Sunday 4 September 2011

Most Sobering Political Analysis You'll Read Today

Don't even start. Yes, there will be posts about political stuff in an election year. Welcome to the world. Don't wanna read it, don't go past the jump...

Mike Lofgren, a GOP political staffer, has ended his 30 year political career. Upon his exit, he has published a lengthy "get this off my chest" piece about what he thinks has become of his own party. Spoiler: He ain't happy.

You should really read the whole thing. It's long and dry, as from-the-inside political business always is, but picture he paints is stark yet altogether unsurprising: A party that's gone from champions of practical small-government to what he calls an "apocalyptic cult" cynically willing to destroy and undermine the very bodies they serve in in order to have a "broken government" to run against, with a side-helping of unreasoning religious insanity and a blinding hatred of gays, foriengers, "intellectuals" and anyone different.

He also pulls this quote from Jon P. Judis, which seems especially insightful:

"If there is an earlier American precedent for today's Republican Party, it is the antebellum Southern Democrats of John Calhoun who threatened to nullify, or disregard, federal legislation they objected to and who later led the fight to secede from the union over slavery."

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