Specter's Defection
How should we applaud Arlen Specter? Surely his surprise return to the Democratic Party is not motivated by conviction or bravery, so we shouldn’t applaud him too loudly. But back when John McCain could still remember what it was like to matter, he contemplated this very move. He opted, instead, for the siren’s song of a Republican presidency. He shut the fuck up, he played ball, and he lost. If you remember, he did not lose well.
Specter witnessed this glorious fizzle, and he knows his party will never love him again, not enough to re-elect him. So he did what smart rats always do when the ship is on fire, and that is how we should applaud him, as a smart rat.
The GOP is correct when they say that Specter’s move is motivated by “political self preservation.” But Specter is a politician in a way that most Republicans are clearly not politicians any more. He’s interested in governing, and in all the privileges and headaches that come with governing, whereas the GOP has become increasingly more concerned with the abstract concept of “winning.” If Obama represents a certain cunning pragmatism, the modern Republican Party represents the kind of hissy fit a two-year-old throws when you won’t let it stick pennies a light socket. They are nihilists, it seems, and perhaps they always were.
The problem the GOP faces, that it has faced since vain nobodies like Karl Rove and George W. Bush grabbed the reins in 2000, is that they aren’t even sure what they’re trying to win. Greed and war mongering, as abstract goals, made them rich, but it also busted them in ways even they can no longer ignore. They were never sincerely motivated by religion, but saying so used to at least bring home the bacon. Not so anymore. If money, hate, violence, and willful evil can’t get you what you want…
Well, you’re just fucked.
So purposeless, then, is the GOP, that they ran off one of their most senior and dependable warhorses out of petty spite. Had they been guided by any kind of reasoned leadership, this would never have happened. The GOP is living on Lord of the Flies Island, and they’ve just tried to bash in the head of the only kid who knew how to build a fire. It is not difficult to guess what happens next.
More laughably, the only defense these swine seem to be able to muster is some unhinged whining about a “one-party system.” Yes, this is from the people who used to own you, body and soul, privacy and security, in a way that even your mother never did, but they’ve always been able to comport themselves as if cognitive dissonance was something for hippies and queers.
Listen, this is going to be fun. The collapse of the Republican Party is going to hurt people who deserve it, but the important thing to remember is that it’s going to hurt people who don’t deserve it even more. Not because it has to, but because people like Rush Limbaugh and Mitch McConnell will make sure it does. They’ve spent their whole careers ensuring there’s always someone lower on the shit ladder to bear the weight at times like these, when the turds start dropping.
But they’re not going to be dropping on Arlen Specter, that’s for fucking sure. His party had him by the balls, but what they didn’t count on was his lizard-like ability to detach said testicles and hobble off to regenerate. It’s a miscalculation that will continue to cost them dearly in the months ahead.
But, oh, how it has made me fall in love with politics again.
Wed., Apr. 29, 2009
Reader Comments (3)
I see this, what you're describing. I think we are witnessing the collapse of the GOP. Any predictions about what "party" will replace it? It does seem inevitable (and desirable, frankly) that we have a two-party system... is this where the green party swoops in? The libertarians?
I'd like to see a party that calls itself "the lower 51" party. It would just be a party that consisted of the poorest-51% of Americans figuring out ways to effectively tax the richest-49% of Americans. Crazy thing is: you could never convince the poorest 51% of Americans to stick together on this matter...
No really, what happens now?
I'd like to see a party called "the lower 98," but that's just math. I don't think the Republican Party is going to disappear, but the name is going to become associated more and more with religious extremism (as it has been for the past 20 years) and less with viable governance.
I'd like to say the most probable outcome is that someone charismatic and sane will take control of the GOP and steer it back towards the right-of-center. I'm sure that's what Michael Steele thought he was going to do. I just can't see it happening after yesterday. They really don't give a fuck anymore.
The wealthy will need a party, though, and my real fear is that in migrating to the blue side of the aisle they just wind up diluting the progressive edge in the Democratic Party.
I have tried to put the previous eight years out of my mind. It was so full of "what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-Americans?" that I was ready to leave the country. I'm glad I stuck around to see the change.