Sure, there are Islamic extremists and even a few left-wing extremists who murder innocents, but despite the Bush administration’s assurance that left-wing extremist groups like the Earth Liberation Front were the most dangerous domestic terrorist threats to America, the number of violent hate groups in America rose more than 50% during the tenure of the Bush administration. In fact, in the ten years ending in 2005, almost sixty right-wing extremist plots were discovered and foiled. Here is a list of some of those plots. I strongly doubt a similar list of left-wing extremist plots can be reproduced by a reliable source. I really don’t think it’s an exaggeration to state that the great majority of violent extremists, those willing, even eager to take innocent lives to achieve their goals, identify much more strongly with the conservative right than with the liberal left, for that is what the available evidence shows. If someone can prove me wrong on this, please do so.
So where are we going with all this? As late as the 1950's, conservatives held sway in both parties, but in the sixties, something happened. The winds of change began to blow. Some of the more powerful Democrats began to embrace the nascent change in the American psyche, or at least they adjusted their sails to run before the wind sown over generations of slavery and Jim Crow, of prejudice and misogyny, that began to make itself heard as whispers and groans of the victims of institutionalized discrimination grew in harmony with the voices of the artists of the most influential decade in musical history and howled in grief and pain with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy. Yes, even the most cynical among the Democrats had to acknowledge the growing power of the minority and alternative-lifestyle electorate and saw that someone, someday would reap the whirlwind...
But the Republicans saw nothing, or chose to see nothing. They denied the cries for help in leveling the playing field from minorities, the gay community and women, and they have begun to pay the political price. It's not without cause that the Republican party has been referred to as the party of old white men, for that's all that's left when one subtracts the women, the minorities, and the youth, the majority of each of which now firmly reside in the Democratic camp. Furthermore, as the years have passed, the Republican party, being less and less influenced by the liberal ideas that often come from minorities, women, and youth, has become more and more tolerant of right-wing extremists who have since gained some measure of political power in the Republican hierarchy. The echo-chamber of right-wing hate talk , for that’s what it is, has led to a dangerous juncture. Republican party politics have become a vicious circle of who can best affix whom with the labels most offensive to the Republican base; it’s a sad thing to see the once-proud party of Reagan and Eisenhower subscribe by default to the vile tactics of the McCarthy era. The Republican party is now reaping the whirlwind that the Democrats took pains to avoid a generation ago; it is doubtful that the GOP will emerge with as positive an image as it has even now, much less that of its glory days under Reagan, when the Republican party did indeed bestride the narrow world like a colossus.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - roger nowosielski
In spite of your good intentions, Glenn, as expressed in the last paragraph, you do know, don't you, that you're going to be shot down.
2 - Glenn Contrarian
Rog -
Yeah, you're right. It goes back to the old saw that a man will usually only expect from others what he would do himself. They would probably expect that my last paragraph to be insincere, for they would probably be just as sincere if they uttered the same statement.
But I've said many times the high regard in which I hold Reagan. Do you know he got rid of the government subsidies to HMO's - to the howling protests of the Democrats? And now the conservatives under Bush gave the subsidies back - to the muted protests of the Democrats.
3 - roger nowosielski
Fail to understand your last comment, Glenn. Perhaps I don't understand what is/was at stake (about the HMO's, that is).
4 - roger nowosielski
The remarks about Michelle Obama, though, that you're citing - are the epitome of stupidity. It's almost beyond belief.
5 - Arch Conservative
One could just as easily come up with a longer list of dumbass remarks made by liberal leftist moonbats Glen.........You're point?
Not too long ago people were writing the Dem party off. Politics, like economics, cycles. Emjoy your little pipe dream of 100 years of moonbattery while it lasts Glen. That dream is certainly destined to be run down by a freight train called reality in that not to distant futre, possibly as early as 2010.
6 - Arch Conservative
That should have been 1000 years (I think you get the reference [Personal attack deleted by Comments Editor].)
7 - Jordan Richardson
Arch, you say that politics runs in cycles. I guess that begs me to ask you why it matters, then, if the dream is over and "run down by a freight train called reality" possibly as soon as 2010, preferably in the form of a nicely tanned Mormon you're in love with?
Wouldn't 2010's "inevitable" right-wing breakthrough, the one you apparently see as being "reality," simply mean another phase of the cycle and another brief period of time until the pendulum of "delusional democrats" swings back into power?
If politics is such a flimsy mechanism, how can one particular point of view be considered "real" at all?
When the election was on, you impressed me with your independent spirit. Now, however, it appears you've simply meandered right back into the old left vs. right arguments that inevitably clog these pages. What happened? You used to be a contender!
8 - Andy Marsh
you've simply meandered right back into the old left vs. right arguments that inevitably clog these pages
Isn't that exactly what this piece is about?
All i have to say about this entire thing is meant for all those young first time voters out there that thought that this one pol was less full of shit than all the rest....how do you feel about your vote now?
How's white house transparency look to you now?
The only difference between GWB and BHO is the color of their skin.
Gitmo's not closed....nobody knows who's visiting the white house...the auto companies are STILL declaring bankruptcy. Bankers are still taking vacations on the tax payers dime...where's all that change we can believe in?
You liberals have a very short, or is it convenient memory. Every time you get full control of the govt you lose it the next election cycle. Why? Because your party has more morons in it than the other party!
