Thursday, May 15, 2008

The Fall of an Era

Since 1994 the Republican Party has held onto the reins of power in Washington and throughout the nation's governor's offices. Over the last 4 or 5 years the corruption and the mismanagement of the nation has swung the pendulum to the Left and the Democratic Party seems poised to wrest control of the whole enchilada from the Rigbt at long last in November.

The GOP has done such a poor job of actually governing the nation, that even staunch Republicans are voting Democrat in the current electoral season. The Republicans have lost 3 Congressional seats in the past two months in the reddest of the red strongholds thanks to organized and energized Democrats who have shined the light of reality in the faces of the Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, Sean Hannity GOP. The problem with the Republican Party is the embrace of rhetoric and vitriol over competency. The Newt Gingrich engineered takeover of the government in 1994 was in large part a response to the Democrats lack of organization and message. The loudest voices in the room were Republicans, led by the new wing of pundits who permeated the mass media. The liberal bias, if it ever really existed, was transformed into an echo chamber of Republican, news-managed talking points. We've seen that throughout the Bush Administration. Lots of "on-message" rhetoric while Rome burns.

The following clip has been "diaried" twice on DailyKos today and both of the diaries sit atop the "recommended" list over there. It's so good and so illustrative of the kind of governance and the ideological noise that Republicans have employed for the last 14 years that I can't help but post it here. If there was ever any doubt that the noisy, vapid talking points of the GOP have played themselves out at this point in history, watch Chris Matthews DESTROY a right-wing radio wingnut on Hardball. This is going to be a very ugly year for the GOP:

No comments: