Kathianne
08-09-2016, 10:14 PM
Now that will be interesting. One possibility:
https://medium.com/the-american-singularity/its-the-end-of-the-gop-as-we-know-it-and-i-feel-fine-d60a898dcaf6#.blz9lh3im
It’s the End of the @GOP as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Monday, August 8th, 2016 Reed Galen (https://medium.com/u/35cba34154bd)
...
Last fall’s Republican primary debates illustrated the stark relief between the various conservative factions. You had big-government social conservatives like Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee advocating on the traditional values plank. Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Chris Christie represented the traditional Republican set; pro-business, reasonable on most issues, likely able to reach across the aisle. Trump, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson stood up against Washington as a broken and rigged system that only a true outsider (or happy outcast in Cruz’s case) could fix. Rand Paul was the lone quasi-libertarian on the stage. These “lanes” as we called them ad nauseum turned out to be more than shorthand to describe the Republican field. Ultimately they were the Rosetta Stone for understanding the end of Republicanism as many of us have known it for decades.
...
That there is so much passion behind the idea of crippling others of a once-similar political stripe is again not new, but this level of internecine vitriol hasn’t been seen in some time. Political candidates will find themselves knocking on the doors of donors who won’t see them. Local political organizations will drive the un-pure from their ranks. Operatives will see their steady stream of work evaporate. Individuals on all sides of the rift will be attacked personally, and probably viciously, in the conservative media and on the snake pit that is social media. Lives and careers will be torn asunder, in some cases literally.
In the quest for purity, though, there will be collateral damage within all factions. Those seen as insufficiently loyal or free-thinking are likely to be chased out. Old dogs will be consigned to the pound, never to be adopted again. Young guns will be silenced before their talent, thoughts and idea are able to flourish in the hue and cry of a united campaign organization. Differences of degrees will be magnified, the resulting white-hot light burning out many intellects that likely have something to offer to the larger discussion.
After all the metaphorical stake burnings, the victors will look around and find a battlefield littered with friends and enemies alike. The best result would be a party stripped of its worst instincts, a raw, potent ideologically collection that appeals to voters across the political spectrum and puts forth coherent ideas on governance. At its worst outcome, it could reduce the GOP to a rump party nationally — leaving Democrats in charge of the White House and the Federal administration, with all its commensurate authority, for decades.What the GOP Can’t Be (to Succeed)
So who is the GOP? Is it the party of Lincoln, or of Trump? Is it the party of small government and individual liberty or one that trades freedom for security? Do we believe that government, while highly imperfect and necessarily restrained, has certain duties it should in fact complete, or do we believe that no government equals best government? We will be the party of nativism or the party of free expression? Are we all equal in the eyes of the Lord and of the law or are some of us more equal than others?
Rick Wilson (https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson), a Florida Republican consultant (whom you should follow on Twitter) wrote in the New York Daily News (http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/rick-wilson-beat-trump-drum-article-1.2739979?cid=bitly):
“…The Party of Lincoln needs a top-to-bottom reset that completely purges the Trumpkins who believe racial animus is a governing philosophy and that their ignorant and angry screams can ever build a Republican majority.”
And while I agree with Wilson’s sentiment, the GOP didn’t become the party of old, white, angry men by accident. Perhaps since 1964 or 1968, the Party has assiduously either avoided, ignored or attacked minority voters and their issues. We have no presence in urban America. The world has changed around Republicans but to this day, millions of voters stare into the snow globe that was the American of years past and don’t believe time and society has passed them by.
Conversely, the GOP cannot be the party of Wall Street, cronyism and amnesty. Many of the complaints that Trump/Cruz voters expressed with their choices this year are legitimate. On any given day, events in Washington have an effect on Americans from New York, New York to Nampa, Idaho. If Republican officeholders continue to be seen as the pawns of donors and big business, voters will not return. To be clear: This is NOT a communications issue. These are policy decisions that in the aggregate have created major, long-term and perhaps irreversible political issues.
Immigration is an issue should, must be addressed. Policy-wise, we cannot as a sovereign nation have more than 11 million people within our borders who are basically stateless and live in the shadows. Purely politically, this issue must be take off the table as a hot potato that Democrats continually throw at Republicans’ heads. To be sure there are plenty of people and groups on the right for whom keeping immigration a hot-button issue is of vital importance — both to their campaigns and their pocketbooks.
