the GOP and their supporters well - an immoral characterless charade. He proposes the way out is a return to the Reagan era, an approach that rewards the rich handsomely, but drops a few crumbs to the rest of us.
Maybe this groveling role is a feasible one based upon history, and it may be preferable to more draconian measures to replace corruption with sensible policy. Maybe the promulgation of common sense and morality no longer is possible without wreaking havoc.
But it appears from the efforts of Sanders and Warren and a few other good souls that we have not yet reached complete desperation, and before Trump and the GOP leave no recourse, we have still the remnants of a government that can correct direction without violent confrontation.
1
Clinton left Bush II with an excess in the treasury. This was created by increasing taxes again, not really noticed by me. I actually never saw anything from the Regan tax cuts.
Bush then took that extra money and instead of saving for a rainy day fund, or maybe a war, or a hurricane disaster,gave it back as a check. I got $600. Enough to what, put in my saving. Not even an economy starter.
Bush left Obama with a crash. Forclosures, extreme decreases in retirement value, home values below mortgage balances were the norms not to mention medical costs and insurance going up.
Trump will take credit for the surge in the economy and instead of looking at history, he will squander any forward steps made. That's the republican way, 1 step forward, 2 steps back. The only hope we have is for him to only last four years. I will say, it has not been a year yet but it feels like a lifetime.
7
So true. I got that $600 too. A payoff as I saw it at the time.
When was the last good modern Republican president? Nixon, then Reagan, then Bush, then Trump- a rogue’s gallery of either criminals, liars, incompetents, know-nothings, or a combination thereof.
I’m stuck on the notion that social and moral issues are deeply held by the right, and they were willing to have a transactional relationship with Trump to advance those values. Throwing in with an undeniable racist, misogynist, POW-bashing, disabled-mocking, Gold Star family-bullying, lying, business cheat makes me wonder exactly what the values are that the right cares so deeply about.
10
For decades, media and popular culture have worked to make cartoon- style caricatures of Republicans. Every Republican is Monopoly Man.
They misstate policy and cultural position to make them appear as hard- hearted Uncle Scrooges, frolicking in piles of ill-gotten riches while others suffer.
The result is that the partisan Progressive base now considers Republicans not just as people with whom they have policy differences, but evil and ignorant, loathsome creatures beyond redemption whom they may insult and ridicule at will.
Regular American got sick of the long-term verbal and personal abuse. Think of it as political PTSD. It was worse than anything Trump said or did. As the Resistance continues their abuse, they may feel increasingly validated.
This is a pretty accurate description. Listen to Trump, Cruz, Judge Moore the apologists in Congress, etc. When the shoe fits.. wear it.
If it's true that Sideshow Don spends more time picking wallpaper and colors for his various project$ than attending to matters of state, then I wonder if all Americans are ready to consider that we're just in a cycle of emperors (some bad, some good), and all this noise is just a distraction from the real business of empire-running?
The best thing about having President Trump in office is that we were spared from having Hillary Clinton elected president. That would have been a terrible thing for America. The fact that over 60 million people voted for Mr. Trump proves my point. We like his policies and may not agree with everything he says but that is his personality.
We feel safe and secure and know he is looking out for us. The Clintons would have looked out for themselves first and foremost. As my parents used to say, it was meant to be that President Trump is in the White House. I shudder to think of Mrs. Clinton as president. The people did not want her which is the reason for her defeat. We do not have regrets with electing a Republican and wish him continued success.
1
Please explain what specific policy proposals Ms. Clinton put forth would have been "a terrible thing for America". And I mean real policies, not the "she's going to confiscate my guns" type nonsense.
1
Trump is mostly irrelevant to the current Republican's problems. Ross has a too limited historical vision of where Republicans began losing their soul. "No new taxes" and Laffer Curves were Reagan era mantras that were fatally flawed in Republican execution, if not entirely fallacious. The "Willie Horton" ad dates from the same era, and presaged the the current lack of sympathy to minorities. Medicaid has been unpopular with the Republican Party since it was enacted into law originally. Bush I started funding for Climate Change Research, but Bush II, responding to donors, and "small government" Republicans decided that if Climate Change was real then government would get bigger not smaller and began to put the brakes on. The Republican Party achieved significant electoral victories by lying to its base abut these issues among others, and has discovered that things which made good campaign ads (but were untrue) make a bad basis for governing.
