I’ve long thought that the selection
of Duhbya, so obviously unqualified for the presidency, by the Radical Right was part of their campaign to prove government feckless and
worthless. Like putting an idiot in charge of a business you want to run into bankruptcy for tax purposes.
If that seems a bit off
to you, consider that the Radical Right is deliberately running up the deficit to “starve the beast.” Why not give “the beast” an inept
handler? mjh
American Prospect Online – The Death and Life of American Liberalism By Robert
Kuttner
The conservative movement is rooted in a coherent, easy-to-summarize ideology: Government doesn’t work, except to
protect you from terrorists; you deserve to keep more of your own money; cherished American family values, including national security,
are under assault from liberals. The right has fine-tuned and segmented its rhetorical symphony so that the bass notes rock its
political primitives while a softer timbre appeals to the moderate ear.
The right’s famed echo chamber now can “narrowcast”
complementary messages to every major demographic group. “For conservative voters in Peoria,” says Rob Stein of the Democracy Alliance,
“there’s something for everyone. The businessman gets it from The Wall Street Journal editorial page. The soccer mom has FOX News. The
24-year-old beer-drinking guy has Rush [Limbaugh]. The religious right can get the word from Pat Robertson.”
A movement ideology
also produces unity. Despite schisms, the right is simply more disciplined. The discipline is reinforced by new forms of patronage — tax
breaks for the elite, godliness for the base. Worldly sinners among Wall Street Republicans may smirk at the fundamentalists in their
governing coalition, but are happy to share the bounty. They may privately oppose the immense budget deficits, but the heavily
Republican Concord Coalition, so publicly alarmed at the (Republican legacy) deficits of the 1990s, is today prudently silent.
Conversely, social conservatives may wince at the antics and views of Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the coalition holds.
Genuine Republican moderates, meanwhile, have been coerced or co-opted into near silence. The resulting legislative unity is also
unprecedented.
Finally, there’s a war on, a conveniently permanent one. The right manipulates fear of terrorism
into public and media acquiescence for a politics that would never prevail in normal times.
And yet, this overpowering structural
tilt conceals some surprisingly good news. Despite its immense advantages, the right barely prevailed in the last two presidential
elections, even against feckless Democratic campaigns. The superior infrastructure just offset the extremism. The country remains
skeptical about most Republican policies, from Social Security privatization to the assault on the courts. As John B. Judis and Ruy
Teixeira have documented, potentially liberal groups are demographically ascendant. There is a latent liberal majority, if liberals can
once again learn to do politics.