following up on a recent
discussion with Gary about the condition of the GOP grass roots,
here's a WaPo article that I found interesting for a couple of reasons.
the first is sort of trivial. that's the implication that Grover Norquist - the guy behind
ATR - is motivated primarily by his own psychodrama rather than by ideology. while I'm firmly in favor of activism as a way to resolve personal issues, once your particular core issues are visible, you become terribly vulnerable to manipulation. and since Grover flies a
red flag
1 I can't help but think that a bit of well-placed head-gaming wouldn't be terribly unethical and might even help him confront his real demons...
also, the plural of anecdote is data, and one of my favorite dead horses is that support for the "new" GOP is a mile wide and an inch deep.
the subhead of this article is "Conservative Norquist Cultivates Grass Roots Beyond the Beltway," but if you actually read the damn thing, the grass turns out to be a bunch of carefully cultivated tropical plants, and the "paleo" conservatives appear to have left the building altogether.
[...] "West Virginia -- we have three people."
[...] He has crisscrossed the country, hand-picking leaders, organizing meetings of right-wing advocates in 37 states.
[...] ...Norquist presented his master contact list to Mehlman, mapped out and bound in a book.
[...] [Frist] addressed [Norquist's weekly strategy session of conservatives] in a manner a man might use with his guard dog, mixing appreciation, condescension and a note of fear. Ever since the conservative base turned on George H.W. Bush and he was defeated for reelection in 1992, the Republican leadership has been wary of its bite.
[...] Political pressure is the intended outcome of every meeting. Although members represent disparate causes, Norquist said, "they play nicely together."
[...] For the next 15 minutes, Gingrich tried to convince the audience that the [Medicare] proposal, the greatest entitlement expansion in a generation, was good for the conservative cause. The reception was mixed.
"Be positive. Let the other side be nasty," Gingrich said, a shade pinker than when he had entered the room. His message: If you want to hold on to power, you cannot be purists. "The best way to beat Hillary [Clinton] is to build our base. Shrink hers." He licked his bottom lip: "Then we can crush her."
[...] A precursor of the ["mini-Grover" franchise] in New Mexico had to be shut down after it was taken over by conspiracy theorists who believed black helicopters from the United Nations were moving people around at night.
I don't doubt that the "mini-Grover" coalitions contain groups which are eager to be told that their particular issue or issues will be addressed if the GOP stays in power, and that those groups can muster a significant number of boots on the ground. but on the whole it's a protection ra... er a top-down political machine that is. it's not a populist movement.
ATR, the Mighty Wurlitzer, and CREEP II are forces to be reckoned with in terms of organization, in the halls of power, and in the media, but I'm still waiting for any evidence that they can put up much of a fight at the kitchen table.
1 "He keeps a rubber stamp by his desk, 'Find Him and Kill Him.'"