Conservative columnist accuses Tea Party of trying to blow up the GOP

[mota bhai 2,675]

Suicide of the Right

By John Podhoretz | October 8, 2013 | 10:31pm

Every piece of evidence we have so far on the government shutdown shows the public is blaming Republicans most of all for the standoff. On Monday, an ABC poll showed 71 percent fault the GOP; 61 percent fault Congressional Democrats; 51 percent fault President Obama.

Yes, Democrats look bad. Yes, Obama is probably doing himself no favors by saying he won’t negotiate when the public wants politicians in Washington to work together.

But Republicans look considerably worse. And for the Right, the Republican Party is the only game in town.

This is what my fellow conservatives who are acting as the enablers for irresponsible GOP politicians seem not to understand. They like this fight, because they think they’re helping to hold the line on ObamaCare and government spending. They think that they’re supported by a vast silent majority of Americans who dislike what they dislike and want what they want.

I dislike what they dislike. I want what they want. But I fear they are very, very wrong about the existence of this silent majority, and that their misperception is leading them to do significant damage to the already damaged Republican “brand.”

The belief that the public is with them is based on two data points: First, twice as many people say they’re conservative as say they are liberal. And second, ObamaCare is viewed unfavorably by a majority of the American people.

Both are true.

But it has been true for more than 20 years that Americans are twice as likely to call themselves conservative — and in that time Republicans have lost the popular vote in five out of six national elections. The statistic tells us little about how Americans vote or what they vote for.

...

If ObamaCare had been as unpopular as conservatives believed, their plan for the shutdown — that there would be a public uprising to force Democratic senators in close races in 2014 to defund it — would’ve worked. It didn’t. Not a single senator budged.

Their tactic failed, and now what they are left with is House Speaker John Boehner basically begging the president of the United States to negotiate with him.

One thing we know for sure is that it’s not an equal fight, this fight between a man who received 65 million votes nationwide and a man who received 246,000 votes in one congressional district in Ohio.

Meanwhile, Boehner is basically the face of the US Congress in the eyes of the public. John Boehner is also the effective head of the Republican Party. And the US Congress is viewed favorably by . . . 11 percent of Americans.

Eleven percent.

When I interact with these conservatives, they say they don’t care about the GOP; what they care about are conservative ideas.

They’re right not to assign special glory or power to a political organization and to hold ideas above party. But here’s the condundrum: There is only one electoral vehicle for conservative ideas in the United States — the Republican Party.

It’s one thing to refuse to waste your time buffing and polishing the vehicle so that it looks nice and pretty; that’s what political hacks do, and ideologues have every right to disdain such frippery.

But if, in the guise of making the vehicle function better, you muck up the engine, smash the windshield, put the wrong tires on it and pour antifreeze in the gas tank, you are impeding its forward movement. You’re ruining it, not repairing it.

It may not have been a very good vehicle in the first place, and you may think it couldn’t drive worse, but oh man, could it ever. And it’s the only one you’ve got.

http://nypost.com/2013/10/08/suicide-of-the-right/

[OnMyWayID 1,489]

It really speaks to what is truly wrong with the parties (particularly the republicans in this case)

The government is shut down and what is this guy talking about? Data points on who the public blames.. who is winning.. and how the party will be effected later on.. *Not* about the harm being done but the perception of the public at large as to who is to blame..

Throwing the country under a bus gambling on the next election for who will have control. Nice job guys.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Cool. I love inter-party conflicts. It makes the party stronger as a whole.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

Cool. I love inter-party conflicts. It makes the party stronger as a whole.

I think you mean intra-party conflicts. I love them too. Nothing like a little bit of televised cannibalism.

[RGinWA 816]

Cool. I love inter-party conflicts. It makes the party stronger as a whole.

Yeah, the Romans, Wigs and the Nazi's sure found that to be true.

[mota bhai 2,675]

It's like dancing on a cliff. The longer you do it without falling off, the more agile you get.

You just gotta make sure you don't fall off.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

I think you mean intra-party conflicts.

Okay. "Intramuros" - inside the walls. Gothcha!

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I think you mean intra-party conflicts. I love them too. Nothing like a little bit of televised cannibalism.

A clip and a magazine are the same thing, right? Intra, inter...same thing right? At any rate, I do not care to correct my opponents in debates and rather prefer they look stupid. I am not adverse to pointing it out though.

I would like to see both of the current parties collapse. We can start with Republicans, I have no preference. Maybe when that happens we can get government that is not just about party control and power, we might even be able to get effective government controlled health care if we can get the monkeys out of it that will just use our health care to beat each other over the head.

We can hope the Tea Party succeeds.

Edited October 10, 2013 by Gary and Alla

[Peikko 1,575]

A clip and a magazine are the same thing, right? Intra, inter...same thing right? At any rate, I do not care to correct my opponents in debates and rather prefer they look stupid. I am not adverse to pointing it out though.

blah blah blah

No, they are quite definitely not the same thing.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

A clip and a magazine are the same thing, right? Intra, inter...same thing right? At any rate, I do not care to correct my opponents in debates and rather prefer they look stupid. I am not adverse to pointing it out though.

You really should get more fiber in your diet.