TPM Reader SR responds to our earlier discussion of the “GOP in Disarray” meme and whether the Republican party is more dependent on ‘strong leaders’ …
The Republicans are in disarray. They aren’t in disarray for lack of a strong leader. Rather, Republicans depend upon “strong leaders” because without them, they’d have to face the source of the disarray, which is that their ideology is morally and intellectually bankrupt but they can’t fix the ideology without alienating key interest group constituencies in American politics.
It looks like Jeb Bush’s abandonment of his newfound opposition to a ‘pathway to citizenship’ is now complete. See our complete Jeb Flip Timeline here. This from his interview this morning on This Week … Read More
This is a kind of blood-curdling story I just learned about this afternoon. Zerlina Maxwell is an acquaintance who I’ve watched from a distance as she builds a media career as a progressive pundit and activist — succeeding to an amazing degree while also getting a law degree. I met her for I think only the second time in person at my birthday party last weekend. I just found out that since an appearance on Hannity on Tuesday she’s basically been under an escalating online assault filled with racist epithets and threats of rape all for stating what I think is a fairly straightforward opinion on the intersecting issues of guns and rape. Read More
With the conclave upon us, who will be the next pope? Check out our special cheat sheet of the top contenders with bios of each.
From our past: Jackie Robinson’s March 9th, 1965 telegram to LBJ demanding the president take federal action to stop violence in Selma. See the telegram after the jump … Read More
This graf from Ta-Nehisi Coates reminds of why I started TPM and why I so quickly fell in love with the mode of writing it made possible for me … Read More
TPM Reader BC has sparked a lively conversation by questioning the “GOP in Disarray” meme. Now TPM Reader JB responds …
To your correspondent’s point, Republicans have in our modern history been more dependent on strong-looking leaders than have Democrats.
For generations, there was a pretty obvious reason for this: Republicans were members of the smaller of our two parties. Not only that, but a whole region of the country — the South — had large numbers of voters who would only vote for a Republican if the negative value of his party identification was outweighed by his personal qualities. Small wonder that the first Republican to recover the White House after the GOP’s collapse in the Hoover period happened to be the country’s greatest war hero.
Illinois state party to consider firing chairman after he expresses support for gay marriage.
TPM Reader BC has a question …
Look, I love Republican disarray as much as the next guy, but four months after E-day I’m still confused by this notion that the GOP’s now in turmoil because it lacks a “strong leader.”
I want to challenge TPM to question on this narrative a little more – because frankly, the more I think about it, the more it seems like the kind of lazy pseudo-explanation that mainstream reporters fall back on to avoid serious, thoughtful analysis of the party’s woes… And I come to TPM to get away from that.
If you’re a Prime member and haven’t checked out the new Prime 2.0 beta discussion area, definitely drop by. We’ve got some great discussions up and running. We just opened up a thread to discuss my post from earlier today about the morality of Bill Clinton signing DOMA in 1996.
If you haven’t signed into the beta yet, read this first.