Analyzing the GOP Collapse

Even diehard Republicans these days will admit their party is facing a serious, ongoing crisis... not just at the ballot box, but also in terms of its core philosophy.

Conservative NY Times columnist David Brooks gets very deep in his take on this, stating the problem is that "Over the years, the voice of [Edmund] Burke has been submerged beneath the clamoring creeds. In fact, over the past few decades the conservative ideologies have been magnified, while the temperamental conservatism of Burke has been abandoned." That's not un-true.

But blogger John Cole-- who twice voted for Dubya, but ran screaming for the hills sometime last year-- cuts to the chase a bit better, in my opinion. He explains his exodus-

"It had nothing to do with Burke, and everything to do with what the party had become. A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs with a mean streak a mile long and no sense of fair play or proportion.

Seriously- what does the current Republican party stand for? Permanent war, fear, the nanny state, big spending, torture, execution on demand, complete paranoia regarding the media, control over your body, denial of evolution and outright rejection of science, AND ZOMG THEY ARE GONNA MAKE US WEAR BURKHAS, all the while demanding that in order to be a good American I have to spend most of every damned day condemning half my fellow Americans as terrorist appeasers.

That isn’t even getting into the COMPLETE and TOTAL corruption of our political processes at every level...

...Screw them. I got out. They can have their party."

And I know this is truer than people think. I have an uncle who is one of the nicest, most generous guys I know... and he drives a VW bus painted with hippie stuff, only eats organic foods, etc. But he is a diehard Republican. Won't watch TV because of the 'liberal propaganda' it spews. Thinks Democrats are 'communists'. Is scared that terrorists are hiding behind every corner, ready to destroy us all at a moment's notice. Thinks that the only problem with the war is that Bush is too much of a pussy to just nuke the whole place and get it over with. These attitudes are not just limited to buffoons like Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, or Ms. Coulter. Those stars simply reflect the craziness that has infected the heart of the GOP base.

(This disturbing story involving Michelle Malkin and a 12-year-old is the perfect example.)

So Cole's summary is better to me than Mr. Brooks'. But maybe it's Burke too. Who knows.