Originally published at: W says the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant GOP is "not going to win anything" | Boing Boing
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But but but… small town conservatives love tacky reality tv stunts, unhinged conspiracy rants and being dominated by folks who love authoritarian mindsets.
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As with Liz Cheney’s direct repudiation of the Big Lie, it’s good to hear him say this, but what most Republicans want now is closer to blunt white supremacy, not the beliefs and values of the refined subset of people who came to be called WASPs.
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There’s a direct line in the leaps in logic from Reagan to Bush to Trump, W being too privilege blind to even be aware of the war crimes he himself committed doesn’t really change that.
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while i could see this recent outpouring of realistic critique from w in several unflattering ways–
*a stopped clock is right twice a day
*he’s worried enough about his place in history to try to turn the tides he unleashed during his presidency
*he’s angry that trump has unseated him from the “dumbest president in history” throne
i don’t think any of these truly explain the systematic and internally consistent critique he’s been delivering which puts it beyond “stopped clock” accidental correctness. i always believed his “stupidity” was somewhat performative to hide the fact that a lot of the evils committed by his administration were done by deliberation and not by accident so i doubt that he is competing with trump over that. While i do believe he is concerned about his place in history, i don’t think he really recognizes the connections between his administrative behavior and the way the trump administration extended and supplemented things he started.
i am left with the conclusion that he is genuinely concerned that the trends with the g.o.p. are leading to a disaster for the party and he is sincerely invested in trying to get them to change course. whether it will do any good is an open question but i’ll be happy to let him continue trying.
edited to eliminate redundancy
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Several establishment Republicans have observed that the party won’t win a lot of elections going forward if they stay on this path.
What I wish more of them would say out loud is that the Republican party won’t deserve to win as long as they stay on this path. They shouldn’t abandon Trumpism just because it’s hurting them election-wise, they should abandon Trumpism because it’s evil and destructive even by W-era Republican standards.
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while i wish for the same thing you do, i believe the g.o.p. has become far too transactional to respond to appeals to morals or ethics and will probably only respond to an appeal to practicality. w seems to know his “people” well enough to target his critique to that.
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Exactly. Shrub’s critique is framed in terms of whether Republicans can regain power, not in terms of saying or doing good things.
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speak to a rift in the party that has one side urging a doubling-down on former President Donald Trump’s brand of nativist politics and another that wants to return to the more traditional coded nativist GOP that Bush once led.
FTFY
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This! It’s pretty tiresome seeing all these Republicans acting like Trump was some anomaly or revolution in the party. He was the next small step forward in the path they’ve been on since at least Reagan.
They’re all clutching their pearls at what they hath wrought. Well, we all knew this is where it was headed, and I think they did too.
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Except, they will. Sure, they’ll have to cheat to do it, so in that sense they won’t have “won,” but when they’ve secured their power in 2022 through voter suppression and gerrymandering is anyone going to be making that distinction?
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The party is too far gone to listen, even when it’s a country-club WASP (cosplaying a cowboy) telling them these things.
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Somehow I don’t think the people who need to listen to him are listening to him.
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Bingo.
As long as the stated goal is “winning elections” rather than, you know, “governing the country well,” we’re all kinda screwed.
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one silent “k”-- knee
two silent "k"s-- knuckle
three silent "k"s-- republican
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Enter the likes of Marjorie Traitor Green. Sure, she won but she’s not on any committees, nobody will work with her, she doesn’t do anything but cheerlead conspiracy theories, bigotry and hate.
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W is from a long line of wealthy, over-priveleged, elitists from Connecticut and got elected by pretending to be an everyman Texan just clearing brush on his ranch.
I can’t take this any other way from Bush than him saying that the republicans need to do a better job of appearing to be non-crazy, everyday working people rather than a bunch of racist conspiracy nuts. Nothing about his political history makes me think he cares whether that appearance is bullshit and the substance is a few priveleged WASPs ruining the country
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It’s easier for us to see it as we stand outside their insular world, but I think a lot or Republicans accepted the myths of the party as their primary beliefs: meritocracy, small government, free trade, etc. It’s hard to look in the mirror sometimes, self deceit is a powerful drug.
The fact is the GOP has been on the losing side of demographic changes for decades, and they keep finding ways to hold onto power-- the Southern Strategy, the rise of their own Fox News and talk radio propaganda arm, and now voter suppression and the promotion of wild conspiracies.
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Who said anything about “winning” elections? The whole point of the GOP now is to “prevent” elections.
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