There is a reason why when I write political satire, I typically focus on the Republican Party, and it's exactly the reason given by the centrist, bi-partisan, well-respected longtime political observers Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein in a recent article.
As was outlined in the tandem's book, It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, "...The Republicans are worse..."
Before going into further detail about the two men's commentary, allow me to give readers some brief background on them. Thomas Mann is a centrist who has worked for about three decades as a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution (also centrist). Norman Ornstein, who has worked at the American Enterprise Institute (conservative-leaning) and is also a congressional scholar - has worked with Mann on tracking Congress since 1978. So, no - these are not two left-wing ideologues looking to place the Republican Party in a bad light because they despise it with every fiber of their being. These are two very reasonable, centrist, well-educated individuals.
In one part of the interview, Ornstein said, "I can't recall a campaign where I've seen more lying going on -- and it wasn't symmetric. Democrats were hardly innocent, but it seemed pretty clear to me that the Republican campaign was just far more over the top."
Mann later stated, "The argument we're making is that our politics will never really get better until the Republican Party gets back into the game, instead of playing a new one. We want a strong, conservative Republican Party -- but one with some connection with reality."
He continued by saying, "The fact is that one of the parties stopped being a conventional conservative party. My own view is that what needed to happen is somehow the public had to take a two-by-four to the Republicans' heads, knock them back to their senses, and allow conservative pragmatic voices to emerge."
This is the main reason why I write political satire at the expense of the Republican Party far more than the Democratic Party. For the past two to three decades, the far-right evangelical movement has been progressively tightening its stranglehold on the Republican Party. The Grover Norquists of the world, Rush Limbaughs, Fox News commentators, religious leaders, and others like them have transformed what was once a very reasonable political party into a cult. While the Republican Party of yesteryear may have had a point when referring to the Democratic Party as the party of big spending, they can no longer do this - for they are just as big of spenders as the opposing party (if not bigger spenders). When they referred to the Democratic Party as the party of big government, they may have been able to provide the public with a stark contrast between they and the Democrats in that area, but no longer can they do this. While Democrats tend to favor regulation on business more so than Republicans, Republicans tend to favor regulation on individual people more so than Democrats. No longer is the Republican Party about balancing the budget by any means necessary (both through spending cuts and tax increases), about going to war with foreign nations as a last option, about generating more money through high taxes on the rich, about equality for all, etc. It's come to be about what the far-right evangelicals and talking heads want it to be about: Taking away women's rights (abortion, contraception coverage, equal pay), preventing gays from attaining equal rights, providing tax cuts for the wealthiest in the country, taking away entitlements from some of the less fortunate, and going to war as much as is humanly possible - all the while repeating the same talking points the party has been saying for years, hoping that what people believed to be true and was true from 40 years ago they'd still believe to be true today even though that's not the case anymore.
What I, Thomas Mann, Norman Ornstein, and I'm sure others like Jon Stewart and the like want more than anything is to try and shake some sense into the Republican Party and its followers - to depict just how crazy the party has gotten, in hopes that we will begin to nominate and elect more reasonable conservative Republicans like Lincoln and Eisenhower, whom are more focused on doing good for the American people and moving this country forward than of pleasing the religious community and talking heads on the radio and television. While I may not consider myself to be a conservative or a Republican, I want what's best for the country and think it'd be best for the country to regularly have two sane candidates from which to choose, as opposed to only one (at most). Every four years, I WANT to give both candidates a fair chance. I want to believe that the country will be okay if the candidate I voted for fell short. However, the tighter the far-right evangelicals' stranglehold has gotten around the neck of the Republican Party, the more difficult it's been for me to take their candidates' seriously and if that trend continues, that stranglehold may result in the ultimate demise of the party. That's the last thing I and any other sane person would want. When two strong parties are present, they can help strengthen the other - help push the other to reach a certain high standard. However, when only one main party is present, there isn't another to push them to reach any high standard and due to that, their performance will likely falter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-froomkin/republican-lies-2012-election_b_2258586.html
As was outlined in the tandem's book, It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism, "...The Republicans are worse..."
