{"id":1570,"date":"2010-02-03T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2010-02-03T16:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/03\/the-radicalization-of-the-republican-base\/"},"modified":"2010-02-03T12:35:00","modified_gmt":"2010-02-03T16:35:00","slug":"the-radicalization-of-the-republican-base","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/02\/03\/the-radicalization-of-the-republican-base\/","title":{"rendered":"The radicalization of the Republican base?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Reagan-era Republican official and Forbes columnist Bruce Bartlett has a new post on his website titled “Why I’m not a Republican.”<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s a fairly caustic broadside:<\/p>\n

“I can only conclude from this new poll of 2003 self-identified Republicans nationwide that between 20% and 50% of the party is either insane or mind-numbingly stupid.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He’s reacting to a poll commissioned by the DailyKos website but conducted by the independent pollster, Research 2000.<\/p>\n

Put bluntly, the survey found that a significant plurality of self-identified Republicans believe nutty stuff:<\/p>\n

Barack Obama should be impeached (39%), Obama is a socialist (63%), Obama is a foreigner masquerading as an American (42%).<\/p>\n

When asked if the President “wants the terrorists to win,” 57% either said Yes or they weren’t sure. (Only 43% rejected the notion outright.)<\/p>\n

An astonishing number of Republicans think Mr. Obama “is a racist and hates white people” (23%) or they’re “not sure” (33%). (Only 36% reject the notion outright.)<\/p>\n

First, I’ll make my opinion crystal clear: These views are nuts, bonkers, indefensibly ludicrous.<\/p>\n

This is the kind of static that prevents a real and fundamental debate about the hard choices facing America.<\/p>\n

Take the most common (and arguably least offensive) conservative attack, that Mr. Obama is a socialist.<\/p>\n

In fact, Mr. Obama’s agenda falls well within the mainstream of American politics. <\/p>\n

At various times, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush (to name two examples) embraced “big government” ideas every bit as ambitious as those of Mr. Obama.<\/p>\n

In the 1970s, Mr. Nixon set price controls on gasoline; in the 2000s, Mr. Bush created a vast new centralized education program (No Child Left Behind) and a prescription drug entitlement that cost taxpayers more than $50 billion.<\/p>\n

We’re they socialists? No. We’re their ideas good ones. That’s open to debate.<\/p>\n

There is, as I’ve written repeatedly, plenty to dispute in Mr. Obama’s policies. In many cases, I’m sure, there are sound, sensible alternatives.<\/p>\n

But a political movement that embraces this kind of hysteria is, by its nature, self-limiting.<\/p>\n

Americans want answers, good government, policies that improve their lives, and not conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n

In the end, these views aren’t a problem for Democrats. <\/p>\n

They’re a problem for Republicans who at some point will recapture the White House and a majority in Congress.<\/p>\n

Then they’ll have to actually govern. <\/p>\n

Can they lead the nation if their base is convinced that liberals are enemies of America and Democrats (the insidious “Democrat Party”) are villains out of central casting?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Reagan-era Republican official and Forbes columnist Bruce Bartlett has a new post on his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}