GOP disarray and demise

Rush Limbaugh is very upset that the boys of NR are advising McCain to pick a Democrat as VP, as a way to show that the Republicans are even more the party of “change” and “unity” than the Democrats. Isn’t that just perfect? After having thinned out conservatism for years, the neocons and their heirs the teeny cons top off the job by telling the Republicans to merge with the Democrats. The Republicans, at least presidentially (we hope not congressionally), are a basket case for this year. Unless Hillary—the Great White Hope—can pull off a miracle and stop him, Obama will be the next president.

But here’s a further thought. Let’s say that the national GOP, thanks largely to the neocons, is dead for the foreseeable future as even a nominally conservative party, and that, with conservatives staying home or voting for third party presidential candidates this year, the presidential election will be a battle between two versions of the Democratic party, each vying for the Democratic vote. The goal of the former Republican party, now renamed Democratic Party II under the leadership of McCain, is to attract Democrats who don’t like Obama. What better way to do that than for McCain to pick Hillary as his VP?

The only problem with this plan is that McCain probably sees Hillary at this point as too racist to be his running mate.

- end of initial entry -

Alex M. writes:

If the senior Bush has gone down in history for his “Read my lips. No new taxes!,” might I submit that McCain’s epitaph will be “Read my lips. No new wetbacks!”

LA replies:

Except that McCain failed to wait until after he was elected to say, “Read my hips.” Heck, he didn’t even wait until he was nominated. It has to be the stupidest and most self-destructive move by a leading presidential candidate in history … unless he takes seriously my above prognosis, and plans to run basically as a Democrat

(Explanation: When Bush the elder broke his no new taxes pledge in summer 1990, reporters asked him about it as he was jogging past them, and he said, “Read my hips.” There’s the essence of Bush the elder. He made the most solemn promise in the history of U.S. presidential politics, and then contemptuously and frivolously tossed it away. That had to be the ultimate moment in the decadence of the WASP elite.)

Sebasitian writes:

Your last line, “The only problem with this plan is that McCain probably sees Hillary at this point as too racist to be his running mate,” is both funny and painfully true.

A few mornings ago, I made the mistake of turning on the TV and catching a new show, a sort of B-version of Regis—if you can imagine that. Out came McCain in full Homeric (Simpson) gravitas to chat with the mandatory attractive/vapid blond and the peculiarly metrosexual/ineffectual male co-host. He immediately began talking about Selma, AL and everything he had learned during his latest trip across the South about the legacy of racism, the civil rights struggle and the bravery of the marchers. He spoke of the party of Lincoln and the GOP’s history leading the way in civil rights. He mentioned our “Latino friends” and their place is the “mosaic” that is America. He was trying to out-guilt trip Obama and the left. He then moved to global warming and the need to work with our European partners on something or other. Except for the “R-AZ” that occasionally appeared below his name, a Martian would have thought he was the candidate of some party like the UK Social-Democrats.

Given his record in the Senate and his statements over the last twelve months, I would say Hillary’s emergent brand of nationalism, whatever its ultimate sincerity, would in fact be deemed racist not only by McCain but also by his apologists in the GOP establishment. After all, repudiating NAFTA is now equated with isolationism, i.e. not wanting to fight the fascists, and asking that we have some kind of border is xenophobic, i.e. being a fascist. McCain would be worse than Obama simply because he hopes to win over the very people who most support Obama. The poor saps voting for Hillary (the racist whites in McCain-Obama speak) will lose no matter who gets elected.

LA writes:

I recommend the article by Jonah Goldberg that I mentioned at the top of this entry. The strategy it lays out, the work of several NR editors, is quite incredible. You’ve heard the expression, “too clever by half.” This plan is too clever by about 400 percent. It’s the presidential campaign equivalent of a Rube Goldberg device.

The more desperate the GOP becomes,—the result of the hollowing out of conservatism by liberal leaning GOP leaders like Bush and McCain cheered on by NR itself—the more clever the NR people become to extricate the party from the mess they’ve helped create.

Goldberg writes that “McCain needs to pick a running mate who will reassure conservatives.” NR’s calling on John McCain to reassure conservatives (!!) is as reality-based as Daniel Pipes and Robert Spencer calling on Muslims to reform themselves. It doesn’t matter how many times the solicitations are rejected; they will keep being advanced, forever.

Clem writes:

“The only problem with this plan is that McCain probably sees Hillary at this point as too racist to be his running mate.”

That statement made my head explode. The term Orwellian is way overused but I can’t think of a more appropriate one.

LA writes:

Does Mark Steyn read VFR? At the Corner, May 24, he writes:

On the other hand, if [McCain] wanted to do the grand bipartisan gesture Jonah’s arguing for, he’d be better to go all the way and put Hillary on the ticket. I tremble even to make that suggestion because McCain’s such a contrarian old coot he’s just nutty enough to do it.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 23, 2008 02:28 PM | Send