3
Amen to many of your points, Mr. Douthat. And thank you for posing your headline question, "What's the Matter with Republicans?"
A dear (though Republican) friend said in a gathering recently that she is proud of Trump for "telling it like it is." Other people began talking at once then, agreeing with her, so I failed to ask my obvious question: "What is this 'it' that Trump keeps telling?"
I was all right with staying silent, because I believed I already knew what the 'it' was--FEAR.
Fear that minorities will overtake the spaces white people live in and the jobs that white people own.
Fear that white people will lose their millenia-old "privilege."
Fear that people who don't somehow deserve a government program will be served by government.
Fear that America will not be the singular, dominant power we have always been, because Obama was viewed as weak by Trump's supporters.
The list of fears could go on and on. Trump's supporters live in a constant state of fear.
Much like the rest of us--ever since 11-9-16.
However, the next time someone says Trump "tells it like it is," I don't plan to stay silent.
6
Wait a second. This column says that "His (Trump's) larger agenda is much less thought-through than what Bush attempted in his first term."
Are you telling us you think, first off, that Trump has a "larger" agenda? I'd love to see any evidence of that. It doesn't exist. And secondly, the claim that Trump has "thought-through" anything at all is also fiction. But apparently he doesn't have to think things through to appeal to his base.
5
The Republican Party may be too tacky for Douthat's educated, refined taste, but it's hard to argue with success. It dominates state governments throughout the country, and controls two, soon to be 3 branches of the federal government. In most states, Republicans control who votes, and they have acted aggressively to reduce voting by blacks. Legislation is written by corporate interests. Environmental regulations are being dismantled. Labor unions in the private sector are virtually extinct. The wealthy and corporate interests are on the verge of getting an enormous tax cut. And, best of all for Douthat, conservative sexual mores are being enforced through ever tightening restrictions on abortion and reduced access to contraception.
1
Republican pundits -- especially those who make their livings outside the right-wing media bubble -- maintain a carefully nursed illusion of a past Republicanism that is righteous, not defaced by racism and misogyny, and available for re-visit.
No. The clear call to voters through blatantly anti-woman social issues, racist dog whistles, and dalliances with extremism has marked more and more GOP election contests since Gingrich. That Bush was LESS extreme does not wash the GOP of the festering ugliness that brought in voters slavering to hate somebody. The Christian right has always been homophobic, misogynist, and willing to trade Christian principles for whatever mess of potage the GOP was offering.
"Reagan" Democrats left the Democratic Party decades ago over social issues. In return they got the 'financialization' of the economy, the off-shoring of manufacturing jobs, a huge drop in the portion of corporate income going to labor, and wage stagnation. But, heh, there was a lot of anti-abortion agitation and savaging of Planned Parenthood, plenty of anti-immigration heat, and, as ever, lots of racism.
No, the state of sin of Republican Party is not a recent phenomenon.
2
The logic in this column is so twisted and forced, one hardly knows where to begin. I love the way Ross separates the 'bad' Republican voters, who support Trump because he's a bully, vs. the 'sincere' ones who held their noses and voted for him so we could have a bunch of ideologue conservative judges on the bench. I mean, after all, some things are more important than competence and character and not blowing up the world. Ross, there is no way to excuse the people who voted for Trump. The way out of this mess requires no new thinking or creative leadership. What it will take is an exercise of character and putting country above party by the GOP Congress. They can make this nightmare stop any time, but the corruption in the Republican party is so profound and pervasive, that is unlikely to happen. Can you really not see that?
2
Republicans have simply degenerated into a party that is primarily defined by what they are against instead of what they're for. Their grand coalition can't govern because it truly doesn't what it wants and they seem to have wants that are at odds with each other and no clear way to find a compromise position to move forward. They seem to want to live in a Boolean world - simple true/false decisions. Unfortunately this is not and never was the real world.
Yes, and especially in retrospect, Bush and Reagan are better than the what the left's political propaganda portrayed them; they were still rational actors who acknowledged, but not publically, that government should work for the middle class. Conservatives need to own Trump, by realizing that they brainwashed the electorate to anti-government falsities, to get votes, and not to let liberals get elected. They had to lie about government to let their version of how it could work for all be brought to fruition. So, big surprise, that their is now a rabid talk-radio fed electorate that sees all liberals as evil, such that they accept Trump. Now, when a Kasich tries to say government can work, he is drowned out by a bully, Trump, who asserts that people do not want facts and reasons. Conservatives need to tell the truth instead of a Rovian gimmick, that lets Bush assert his favorite philosopher is Jesus, (this was, BTW, a downgrade in Jesus's job description; religious teachers are a whole different category than philosophers). Tell the truth because "the push for homeownership, contributed to the housing bubble and the crash," was not a push for homeownership, but a belief that we could let Wall Street run wild, with no oversight; let their creative juices run supreme. Conservatives need to tell the truth that government is meant to work for all, and can do this without the errors that liberals can sometimes bring to this process. Truth is simple. Just assert it. Now.
