Why won't the GOP say 'no' to extremism?

[pinboy3niner]

Why won't the GOP say 'no' to extremism?
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
Monday, August 23, 2010

<snip>
The principled case that must be made is that the brand of conservatism seeking power this year is irresponsible, incoherent and untrue to the best of its own traditions. That's clear enough at the most basic level of policy: Conservatives can say that they are deeply worried about deficits, or they can insist that tax cuts matter most. But when they say they can reduce taxes and trim deficits at the same time, they are either deluded or deceptive, and they are playing voters for fools.

But there is something far more troubling at work: the rise of an angry, irrational extremism -- the sort that says Obama is a Muslim socialist who wasn't born in the United States -- that was not part of Ronald Reagan's buoyant conservative creed. Do Republican politicians believe in the elaborate conspiracy theories being spun by Glenn Beck and parts of the Tea Party? If not, why won't they say so? Liberals who refused to break with the far left in the 1950s and '60s were accused of being blinded by a view that saw "no enemies on the left." Are conservatives who should know better now falling into a "no enemies on the right" trap?

When Texas Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert warns, with absolutely no proof, of the dangers of "terror babies" -- children whose mothers allegedly come to the United States to give birth so their offspring can have American passports for later use in terrorist activities -- have we not crossed into never-never land? Where are the responsible conservatives who should be denouncing such crackpottery?

What the current right has on offer is far worse than anything Bush put forward, which means that this election isn't even about whether we'll go back into the ditch. It's about whether a movement that's gone over a cliff will be rewarded for doing so. A victory for this style of conservatism will be a defeat for the kind of conservatism the country needs. And that's a worthy matter to put to the voters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/22/AR2010082202270.html?tid=nn_twitter

[thereismore]

1. That's right... they have been saying NO to just about everything else. nt

[louis-t]

2. They have nothing else.

Simple as that.

[The Magistrate]

3. Because, Sir, Without These Talking Turds They Would Have No Voters At All

[baldguy]

4. Because, without it they'd be yelling at the neighborhood kids to stay off their lawn.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Simple. They want their votes.

[Dawson Leery]

double post

[Dawson Leery]

6. Because they want the votes of the klan.

That is all the GOP has at this time.
Also, many of the current GOP bench are extremists.

[Posteritatis]

7. For the same reason fish don't say 'no' to water. (nt)

[doc03]

8. Why doesn't leading Democrats come out of hiding

and publicly oppose the extremism?

[TheKentuckian]

9. It is exactly what they are