Question of the Day: Do we really need a Republican Party? And if so, WHY?

[Mira]

GOP Obstructionist Antics Signal its Demise
by Donald Kaul



Here’s the question of the day: Do we really need a Republican Party? And if so, why?

Once the party of giants like Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Nelson Rockefeller, it’s now led by political Lilliputians like Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and John McCain.

Once the party of the anti-slavery and environmental movements, it has become the anti-immigrant, anti-civil rights Party of No, backwards-looking and obstructionist.


In the health-care debate, it sided with the insurance companies.

In the fight for the reform of our financial system, it supports the banks and Wall Street financiers.

On environmental and energy issues, it backs the polluters and the extraction industries.


At every turn of the road for the past 30 years the GOP has favored the rich over the poor, the few over the many. During that time, the party has never seen a war or elite privilege it didn’t like.

And now, it seems to have lost its grasp on reality.

<snip>

Sen. John McCain, the titular head of the party, had this to say: “There will be no cooperation for the rest of the year. They have poisoned the well in what they’ve done and how they’ve done it.”

(Watching McCain these days is like watching a giant helium-filled balloon starting to lose air. It gets a little smaller, more wrinkled and pathetic every day. His loss in the last presidential election has made him a bitter old man.)

In truth, there’s nothing that the Democrats or Obama could have done to win the cooperation of any Republican, let alone a significant number of them.

The GOP is committed to standing together against everything Obama suggests. Republicans think that is the path to victory in the coming elections.

<snip>

The modern Republican Party--having worked to win the support of white southerners in the aftermath of desegregation--is built on the ruins of an ideology that would deny equal rights to all. It’s rotten at the core.

It’s almost laughable to see angry Republicans warn Democrats about going against the public will.

The GOP is a party that has lost the popular vote to the Democrats in four of the past five presidential elections, and yet it has the nerve to claim to know the public’s will.

If there’s any justice in the world, the Republicans are going the way of the Whig Party.

Bon voyage.

Link to the entire editorial is here:

http://www.minutemanmedia.org/032910/KAUL.htm

[stray cat]

1. Because people vote for them nearly as much as the democratic party?

[unblock]

25. if by "people" you mean "electronic voting machines", sure.

[Motown_Johnny]

2. That is like asking why we need evil

[damntexdem]

14. "Good is better'n evil because it's nicer."

- Mammy Yokum

[Recursion]

22. "Evil will always triumph because good is dumb"

-- Dark Helmet

[no_hypocrisy]

3. In the Buddhist tradition, one needs darkness to appreciate the light.

[still_one]

4. The problem is the Democrats do not fight like the republicans, and that is a problem

They appear weak and ineffectual because the repukes control the talking points, and that isn't the way it should be

Recently, with the HCR bill more Democrats have stepped up to the plate, but they have to be more vocal and get the message out, or it will get misrepresented and distorted

[damntexdem]

16. In our tradition, we need the dark to appreciate the dimness.

;-)

[still_one]

31. Very well put /nt

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Not with the things O has been doing lately --

Who needs a Party who is for privatizing the schools, dicking with Medicare/Social Security, war, expanding oil drilling, nukes, coal, forcing Americans to purchase health insurance or risk fines -- when you have O to do it for them? :shrug:

[Warpy]

6. Hamiltonian parties, at their best,

provided a real service when they asked important questions about legislation, especially about how to finance various programs. At their worst, they've made deals with the devil to grab power, wreck the system, and then have the devils take over completely just before they self destruct. This has been the pattern with the Federalist Party, the Whigs, and now the GOP.

If we don't have a GOP, we'll just have various factions within the Democratic Party and a lot of people screaming about one party rule when such a thing has never really existed and won't exist, not while party membership is open to everyone.

I miss the Eisenhower GOP, decent but wrong, able to live with the New Deal and recognizing its wisdom while seeking to preserve the fortunes of the wealthy and balancing the dreamers in our own party with fiscal reality.

[old mark]

7. The Democrats seem to be where the "moderate" republicans

were in the Nixon era - we need the leftover republicans to soak up the KKKers, Nazis, "religious" maniacs and all the rest who own it now...
other than that, there is no reason for them to exist at all.
Just a dump for the bigots.

mark

[MineralMan]

8. I didn't know we had a choice in the matter.

How do you propose getting rid of a political party, pray tell?

[Wickerman]

9. Sweet, I love Donald Kahl

and rarely see his by-line any more.

thanks.

