The American Taliban; A Special Brand of Patriots

SEND IN THE CLOWNS

The republican party is like an aging NBA basketball team with all the major players on their last legs and not a decent draft choice in sight. They don't fill the auditorium anymore because they are washed up.

Normally, and its rare, when the beast within is critical of his own kind. When those left of center are critical of the American Taliban’s extremism, it's expected. When a former aide to George W. Bush and John McCain do it, the criticism resonates a little louder. In this case, it's Mark McKinnon, who wants a new Republican Party:

Increasingly, it is becoming clear that the party is against everything and for nothing.

Nothing on taxes. Nothing on gun control. Nothing on climate change. Nothing on gay marriage. Nothing on immigration reform (or an incremental, piece-by-piece approach, which will result in nothing). It's a very odd situation when the losing party is the party refusing to negotiate. It may be how you disrupt, but it is not how you govern, or how you ever hope to regain a majority.

And so, we have a Republican Party today willing to eliminate any prospect for a decent future for anyone, including itself, if it cannot be a future that is 100 percent in accordance with its core beliefs and principles. That's not governing. That's just lobbing hand grenades. If you're only standing on principle to appear taller, then you appear smaller. And the GOP is shrinking daily before our eyes.

In fairness, when it comes to today's GOP, McKinnon is further from the Club for Growth and closer to the David Frum contingent, but the more commentary like this spreads, the more it reinforces perceptions that the radicalization of Republican politics is creating a larger political crisis.

Also posted recently, a piece from Thomas Friedman, who warned the American Taliban they will struggle so long as the party "is at war with math, physics, human biology, economics and common-sense gun laws all at the same time

The Republican party's conservative soul has been captured by Big Money and Big Media. The forces of darkness that deny global warming, the needs for better education, better public safety, better healthcare, and restoring the economy to its full potential have fallen to the wayside, constructed as false crisis and blame is assigned to entitlements and taxes. The falsehoods are a fabrication of strategists who are protecting narrow economic interests.

The republican base joined the war with math, physics, human biology, economics and common-sense gun laws willingly. It has been a well-financed effort by the Koch Brothers brand who used the anxiety welling up from the severe economic contraction to create a mass who truly believe that the greater good is served by tearing down government and deliberately cultivating a culture of ignorance and fear.

Cheers to this dysfunctional and demise of this brand of special patriots, and may these delicate flowers wither away like a four week old rose.

 

NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West