Is it a coming schism? Is it the end of the party? A historic brain fart of an election? What will the 30 year effort to create an anti-Government governing party with a special understanding that facts are not as important as feelings, portend? The Bush administration neo-cons that brought us Iraq claimed to make their own reality, but what reality is the Trump/Cruz, anti-establishment take-over bringing?
I’ve been gleefully waiting for this “fight for the soul” of a soulless party for years, expecting an epic implosion, for years – a decade, in fact. Other observers started seeing it too a few years back. But now we’ve reached a critical point where GOPers who have been in steadfast denial, not recognizing any problem at all with a party lead by Limbaugh and Ingraham, have woken up to the reality that the wackos have taken over the asylum and that’s not optimal. Or even good.
NY Times – For Republicans, Mounting Fears of Lasting Split
At family dinners and New Year’s parties, in conference calls and private lunches, longtime Republicans are expressing a growing fear that the coming election could be shattering for the party, or reshape it in way that leave it unrecognizable.
Well, wouldn’t that be nice? If the party of rich, privileged white males, privatizing the profits and socializing the losses while riling up the yahoos about God, guns and gays muslims, was left unrecognizable? Like the GOP doesn’t need the Botched treatment to remediate the unholy plastic surgery done by Reagan, Bush and the tea party crazies allowed to run willy nilly with scissors all over the erstwhile party of solid, rock ribbed managers.
Hey, at least they’ve finally heard the klaxons that have been sounding since 1980 when a phony shape shifting actor, who was way too reactionary for the party in 1976, got himself the nomination, and deification, from the rank and file. But no problem, apparently, so long as you’re winning. Losing 5 of the last 6 popular votes for president wasn’t really a problem so long as they held the House and could reliably control the chaos. Tell the base anything so long as the Romneybot 3000 with his classic pro-business prime directive is your nominee.
But Donald Trump? Ted Cruz? It’s every suit for himself! CEOs and hedge fund managers to the lifeboats!
The truly hilarious part is the testimony from those wild-eyed revolutionary rank and file who finally saw through the GOP establishment bullshit and now claim to being cocksure as to which way the wind is blowing.
…Dave Conger, 60, a salesman who showed up at a Cruz campaign stop last week with a Cruz pin on his chest, said he had worked to elect both George W. Bush and his father, but “was told a lot of things and nothing ever happened.”
He added, “This time I’m actually hearing somebody who’s telling me the truth; they’re actually going to go in and do something they say they’re going to do.”
What the fuck was it you wanted from Republicans that President Cruz will finally deliver? The apocalypse? Check with Gov. Brownback of Kansas on how it works out when you doubledown on all the anti-tax, anti-government Christianist claptrap you find so comforting.
Oh but that is the actual problem.
The GOP has been promising you nirvana by driving towards hell, you just can’t believe it when you arrive in hell. They promise me better but things get worse. But this guy who’s promising me nirvana by driving me even further into hell, he’ll actually finally deliver. This guy Cruz is a truth teller.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Tee-hee-hee!
The Polislice 
It’s interesting how gop party elders can no longer control the tribe. At the same time, you have to wonder if Bernie supporters really think a 76 year old socialist from Vermont is electable. No doubt, Bernie has many good ideas, and if nothing else, it’s great to see him push party left. I know current polls show him doing well in general election, but when the focus is on socialist label, age, etc, he would likely lose the middle ground Ds need to win, and it is even more certain that down ticket races would be a bloodbath for Ds.
Correction: 74 year old democratic socialist from Vermont. I think if anything Bernie appeals more to independents than Hillary. Forget left/right, people are looking more insider/outsider this year and people from all over the spectrum that listen to Bernie, especially young people, do not care about the socialism bugaboo. The case for Bernie is expansion of the base by appealing to people who don’t usually vote because they believe it doesn’t mean anything – what Obama achieved with people of color. By the same token Hillary may expand women,but so far Bernie is polling as well with women as she is. The case for Bernie is that he’s still expanding his brand as people discover, and generally like, what he’s putting out, pejorative titles be damned.
I think what Bernie supporters are thinking is that he’s choice number 1, let’s see how far he can go. If they have to fall back to choice #2, then okay. But for now, in the spirit of excitement there’s not a lot of hand wringing over whether Hillary would do better against the GOP (although the conventional wisdom that she’d do better is not baring out in polls right now, Hillary too has negatives, and does not seem to be inspiring much devotion except for the fervent Anitas out there who have been bowing to her altar since 2008). If the excitement keeps building, then the negatives will melt away, especially given the natural ceilings the potential GOP nominees have.
We really won’t know until after Iowa and NH if Bernie has young legs.