Obamacare's foes running out of steam is just the most obvious sign of a larger trend: A lot of traditional conservative issues are losing their momentum. Gay marriage lost its fear factor years ago....The economy is probably in good enough shape to not be a big campaign issue. Taxes have already been lowered so much that the average family pays only about 5 percent of its earnings to the IRS. ...KevinDrum,MoJo
Kevin Drum has come up with a really interesting, maybe startling, look into the desperate situation of the Republican party. No wonder they're getting even louder, even more childish and self-destructive.
The big Republican problem right now is not that they're out of ideas. The problem is that just as Democrats were torn apart by their ideas 30 years ago, Republicans are being torn apart by theirs today. All the once-reliable Republican applause lines are fast becoming wedge issues that divide the party regulars from the tea party base. And this is all coming at the same time that Republicans are fighting the headwind of a long-term demographic shift that weakens them further with every election cycle. "In an era when the inmates are running the asylum, it's not just Obamacare bashing that's become a double-edged sword for Republicans. It's nearly everything they've relied on for the past three decades." ...Drum,MoJo
Their inability to reach compromise within the own party is costing them big time. It's not that the right is going away or that we're finally going to spared the threat of more lousy economic decisions or the increasingly pervasive "me-first" culture. They go with the territory Republicans have carved out for themselves and the notion that some people "own" America and the rest are here by permission.
Hmm. I know some Tonkawa and Apache around here who would tell you it doesn't work out that way.
