I can't recall when I last so enjoyed a column as this one by Pat Buchanan, in which he unwittingly frames the GOP's fateful predicament with ruthless dispatch:
[I]f the GOP has no room for Trump’s followers, it has no future. For there simply aren’t that many chamber-of-commerce and country-club Republicans.
That is indisputably true. And yet Buchanan's "solution" is to keep the two scorpions in a bottle.
Such has been the working hypothesis of a "conservative fusion" since Bill Buckley's National Review Hegelians made the ideologically divergent anthropods kiss and make up in the early 1960s. One — the meaner, nastier one — grew bigger and more powerful in time, however, and now it is eating the other one alive.
What we have, here, is a failure of compatibility … at long last. Buchanan's solution is no solution at all. How can the country clubbers make room for the Trumpeteers, when the latter detest the former, and the clubbers know the Trumpeteers are pure poison?
At some point, one of the scorpions must be jettisoned from the bottled asylum. And when that happens, the GOP will be reduced in electoral power by half, or thereabouts; and that's when the GOP will transmogrify from a regional party to a national irrelevancy.
I must say, I like this solution.
Of course Trump is a country clubber who is adored by the mean, nasty, Trumpeteer crowd. I believe now that if he softens his rhetoric, his support will decline.
Posted by: Anne J | August 14, 2015 at 01:36 PM
Absolutely. Moderation is suicide.
Posted by: Peter G | August 14, 2015 at 02:17 PM
This is Pat at his clear eyed best. If you read his piece do not overlook the comments section for it is priceless. Another interesting take from Vox that is worth reading: http://www.vox.com/2015/8/14/9153057/2016-republicans-may-start-heading-for-the-exits-thats-good-for
Now this Vox piece and something I have learned of late is causing me to rethink some of my previous assertions regarding the glut of money behind Republican candidates. It seems they don't actually have it. Last time out in 2012 the superpacs were just given the money and spent it with wild abandon on ad buys and completely ineffective political consultants in support of various candidates. This time it seems the nature of superpacs has changed. The major donors are not just donating funds, they are controlling the pacs so they can control the funds should any given candidate fail to meet their expectations. Perry doesn't have millions in superpac funds that he has any sort of access to. What will happen to these superpacs funds as candidates fail to get traction and are abandoned is anyone's guess but I will bet it will be split between the establishment candidates and the ideological favorites like Cruz and Fiorina. And so the Republican civil war will be, unlike the Iraq adventure, fully funded.
Posted by: Peter G | August 14, 2015 at 02:32 PM
As the studiously ignored post-2012 autopsy found there are actually more reasonable people to appeal to, but "Republican" and "reasonable" can't be put close together without eating each other either. After all, reasonable people expect reasonableness, and if the GOP keeps making room for Trump's followers it has no future either. Obviously Fox News Channel, Rush, Erick, and all the other party luminaries will have to solve the paradox. Good luck with that, freaks.
Posted by: Bob | August 14, 2015 at 03:06 PM
I don't think they can Bob. Divine intervention seems to be required. I remember in my youth they use to accuse the left of knee jerk reactions and there was some truth in it. But now it the right operating purely on reflex. They must fight someone! And a good part of the right thinks what they must fight is themselves but also they must present a united front against the left and anyone who doesn't agree with any given right wing orthodoxy is the enemy. They demand unity on their completely contradictory terms and despise any hint of compromise.
I do believe they are going to do themselves some harm. Don't say I in a whisper. Stop please, more faintly still. Oh well I at least thought about giving them some advice.
Posted by: Peter G | August 14, 2015 at 05:50 PM
Loving this presser from Donald Trump right now. It's like all the worst kept secrets of the GOP and politics in general are just tumbling out of his mouth.
Posted by: Anne J | August 14, 2015 at 06:15 PM
Wow, Peter you were right about the comments section of that piece. It was hilarious and fascinating to witness the hard core base talking among themselves. I really need to get out more. Of course where I live, that means witnessing the hard core base talk among themselves live and in person.
Posted by: Anne J | August 14, 2015 at 06:45 PM
The only advice I could give them is to put their best liars on it and have them lie like they've never lied before. It might not prove possible, but is certainly worth a try.
Posted by: Bob | August 14, 2015 at 10:11 PM