2
I thought that the "evangelical Christians" hit rock bottom with Josh Duggar as a lobbyist on the meaning of marriage, throwing stones at gay people (Josh Duggar is the child molester with two cheating cheater accounts). But electing Trump is dare I say it actually worse.
I love this column, but unlike Mr. Douthat, I would not let the "transactional spirit" psuedo-Christian Trump supporters off the hook either. I'm not a theologian, but no one who has read the New Testament could possibly say with a straight face that Jesus would vote for Trump.
And don't say "abortion." That's not in the New Testament. Love, humility, decency, respect, forgiveness, compassion, an open mind toward people who aren't exactly like you -- all of that is in the New Testament, and we could all name a dozen different times Trump's behavior represented the antithesis of these qualities.
3
We are flying upside down. What I'd like to think is essentially a minority is in power, though hook and crook. We have no choice but to listen to all the inane things that DJT says because, well, he is the President. He denigrates the country with each utterance; his focus is on himself, not the country.
'The common good' is one of those phrases that gets bandied about. It should mean more than it does. It's very difficult to see how any of what is going on right now really serves the common good. Events are gyrating and even accelerating away from the concerns of ordinary Americans. There is not much recourse except ongoing discord amidst the dysfunction.
1
Most of the Reagan and Bush tax cuts went to the rich. Reagan rescinded middle class tax cuts by increasing the FICA tax. We paid for those tax cuts with astronomical debt. Republican deregulation brought us the Great Bush Recession. Trump has nothing new to offer the country but spite.
1
I somewhat understand how someone can vote against their economic interest—I do all the time by voting for bond measures, Democrats and local tax levies. But I do that because I believe schools, infrastructure and a strong safety net are critical to society. What I don’t get is voting against your economic interest in favor of “values” when your chosen candidate (Trump) reflects the exact opposite of those values. The hypocrisy of the “religious right” is on full display. They may preach God’s word, but they certainly don’t practice it. Gays, guns and immigrants were the driving factor in many voter decisions. Policy positions at odds with the Bible’s teachings. Hypocrisy at its finest.
The Republicans Ross describes constitutes the picture of a cult. How the tens of millions of GOP cult members can be detoxed is the great question that will determine whether our democracy can be healed.
This is quite a tribute to the conservative doctrine of tax-cut-and-spend. I am not impressed with George W. Bush's social measures that cost a lot of money without any new revenues to pay for them. This is exactly what transformed Bill Clinton's balanced budgets into the monster deficits George Bush handed to Barack Obama. What's the matter with Republicans? They are America's biggest deficit mongers, and they had to create a caustic, nasty alternative media to convince themselves that other people are the problem.
1
It's all culture wars now, and few have the critical thinking skills necessary to see through the phoniness.
The problem has been, for decades, the "Gingrich Playbook," a "how to" on nasty language politicians should use to convince their base that the opposition is evil, hates their values (and therefore hates them,) that has been slowly eroding our national mindset. You are simply incorrect in your "role of morality" argument. People were told liberals hated them, whether it's about guns or religion or bathrooms. People have been deliberately riled up for years.
I'm a liberal, and I'm now being informed that I hate conservatives and everything about them. Wow. The truth is this--I never, ever, gave much thought to conservatives. To me, conservatives were people who were always going to vote for tax decreases. That's it. I never gave any attention to guns, religion or bathrooms. On those issues, I always assumed rational people on both sides would vote with logic in terms of guns, and egalitarianism in terms of social issues. I never expected you to become a bunch of nut job cranks who think I hate you and am out to get you.
Convince your base that the opposition hates and wants to hurt you. That's been the conservative tactic for decades. Why does it confuse you that Trumpians don't care one iota about real issues? It's all about hate, and nobody does hate better than Trump.
