If the Republicans are ever to become relevant again in our national discourse, which I hope they will one day since we need a healthy opposition party, they have to go through a tough 5-step rehab:
1. Stop telling the world that America is the best country on earth. Coming from many Republicans who have never left the place this statement echoes ignorance of such magnitude that one always wonders if people who utter such nonsense are not merely children in adults' bodies. Going around the globe with a big stick shouting that America is the best democracy in the world, when it clearly it isn't so, can be pretty obnoxious. After Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and CIA's "black sites" fiasco we as Americans have forever lost the right to say such things.
2. Stop using shallow symbols to attract support. Just because Michael Steel happens to be black, it does not mean that he can miraculously save the Republican Party from plunging deeper into the abyss of irrelevance. By picking their "own black man" to counter Obama, the Republicans have once again shown that they really do not get that "other America." They do not understand that Obama's appeal comes not from the color of his skin, but from his experience and his ability to channel that experience to the public and his specific policy proposals. Joe the Plumber is another example of Republicans' utterly idiotic embrace of shallow symbols over substance. The fact that the man is not only NOT a plumber, but also a total moron with nothing mildly intelligent to say does not seem to worry the Republicans about their new symbol. The embrace of symbols without substance just confirms the Republicans' failure to connect with the diverse America.
3. Take economics classes. I am not an economist but this crisis has made me read more widely and deeply about economics than I ever had before. Reading, that thing that Bush abhorred and Palin mocked, can be instructive, so I suggest the Republicans pick up Econ books and read about the Great Depression and the way government spending is essential to any economic rescue.
4. Drop the fake populist act. The Republican party has been the party of big business and it is their policy of deregulation that got us to where we are today. Now, this doesn't mean that the Democrats are blameless. Let's remember that it was during the Clinton years that the infamous credit default swaps became legalized and it was under the Democratically-influenced Freddie and Frannie real estate giants sub-prime mortgages became widespread. But the policy of Reagan-inspired deregulation, fetishism of the free markets, and hatred of the government, are at the very heart of the Republican party. So Republicans' outrage at AIG bonuses and bailout money only reveals the deeply embedded hypocrisy running through the very core of their mission.
5. Stop embracing anti-intellectualism. George W. Bush became a hero of the Republican party in the 2000s due to his embrace of know-nothing ignorance, his supposed ability to speak from the gut, his acknowledgment that he doesn't read newspapers, and his cowboy attitude. The Republicans' hatred of "elite liberals" included the embrace of Sarah Pallin despite the fact that her knowledge of the main issues confronting the country was way below the level of a middle school A average student. The Republicans have to acknowledge that we need the "elite" with top-notch education credentials to run our country, particularly at the face of such giant problems.
If the Republican party was asking me for advice on how to start emerging from the wilderness in order to become relevant in our national discourse, they should follow this not-so-simple 5 step recovery program.
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Oh Hyphenated Researcher, you are so good at ranting! Thank you.
Failure to read economic texts is not really the problem. The problem is which economic texts they read. They love to read Joseph Schumpeter and they would gladly have Milton Friedman's babies, if he were still alive. They can't get enough of the Laffer curve (which is really named for its homophone: laugher). They bask in microeconomics without ever bothering to engage the truths of macroeconomics.
Of course, this only addresses economic Republicans. In order to address the cultural conservatives, I'm afraid you might have to start out their economics lessons with "See Spot Run" and "Math on Phonics.
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