Minute Sixteen Was a Week Ago

Sarah Palin makes me tired and headachy and sad, and I've likewise had my fill of poll-watching, but what the hell. Here's what America has to say about the Queen of the Igloos:

Just 45% of Americans would like to see Sarah Palin become a major national political figure for many years to come, while a slight majority of 52% say they would not. These sentiments are sharply divided along partisan political lines.

The devil you say!

Over three-quarters of Republicans would like to see the former vice-presidential nominee and current governor of Alaska become a major national political figure in the years ahead, in sharp contrast to the 43% of independents and 20% of Democrats who share that attitude.

Hands up who is surprised (though I'm curious as to who exactly is in Democratic 20% -- I'd say 10% idiots and 10% smartasses who just like making fun of her). But via Brad, let's put this together with what one of the GOP's own describes as the party's major malfunction:

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty -- passed over by Sen. John McCain for the No. 2 spot on the presidential ticket and one of nine GOP governors who preside over states won by Barack Obama -- offered a summary of his party's predicament at the governors' opening lunch.

"We cannot be a majority governing party when we essentially cannot compete in the Northeast, we are losing our ability to compete in Great Lakes states, we cannot compete on the West Coast, we are increasingly in danger of competing in the mid-Atlantic states, and the Democrats are now winning some of the Western states," Pawlenty said. "That is not a formula for being a majority governing party in this nation."

As if that weren't enough, he ticked off a few more challenges.

"Similarly we cannot compete, and prevail, as a majority governing party if we have a significant deficit, as we do, with women, where we have a large deficit with Hispanics, where we have a large deficit with African American voters, where we have a large deficit with people of modest incomes and modest financial circumstances. Those are not factors that make up a formula for success going forward."

It's not especially clear how you compete in these areas and with these groups if you have a candidate like Palin, who is beloved by the Base but disliked -- intensely, and for good reason -- by the people who live in those areas and are members of those groups. At the same time, it's not clear how the GOP runs a candidate who cannot depend upon the enthusiasm of the base: all the GOTV stuff is in the hands of the nuttiest of the religious nut-nuts, for instance.

And the list of problems weighing down the Republican Party doesn't end there. The leading "intellectual" lights of the GOP have a strong expressive interest in continuing to spout as much crazy shit as they can spew, because there is no market for "moderate conservatism," whatever the hell that is.

It's all very well for David Brooks to bleat happily about how he is a "moderate," but then he has a cushy gig on the NYTimes opinion page, a place where he is well-insulated from not merely the need to make sense (hi there, MoDO!), but where his paycheck doesn't depend upon sucking up to the loony right. The loony online right, in particular: it was pretty entertaining to watch one of Brooks's "Reformists," Yuval Levin, invoking wingnut darling Bobby Jindal to make the case at The Corner that gosh darn it, the Conservative Movement needs "Traditionalists" and "Reformists"! Chocolate and peanut butter! Naked bigotry and a nice suit for the bigotry! Unlike Brooks, where the hell else is a second-tier hack like Levin with pretentions to being Taken Seriously as a Thinker going to go if the NRO readership starts pelting him with feces and rotten bananas? The Atlantic only has so many sweet blog gigs, and those are all full up at the moment.

No, the wingnut welfare pays too well, and that means feeding the beast. Hence the success of the Malkinoids, the fate of the party be damned, as it most surely is by having that crown on board the sinking scow. But what else is there to do? Red State knows what time it is -- I absolutely loved this Action Notice for what Conservatives Who Want to Get Involved ought to be doing. See if you can detect a pattern:

I've been inundated with emails from people across the country who say they want to get involved. They are asking how to become a part of army of activists that the right will need to reorganize and re-engage against the left....

Read RedState....

Start commenting on stuff at RedState....

A lot of Republicans cannot be online at RedState all day... Get on our action items list.

Network with your fellow RedStaters....

This is, in fact, a war we are in. And every war needs new volunteers. Like bringing people to church, it is not always easy, but the army must grow. Encourage your friends to get involved here. Get them plugged in with the candidates and groups you choose. There are others out there who haven't discovered RedState and are still asking "how can I get involved." Now you know how to get involved. Get your friends involved.

RedState: AmWay for resentful political dead-end malcontents.

These "conservatives" are going nowhere. Fortunately, that's not our problem. The country is moving in the opposite direction, and we just have to help it along. Which isn't easy, but it sure beats the alternative.

 

Comments

[Xecky Gilchrist]

I'm curious as to who exactly is in Democratic 20% -- I'd say 10% idiots and 10% smartasses who just like making fun of her...

I'm thinking it's people who believe the Republicans can't win a dog-catcher race as long as Palin is a prominent Republican.

[Xecky Gilchrist]

...unless "becom[ing] a major national political figure in the years ahead" means she would actually be holding office. In that case, I agree with your 10% idiots / 10% jokers.

[Jemand von Niemand]

"...being ... a majority governing party in this nation."

Yeah, Tim; how well d'ya think that worked out for the entire planet the last time (Which, come to think of it, is still this time) the criminals were in charge?

Bucky The Beaver: "Then, finally, some new Reformist donors and organizers will emerge... and the cycle of conservative ascendance will begin again."

'Donations', Bucky? What, more money from Rev Moon? And what's your idea of 'reform' -- lower voltage torture? Only transcribe every third telephone call in the country? Only invade countries with strategic resources and a standing army of less than 50,000? Check it with your soulmate Kristol and let us know, 'kay?