1
Harken back to the incompetent and catastrophic Bush years is supposed to make us feel better about Trump? Well maybe you have a point. For all of Trumps clownish behavior so far no wars, economy puffing along and identity politics is retreating somewhat. We may not be the "shining city on a hill" so much but we're surviving. Keeping fingers crossed.
I can't follow this essay because as soon as the writer makes a statement, he modifies, qualifies or outright refutes the statement practically in the next sentence.
Bush was the proto Trump. Two major recessions, two unfunded wars, one of which we were lied into, the worst attack on US soil in American history, the second highest gas prices (adjusted for inflation, 2007) in history, the collapse of the housing market, a budget in balance turned into a $ONE TRILLION annual deficit.
If THAT is not a record of failure, then I don't know what is. If THAT is middle class friendly, then I'd hate to see what happens when conservatives actually get mad at the middle class.
1
"Second, Frank minimized the extent to which Republicans, in the Bush era and before, did make a concerted effort to deliver for the middle class."
Wrong. The GOP (AKA The Elephant Party) has implemented fiscal and tax policy that has raised the return to capital far above the return to labor and held it there for the last 40 years. What else explains the fact that since 1977, U.S. GDP has added $17T and the number in poverty has grown at more than twice the rate of population growth. The American Covenant of "Work hard, play by the rules and grow with the country".
Americans handed Ronald Reagan the keys to end the stagflation that had pushed 10 million into poverty in five years (1978-1983). He did this by breaking the wage-price spiral. Guess what? This de-coupled middle and lower-tier earners from overall growth and the relationship has never been fixed!
A close look at the graphs on page 12 of the Census Departments report on Income and Poverty (p60-256.pdf) makes it very clear.
1
Actually, Frank's analysis had three flaws, not two. The third flaw in "What's the Matter with Kansas?" was its assumption that Democrats would actually fight effectively for the interests of working class Americans.
Subsequently we've seen the 2008 Wall Street bailout coupled with little help for distressed homeowners caught up in the financial crisis.
We've seen a Democratic party in complete power in Washington fail, yet again, to deliver universal health care, which was achieved in western European democracies a full two generations ago.
We've seen increased economic inequality during the eight years of the Bush administration followed by eight years of increased economic inequality during the Obama presidency.
We've seen a Democratic Justice Department fail to secure the integrity of a presidential election in 2016, while a Democratic Attorney General wrote memos on proper transgender bathroom policy.
I'm not voting for the guys in the black hats. But until the guys in the white hats learn which direction to sit a saddle, I'm not voting for them either.
1
Douthat, like most conservatives, still can't take on the evangelical Christianists' log in his eye. "Note that I don’t mean the religious conservatives who supported Trump reluctantly and in a transactional spirit, and who welcome his conservative judicial nominees." These folks would vote for the devil, if he promised to bring back upstanding Christian values. I'm pretty sure there's a warning about that, somewhere in the Bible.
Conservative evangelicals and more conservative Catholics seemingly will always argue that some moral positions cannot be compromised. This sort of dogma does not hold up when put to the test. Would we, for example, choose to openly starve the poor to death, before we would allow the slightest chink in the "pro life" and "prosperity gospel" mantras? Well now, that's just an absurd question. Except that it isn't; they're moving headlong in that direction. And conservative Christianists are leading the way. Betsy DeVos and company can even justify it, as the poor must struggle, in order to achieve their better Christian nature.
(Oh, and please, if evangelicals tell us that they cannot compromise, even if it brings on Armageddon, I'd just like to express the hope that they can find a way to go there without the rest of us.)
1
"that a depressing percentage of American conservatives seem perfectly happy with the bargain that Frank claimed defined their party, with a president who ignores their economic interests and public policy more generally and offers instead the perpetual distraction of Twitter feuds and pseudo-patriotic grandstanding."
I suggest that those people really don't believe their personal lives can be made better, anyway, and never expected Trump to succeed on that score, anyway. Maybe they are being left behind by the economy, maybe they are being left behind in social status, but in any case, they think the American experiment has failed and there's nothing left but the entertainment value of Trump and other media freaks hoisting a middle finger at the other Americans they dislike. What else explains the persistence of a Trump base in the face of policy failure and policy betrayal?
And it's not like they are going to become Democrats; Democrats have actually made their lives better or helped keep them from getting worse, but for eight years Fox and the Republican Party have been putting all their energy into telling us how BADLY everything has been going. Trump's "American Carnage" speech at the convention was the flip side of "what do you have to lose"...convincing people the American experiment has failed and there's nothing to gain, either.
