A Grand Old Party

Lost in all the post-election media discussion last November about Iraq, congressional corruption, governmental overreach, out-of-control spending, etc, was a more low-key reason why so many were happy to throw the GOP bums out... the fact that the Republican Party (as it exists today, and has degenerated since the 1980s) is controlled by extremists and authoritarians who represent this country's worst instincts.

Their greatest successes have always been at marketing (ie. getting one of the most undemocratic bills of the past decade named the 'Patriot Act', painting opposition to war as hatred of the troops), which is how they were able to create the narrative that it is their opposition that is 'out of the mainstream'. Reality has slowly been killing that narrative.

This weekend is the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, the year's biggest GOP gathering. In attendance are Vice President Cheney, Tony Snow, Mitt Romney, Rudy Guiliani, Newt Gingrich and many other conservative heavyweights. If you are looking for a place to find my above opinions of the Grand Old Party smashed, you'd do well to avoid any coverage of this conference.

Yesterday, I linked to a discussion noting that one reason conservatives are rallying around Guiliani (despite his holding social positions they despise) is because of his 'tribal authoritarianism'. Well-known conservative blogger John Derbyshire says issues-schmissues and says what makes my former Mayor so appealing is "his Gestalt [which] screams ANTI-LIBERAL!". This is today's GOP in a nutshell. All positions-- supporting the war, global warming denial, civil liberties violations-- are judged through a combative prism, in this case pissing off the libs.

Here's some CPAC highlights...

There's GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway dissing Sen. Obama because people didn't know who he was on 9/11 or something (?). There's Vice President Cheney cracking revisionist jokes about Iraq. Here's 2008 front-runner Rudy Guiliani not sure if he agrees with himself.

And there's honored guest She-Who-Must-Not-Named, after getting a shout-out from '08 candidate Mitt Romney, delivering this line to wild audience applause: "I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.” Good times! See you next year!

Andrew Sullivan is blogging from the conference and sums it up this way-

"It's a party that wants nothing to do with someone like me. All I heard and saw was loathing: loathing of Muslims, of 'illegals,' of gays, of liberals, of McCain. The most painful thing for me was the sight of so many young people growing up believing that this is conservatism. I feel like an old-style Democrat in 1968."

I just feel ashamed. And I don't see this changing anytime soon.

[UPDATE (3/3): Mike Stark notices one group conspiciously absent from the CPAC crowds.]