What the heck, I'll start the year with a diary. I don't do too many of these, but this seems like a fairly reasonable topic.
One of the keys to the Republican juggernaut has been a tremendous "lockstep" that affects the party from the very highest, to the very lowest. They use business tactics, heavy on branding and marketing, coupled with an iron-fisted discipline.
Keep Reading...
This 1999 story is about a New York Republican lawmaker that actually voted against the Clinton impeachment. In the story, you'll see the following text:
The DeLay camp shot back at King in a way that seems to veridy [sic] King's claim of retaliation. Mike Scanlon, a spokesman for DeLay, said, "Pete King has a reputation as making things up, and this is no different. It's not worth it to approach Pete King on anything, whether it be a procedural vote on impeachment or a vote on a tax bill."
Later on, the same lawmaker voted against the interests of his own constituency in order to support Delay's agenda, and even smooched Delay's boil-covered behind in public.
I guess the threat worked, but it took a few years. This is a demonstration of just how truly effective the hammer was. Maybe it had something to do with the nails at his disposal...
However, the wheels are coming off.
I think that we'll be seeing a lot less "lockstep." As demonstrated in Yugoslavia, when a strongman goes down, internal strife will prevail.
The Republicans are composed of some truly diametrically opposed parties. I firmly believe that the conservative Christians are being cynically used by the Republicans. They think they are controlling the Republicans, but I think it's the other way round. Couple this with atheistic corporatists, bloody-fisted militarists, homophobic soccer moms and folks that just want to bleat with the flock, and you have a real toxic soup.
Conservative Christians are very often "single issue voters," which I think is an awful mistake. They aren't the only ones, extreme environmentalists and reproductive rights people, on the left, can be just as single-issue.
When you are extreme, in either direction, politicians will dismiss your concerns, but will see you as easily manipulated. Like the man behind the curtain, they keep you fascinated by bluster and fire, while they plan something totally different. Take the "Contract with America," for example. It was a sheet full of single-issue bullet points, designed to make the voters vote Republican. How many of these platform planks ever made it into real life? I'll tell you: 3, 6 and 9, but not really. We got twisted and mutated versions of these.
The problem is that many mainstream Republicans believed in these planks, and they were completely fucked over by the current junta. The iron hammer Frist fist has kept them in line.
This next year should prove interesting.