Before going into further detail about the two men's commentary, allow me to give readers some brief background on them. Thomas Mann is a centrist who has worked for about three decades as a congressional scholar at the Brookings Institution (also centrist). Norman Ornstein, who has worked at the American Enterprise Institute (conservative-leaning) and is also a congressional scholar - has worked with Mann on tracking Congress since 1978. So, no - these are not two left-wing ideologues looking to place the Republican Party in a bad light because they despise it with every fiber of their being. These are two very reasonable, centrist, well-educated individuals.
In one part of the interview, Ornstein said, "I can't recall a campaign where I've seen more lying going on -- and it wasn't symmetric. Democrats were hardly innocent, but it seemed pretty clear to me that the Republican campaign was just far more over the top."
Mann later stated, "The argument we're making is that our politics will never really get better until the Republican Party gets back into the game, instead of playing a new one. We want a strong, conservative Republican Party -- but one with some connection with reality."
He continued by saying, "The fact is that one of the parties stopped being a conventional conservative party. My own view is that what needed to happen is somehow the public had to take a two-by-four to the Republicans' heads, knock them back to their senses, and allow conservative pragmatic voices to emerge."
This is the main reason why I write political satire at the expense of the Republican Party far more than the Democratic Party. For the past two to three decades, the far-right evangelical movement has been progressively tightening its stranglehold on the Republican Party. The Grover Norquists of the world, Rush Limbaughs, Fox News commentators, religious leaders, and others like them have transformed what was once a very reasonable political party into a cult. While the Republican Party of yesteryear may have had a point when referring to the Democratic Party as the party of big spending, they can no longer do this - for they are just as big of spenders as the opposing party (if not bigger spenders). When they referred to the Democratic Party as the party of big government, they may have been able to provide the public with a stark contrast between they and the Democrats in that area, but no longer can they do this. While Democrats tend to favor regulation on business more so than Republicans, Republicans tend to favor regulation on individual people more so than Democrats. No longer is the Republican Party about balancing the budget by any means necessary (both through spending cuts and tax increases), about going to war with foreign nations as a last option, about generating more money through high taxes on the rich, about equality for all, etc. It's come to be about what the far-right evangelicals and talking heads want it to be about: Taking away women's rights (abortion, contraception coverage, equal pay), preventing gays from attaining equal rights, providing tax cuts for the wealthiest in the country, taking away entitlements from some of the less fortunate, and going to war as much as is humanly possible - all the while repeating the same talking points the party has been saying for years, hoping that what people believed to be true and was true from 40 years ago they'd still believe to be true today even though that's not the case anymore.
What I, Thomas Mann, Norman Ornstein, and I'm sure others like Jon Stewart and the like want more than anything is to try and shake some sense into the Republican Party and its followers - to depict just how crazy the party has gotten, in hopes that we will begin to nominate and elect more reasonable conservative Republicans like Lincoln and Eisenhower, whom are more focused on doing good for the American people and moving this country forward than of pleasing the religious community and talking heads on the radio and television. While I may not consider myself to be a conservative or a Republican, I want what's best for the country and think it'd be best for the country to regularly have two sane candidates from which to choose, as opposed to only one (at most). Every four years, I WANT to give both candidates a fair chance. I want to believe that the country will be okay if the candidate I voted for fell short. However, the tighter the far-right evangelicals' stranglehold has gotten around the neck of the Republican Party, the more difficult it's been for me to take their candidates' seriously and if that trend continues, that stranglehold may result in the ultimate demise of the party. That's the last thing I and any other sane person would want. When two strong parties are present, they can help strengthen the other - help push the other to reach a certain high standard. However, when only one main party is present, there isn't another to push them to reach any high standard and due to that, their performance will likely falter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-froomkin/republican-lies-2012-election_b_2258586.html
Comments
Post a Comment