Take
it not from me, but from non-partisan political observers, that the Republican
Party is dragging the nation down with it!
by Charlie
Leck
Let’s just say it: The Repubicans are the
problem!
Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann are the co-writers of a column that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday that blames the Republican Party for contributing most significantly to the current failure and stagnation of the political system in America. I strongly suggest you read the column (whether you are a Democrat or a Republican – or neither). Taken together, Orstein and Mann paint a pretty objective picture.
Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann are the co-writers of a column that appeared in the Washington Post yesterday that blames the Republican Party for contributing most significantly to the current failure and stagnation of the political system in America. I strongly suggest you read the column (whether you are a Democrat or a Republican – or neither). Taken together, Orstein and Mann paint a pretty objective picture.
Who are Orstein and Mann?
It makes sense to know about these two guys in order to comprehend the full impact of what they write in this column.
It makes sense to know about these two guys in order to comprehend the full impact of what they write in this column.
Ornstein is a
scholar on the staff of the American
Enterprise Institute. Mann is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. The Washington
Post column is an adaptation from their book: It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.
Mann is a highly
respected and extremely well known congressional scholar and a senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution.
The Brookings Institution is a highly regarded think tank in the
nation’s capital. It states its mission this way: “…to provide innovative and
practical recommendations that advance three broad goals: strengthen American
democracy; foster the economic and social welfare security and opportunity of
all Americans; and secure a more open, safe, prosperous and cooperative
international system.” Its claim of non-partisanship has been generally
accepted.
The American Enterprise Institute is a conservative think tank that says
its mission is “to defend the principles and improve the institutions of
American freedom and democratic capitalism – limited government, private
enterprise, individual liberty and responsibility…”
“Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the
core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
“The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It
is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by
conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and
dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
“When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it
nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the
country’s challenges.
“Today, however, we have no choice but to acknowledge that the
core of the problem lies with the Republican Party.
“The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It
is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by
conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and
dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.”
Mann and
Ornstein blame this movement to the far, far right of the political spectrum on
a number of possible factors…
·
The
Roe v. Wade decision on legal abortion in ‘73
·
California’s
proposition 13 that launched the anti-tax movement in ‘78
·
The
increased popularity of conservative radio talk shows
·
The
emergence of admittedly biased news programming, like FOX News
Yet, more so, the
writers trace the hard to the right movement of the GOP to the influence of two
particular individuals: Newt Gingrich and Grover Norquist.
It is difficult
and dangerous to summarize such a significant and complex piece of political
analysis, so I urge you to read the entire piece as it is
presented in the Washington Post
and this may then lead you to order the book by these two writers.
Nevertheless, I will take a stab at a brief summary.
Why Gingrich and Norquist?
The Norquist connection to this radical movement of the party to the right is the easier of the two to explain, so I’ll begin there.
The Norquist connection to this radical movement of the party to the right is the easier of the two to explain, so I’ll begin there.
In 1985, Grover
Norquist founded Americans for Tax Reform
and, with it, the Taxpayer Protection
Pledge. Both are prime exhibits of the dangers of absolutism in politics
or, for that matter, in society itself. The pledge binds those who sign it to NEVER support tax increases. The
absolute here is absolutely clear. Here’s
the kicker (as in kick in the pants):
238 of 242 House Republicans have signed the pledge and so have all but six of
the 47 Republican U.S. Senators. To not sign the Norquist Pledge is to put
oneself at risk for failure in the next election.
As a result of
the no-tax-increase pledge, compromise in the House and Senate over virtually
any serious and important issue is nearly impossible. The U.S. Senate
filibuster rule was once only used sparingly and for extremely important issues
or appointments. It is now used in considering and voting on nearly every
single issue that comes before the Senate. A simple majority can no longer pass
any controversial issue. In the Senate, it currently it takes 60 votes to pass
any bill to which Republicans object.
The two authors
blame the intransigency of the Republican Party for causing the recent and
historic down-grade of America’s credit worthiness – the first down-grade of
America’s credit standing in our history.
Among moderate
Republicans in Congress there is all-out fear of the power and irrationality of
their own party’s very conservative right-wing.
As a result, the
work of the Congress has come to a near standstill on all matters except the
most ceremonial and unimportant issues.
A key question –
probably to be answered in the coming November elections – has to do with how
seriously the American public is infected with this Norquist ideology. If the
contagion runs deep, American society could be significantly changed for a long
period of time.
The Newt Gingrich factor!
Gingrich was clearly the leader, from the time of his election to Congress in 1979, of the fight to wrest congressional control away from the Democratic Party. His goal was accomplished in the 1995.
Gingrich was clearly the leader, from the time of his election to Congress in 1979, of the fight to wrest congressional control away from the Democratic Party. His goal was accomplished in the 1995.
The result of
the Gingrich-Norquist reformation of Republican politics has left us with a
Congress than cannot act on the simplest of governmental and administrative
actions.
To make matters
worse, conventional and rational, sensible, cooperative Republicans are leaving
the Congress in disgust.
Unfortunately,
the two authors predict that the “ideological divide will probably grow after
the 2012 elections.”
“In the House, some of the remaining centrist and conservative
‘Blue Dog’ Democrats have been
targeted for extinction by redistricting, while even ardent tea
party Republicans, such as freshman Rep. Alan Nunnelee (Miss.), have faced
primary challenges from the right for being too accommodationist. And Mitt Romney’s rhetoric and positions offer no indication
that he would govern differently if his party captures the White House and both
chambers of Congress.”
Oh, my! I’m
sorry to put this in front of you today. I should have written about something
rosier – like the international growth of nuclear weapons – or, perhaps, of the
rapidly declining respect in which America is today held all around the world –
being taken less and less seriously when it speaks of Democracy because it
cannot even get its own house in order.
“Wasn’t that a
dainty dish,
To set before a king?
To set before a king?
The king was in
his counting house,
Counting out his money;
The Queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.”
Counting out his money;
The Queen was in the parlour,
Eating bread and honey.”
The
article by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein is very important. Their new book is… It’s Even Worse than it Looks: How the
American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism.
_________________________
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