For the GOP, it's game over, pal

In 1964 the Republican Party lurched far to the right and nominated Barry Goldwater for President.  Remember his battle cry—A Choice, Not An Echo?  Goldwater carried his home state of Arizona and only five other states in the deep South.  His humiliating defeat reminds us that Presidential elections are won in the middle and lost at the extremes. It's a lesson that zealots at both ends of our political spectrum are incapable of learning.

Although the characters and the plot line are different now, the same sort of self-destructive scenario is unfolding for the Republicans. On Super Tuesday Romney underperformed everywhere.  Whether he can amass enough delegates to win the nomination in the remaining primaries, remains problematic.

We are witnessing the disintegration of the Republican Party. The puzzle pieces of this GOP nightmare include, the Presidency of George W. Bush, the rise of the Tea Party in 2010, and how those forces now threaten the viability of the GOP. 

After eight years of George W. Bush, Barack Obama waltzed into the White House over the scorched-earth policies of Bush and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill.  Together they exuberantly turned their back on traditional Republican values and raced out upon the thin ice of adventurism abroad and fiscal profligacy at home.

Bush and his inner sanctum of Neo-Con, foreign policy advisers created the concept of PREVENTIVE WAR and then attacked the wrong country, Iraq. Iraq was not a player in the 9/11 attack.  It had no significant connection with al-Qaeda. The price that has been paid in blood and treasure for that miscalculation has been incalculable.  Domestically Bush and the GOP coupled a radical policy of tax reductions with a spending spree. In addition, they did not anticipate the bursting of the economic bubble and subsequent economic meltdown that began in 2007.

Blunders of this magnitude do not go unpunished. And in 2008 the electorate rewarded the Democrats with a clean sweep of the levers of power in Washington.  President Obama had campaigned on changing Washington politics.  But he failed to deliver on the promise.  Immediately after taking office his approach to the economic stimulus legislation and health care reform gave new meaning to polarization as the Democrats rammed through their bills with no bipartisan support. The arrogance of one-party rule gave birth to a national uprising—the Tea Party.

In 2010 The Democrats lost control of the House and saw their margin narrowed in the Senate.  Ironically, however, the ascendancy of the Tea Party with its overly simplistic notion that Washington's problems can be fixed by gutting the relatively small discretionary portion of the Federal budget has taken the polarization and poisonous passion of Washington politics to an all new level.

The simplistic and mindless nostrums of the Tea Party are reminiscent of the Republicans of   a half century ago who nominated Barry Goldwater without any inkling of the onrushing debacle. 

The compelling evidence of what's coming now is abundantly obvious in the bizarre battle for the GOP presidential nomination.  The fragility of the nation's economy, unacceptably high unemployment, skyrocketing debt, and Obama's inexperience are more than enough to make him vulnerable.  Yet the Republicans seeking to oust him are a joke.

It comes down to a choice between the front runner, Mitt Romney, who has been running for President since 2007  and still can't connect with average Americans or articulate a specific set of proposals that would deal with the nation's massive problems, or the three remaining willing hostages of the zealots—Santorum, Gingrich and Paul. 

Instead of setting forth proposals to turn the economy around, create jobs, reform the broken tax system, achieve energy independence, reform immigration, and revitalize education, Romney has embarrassed himself statements like:  “Corporations are people too; My wife drives a couple of Cadillacs; and I like to be able to fire people.”  Statements like these would be a blockbuster opening for a Romney monologue on SNL, but on the campaign trail they're devastating.  Romney's strategy of carpet bombing his opponents with negative ads exposes the barrenness of his quest.

Barring some cataclysmic externality between now and November 6^th, the GOP is going nowhere fast. More than three dozen Tea Party freshmen were elected from districts that Obama carried in 2008.  Many of them are about to learn the meaning of Satchel Paige's best aphorism—don't look back, something might be gaining on you. 

If you step outside your front door and listen really, really hard, you can just barely hear what sounds like laughter.  It is laughter, and it's coming from the White House. The once proud and vibrant Republican party is about to hand Obama his second free pass to the Presidency. 

Please Visit:  Capau.org

My readers may also be interested in the following Washington Post Article.

"One super PAC takes aim at incumbents of any party"