Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died.

[Valmy]

Hus whole career and style sort of fits. 

Well except Ludendorff was a successful general of considerable skill and courage in addition to being a paranoid nutcase.

Edit: Well ok I guess by definition he wasn't a successful general...but an effective general. He did lose the only war he was a general in.

[The Minsky Moment]

Gingrich did lead his party to a huge victory in 1994 and for a time was a very powerful Speaker.  94 was like his Tannenberg. They both had the bombast and inflated sense of self-importance.  They both lost the war after winning some big early battles.  They both had sktechy late carrers.

[Eddie Teach]

Opposing the ACA isn't anti-democratic.

[OttoVonBismarck]

I'm someone who left the GOP entirely because of what it's become, and I honestly think John McCain's heart was really in the right place. I think it was clear he was not on board with this direction the country has gone, and would be even less on board today. But he was an old man and these changes came upon him probably with relative speed, I think he started to realize some elements of the country were going in the wrong direction when he had to spend a significant portion of all of his town halls in 2008 correcting his voters who kept asking him extremely racist questions about Barack Obama, and like me and other conservatives who jumped off the Republican ship at some point between 2010-Now, you eventually reach a point where you realize it's not a conservative party that has to allow some level of crazy idiot in it in order to be viable in elections, but a fascist party that is ran by those crazies, and where we constitute the ranks of the "swamp creatures and RINOs." I think to a degree the Bush family is going through the same thing. For these public political figures it's much harder to totally break those ties.

I would say if McCain was alive today he would probably say he should've found more ways to work with Obama and he would probably regret his decision to contribute to the toxic hyperpartisanship of the Obama era.

[Barrister]

I'm a John McCain fan, but he was after all a politician.  After his 2000 primary battle he knew he couldn't run as a moderate to win the GOP nomination.  I think he also went sharply to the right in one or two of his Senate primary battles.

[The Brain]

All I know about McCain is from Family Guy, I understand he wanted to be president.

[Sheilbh]

I'm someone who left the GOP entirely because of what it's become, and I honestly think John McCain's heart was really in the right place. I think it was clear he was not on board with this direction the country has gone, and would be even less on board today. But he was an old man and these changes came upon him probably with relative speed, I think he started to realize some elements of the country were going in the wrong direction when he had to spend a significant portion of all of his town halls in 2008 correcting his voters who kept asking him extremely racist questions about Barack Obama, and like me and other conservatives who jumped off the Republican ship at some point between 2010-Now, you eventually reach a point where you realize it's not a conservative party that has to allow some level of crazy idiot in it in order to be viable in elections, but a fascist party that is ran by those crazies, and where we constitute the ranks of the "swamp creatures and RINOs." I think to a degree the Bush family is going through the same thing. For these public political figures it's much harder to totally break those ties.

I would say if McCain was alive today he would probably say he should've found more ways to work with Obama and he would probably regret his decision to contribute to the toxic hyperpartisanship of the Obama era.

Agree with a lot of this.

Of course the other point on 2008 is that he chose Sarah Palin who is arguably key in unlocking a lot of where the Republicans are now. I imagine that was a cause of regret for McCain, but arguably it's a big part of his legacy. The things that he disliked his party becoming were partly caused by a decision he made - and one based on his character flaws, from everything I've read he didn't do much research, he liked the sound of her and he went with his gut (things that, in other context, people liked about him).

[OttoVonBismarck]

I think you're also in a rough position when you have political positions that don't have much acceptance in the Democratic party.

Like I view myself as pro-life, although I don't believe in criminalization of abortion generally, I mostly believe it should be heavily restricted after 12-14 weeks and we should have robust programs to try to give people different options, at least when the abortion in question is an elective abortion (i.e. not being done for medical reasons.)

I generally am skeptical of the social welfare ideas of Bernie Sanders and AOC, and I'm even more skeptical of their foreign policy.

Part of what helped me with leaving the GOP is realizing as much as I disagree with the far left, the GOP actually barely has any serious policy positions anymore. From what I can tell the only policies we plan to  take action on approach in a coherent way is:
-Tax cuts for the wealthy, at any cost and regardless of broader concerns
-The appointment of as many Judges who belong to the Federalist society and are willing to be Republicans first and jurists second

I don't really think that's a very good deal, especially when the party is also outright promoting an atmosphere of greater racial strife, authoritarianism, political violence etc. For the Republicans who have been paying attention it's hard not to conclude at some point in the past ten years there is no more "there" there, the party isn't a big collection of competing right of center to far right policy preferences, but just a bunch of angry white people mad about the passage of time and willing to fuck things up as bad as possible over it.

