When did the GOP lose touch with Reality?

[BluegrassCat]

A really great (and somewhat lengthy) post by lifelong conservative Republican and former W. Bush speechwriter David Frum about the GOP's descent into madness. An honest assessment from the inside of the intellectual collapse of a once vibrant party. It's a shame intellectual honesty has become such a rare commodity on the right. I hope they find their way back soon. I've only posted an excerpt here but I highly recommend the full piece.

"But the thought leaders on talk radio and Fox do more than shape opinion. Backed by their own wing of the book-publishing industry and supported by think tanks that increasingly function as public-relations agencies, conservatives have built a whole alternative knowledge system, with its own facts, its own history, its own laws of economics. Outside this alternative reality, the United States is a country dominated by a strong Christian religiosity. Within it, Christians are a persecuted minority. Outside the system, President Obama—whatever his policy *errors—is a figure of imposing intellect and dignity. Within the system, he’s a pitiful nothing, unable to speak without a teleprompter, an affirmative-action *phony doomed to inevitable defeat. Outside the system, social scientists worry that the U.S. is hardening into one of the most rigid class societies in the Western world, in which the children of the poor have less chance of escape than in France, Germany, or even England. Inside the system, the U.S. remains (to borrow the words of Senator Marco Rubio) “the only place in the world where it doesn’t matter who your parents were or where you came from.”

"We used to say “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.” Now we are all entitled to our own facts, and conservative media use this right to immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information."

http://nymag.com/print/?/news/politi...-frum-2011-11/

[Stavros]

Thanks for this link and a stimulating article, it reminds me of a moment not long after Margaret Thatcher's victory in 1979 when there was a surge of interest in libertarian ideas and some radical 'conservatives' dismissed Harold MacMillan as a socialist; presumably some of today's Republicans would say the same of Eisenhower.

It is a pity nobody in the Labour Party had the courage to denounce the way in which Blair, Mandelson and Brown trashed a party with values and a mixed but often positive record in government. I cannot believe that the party which sanctioned extraordinary rendition, torture, detention without trial, and such wilful ignorance of economics was not dissolved in shame in 2010. In Europe the Cold War made the existing political parties obsolete, and I would have preferred a re-alignment of politics around different agendas and ideas, but no, this farce continues with a party losing votes becoming half the government. Labour lost its soul, and is but a ghost doomed for a certain time (if not all time) to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires...

[Prospero]

Thanks for that bluegrass - very interesting and disturbing.

[russtafa]

Thanks for this link and a stimulating article, it reminds me of a moment not long after Margaret Thatcher's victory in 1979 when there was a surge of interest in libertarian ideas and some radical 'conservatives' dismissed Harold MacMillan as a socialist; presumably some of today's Republicans would say the same of Eisenhower.

It is a pity nobody in the Labour Party had the courage to denounce the way in which Blair, Mandelson and Brown trashed a party with values and a mixed but often positive record in government. I cannot believe that the party which sanctioned extraordinary rendition, torture, detention without trial, and such wilful ignorance of economics was not dissolved in shame in 2010. In Europe the Cold War made the existing political parties obsolete, and I would have preferred a re-alignment of politics around different agendas and ideas, but no, this farce continues with a party losing votes becoming half the government. Labour lost its soul, and is but a ghost doomed for a certain time (if not all time) to walk the night, and for the day confined to fast in fires...

Hey they are like our Labor party

[Faldur]

We have an administration that has run up $4 trillion in new debt in 30 months. Operating without a budget, almost a 1,000 days. And you say were out of touch? Keep living in la la land Alice, let the adults fix things.

[BluegrassCat]

We have an administration that has run up $4 trillion in new debt in 30 months. Operating without a budget, almost a 1,000 days. And you say were out of touch? Keep living in la la land Alice, let the adults fix things.

Thanks for that insightful take on Frum's piece, Faldur. You clearly devoted a lot of thought to it.

[Faldur]

Thanks for that insightful take on Frum's piece, Faldur. You clearly devoted a lot of thought to it.

Lol, didn't waste my time reading it.

[onmyknees]

First of all....Frum is a Republican....I'm not. I have no use for him, he's part of the problem that put us here. Mirror meet Mr. Frum. And although he may have some cred with the country club Republicans, their days are numbered. He has the same psychosis that David Brooks has. They're establishment. They like to get invited to all the book parties and Holiday Cocktail extravaganzas, suck up to Chris Matthews and the NPR crowd, and you get those invites by eating your own. His words are irrelevant to fiscal conservatives and libertarians.
If I posted any of the dozens of articles by Doug Schoen ( Clinton) or Pat Caddell ( Jimmy Carter) lamenting the democratic party is so far left of what it was even a decade ago....you'd dismiss them out of hand. I return the favor. David Frum is persona non grata, but nice try. FAIL

[BluegrassCat]

First of all....Frum is a Republican....I'm not. I have no use for him, he's part of the problem that put us here. Mirror meet Mr. Frum. And although he may have some cred with the country club Republicans, their days are numbered. He has the same psychosis that David Brooks has. They're establishment. They like to get invited to all the book parties and Holiday Cocktail extravaganzas, suck up to Chris Matthews and the NPR crowd, and you get those invites by eating your own. His words are irrelevant to fiscal conservatives and libertarians.
If I posted any of the dozens of articles by Doug Schoen ( Clinton) or Pat Caddell ( Jimmy Carter) lamenting the democratic party is so far left of what it was even a decade ago....you'd dismiss them out of hand. I return the favor. David Frum is persona non grata, but nice try. FAIL

You're proving his point by engaging in character assassination rather than dealing with the substance of his claims. FAIL indeed. lol

[onmyknees]

You're proving his point by engaging in character assassination rather than dealing with the substance of his claims. FAIL indeed. lol

And you're using a country club republican as some sort of leverage thinking we'll react with OMG...David Frum?? We'd better do some self evaluation because he's been our savior in the past..... LMFAO.

I explained....he was a part ( albeit) a small part of what put us here. Would you ask for Micheal Jackson's doctor for some drugs if you weren't feeling well simply because he had some political positions that you found useful? If you're looking to affect fiscal conservatives to do some soul searching....come up with something better than David Frum. Three or 4 of us have told you that, but you're pretty slow. He had no cred with lefties yesterday, but suddenly he's a sage....you're fuckin' kiddin with this......right?