Finish this sentence: ‘The Republican party is __.’
BY CHRIS CILLIZZA October 11 at 4:45 pm
“In Play” asked attendees of the Values Voter Summit, an annual gathering of social conservatives in Washington, to finish this sentence: “The Republican party is __.” The answers were fascinating — running the gamut from “weak” to “strong” to “divided” to “damaged” to “reforming”.
The Values Voter Summit, much like the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), is in many way an exercise in what should be called mutual ideological masturbation. A lot of noise and fury, little substance, and even less fact and reality, and what you have is something that might solve an immediate need but is really of little long-term value and leaves you craving the real thing.
I’m struck by the GOP’s apparent willingness to inflict untold damage upon itself. The government shutdown appears to be an self-created albatross around the collective neck of Republicans, and they’re largely responsible for a Congress that’s currently less popular than dog poop. I really rather enjoy watching Republicans committing political suicide, though I shudder to think of the long-term damage the shutdown and the controversy surrounding the debt ceiling will do to our economy and our standing in the world. What must it look like from the outside looking in, with the world’s largest and most powerful democracy being held hostage by a minority cabal of inflexible ideologues and zealots? We can’t govern ourselves, and yet the rest of the world looks to us to take the lead in maintaining order around the world?
If nothing else, Republicans- especially of the Teapublican variety- have exposed themselves as shallow, inept, ignorant of how democracy works, and devoid of workable ideas. I suppose that’s what happens when you live in a fact-free world, where merely believing something to be true makes it so. And the Fox News addicts who voted them into office continue to believe that this mess is the fault of The Black Guy in the White House ©…which I suspect beats engaging in anything resembling creative thinking.
From where I sit, the one word is patently obvious…if not suited for a family show:
The Republican Party is &@%#ed.
