Earlier today, Colin Powell dropped in on ABC's coverage of the inauguration ceremony and kicked his fellow Republicans up, down and sideways for their over-the-top attacks on the president.
“Republicans have to stop buying into things that demonize the president. I mean, why aren’t Republican leaders shouting out about all this birther nonsense and all these other things? They should speak out. This is the kind of intolerance that I’ve been talking about where these idiot presentations continue to be made and you don’t see the senior leadership of the party say, ‘No, that’s wrong.’ In fact, sometimes by not speaking out, they’re encouraging it. And the base keeps buying the stuff.
“And it’s killing the base of the party. I mean, 26 percent favorability rating for the party right now. It ought to be telling them something. So, instead of attacking me or whoever speaks like I do, look in the mirror and realize, ‘How are we going to win the next election?”
Watch an excerpt
here:
Later on, Powell also slammed his fellow Republicans for going on a windmill-tilting expedition for voter fraud.
“The Republican Party ought to be out there not restricting voting by voter ID, but saying we want everybody to vote,” he told Sawyer and Stephanopoulos. “It’s a party that has to stop saying, ‘We are going to appeal to you with new messages.’ You need policies — the country is becoming more minority.”
One can only hope that somebody in the GOP is left to listen. Like it or lump it, it's not good for the country long-term to have one of our major parties be a far-right party. Look what happened in Germany--the major right-wing party before the rise of the Nazis was the National People's Party, or Nationalists. That party never accepted the Weimar Republic, and worked almost from day one to overthrow it. William Shirer put it bluntly in
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich--the failure of the Nationalists to become a true conservative party rather than a far-right party was a big reason for the failure of Weimar.
Powell then answered the obvious question--why doesn't he just become a Democrat?
Powell, who endorsed President Obama’s reelection bid in October, said that his critiques of the GOP have left some wondering, “Why are you still a Republican?”
Because, Powell said, “I grew up under Ronald Reagan and Cap Weinberger and George Schultz and George Herbert Walker Bush — that’s the Republican party I know — the Howard Bakers of the world, and I think we’ve drifted from that. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with trying to drift a little bit back. Not because it’s just good to be moderate, but because that’s where the American people are. They lost an election — two.”
With all due respect, General Powell, the party you knew is crucified, dead and buried. Remember, the GOP is more or less nonexistent north of the Potomac and west of the Sierra Nevada--in part because of "idiot presentations."
Powell had some pretty sharp words for Obama as well, saying that he needs to reach out to both parties in hopes of restoring "a sense of civility to this country." One can only hope the GOP is willing. However, judging by the reaction this interview generated at Free Republic and at WorldNutDaily, it's not likely to happen.