The "normal" GOP set the stage for the MAGA movement, and neoconservatives could help restore our democracy by telling the truth about what they did (Part 1 of a 2-part post)
I think basically you've got the heart of it. All of these guys are trying to avoid the obvious move in this case, which is to either re-register as Democrats for the time being or to form a third party. They know that either move puts them on the fringes of political power for the foreseeable future, so what they're really hoping is that somehow, some way, Trump's GOP gets absolutely destroyed at the ballot box and they can step in to steer it back to slightly constrained demogoguery instead. But 2020 was a clear demonstration that if you play with populist ressentiment and fascist themes while thinking you're holding the reins, you end up awakening something you can't control.
Just discovered this writer and am willing to give her a a good extended read. I read the entire Kagan piece and associated commentary on mainstream and conservative outlets. The “Junkie”s take on it is predictable given her alcove at the New School but engaging at the least. I disagree with several aspects of her analysis and historical interpretations. As well her flat out generalizations of the Republican Party and American history in general. The economic analysis is classic progressive and would find warm embrace in various zip codes of Manhattan and Brooklyn. But I do appreciate the effort to analyze and respond to Kagan who is doing the nation a public service warning us to the risk that we are facing. That this escapes the writer is just part of my problem with the piece.
Claire, so important to address Kagan. The big “tell” was his denying the racist Southern Strategy that began with Nixon and culminated in Insurrectionists citing threats to White identity dominance as their motive not love of Trump. Reagan kicked off his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia MI where the civil rights workers were killed and spoke of States Rights. And of course there is full denial of how the Baker (now anti-Trump) with his thugs prevented the counting of ballots in FL where Gore surely won. The vital lesson here for us though seems to lie equally in the Democrats full refusal to call it what it is. In 2000 and now. The founding fathers not foreseeing a cult leader is a laughable argument indeed—they were willing to establish a Senate that let rural slave owners rule and give those folks the power to prevent any constitutional change. So calling on their intentions as you suggest is simply an ideological move to shore up the legitimacy of the GOP that has been—judging here by merely liberal standards—absent since Nixon secretly sabotaged LBJ’s peace efforts to win his own election and continue the war, slaughtering with no compunction. Again it’s the Democrats who usually fail in this propaganda war that should be hard to lose.
I think basically you've got the heart of it. All of these guys are trying to avoid the obvious move in this case, which is to either re-register as Democrats for the time being or to form a third party. They know that either move puts them on the fringes of political power for the foreseeable future, so what they're really hoping is that somehow, some way, Trump's GOP gets absolutely destroyed at the ballot box and they can step in to steer it back to slightly constrained demogoguery instead. But 2020 was a clear demonstration that if you play with populist ressentiment and fascist themes while thinking you're holding the reins, you end up awakening something you can't control.
Just discovered this writer and am willing to give her a a good extended read. I read the entire Kagan piece and associated commentary on mainstream and conservative outlets. The “Junkie”s take on it is predictable given her alcove at the New School but engaging at the least. I disagree with several aspects of her analysis and historical interpretations. As well her flat out generalizations of the Republican Party and American history in general. The economic analysis is classic progressive and would find warm embrace in various zip codes of Manhattan and Brooklyn. But I do appreciate the effort to analyze and respond to Kagan who is doing the nation a public service warning us to the risk that we are facing. That this escapes the writer is just part of my problem with the piece.
Did you mean September 2021 for Kagan's NYT piece?
Claire, so important to address Kagan. The big “tell” was his denying the racist Southern Strategy that began with Nixon and culminated in Insurrectionists citing threats to White identity dominance as their motive not love of Trump. Reagan kicked off his 1980 campaign in Philadelphia MI where the civil rights workers were killed and spoke of States Rights. And of course there is full denial of how the Baker (now anti-Trump) with his thugs prevented the counting of ballots in FL where Gore surely won. The vital lesson here for us though seems to lie equally in the Democrats full refusal to call it what it is. In 2000 and now. The founding fathers not foreseeing a cult leader is a laughable argument indeed—they were willing to establish a Senate that let rural slave owners rule and give those folks the power to prevent any constitutional change. So calling on their intentions as you suggest is simply an ideological move to shore up the legitimacy of the GOP that has been—judging here by merely liberal standards—absent since Nixon secretly sabotaged LBJ’s peace efforts to win his own election and continue the war, slaughtering with no compunction. Again it’s the Democrats who usually fail in this propaganda war that should be hard to lose.