The New Republican Party

Not having read Andrew Sullivan's The Conservative Soul, or The Grand New Party by Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam, I can't comment on what these books contain. Suffice it to say, however, that they lament in their own ways the decline of American conservatism. Sullivan has spent the entire holiday weekend posting one after another about the Palin pick. His latest post has the air of resignation:

And so religious fundamentalism, as it always will, swamps the frontal cortex required for effective governance and gives us this reality show disgrace as serious politics. Has America really come to this?

Yes it has. The debate over whether the Republican party is now unfit for public office at a national level is now resolved.

I've always admired Sullivan's optimism about his adopted country, despite the fact that I disagree with him on many things political. My worry is that he lapses into cynicism should the GOP finds its feet after this convention. Of course, they will, and Obama and Biden will come back into the spotlight to take on the most unusual, most politically cynical ticket ever produced by a major American political party. The sparks will fly, accusations will be the news headlines for weeks to come, and in the end, the loser will be the American citizens, as issues take a back seat to this Brechtian theater of the absurd.