THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS DEAD

Two clearly different approaches have emerged in response to the current parlous state of the Republican Party. The one approach, executed by the Party Establishment was to conduct an introspective assessment of what has gone wrong with the party and the other approach, emanating from the Tea Party was to continue a full time non -stop smearing of the Obama Administration.   The rationale for the latter approach is that attacking Obama and his Administration is the only issue that the two wings of the party agree on.

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    APPROACH 1: THE ESTABLISHMENT - IT’S MY PARTY AND I WILL CRY IF I WANT TO.
    
    
    • Jed Bush, who has to be the Republican establishment’s choice as the next Presidential nomination, has been very vocal on how the Republican Party is currently perceived by the electorate, (Blog: What Barbara’s “Enough Bushes” Means). The former Republican Governor maintained that the GOP is perceived as the party that is against everything – women, immigration, social security and on and on. He pleaded for a more positive agenda to be articulated that would be more congruent with where the electorate is at.
    • Bob Dole, who has go be the doyen of the Republican party - Gerald Ford’s running mate in the 70’s, the Republican leader of the Senate forever and the Republican Presidential nominee against Clinton, has said Nixon and Reagan could not be in this party. He suggested that the Republican National Committee put a notice on its door, “Closed for Repairs”.
    • The Republican Youth Committee has just sponsored a costly study with focus groups and interviews to ascertain why the youth voted in droves for Obama. Paraphrasing the results, the conclusion was that the Republican Party was way out of tune with their needs and values. This study came to the same conclusions as the National Republican Committee’s in depth review. Predictably, but inexplicably, both the Youth Group and the Senior Group interpreted the results, as meaning that there was nothing wrong with the Republican Party’s policies it was just the way they branded them!
    • And on and on……..
    
    
    APPROACH  2: THE TEA PARTY - IT’S MY PARTY AND I WILL ONLY CRY IF I WANT TO.
    
    
    *With all that advice and all those studies one would think that there would be a bold massive rush to articulate, in pamphlets, speeches and the like, clearly what the Republican Party was. The best platform for that is Congress as it is covered by literally hundreds of media people of all sorts. You introduce or argue against legislature clearly outlining a consistent alternative to Obama’s agenda.
    
    
    *But this is not what the Republican Party Caucus has chosen. Where they, as the majority, in the House of Representatives are in a position to introduce legislation there has been less than ever.  In the Senate where the Democrats are in the majority, there the Republicans filibuster legislation not allowing it to come to a vote.  Instead the oxygen in the Congress is taken up by hearings and investigations that degenerate into smear after smear and attempt to create scandal.
    
    
    *The key spokesmen for the Republican Party now are Rand Paul, Mark Rubio and Ted Cruz and to a lesser extent defeated Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan.  All have Tea Party support and are in the Tea Party caucus. Where there are alternatives to Democratic Policy they are enunciated mainly by these four. These are articulated as populist slogans. Cruz says there should be no IRS. In public they do not talk too much about cutting off disaster relief and privatizing social security and turning Medicare into a voucher program. Paul grandstanded and filibustered about killing American terrorists with drones ignoring the fact that the last thing in earth is that the Tea Party would want to be labeled is being soft on terrorism. (Blog: Obama Killing Americans – Moans on Drones). Mark Rubio is only emphasizing his desire for immigration reform, as he is Latino. So the leaders are either being populist or practical.
    
    
    It seems quite clear now that the Tea Party controlled Republican legislators have decided to follow the advice of their unelected institutions rather than from their establishment figures and smear the Administration. (Blog: Obamagate – Boomerang?)
    
    
    TEA PARTY TACTICS AND AGENDA
    
    
    Jay H. Ell has blogged extensively about the emergence of the Tea Party. In January 2011 he blogged, “The Tea Party, The New Congress and Palin – All You Ever Needed to Know”, celebrating the coming out party of the Tea Party. In that blog he outlined the ideological divisions within the Republican Party. In two years the Tea Party takeover was complete. (Blog GOP Civil War Sabotages Obama Talks, March 2013).
    
    
    There is now a total disconnect between the Party Establishment and Moderate Republicans on the one hand and the elected Republican Party Representatives as to what the Republican Party stands for and what its priorities should be, on the other. The Heritage Foundation, with former Senator Joe De Mint, the Tea Party Godfather, as its CEO, is calling the shots - there is to be no debate about policy now, just smear smear, smear. (Blog: Obamagate – Boomerang?)
    
