Quote of the Day

"The Republican base does not really care about social conservatism. It just hates liberals. This is something people have not yet come to terms with."
--Blogger 'Digby' on what Rudy Guiliani's popularity says about the GOP

This isn't 100% for the party as a whole, but for the base, it definitely is.

Every right-wing blog I read, hell why narrow it down to them, every issue of the NY Post I read, every second of Fox News I see, every segment of talk radio I hear, all reiterates to me that one fact... whatever conservatism once stood for has completely unraveled and disintegrated. What they stand for now is simply opposition to whatever Democrats and/or the liberal boogeyman they fear support. There's no overarching ideology anymore. It's just an anti-liberal party now.

They'll continue the war just to avoid the political embarassment. They'll support torture and the erosion of civil liberties because Bush said to. They'll ignore global warming because that's a "liberal" issue. They can't do anything on health care because that would be 'socialist' of them. They'll privatize everything and let the market decide our fates for the same reason. Etc etc.

The Bush cultists and a small-- but uber-loyal-- smattering of religious voters and Dixie folk are all they have left and they are trying to do right by them, while keeping a worried eye on the general public who is in turn not taking a friendly eye back at them. Their superior marketing skills had kept them in the majority up until last November, but they lost their narrative, which had been their greatest strength. Now it's just a mess.

And, as Digby said, until they (and those who care about a viable conservative alternative in America) come to real terms with this reality, it's just going to get worse. But I have a feeling I'm just screaming into the wind here.

[PS- As for the Democratic '08 group, this cartoon gets it about right.]