John Henke, filling in for Megan McArdle at The Atlantic, pretty much explains it with two quotes and gives a shameless plug for The Next Right, which I have very high hopes for.  We small 'l' libertarian, small government and liberty-minded conservatives need to take back control of the GOP, and the sooner the better.

Never a good sign, check out this out, a screencap of the GOP website, where Barack Obama's name is mentioned ten times.  How many mentions for McCain?  Nada.  Any talk of ideas and core principles of the GOP?  Nah, not really.  It is basically a bunch of talking points and swipes at Obama, and that they have nothing but to talk about the other guy is not a good thing. 

The elite of the GOP pretty much stand for nothing, and it shows, Tom Cole on Fox News Sunday rejected forswearing earmarks, but said they've got some token squishy, mildly, vaguely anti-pork legislation, and are waiting to hear from the Democrats before they pursue it.  Are you effing kidding me?  You're waiting for the Democrats to approve it?  And yes, earmarks are a tiny fraction of a giant problem, but they've become a symbolic issue, not unlike the border fence.

They just have nothing left in their arsenal but to fling poo at Obama like a bunch of monkeys, and hope it smells enough to drive him away.  At this point, the same criticism Rush Limbaugh has attacked Democrats for, that "they seek power solely for power's sake" is almost equally as true of the GOP elite.  Not good at all.

(H/T Conservative Belle)

Also of note, sounds like Mitch McConnell's Senate seat may be in trouble.  This kinda makes me think of Tom Foley, the Democrat House Speaker who lost his seat in 1994.  This is a bad sign, or maybe a good sign if you think we need to see this kind of purge of our leadership this fall.

And there is some good news too.  Kleptocrat Don Young of Alaska is vulnerable to a much better candidate, the current Alaska Lt. Governor Sean Parnell.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 02:18 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
Post contains 357 words, total size 3 kb.

1 The problem will be if McCain wins this thing.  Then, it will seem like he has been vindicated by the GOP.  If he loses - as despicable a thought that might be - maybe someone at the GOP will realize that it's time for a HUGE shake-up.

Maybe.

Posted by: Wyatt Earp at May 27, 2008 02:56 PM (89x7h)

2

If you're a practical libertarian (as opposed to the nutjob Libertarian Party types), Rick Santorum embodies everything that is wrong with the GOP.  He's big government and a social authoritarian ... the exact opposite of what I want in a politician.

The GOP can continue down that path if they wish, but they'll have completely lost my vote if they do.  I think we're going to see a fracturing of both parties in the not-too-distant future, with some major realignment of political alliances.

It's not at all clear where that will take us though.  The Dems could become a Socialist party, while the GOP could effectively become a Christian Democrat party.  That leaves a lot of voters out in the cold, and could easily give rise to a Moderate type party (Blue Dog Dem types), and/or a Conservative type party (Small government types).

Regardless of who wins the Presidency, politics will continue to be interesting.

Posted by: Hermit Dave at May 27, 2008 02:58 PM (Tk5HT)

3 Wyatt, totally agree, and I almost wonder if that's part of McCain's end game, on the flipside, I think Dave may be right in that there is big potential for some major shakeups, on both sides.  The broad coalitions are becoming intolerable for factions on both sides inside the left and right, and the left and right as popular movements themselves are finding the other side intolerable as well.  Something will have to give at some point.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at May 27, 2008 03:49 PM (ZuzXA)

4 Blue Dog Democrats aren't big enough to form a party of their own, plus there's a sort of institutional loyalty that will keep them aboard the party for now.  Those that don't would migrate to a small government party fairly easily. (That's sort of my route: conservative Democrat alienated by the socialist Democrats until I checked into libertarianism. This leaves me with the ability to despise both parties at a moment's notice.) The problem I see is that a lot of Republicans are comfortable with social authoritarianism of the Santorum type, even if they lean to small government on economic issue, so the small government party might have more former Democrats than Republicans.

Posted by: kishnevi at May 27, 2008 04:54 PM (zxjPs)

5 Possibly, but there a lot of conservatives who don't like the social authoritarian style too.  I think a solid "leave me the fuck alone" platform would be pretty effective, if those elected on that basis followed it faithfully.  The problem is convincing social cons and religious cons to back away from the idea of using the government as a tool to achieve their ends.  That they are looking to use the government as a social engineering tool shows weakness.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at May 27, 2008 05:06 PM (ZuzXA)

6 I think a solid "leave me the fuck alone" platform would be pretty effective, if those elected on that basis followed it faithfully.

That would be the basis of my party.   Well, that and all must worship me and despair. 

Posted by: alexthechick at May 27, 2008 05:27 PM (VwWW3)

7 Heh.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at May 27, 2008 05:43 PM (ZuzXA)

8 I'd hate to be among the unfortunate ones who didn't follow your lead.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at May 27, 2008 05:49 PM (ZuzXA)

9 The Next Right holds some promise, but to say that I have "high hopes" for anything is going further than I'm willing to commit to right now.

I have signed up though (hopefully I'll be inspired to blog soon), and I will give it a very solid "most interesting thing going on right now".

Posted by: Sockless Joe at May 27, 2008 06:32 PM (YHjxq)

10 Oh, I'm not expecting anything miraculous, but I hope it is a successful enterprise, we need a solid conservative entity to rally behind for certain things.  The dextrosphere doesn't operate like the left side does.  They have a few giant sites, and then a few medium and small ones, we're a lot more decentralized.

Posted by: doubleplusundead at May 27, 2008 07:29 PM (ZuzXA)

11

Thanks for the link and the traffic.  I have decided that I will not vote for President this year because of exactly what Wyatt Earp said.  John McCain is really too stupid to understand that a vote for him is strictly a vote against the confiscatory taxation that WILL come when Obama is elected.

That said, I have started requesting that my clients pay me in cash.  So far this year, I look like I am poor enough to barely be able to afford to live under a bridge.  Here's to skipping the FICA taxes, too!

Promote the hate!  Obama '08!

Posted by: Two Dogs at May 27, 2008 09:28 PM (5Z6np)

12 I'd be behind the concept of "wandering in the wilderness" for four years if we weren't fighting a war and facing perhaps the least qualified person ever to be nominated to be the Leader of the Free World.

Yes, John McCain is the epitome of a Turd Sandwich, but we're looking at something a whole lot worse than the Giant Douche that was John Kerry four years ago.  While four years of the jug-eared jackass might do wonders for the GOP, I don't see how an Obama presidency along with a Dem congress during a time of war helps our country.

Posted by: Sean M. at May 28, 2008 04:57 AM (e6v7s)

13 Libertarian (practical) is way way better than Republican anymore.  I mean, Libertarians get good standing in Futurama... in "Where the Bugalo Roam" Fry tells a ghost story around the campfire...

<blockquote>Fry: And then, while they sat helplessly around the campfire ... a demented knife-wielding escaped lunatic libertarian zombie mutant snuck up and--</blockquote>

Figured DPUD would like that visual.

Posted by: lemurking at May 28, 2008 10:30 PM (FtjaD)

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