[Danny Guam]

Just when I think that I'm way too full for another bowl of Schadenfreude flakes here I am back with my nose in the cupboard.

I can't stop.

Yum.

I will feel sick later though.

[Ripley]

I'm just tickled pink that Erikson still considers Red State to be some kind of engine of change, amplifying the Republican 'message' and effecting a new era of 'Conservative' philosophy in America.

Dude, if your best and brightest had won the election - they didn't, in case you missed the news - you wouldn't be writing transparent pleas for readership and slow clapping your relevance in the political sphere.

[Mike]

I'm going with Xecky here. I'd love to see Palin become a contemporary Goldwater, losing over and over again. I'm entirely convinced that Sarah Palin will become a professional political loser if she remains in the national public sphere.

[kindness]

Yea...RedState will be great for all the newbies to go to, that is until they disagree with one of the royalty there & comment about it. Then they'll be greeted with the "clean up on aisle..." call. You know, the one where they cannibalize their own & call them trolls.

[¡El Gato Negro!]

Gracías for putting one through that Brooks column. I haven't yet found a way to articulate my reaction properly without going all expletive deleted about it, but his divisions between the "reformers" and "traditionalists"* are arbitrary, and a bit misleading, at best.

Peggy Noonan is a reformer? Didn't she write speeches for Mister "Government-is-the-problem", himself?

Which side is Gingrich on? Presumably, he would be labeled a "traditionalist", but he's passed on tropes and ideas for Brooks to spread publicly. Will Brooks now stop talking to him?
Oh, wait, Gingrich was quoted just today, in some B.S. piece in the Politico
(*koff koff, splat*) saying this:
“However, my job as an American first is to develop a tri-partisan approach to developing solutions for the challenges we face. I use the word tri-partisan to designate the concept of attracting Democrats, Republicans, and independents to solutions that unify most Americans."

Tripartisan? Well, that kinda sounds like reform, (although the idea that "independents" are all one party is pretty funny) but wait, wasn't Newt the cabrone who mainlined Atwater politics throughout the GOP, from just campaigns into things like speeches on the Senate floor? Doesn't sound like a reformer to me.

What about Kristol? He would seem to line up on the traditionalist side as well, but anyone who's familiar with Kristol's past would expect him to jump back and forth over that fence as often as several times a day.

How can Bobo delineate the differences between the "reform" GOP and the "traditonal" GOP when there's so many members who have a foot, or even both feet, in both camps?

Pffft, not a helpful model.

*I prefer your denominations (Bigotry; Both naked, and nattily clad)

[NonyNony]

I'm curious as to who exactly is in Democratic 20% -- I'd say 10% idiots and 10% smartasses who just like making fun of her...

Keep in mind that CNN's exit poll suggests that 10% of self-identified Democrats voted for McCain this cycle. I'm not sure I trust CNN's exit poll this year for a variety of reasons, but that particular percentage of people who say they're Democrats but vote Republican anyway is pretty consistent across a lot of polls across many years.

So yeah - half that 20% are probably actually functionally Republicans. The other half are wise asses like me who would respond to that question positively - but not for the reasons that those interpreting the poll might think.

[flory]

where the hell else is a second-tier hack like Levin with pretentions to being Taken Seriously as a Thinker going to go if the NRO readership starts pelting him with feces and rotten bananas?

I thought that was why The New Republic was still being published?

[stickler]

I just can't get over Erikson's mangling of metaphor:

This is, in fact, a war we are in. And every war needs new volunteers. Like bringing people to church, it is not always easy, but the army must grow. Encourage your friends to get involved here.

This is a war! That needs volunteers! It's like bringing people to church!

War, church, it's all the same to him. Oh, I know: Redstate is like a battlefield in the war where the church deacons get to --"Blam!" -- excommunicate you for any reason or no reason at all.

Yeah. Just like that. Sign me up!

[Ecks]

You don't have to be a joker to have a sincere desire for the GOP to select self-crashing trains for leadership do you? John Cole is practically salivating over a Palin nomination over at balloon-juice.

I'm less worried about who they pick to lead them, and more about whether they'll ever figure out that the thing about government is not how big it is, it's what you do with it. They aren't going anywhere till they've gotten over their size fetish.

[spero]

oh. it's so beeyoutiful.

they so have destroyed us.

and predictably.

they so deserve to suck cox. in hell.

(in line, next to "JERRY!" falwell.)

may we wake one morning, heaing angelis bells, to find carpets of shriveled trunks on our lawns.

it could spark a consumerist revival! refucklican trunk suckers, on sale- today, only!

Get that shyte off yer lawn!

[spero]

all embarrassmenmt aside:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43wN23qvlbU

[fourlegsgood]

Thers, the 20% consists of people like me who, in spite of the fact the hearing Palin makes my ears bleed, would LOVE for the republicans to make her the center piece of their GLORIOUS COMEBACK!!

God forbid they pick Jindal, who is a crazy fundy, but a competent one. He worries me.

[Stephen]

RedState: AmWay for resentful political dead-end malcontents.

I though AmWay was "AmWay for resentful political dead-end malcontents."

[Rev. Bob]

Everybody please tell 2 Republicans, "The reason you lost is that your party isn't conservative enough."

Pssst. Pass it on.