Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Exile in Republicania

Back in May 1992, right after the L.A. riots, a black community activist named Sister Souljah became infamous for the following remark:
If Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill white
people?

Bill Clinton, who was running for the Democratic presidential nomination against Jesse Jackson, publicly criticized that statement -- and Jackson himself for having Souljah in his Rainbow Coalition. It became a defining moment for the Democratic party, as the extremists on the left found themselves on the outs as Clinton cleverly held his ground in the middle. The far left element of the Democratic Party has never recovered.

In an ironic twist, a black man followed in Clinton large footsteps and now occupies the White House and leads this country. Now, it's the Republican party that has a major identity crisis. A heavyweight Republican senator just switched parties, leaving a gaping hole in the GOP fabric that starkly reveals the great divide that dooms the party to at least a generation of oblivion.

The problems for the party, or the membership, make for a long list:
They abandoned government as a rudder in a swirling sea of deregulated commerce
They spent like decadent Romans under Bush
They proudly express contempt for civil liberties
They show rigidity and hostility to others
They worship the idea of the "unitary executive" and "near dictatorial power"
They dismiss of judicial checks as "legislating from the bench"
They are absolute cluelessness about minorities and immigrants
They have embraced torture as an American value
They are (largely) disgustingly homophobic
They are (largely) Christianist simpletons
They used an all-too-willing media as their propaganda-delivery system.

On top of this, their current leaders are an extremely vile bunch of people. Led by Michael Steele, the modern-day Steppin Fetchit, and voiced by such caustic voices as Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly, and Limbaugh, they claim to be proud Americans but walk a thin line between radical populism and neo-fascism. These voices, small in number but powerfully connected, drown out the large number of conservatives who actually find the Republican party's extremism as alien to them as the progressive policies of the Democratic party.

It's a shame, too. As Reihan Salam, a great conservative blogger whose voice is becoming more and more prominent among young Republicans, put it:
Conservatives don't need higher volume. Conservatism at its best is a tough and demanding creed. To sell it, you can't call people who've lost their jobs and their homes "losers." You need to sell the virtues of a growing and flourishing economy and the free-market policies that will make it happen. Because conservatives aren't a majority, hard-edged accusations of socialism wind up alienating millions of potential allies -- voters who are a little uncomfortable with Obama's spending, particularly if it threatens to saddle their children with debt, but who recognize that the government needs to act to stave off an economic collapse.

In all honesty, I would probably be a Republican today had it not been for Ronald Reagan. I voted for moderate Republican John Anderson in my first presidential election in 1980 because Carter was an ineffectual leader and Reagan's borderline Goldwater conservatism was suspicious to me. I am so glad I went lefty after all; otherwise I'd be as hostile and negative and brainwashed as, well, I'm not going there...

There is much to like about a conservative political philosophy that believes in a smaller government which eschews wasteful spending, which believes in the Constitution as a living document that can be interpreted according to the mores of the age, and which promotes real freedom as the defining characteristic of being an American. I see these values embodied today in Barack Obama, although he has swallowed a bitter pill during this economic crisis by expanding government to clean up Bush's mess. As the administration begins to hit its stride, I am slowly finding comfort in the actions of my government for the first time in eight years.

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