Burning the GOP boats behind them
by digby
David Brooks has an epiphany:
Since Goldwater/Reagan, the G.O.P. has been governed by a free-market, anti-government philosophy. But over the ensuing decades new problems have emerged. First, the economy has gotten crueler. Technology is displacing workers and globalization is dampening wages. Second, the social structure has atomized and frayed, especially among the less educated. Third, demography is shifting.
Orthodox Republicans, seeing no positive role for government, have had no affirmative agenda to help people deal with these new problems. Occasionally some conservative policy mavens have proposed such an agenda — anti-poverty programs, human capital policies, wage subsidies and the like — but the proposals were killed, usually in the House, by the anti-government crowd.
The 1980s anti-government orthodoxy still has many followers; Ted Cruz is the extreme embodiment of this tendency. But it has grown increasingly rigid, unresponsive and obsolete.
Along comes Donald Trump offering to replace it and change the nature of the G.O.P. He tramples all over the anti-government ideology of modern Republicanism. He would replace the free-market orthodoxy with authoritarian nationalism.
He offers to use government on behalf of the American working class, but in negative and defensive ways: to build walls, to close trade, to ban outside groups, to smash enemies. According to him, America’s problems aren’t caused by deep structural shifts. They’re caused by morons and parasites. The Great Leader will take them down.
If the G.O.P. is going to survive as a decent and viable national party, it can’t cling to the fading orthodoxy Cruz represents. But it can’t shift to ugly Trumpian nationalism, either. It has to find a third alternative: limited but energetic use of government to expand mobility and widen openness and opportunity. That is what Kasich, Rubio, Paul Ryan and others are stumbling toward.
Amid all the vulgarity and pettiness, that is what is being fought over this month: going back to the past, veering into an ugly future, or finding a third way. This is something worth fighting for, worth burning the boats behind you for.
More specifically he means it's worth "burning the party behind you for."
Well, good luck with that. Republicans like Brooks created this situation standing back while their party stoking the white racist lizard brain for years, demonizing the other side as loathsome monsters, watching as their Party lost its collective mind over many years, from impeachment to illegitimate wars to torture to a total loss of control at the election of a black president. This is the result.
Basically Brooks and others are coming to the conclusion that they will have to build a new party. The question is, who are they going to get to vote for them?
Update: Looks like some members of the establishment are getting behind the far right wing extremist. Jesus:
The younger brother of former President George W. Bush and failed presidential candidate Jeb Bush has joined Ted Cruz's national finance team. Neil Bush and his wife Maria were announced as the newest members of Cruz's backing team in a Tuesday press release from the Texan senator's campaign. Jeb Bush, meanwhile, has remained quiet about endorsing any candidates for the March 15 primary in Florida. "We are seeing incredible momentum around our campaign," Cruz said in the statement, which boasted of former Jeb, Rand Paul, and Rick Perry supporters joining his team.
I wonder if this will actually hurt Cruz. It's not popular to get "financial support" from people like Bush in this cycle.
Unbelievable.
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