[Mira]

12. I look back to a time when he was young (and so was I)

and he was a lone voice of reason and a cause of chuckles in the wilderness.
He retired, and every now and then he pipes back up.
I find him more mellow but still very topical, and his column today is sparking some interesting commentary, I think.

[FiveGoodMen]

10. Hell NO, we don't need them.

But how do you get rid of them?

(Besides a couple generations-worth of really good education for all?)

[Altoid_Cyclist]

21. See my signature line.

It will take a little while but in a few generations......

However, since so many Democrats now act like the Reptilian party, I think that we're always going to have too many politicians with faulty ideology regardless of which letter comes after their name.

Maybe we need these two symbols to differentiate them:

(D) for the good guys and ($) for all of the rest.

[Sebastian Doyle]

11. Actually, we not only need a Republican party

We also need for the DLC'ers and BlueBalled Cowards to go back to it and reclaim it from the TeaBaggers. Then the Democratic party can go back to being something other than Repuke-lite. Or actually more like Repuke-medium, lately :evilfrown:

[damntexdem]

13. We do need competing parties, more than two -- but ...

we sure don't need the GOP!

[Echo In Light]

15. I'm not defending it, but our illusory rep democracy relies on the 2 party ruse to stave off actual

... "democratic interference." Frankly I'm glad that it's crumbling.

[el_bryanto]

17. What will replace them?

The Republicans replaced the Whigs - what will replace the Republicans?

I mean it's clear that there are plent of American Conservatoids who won't support even the moderate liberalism of the Democratic party.

Bryant

[mdmc]

18. We already have only one political party with two corporate wings

[Kingofalldems]

19. Ban the GOP and confiscate their guns.

[spin]

26. Are you aware that many Democrats own firearms ...

and many here on DU also own firearms? A recent poll that spent a considerable time in GD before moving to the Gungeon reveals this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=118&topic_id=295760&mesg_id=295760

Post # 69 by dmallind states that,

In GD where we had well over 120 repsonses before the move it was running at just over 50% owning guns and 50% either not personally or not even within the family.



To take firearms from Republicans would also require taking firearms from Democrats. Otherwise it would be similar to Hitler restricting firearm ownership for Jewish people.

Regulations Against Jews' Possession of Weapons
11 November 1938
With a basis in §31 of the Weapons Law of 18 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p.265), Article III of the Law on the Reunification of Austria with Germany of 13 March 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 237), and §9 of the Führer and Chancellor's decree on the administration of the Sudeten-German districts of 1 October 1938 (Reichsgesetzblatt I, p 1331) are the following ordered:

§1
Jews (§5 of the First Regulations of the German Citizenship Law of 14 November 1935, Reichsgesetzblatt I, p. 1333) are prohibited from acquiring, possessing, and carrying firearms and ammunition, as well as truncheons or stabbing weapons. Those now possessing weapons and ammunition are at once to turn them over to the local police authority.

§2
Firearms and ammunition found in a Jew's possession will be forfeited to the government without compensation.
http://constitutionalistnc.tripod.com/hitler-leftist/id14.html

Of course, I could also point out that banning the Republicans would violate the Constitution in so many ways that I can't count them.

I will merely assume that your post lacked a :sarcasm: thingie.

[Kingofalldems]

27. C'mon.---- Hyperbole

But I would confiscate the guns of freepers.

[spin]

30. They do strike me as dangerous. (n/t)

[arthritisR_US]

20. we need a republican party as much as we need lice. n/t

[tedk_355]

23. No. The Repuke party is a cancer

[TheKentuckian]

24. I know we don't need frigging four of them

Puke-lite (D), Puke-Medium (DLC), Puke-Extreme (R), and Puke-Batshit insane (Tea) is way too much.

[troubledamerican]

28. To Rape the Public -- Hence: Rape-Publicans.

[Cresent City Kid]

29. The republican party is just about down to its base

The GOP is shrinking to its core. The extremists have won the day, and lost votes in the process. There was a time when you could have a reasonable argument with them. They knew there had to be some taxes and regulation, it was just a matter of how much. They wanted less. Same with helping the poor. They knew there had to be some, they just tried to lessen it.

Somewhere along the way, they pushed all the chips into the pot. NO taxes, NO government spending, NO compromise.

What's worse for them, they're not actually right (correct) about anything. At least if they had the truth on their side, others would come around to their point of view. As it stands now, the reasonable have gone the other way.