Yeah, it's a two party system and I'm tired of paying for this party, both of 'em. Turn out the lights, the party's over!
9 - Dave Nalle
Glenn, history suggests that the Republicans are most effective when they are out of power and least effective and least likely to know how to capitalize on their advantages when they are in power. The last time they were counted out they came back within just a few years to have majorities in both houses and then take the White House as well, and that was when Democrats were considerably more competent and the country was in better shape than it is now.
What you've got here is mostly wishful thinking, I'm afraid, combined with willful ignorance of how badly the left is alienating the mdoerate voter. It's those moderates -- increasingly radicalized and pushed to the right -- who are driving Fox News to higher and higher ratings and who are showing up at the Tea Parties. They are NOT happy with Obama's priorities and payoffs and it will show in 2010 and 2012.
Dave
10 - roger nowosielski
Dave,
"What you've got here is mostly wishful thinking, I'm afraid, combined with willful ignorance of how badly the left is alienating the moderate voter."
I'm afraid, Dave, you're wrong on this score because imo, the so-called "moderate voter" population is rapidly shrinking. (If for no other reason that we're living in hardly moderate but crisis-ridden times.) Consequently, that's one reason, I believe, why we such nastiness from both sides - because of the polarization that's occurring.
I wouldn't call the tea-party attendees "moderate voters" anymore. They may have been "moderate" during the Bush era, turning blind eye on the Iraqi adventure, but they've become "radicalized." I think "hardened" is a better word.
As to the major showdown come 2010 and 2012, we shall see. But it's not going to be pretty, I predict. I believe we're going to see the worst in divisive politics. All "moderates" will be taken prisoners.
11 - Jeannie Danna
It is a two party system... I don't even know why my party affiliation is independent! There is nothing independent about it except that the Independent party is absolutely devoid of any kind of political power. so I am in independent limbo Where are my talking points? Where is my Carl-The Architect
I wanted to volunteer to work the voting booths and I was told I had to be either a Republican or a Democrat in NY State.
When I checked out the link to the rural Pennsylvania paper I discovered it was Warren.
As a liberal I am surrounded and outnumbered here and at home. Help!
12 - roger nowosielski
#9:
"willful ignorance"
So now we've casted Glenn in an unenviable role of willfully distorting facts and opinions for the sole purpose of befuddling the mind and creating chaos and confusion whereas clear thinking ought to be the order of the day. In other words, nothing other than a shill.
Nice!
13 - Jeannie Danna
Roger, I just wrote the most depressing article. I bet they won't even publish it..:(
14 - roger nowosielski
Was it on the order of "Remembrance of Things Past"?
15 - Jeannie Danna
Remembrance of things best forgotten is more like it.
16 - Jeannie Danna
I want to write something fun and lighthearted. I either write depressed or angry it seems to me.
17 - Clavos
I'm afraid, Dave, you're wrong on this score because imo, the so-called "moderate voter" population is rapidly shrinking. (If for no other reason that we're living in hardly moderate but crisis-ridden times.)
If you're right about that, then the article is completely off base, because, as the polls show, the ranks of self-identified conservatives are growing rapidly, far more so than the self-styled liberal group.
18 - Jeannie Danna
liberal can be a nice word too:(
19 - roger nowosielski
It'd stand to reason because reaction is a natural human response, right or wrong. As to the present breakdown, I have no interest in that. 2010 will serve as a test.
20 - m ark
Yeah, it's a two party system and I'm tired of paying for this party, both of 'em. Turn out the lights, the party's over!
I'm with Andy.
21 - Jeannie Danna
Yeah, it's a two party system and I'm tired of paying for this party, both of 'em. Turn out the lights, the party's over!
ditto
22 - Jeannie Danna
But you should all pay your taxes before you leave
23 - Glenn Contrarian
Arch-Con -
If you can come up with a similar list of political missteps by Democrats - including flagrant racism of equal repugnancy, and murders of innocents just because they're conservative - then please do so.
But you won't, because you can't.
24 - roger nowosielski
Perhaps we should try to distinguish between what's good for the country and what's bad, and admit that the two-party system (and their virtual split) is not necessarily indicative of the first-mentioned distinction.
Perhaps, just perhaps, it may well be that we're all being taken to the cleaners. And any such eventuality would seem to pose an even greater dilemma: is there a way of setting things aright, or perhaps that time is long past?
25 - Glenn Contrarian
Dave #9 -
If as you say the conservatives are at their best when they're out of power, then I think most conservatives would disagree and use the Reagan era as their example. But you may be right on that point.
However, you're ignoring reality when it comes the the left's 'alienating' of the moderate vote. While many on the left are frustrated with SOME of Obama's decisions, the VAST majority are happy with him OVERALL.
Not only that, but even the moderates who are unhappy with Obama face a choice - a Democratic president who is governing from the center (which by definition means taking some cues from left AND right), and an increasingly shrill Republican base that is being framed in the public view as tainted by far-right extremists, racial prejudice, and domestic terrorism.
Please note I did not say the Republican base was guilty of those such extremism, prejudice, and domestic terrorism - I said that's the public perception...
...and that's why even if the moderates don't want to vote for Obama, they WILL vote against what they see as a party of prejudice and extremism.