[Valmy]

I would appreciate your efforts in the Democratic Party to keep AOC and Bernie and their like from taking over the party. I mean views like theirs do have a constituency that deserves to be heard but having them run wild would ultimately be a bad thing.

[Malthus]

I mean, this year the Republicans officially don't have a platform. That says it all, really.

[Sheilbh]

I mean, this year the Republicans officially don't have a platform. That says it all, really.

Yeah. I mean I remember all the early 2000s stuff about how Republicans were the "party of ideas"

[Malthus]

My view of the last few years is similar on left/right politics generally.

The extreme left embraces many things I find harmful or absurd. However, at the end of the day, these things are merely irritations. They don't directly threaten society. The extreme right these days appears to be embracing outright authoritarianism and racism. The risks are not evenly balanced. The extreme right is a far greater risk, they must be stopped.

[alfred russel]

Of course the other point on 2008 is that he chose Sarah Palin who is arguably key in unlocking a lot of where the Republicans are now. I imagine that was a cause of regret for McCain, but arguably it's a big part of his legacy. The things that he disliked his party becoming were partly caused by a decision he made - and one based on his character flaws, from everything I've read he didn't do much research, he liked the sound of her and he went with his gut (things that, in other context, people liked about him).

McCain didn't contribute to anything by picking Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin as VP didn't change the GOP unless you want to argue that she cost McCain the election (which I don't).

There is a huge market for conservative nonsense tellers. It long predates Palin and post dates her as well. She resigned as governor of Alaska to cash in on the market and became just another republican talking head. That general conservative echochamber may very well be responsible for where we are, but Sarah Palin didn't create it or really contribute to it in any meaningful way.

McCain was a candidate that was going to lose and made a bad VP choice. I really think the story ends there. If anything, it shows that McCain may have not realized how vacuous and superficial politics had become. He saw an attractive woman as governor of a state, who was quite popular there, and took a chance on her. In an earlier generation, governors may have been corrupt, but there was more of a party level vetting process to keep out people who were effectively brain dead. He had a team to vet potential ethics violations, but apparently nothing in the process to identify if she read a book.

[grumbler]

I'm a John McCain fan, but he was after all a politician.  After his 2000 primary battle he knew he couldn't run as a moderate to win the GOP nomination.  I think he also went sharply to the right in one or two of his Senate primary battles.

That's the way I see it, as well.  He did sell his soul to the devil to a large degree to try to get elected President in 2008.  His cozying up to the religious right in Arizona was just an example.  But, as you say, he had his heart in the right place for almost his entire career, and some of the late stuff may have been more the party than the man.  Late-career blunders are dismayingly common in politicians, and one of the things I admire about Bernie Sanders is that he seems fairly immune to this, as was also, for instance, true of Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela.

maybe it is desperation, and maybe senility.  It's hard to say.

[Sheilbh]

McCain was a candidate that was going to lose and made a bad VP choice. I really think the story ends there. If anything, it shows that McCain may have not realized how vacuous and superficial politics had become. He saw an attractive woman as governor of a state, who was quite popular there, and took a chance on her. In an earlier generation, governors may have been corrupt, but there was more of a party level vetting process to keep out people who were effectively brain dead. He had a team to vet potential ethics violations, but apparently nothing in the process to identify if she read a book.

I'm fascinated by how these two sentiments sit next to each other

I think you're right. The difference pre-Palin the barbarians were at the gate, after Palin they're inside. There is a difference between a conservative media nonsense teller and the party itself, especially your nominee for one of the two nationally elected roles. We are living Palin's style of politics still.

I always remember the difference between McCain who was confronted with racists saying Obama wasn't a real American and taking the mic off them and saying that it wasn't true, they disagreed but Obama was a good family man and he was a good American trying to win office. Then you had Palin who I think was running a dog whistle campaign "Obama is not a man who sees America the way you and I do" was one line I always remember. For what it's worth I don't think that was deliberate on the part of the McCain campaign, but the crowds started responding to Palin more and she started playing it up more, as you say into the conservative media echo chamber. I think Palin finds an enthusiastic group of voters who I don't think were necessarily a core part of the Republic electorate (as opposed to consumers of conservative media) and who I don't think necessarily turn out for Romney.

The crowds cheering Palin are the crowds packing out Trump rallies is why I think it's a key inflection point even if maybe there are bigger structural points and we end up here anyway. But I'm genuinely not sure if we do if it's McCain-Liberman/Romney/Ridge/Pawlentey.