    
    This way the Tea Party can complete their hijacking of the Republican Party. The Tea Party policies are not being debated now so the moderate Republicans will not run away. Ostensibly they and the Establishment are all in it together exposing and smearing the administration. The Tea Party is using the Establishment to keep the Republican Party a viable entity the same way the Establishment used them. The Establishment got right wing support, before it gelled into the Tea Party. The Establishment did this by focusing on the right wing social agenda thereby bringing the right wing out to the polls. They then never put the social agenda into legislative effect, as they knew it wouldn’t fly. The Tea Party’s policy is a right wing social agenda, a right wing fiscal policy and smaller government – code for getting rid of every social program.
    
    
    Over the last few years the Tea Party have concentrated on Primary races, poring a disproportionate amount of money into these so that their candidates become the Republican Party candidates.  This has been the modus operandi in State as well as national elections. So where the Republicans dominate the State, Tea Party legislation is being introduced.  On a national level it is self evident  - this blog is all about their take over of the Republican Party Caucus.
    
    
    ESTABLISHMENT RESPONSE
    
    
    Ostensibly the Establishment of the Republican Party is in control. They control the Republican National Committee and the major money connections. Failure to act and follow through decisively on Approach one, above, shows that they are in denial. Karl Rove, the Establishment’s unelected megalomaniac in chief, has decided to throw his PAC money into Republican Primaries but as it is too late it has to be too little.
    
    
    The Establishment ostensibly still has the Leadership in Congress. The leader of the Republican controlled House of Representatives is John Boehner. However, he is the nominal leader. He does not control his caucus. He is there by the grace of the Tea Party. It suits the latter to have him there to give the Establishment deniers false reassurance that they are still in control. Boehner does not introduce any contentious legislation as his caucus is split. He waits for the lead from the Senate, to quote him, - “For the Senate to get of its arse”.
    
    
    Boehner and Mc Connell the Republican Minority leader of the Senate are the choirmasters of the hate Obama campaign. Boehner believes it is a waste of time to talk to the President and McConnell sole stated objective for four years, in “doing the people’s business”, was to deny Obama a second term. His objective for the second term is less complicated it is just deny Obama, period. There is a second objective to the leadership mantra now - stop Hillary 2016. (Blogs: Stopping Clinton 2016 Starts at Benghazi and Carry on Benghazi: Stop Hillary 2016, Part 2).
    
    
    This is not the agenda of the two Republican indepth post election analyses. Also it isn’t the advice of Jed Bush or Bob Dole. This is the agenda of the Joe De Mint, the Tea Party Godfather’s Heritage Foundation. Here the policy is to stay off policy and smear, smear smear.
    
    
    SMEAR, SMEAR, SMEAR AND SMEAR AGAIN
    
    
    So Congress is not dominated by legislation debate but rather by attempting to create scandal either in the debating chamber or by endless Congressional hearings. Perhaps the most disgraceful episode was the character assassination of Obama’s original nominee for Secretary of State, Susan Rice. This lead into the Benghazi fishing expedition that lead nowhere.
    
    
    However the main action is in the endless Republican Congressional Hearings that sap all the media attention. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the fearless inquisitor. Failure does not daunt him. His earlier attempts at investigations have all fizzled out. Eric Holder the Attorney General was and is the main target. He insulted him, belittled him and without precedent held him in Contempt of his Committee. All to no avail.
    
    
    Issa obeying the Heritage Party line is carrying on the one investigation that he hopes will hit pay dirt – the IRS scandal. As Jay H. Ell predicted, (Blog, Obamagate - Boomerang?), more malfiscience is emerging. But how does Issa pin it on Obama who has already condemned the behavior thus far uncovered and ordered a judicial investigation? Darrell, bless him, has subpoenaed another nineteen IRS workers to sap up the Republican oxygen in his ongoing circus.
    
    
    Issa is lashing out at all and sundry including calling the President’s Press Secretary a paid liar and with his newfound fame his own murky past is coming to the fore. He has work cut out getting anyone to take him seriously.
    
    
    OUTCOME:
    
    
    How all of this is going to elect a “Republican” President is unclear. If any of the aforementioned Tea Party favorites get the “Republican” Presidential nomination how are they going to persuade the independents, youth, African Americans, Latinos and women to vote for them? It is almost as if we are witnessing lemmings going to their suicide.
    
    
    As for Obama he rather likes what the Republicans are doing as evidenced by the choice of his Chief Security Advisor – the selfsame Susan Rice whom the Republicans believed was unfit to be Secretary of State. In her appointed position the Secretary of State reports to her. Obama seems only too happy to watch the Republicans go ballistic rather than offer a credible alternative policy. He has enough sense of history to realize that to complete his legacy he needs another 8 years of Democratic Presidency. He also realizes to get elected you have to do more than attack your opponent you have to offer an alternative policy. This is not happening.
    
    

The Republican Party, that we all knew, is dead.