I continue to be fascinated by the process that the Republican Party is going to continue to go through as it tries to cope with electoral losses in 2004 and 2008. As I noted the other day, I think that David Brooks’ dichotomy between Traditionalists and Reformers has some salience, as there are clearly two broad camps: those who think that they weren’t “conservative enough” and those who think that the party needs serious rethinking, even if what that exact direction ought to be is unclear at the moment.
Not surprisingly, Human Events is likely to be a bastion of the Traditionalist camp, and today they have a piece by Ted Nugent (yes, the rocker-hunter dude) that underscores this fact:
Rino Season Is Now Open
RINOs are Fedzilla punks who feign support for conservative principles only when it serves their political interest. RINOs are also known for their moderate positions such as supporting tax increases, federal “bailouts”, “comprehensive immigration reform”, advocating more counterproductive gun control that guarantee more innocent victims, opposing the death penalty, and growing and sustaining Fedzilla and all its toxic mongrels by going along with the liberals. RINOs have forgotten President Ronald Maximus Regan’s admonition that government is the problem, not the solution.RINOs reach across Fedzilla’s aisle to cut deals and build consensus with the liberals. Consensus building means compromising values and cutting deals with the socialist prankster punksters whose goal it is to turn America into EuroAmerica.
Consensus building is for wimps and soulless people who stand for nothing. Compromise is not about being tolerant: these days, it’s about giving up conservative principles.
First, this is very much of the category of politics-as-entertainment that I noted earlier, and is that kind of thing, however, that a lot of people seem to take quite seriously. It is incredibly Limbaughesque: it uses mockery in lieu of argument or analysis,1 attempts to be a bit too cutesy (Fedzilla?), makes fun of compromise, and then points to Reagan as the embodiment of all of solutions to the problem.2
And then there is the fantasy that Nugent and his wing of the party are both super-tough (and their opponents are wimps) and armed with arguments that, once deployed, will paralyze opponents:
My specialty is making Fedzilla punks squirm and turn into a puddle of sweat and drool. Therefore, in the spirit of famous butt kickers Generals Chesty Puller and George Patton, I say we launch an attack on all fronts. Uncle Ted hereby declares it is open season on RINOs. No bag limits or permits required. Conservative ideas, arguments and votes are the weapons we will use.
Beyond anything else, the notion seems to be that the solution to the Republican Party’s growth is kicking people out. An odd mathematical trick, I must say.
Sphere: Related Content- And, I will note, that there are places in political discourse for mockery. However, I think that one of the key problems for conservatives is that they have, in many circles (e.g., Limbaugh, Coulter, and Hannity, to name three prominent examples) have turned so heavily to mockery that they have forgotten that not only isn’t it actual argument, but that all that it ultimately does is entertain the true believers whilst alienating everyone else. [↩]
- Indeed, the “Maximus” usage echoes Limbaugh’s “Ronaldus Magnus” as a moniker for Reagan. [↩]
November 13th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Therefore, in the spirit of famous butt kickers Generals Chesty Puller and George Patton, I say we launch an attack on all fronts. Uncle Ted hereby declares it is open season on RINOs. No bag limits or permits required. Conservative ideas, arguments and votes are the weapons we will use.
I love it when draft dodgers like Nugent get on a militaristic streak.
If Ted Nugent represents the new breed of “conservative intellectual,” the movement’s rebirth looks pretty dismal.
November 13th, 2008 at 11:25 am
The Nuge claims that real Republicans like him didn’t turn out to support the ticket even with the Palin pick, which leads me to wonder just who is the RINO here.
The idea that the Republican Party will get bigger by getting smaller is a prescription for disaster.
November 13th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
I’d argue that rather than being the “new conservative intelectual”, the Nuge is espousing the position of the “stubborn old conservative”. This type of thing is annoying, because I think it is very blind to the situation. “Let’s just do the same thing that failed again, that’ll be SURE to succeed in 4-8 years!”
November 13th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
the fact that people like the nuge continue to have a voice within the mainstream conservative movement is baffling to me. i think your remarks with regard to politics-as-entertainment is absolutely spot on - the approach of this group of people to politics is defined in terms of pugilism, us vs. them; good vs. evil. their political program (if one wants to call it that) is therefore defined by “anti-liberalism”, i.e. ‘do everything to piss off the other side’. although i believe that coulter, hannity, nugent, etc. don’t serve as specific agenda-setters, or intellectual beacons within the conservative movement. their job, it seems to me, is to keep them entertained the right way (forgive the pun).
November 13th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
And it’s that use of ‘conservative’. The GOP hasn’t been conservative in a long time, but that wasn’t what caused their problems. F*cking up and f*cking over almost everybody is what caused their problems, and even that was O.K. until the GOP lost elections (a la 2006 and ‘08). Being whackjobs was fine until then.
November 14th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I’d add that the trick is that the GOP trash-talked and overpromised their way into power. Limbaugh & Co. are prime trash-talkers (and by ‘trash’ I mean ’sh*t’).
Now the GOP is in the position of somebody who strongly dissed their compettion, promised a whole bunch of stuff, and had an epic fail. IMHO, any more trash-talking will just remind others of why they don’t like the GOP.
What the GOP needs (aside from Obama and the Democratic Congress having an epic economic fail in the next few years) is a rebuild of their reputation. They need to reposition themselves as Eisenhower Republicans, who get things done.
In shorter words, they need their opposition to fail miserably, and a whole new GOP.