It’s George Wallace’s GOP Now: http://bit.ly/cwPt3z. (And *not* for the reasons you think — this is not an article about race.)
It’s George Wallace’s GOP Now: http://bit.ly/cwPt3z. (And *not* for the reasons you think — this is not an article about race.)
That’s a fair enough critique so far as Sarah Palin is concerned, but despite her present popularity, Palin by no means constitutes either the main leadership force, nor her followers the primary genesis of grassroots strength, in the GOP.
Certainly the GOP as a whole appears incoherent and divided amongst itself at the moment. That is not atypical for a party out of power. However, more typically a consensus eventually emerges — or at least a dominant leader around which to coalesce — and the party then gains its voice and rises to challenge the dominant party. What’s different this time around is the degree to which the party and administration in power is self-destructing faster than the minority party can re-organize itself into a formidable opponent. Simply put, the Republicans are being thrust back into the spotlight and being asked to retake their place at the big-boy table before they’ve had sufficient time to refresh and re-brand themselves. That’s welcome news for those of us who expected to spend quite some time in the wilderness before being able to have a say in things again, but it does carry an element of risk in that elements of the party who we’d rather not be taking the lead into these battles may nevertheless be in a better position to do just that than we’d presently prefer.
…And then I stumbled on this article from George Will, which beat both myself and Rauch to the punch by a full week while making most of the same points.