Spring Break
Goodbye to the Grand Old Party
Robert Zaller
Issue date: 1/9/09 Section: Ed-Op
In the aftermath of Barack Obama's victory and amidst general revulsion at the havoc wrought by the Bush administration and the toxic brew of Reaganite and Fundamentalist conservatism that has become the Republican Party, there is much concern in the press about a coming generation in the wilderness for the GOP. This is yoked to dire warnings about the evils of one-party rule and Democratic liberalism run amok.
I have a better idea: instead of hanging around as a carping minority, or trying to reinvent itself as the party of Liberalism Lite, would it not be better for the Republican Party simply to disappear?
It has happened before. The Republicans themselves were the successors of the Whig Party, which likewise lost its raison d'etre in the 1850s and disappeared almost overnight. And it is hard to imagine the Republicans finding anything new to say that is likely to appeal to any significant sector of the population, apart from Confederate diehards, Evangelicals and Midwesterners who vote Republican in their sleep. These souls will be loyal for a while, but political and demographic realities are against them. Obama's election has broken the 40-year stranglehold of the Republican Party on the Deep South, which was frankly maintained by exploiting racism. Evangelicals have their own agenda, and their long-term commitment to a minority party that cannot deliver the goods is doubtful. The Midwest is rapidly emptying out, and one wonders whether the Dakotas may not have to be delisted as states in the not too distant future, or somehow repopulated - perhaps with the refugees of our foreign wars?
Is there, then, no value or creed on which the Republicans can rebuild a voting base? Free market capitalism, always a misnomer for licensed depredation, has brought us the current economic debacle, and everyone's a born-again regulator now. Small-government, fiscally prudent conservatism ran aground against successive GOP administrations that produced only more bureaucracy, a gargantuan Pentagon and runaway deficits, capped by a whopping $10 trillion national debt. The famous Reagan revolution was only a reaction against a tired postwar liberalism bankrupted by the culture wars, declining American economic hegemony, and its own self-betrayals. Apart from the Gipper's winning smile, Reaganism had nothing to offer, except to its favored clients, the military-industrial class and the wizards of Wall Street.
I have a better idea: instead of hanging around as a carping minority, or trying to reinvent itself as the party of Liberalism Lite, would it not be better for the Republican Party simply to disappear?
It has happened before. The Republicans themselves were the successors of the Whig Party, which likewise lost its raison d'etre in the 1850s and disappeared almost overnight. And it is hard to imagine the Republicans finding anything new to say that is likely to appeal to any significant sector of the population, apart from Confederate diehards, Evangelicals and Midwesterners who vote Republican in their sleep. These souls will be loyal for a while, but political and demographic realities are against them. Obama's election has broken the 40-year stranglehold of the Republican Party on the Deep South, which was frankly maintained by exploiting racism. Evangelicals have their own agenda, and their long-term commitment to a minority party that cannot deliver the goods is doubtful. The Midwest is rapidly emptying out, and one wonders whether the Dakotas may not have to be delisted as states in the not too distant future, or somehow repopulated - perhaps with the refugees of our foreign wars?
Is there, then, no value or creed on which the Republicans can rebuild a voting base? Free market capitalism, always a misnomer for licensed depredation, has brought us the current economic debacle, and everyone's a born-again regulator now. Small-government, fiscally prudent conservatism ran aground against successive GOP administrations that produced only more bureaucracy, a gargantuan Pentagon and runaway deficits, capped by a whopping $10 trillion national debt. The famous Reagan revolution was only a reaction against a tired postwar liberalism bankrupted by the culture wars, declining American economic hegemony, and its own self-betrayals. Apart from the Gipper's winning smile, Reaganism had nothing to offer, except to its favored clients, the military-industrial class and the wizards of Wall Street.
Be the first to comment on this story