The Future: Red Giant (http://www.universetoday.com/24720/red-giant-star/) and White Dwar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf)f
If Donald Trump loses in November, as seems more likely by the day, Republican recriminations will be historic. The party as currently constituted cannot and will not withstand the geometric forces acting upon it, both from within and without. While the Establishment wants to grow the GOP, they also have a heavily vested interest in maintain DC’s status quo, and that force is pulling on the core. The activists, on the other hand, are trying to consolidate and purify the GOP, pulling it inward. These opposite gravitational poles are as strong as they’ve ever been, likely since the Whigs went the way of the Dodo (http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/dinosaurextinction/ss/10-Facts-About-the-Extinct-Dodo-Bird.htm). The result will be a separation — a thin, widely spread outer shell, drifting through space and an iron-heavy core that cannot sustain itself for long without additional fuel.
<figure name="173b" id="173b" class="graf--figure graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--p" style="margin: 43px 0px 0px; position: relative; clear: both; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2px;">https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*99tU08K09faJ_P6yQmrZeA.jpeg
<canvas class="progressiveMedia-canvas js-progressiveMedia-canvas" width="75" height="42" style="display: block; vertical-align: baseline; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 578px; height: 331px; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box; visibility: hidden; opacity: 0; backface-visibility: hidden; transition: visibility 0s linear 0.5s, opacity 0.1s 0.4s;"></canvas><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="position: relative; left: 0px; width: 700px; top: 0px; margin-top: 10px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); outline: 0px; text-align: center; z-index: 300; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'lnum' 1; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; letter-spacing: 0px;">“The material in a white dwarf no longer undergoes fusion reactions, so the star has no source of energy. As a result it cannot support itself by the heat generated against gravitational collapse…” Courtesy Wikipedia.
As surely as nature abhors a vacuum, so does politics. The GOP may have to look in the rearview mirror to see its best days, but its voters will go somewhere. In the Great Re-Sorting that the 2016 presidential campaign has represented, conservative voters — moderates and arch alike, will find their way eventually. While they make their way through this great empty space, party-less and disappointed, it may well be new force that collects the planetary dust of these lost political souls into a viable movement. And that’s not altogether a bad thing.
</figcaption></figure>
<figure name="3745" id="3745" class="graf--figure graf-after--p" style="margin: 43px 0px 0px; position: relative; clear: both; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2px;">
</figure>
https://medium.com/the-american-singularity/its-the-end-of-the-gop-as-we-know-it-and-i-feel-fine-d60a898dcaf6#.blz9lh3im
It’s the End of the @GOP as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
Monday, August 8th, 2016 Reed Galen (https://medium.com/u/35cba34154bd)
...
Last fall’s Republican primary debates illustrated the stark relief between the various conservative factions. You had big-government social conservatives like Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee advocating on the traditional values plank. Jeb Bush, John Kasich, and Chris Christie represented the traditional Republican set; pro-business, reasonable on most issues, likely able to reach across the aisle. Trump, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson stood up against Washington as a broken and rigged system that only a true outsider (or happy outcast in Cruz’s case) could fix. Rand Paul was the lone quasi-libertarian on the stage. These “lanes” as we called them ad nauseum turned out to be more than shorthand to describe the Republican field. Ultimately they were the Rosetta Stone for understanding the end of Republicanism as many of us have known it for decades.
...
That there is so much passion behind the idea of crippling others of a once-similar political stripe is again not new, but this level of internecine vitriol hasn’t been seen in some time. Political candidates will find themselves knocking on the doors of donors who won’t see them. Local political organizations will drive the un-pure from their ranks. Operatives will see their steady stream of work evaporate. Individuals on all sides of the rift will be attacked personally, and probably viciously, in the conservative media and on the snake pit that is social media. Lives and careers will be torn asunder, in some cases literally.
In the quest for purity, though, there will be collateral damage within all factions. Those seen as insufficiently loyal or free-thinking are likely to be chased out. Old dogs will be consigned to the pound, never to be adopted again. Young guns will be silenced before their talent, thoughts and idea are able to flourish in the hue and cry of a united campaign organization. Differences of degrees will be magnified, the resulting white-hot light burning out many intellects that likely have something to offer to the larger discussion.
After all the metaphorical stake burnings, the victors will look around and find a battlefield littered with friends and enemies alike. The best result would be a party stripped of its worst instincts, a raw, potent ideologically collection that appeals to voters across the political spectrum and puts forth coherent ideas on governance. At its worst outcome, it could reduce the GOP to a rump party nationally — leaving Democrats in charge of the White House and the Federal administration, with all its commensurate authority, for decades.What the GOP Can’t Be (to Succeed)
So who is the GOP? Is it the party of Lincoln, or of Trump? Is it the party of small government and individual liberty or one that trades freedom for security? Do we believe that government, while highly imperfect and necessarily restrained, has certain duties it should in fact complete, or do we believe that no government equals best government? We will be the party of nativism or the party of free expression? Are we all equal in the eyes of the Lord and of the law or are some of us more equal than others?
