David Frum on the GOP

[Razgovory]

Extremism and conflict make for bad politics but great TV. Over the past two decades, conservatism has evolved from a political philosophy into a market segment. An industry has grown up to serve that segment—and its stars have become the true thought leaders of the conservative world. The business model of the conservative media is built on two elements: provoking the audience into a fever of indignation (to keep them watching) and fomenting mistrust of all other information sources (so that they never change the channel). As a commercial proposition, this model has worked brilliantly in the Obama era. As journalism, not so much. As a tool of political mobilization, it backfires, by inciting followers to the point at which they force leaders into confrontations where everybody loses, like the summertime showdown over the debt ceiling.

But the thought leaders on talk radio and Fox do more than shape opinion. Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics. Outside this alternative reality, the United States is a country dominated by a strong Christian religiosity. Within it, Christians are a persecuted minority. Outside the system, President Obama—whatever his policy ­errors—is a figure of imposing intellect and dignity. Within the system, he's a pitiful nothing, unable to speak without a teleprompter, an affirmative-action ­phony doomed to inevitable defeat. Outside the system, social scientists worry that the U.S. is hardening into one of the most rigid class societies in the Western world, in which the children of the poor have less chance of escape than in France, Germany, or even England. Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) "the only place in the world where it doesn't matter who your parents were or where you came from."

This is the most annoying thing I find about the GOP.  They have essentially created their own system of facts based on the idea that everyone is biased or a liar but their own masters.  There's an article in Wikipedia about Evolution, thus Wikipedia is biased against Conservatives.  We must create our own version:  Conservapedia.  CNN won't carry the stories about how Hillary Clinton killed Vince Foster?  So we must create our own version: Fox News.  Schools teach things that don't fit into the Conservative mindset?  Department of Education must go!  etc.

[Neil]

Poor Yi.  What did you think when Bush cut taxes and destroyed the hard fought and carefully built surpluses with a stroke of a pen?

That wasn't necessarily a bad thing.  But when it became clear that the government was in need of more revenue, and they kept extending them, that was a mistake.

[Valmy]

Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) "the only place in the world where it doesn't matter who your parents were or where you came from."

It does make me giggle a bit when politicians talk like it is still 1788 or something.

[Malthus]

Seems a pretty fair article. I'm no GOP type and never was, but the ... substandard ... quality  of the candidates & rhetoric produced by that party recently is simply astonishing, not to say horrifying. Many appear to positively revel in ignorance, like that Cain dude. There must be lots and lots of Republicans who feel this way. 

[Sheilbh]

Many appear to positively revel in ignorance, like that Cain dude.

This is something I don't get, but you're absolutely right.  With some of the candidates it's like they're proud that they don't know something and have no intention or desire to correct that.  It's mind boggling.

[The Brain]

Be strong in your ignorance. Your mind should be filled with the God-Emperor, not heretical knowledge.

[Ideologue]

Agree with all of the article except for the parts where he expresses fear of big government.

I also like the pictures of the GOP candidates that capture them in the exact moment you would most want to punch them square in the face.

[The Minsky Moment]

GOP think tank writers aren't supposed to think. 

They don't need to think, they have "Ideas".
If the facts don't fit the "Ideas",  the answer is simple: the facts are wrong.

[crazy canuck]

I wish Frum had spent more time in Canada but at the time he was making his career decisions there was no Conservative party to speak of and so the only good job opportunities were south of the border.

[Admiral Yi]

Poor Yi.  What did you think when Bush cut taxes and destroyed the hard fought and carefully built surpluses with a stroke of a pen?

You prefer to focus on the moral authority argument because it makes the Republicans look bad.  That's great, go get 'em, but after you are finished demolishing the moral authority of the Republican party on deficit spending we still have a national debt equal to GDP which is rising by 10% of GDP a year.  That creates real world consequences, whether the GOP has moral authority or not.

That line also creates the minor problem of how partizan posters are supposed to deal with Obama's last minute offer on deficit reduction: a truly heroic and statesmanlike act, or just stupid, since we should be borrowing and spending even more?

[CountDeMoney]

None of you assfucks gave a royal rat shit about the deficit in 2008. Not a single GOPtard opened his fucking mouth back then.  None of you.

Ergo, all this deficit bullshit is exactly that: bullshit.  And racism.

[Admiral Yi]

  QED.

[Berkut]

None of you assfucks gave a royal rat shit about the deficit in 2008. Not a single GOPtard opened his fucking mouth back then.  None of you.

Ergo, all this deficit bullshit is exactly that: bullshit.  And racism.

I did.

But then, I am not a GOPTard.

More GOP fun times:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-november-28-2011/much-ado-about-stuffing

"When did Fox News become the 700 Club?"

The right really has fucking jumped the shark.

[Alcibiades]

Love Stewart.

[Razgovory]

Poor Yi.  What did you think when Bush cut taxes and destroyed the hard fought and carefully built surpluses with a stroke of a pen?

You prefer to focus on the moral authority argument because it makes the Republicans look bad.  That's great, go get 'em, but after you are finished demolishing the moral authority of the Republican party on deficit spending we still have a national debt equal to GDP which is rising by 10% of GDP a year.  That creates real world consequences, whether the GOP has moral authority or not.

That line also creates the minor problem of how partizan posters are supposed to deal with Obama's last minute offer on deficit reduction: a truly heroic and statesmanlike act, or just stupid, since we should be borrowing and spending even more?

That doesn't answer my question.  I prefer to focus on fucking pattern recognition.  They've done the same thing twice over the last 30 years.  Why expect them to do anything different?  Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.  Fool me three times...