I'm sure if I researched Ross's columns I'd see a reference to what so many others have seen in the R party.....nihilism.
1
Republicans give Bush credit for a push for home ownership.
At the same time, Republicans blame Clinton and HUD for the housing bubble and sub-prime melt down.
1
You make the W Bush era sound as though it came from a place of caring and Democracy building. I spent 8 years being told that I wasn't patriotic if I wasn't like them. That I wasn't moral if I didn't pray the right way or if I didn't pray. I watched one war start and then watched them lie to get into another one while they were cutting taxes. We've proven time and again that trickle down doesn't even trickle. I watched them bully their way through a foreign policy that could have been written by a 15 year old boy. The unilateral "I can do whatever I want and you have to take it." no diplomacy attitude was and continues to be disgusting and dangerous. Rewriting history to make your misguided point doesn't work. The Bush era was the path to where we are now.
What we see here is the usual response of left (to the extent that commenters here represent the left) to the calamity that has befallen our country. It is to blame, blamed, blame. Nary a word of constructive thought as to what is needed on a practical level to correct the situation, nor what they, the liberals, could contribute to that end.
Not that theses commenters are wrong in their blame analysis. They score some good points against Douthat. Many of the comments are thoughtful, well-informed and far-seeing. Why these commenters cannot adapt that scope of reasoned analysis to the larger issues of reconciliation and progress in our nation, is beyond me. They, and many on the left generally, seem paralyzed by blame. Moral outrage and blame. MOB for short.
What could liberals do? For a start, go cold turkey on the implication, woven through everything written here, that Trump supporters are bigots. In truth many are, but it is far from the whole truth.
What we have is a clash of cultures. That is the whole truth. It will not be resolved by name-calling. It will not be healed by expanded safety-net or jobs programs (which can all too easily be discredited by lies from the right). It can only be bridged by a sense of cultural relativity. You don't have to respect the views of Trump voters, but you DO have to respect them as fellow Americans—who have legitimate grievances, who feel abandoned by both political parties, and who in their own way are crying out for help.
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I'm old enough to have been a taxpayer during the Reagan Era and strongly disagree with the writer's contention that his policies were cosiderate of the Middle class.Reagan presided over the last income tax "reform" which hurt people who earned their living in three ways: 3 year income averaging was abolished -employee expenses could no longer be declared on the first page and had to be itemized with deductions, and the "windfall" social security rule was passed so workers with other pensions lost their social security Not to mention Reagan's assault on public universities which made them unaffordable to middle class families. He began the assault on skilled, high wage workers which continues today with the push to end the state tax deduction. As far as I'm concerned, Reagan never did a thing to further my family's well being.
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Ross,
It is not possible to explain what is wrong with Republicans today without mentioning the scapegoating, slandering, conspiracy theory promoting right wing news media that has duped tens of millions of them for years. And number one is the Fox News Channel. Their listeners live in a make-believe universe. When you criticize Trump they have no idea what you are talking about.
Think about that.
Best wishes. DG
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Pious admiration of a GOP brand that was rubbed out by Newt in '95 and will not be rising from the grave. A deliberate strategy to avoid correction of the problem.
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If republicans and Trump voters are wrong, they have won everything and are taking us all toward a dystopian future (air rich with mercury and coal, water laden with pcp, earth with radioactive waste, bridges and roads unsafe, education and health gutted, and barbed wire separating the 1% from the rest). It is a decisive victory. The democrats are now the Titanic; everything they know is wrong.
The right usurped the terminology of victims that democrats once owned rather brilliantly. White Christian males, the alt-right, the guns and Moses segments, rurals, southerners, are now victims of (non-white) immigrants, Hollywood, and coastal elites. They are in the museum, slashing all paintings. Democrats have no cure for the sense of dread, and the swollen American amygdala.
This dread has lasting power; demographics are favorable. The unskilled American has fallen off the grid, replaced by tech, immigrants willing to work, and automation. The farmer cannot find labor, nor fight big food. The working class is in debt, and fighting broken families and drugs. The middle class too is uneasy, now that a Muslim family has moved in next to them. Things look good for Trump and his future avatars. And they look very bad for democrats; the Millennials promise to sit out every election and monitor the 'likes' their selfie are getting on Instagram.
Kind of strange that you would find something wrong with people who have won everything local, county, state and national.
Kalidan
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