Rick Wilson (https://twitter.com/TheRickWilson), a Florida Republican consultant (whom you should follow on Twitter) wrote in the New York Daily News (http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/rick-wilson-beat-trump-drum-article-1.2739979?cid=bitly):
“…The Party of Lincoln needs a top-to-bottom reset that completely purges the Trumpkins who believe racial animus is a governing philosophy and that their ignorant and angry screams can ever build a Republican majority.”
And while I agree with Wilson’s sentiment, the GOP didn’t become the party of old, white, angry men by accident. Perhaps since 1964 or 1968, the Party has assiduously either avoided, ignored or attacked minority voters and their issues. We have no presence in urban America. The world has changed around Republicans but to this day, millions of voters stare into the snow globe that was the American of years past and don’t believe time and society has passed them by.
Conversely, the GOP cannot be the party of Wall Street, cronyism and amnesty. Many of the complaints that Trump/Cruz voters expressed with their choices this year are legitimate. On any given day, events in Washington have an effect on Americans from New York, New York to Nampa, Idaho. If Republican officeholders continue to be seen as the pawns of donors and big business, voters will not return. To be clear: This is NOT a communications issue. These are policy decisions that in the aggregate have created major, long-term and perhaps irreversible political issues.
Immigration is an issue should, must be addressed. Policy-wise, we cannot as a sovereign nation have more than 11 million people within our borders who are basically stateless and live in the shadows. Purely politically, this issue must be take off the table as a hot potato that Democrats continually throw at Republicans’ heads. To be sure there are plenty of people and groups on the right for whom keeping immigration a hot-button issue is of vital importance — both to their campaigns and their pocketbooks.
The Future: Red Giant (http://www.universetoday.com/24720/red-giant-star/) and White Dwar (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_dwarf)f
If Donald Trump loses in November, as seems more likely by the day, Republican recriminations will be historic. The party as currently constituted cannot and will not withstand the geometric forces acting upon it, both from within and without. While the Establishment wants to grow the GOP, they also have a heavily vested interest in maintain DC’s status quo, and that force is pulling on the core. The activists, on the other hand, are trying to consolidate and purify the GOP, pulling it inward. These opposite gravitational poles are as strong as they’ve ever been, likely since the Whigs went the way of the Dodo (http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/dinosaurextinction/ss/10-Facts-About-the-Extinct-Dodo-Bird.htm). The result will be a separation — a thin, widely spread outer shell, drifting through space and an iron-heavy core that cannot sustain itself for long without additional fuel.
<figure name="173b" id="173b" class="graf--figure graf--startsWithDoubleQuote graf-after--p" style="margin: 43px 0px 0px; position: relative; clear: both; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2px;">https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/800/1*99tU08K09faJ_P6yQmrZeA.jpeg
<canvas class="progressiveMedia-canvas js-progressiveMedia-canvas" width="75" height="42" style="display: block; vertical-align: baseline; position: absolute; top: 0px; left: 0px; width: 578px; height: 331px; margin: auto; box-sizing: border-box; visibility: hidden; opacity: 0; backface-visibility: hidden; transition: visibility 0s linear 0.5s, opacity 0.1s 0.4s;"></canvas><figcaption class="imageCaption" style="position: relative; left: 0px; width: 700px; top: 0px; margin-top: 10px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.6); outline: 0px; text-align: center; z-index: 300; font-family: medium-content-sans-serif-font, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Geneva, Arial, sans-serif; font-feature-settings: 'liga' 1, 'lnum' 1; font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.4; letter-spacing: 0px;">“The material in a white dwarf no longer undergoes fusion reactions, so the star has no source of energy. As a result it cannot support itself by the heat generated against gravitational collapse…” Courtesy Wikipedia.
As surely as nature abhors a vacuum, so does politics. The GOP may have to look in the rearview mirror to see its best days, but its voters will go somewhere. In the Great Re-Sorting that the 2016 presidential campaign has represented, conservative voters — moderates and arch alike, will find their way eventually. While they make their way through this great empty space, party-less and disappointed, it may well be new force that collects the planetary dust of these lost political souls into a viable movement. And that’s not altogether a bad thing.
</figcaption></figure>
<figure name="3745" id="3745" class="graf--figure graf-after--p" style="margin: 43px 0px 0px; position: relative; clear: both; outline: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.8); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2px;">
</figure>