Solidarity

Preface this post by reading David Brook's latest NY Times column.

House Republicans led the way and will get most of the blame. It has been interesting to watch them on their single-minded mission to destroy the Republican Party. Not long ago, they led an anti-immigration crusade that drove away Hispanic support. Then, too, they listened to the loudest and angriest voices in their party, oblivious to the complicated anxieties that lurk in most American minds.

Now they have once again confused talk radio with reality. If this economy slides, they will go down in history as the Smoot-Hawleys of the 21st century. With this vote, they’ve taken responsibility for this economy, and they will be held accountable. The short-term blows will fall on John McCain, the long-term stress on the existence of the G.O.P. as we know it.

Brooks is a leading conservative journalist. Like him or not, he is a voice for the modern conservative movement. And when he points out just how astray the GOP has become it's a big deal. Yglesias disagrees somewhat with the talk radio mentality that Brooks mentions.

This is noteworthy, though I think a little naive of Brooks. The House conservatives who sank the bailout didn’t do so because they were listening to loud and angry voices. They sank the plan by accident.

I think Yglesias makes a good point, but it was no accident. A day before the vote took place Republicans were saying there wasn't enough to pass it. Even liberal Dennis Kucinich said there wasn't enough votes. The so-called conservative Republicans didn't vote NO by accident, they saw this as a defining moment for their movement. For 6 straight years the GOP-controlled government passed every single spending bill that came before it. Not one veto by the Republican president. The GOP, led by it's modern movement of talk radio and right wing "conservatism," turned the largest surplus in American history into the largest deficit in American history. Theirs is the legacy of the most unpopular president in modern America and the NO vote was a way to regain the lost days of their "REVOLUTION!."

It's that simple. There was no grand plan to turn this around on the Democrats, though I'm sure they thought their revolution would kick in and all of a sudden reality would be clinched by the Republican Fantasy World, but that didn't happen. After 14 years of abandonment they thought they would stay true to their movement and vote no. The GOP is still the same Party it was yesterday and in 1994. What we are witnessing is the final days of talk radio reality.