Facts Is

El Presidente Bush and the truthy Stephen Colbert have given the Republican Party, a.k.a. modern Conservatism, a reputation for disregard of facts. Distrust of facts would be too kind. And it's rampant throughout the party, just as it was when some men still wanted to preserve the institution of slavery or deny suffragettes the right to vote. Conservatism as stuck.

Now, for example, there will be a national health care system that costs taxpayers but improves health security for America, as it does in Japan, Canada, Western Europe. And this will ultimately make our nation more competitive with the rest of the world.

There's a lot of flailing by Republicans at their troubles, trying to grapple by rebranding, new salesmanship for the fantasies that they call ideas that have now proven to fail. Everyone knows it, which is why adult party identification has falled to near 20%. When a political party sinks below 20%, into the teens, of voter identification, then do they deserve to be treated on equal footing with the major national party they oppose? At 19%, wouldn't that make the GOP some sort of Third Party?

After all the grading of President Obama's first one hundred days in office, here's a list of where the Republicans are after their first one hundred days in session. Top of JCWilmore's list:

The GOP failed to block a single Obama agenda item while at the same time letting the GOP be branded as the "Party of No." To the extent that the economy turns around as the result of Obama's stimulus package, Republicans will have no claim whatsoever to that success. The Republicans have painted themselves into a corner where they have to hope that the United States fails economically, and Americans sense--and resent--that fact.

JC goes on to say the Party's agenda is entirely devoted to self-defence now, and calls Sarah Palin "the designated next Republican presidential candidate" with a campaign already fatally flawed and likely to loose to Obama by an historic margin. Sixth point is the real significance of Specter's switch to the GOP's future:

The defection of Arlen Specter handed the Democrats the ability to pass legislation without a single Republican vote as long as the legislation is moderate enough to hold the Democratic Party together. The Democratic Party would have achieved this goal in the 2010 mid-term elections, but the GOP's gift of Specter puts the Democratic Party and Obama about 20 months ahead of where we thought we'd be on key issues like health care. Specter won't help us do everything, but what he will do will help us ensure Democratic victory in 2010. We won't get everything we want from Specter, but we should have a solid record of achievement to show off in 2010 and 2012.

That last point is the really fatal one for the GOP. The GOP needs the United States to fail in some way--for the American people to come crawling back--but the GOP has largely lost the ability to intervene in the affairs of the United States, for good or ill.

Twenty months ahead. If a week is a lifetime in politics, what's twenty months?

It's well-worth reading the end of the analysis, with the Party in slow collapse but still powerful enough (fundraising) to squelch or co-opt any real Third Party, as they did with the Teabaggers, essentially a nascent grassroots party. Which leaves the progressives as the loyal opposition while the Obama/Democratic government will grow increasingly conservative (small "c") as they get too used to power.

Orbital Mind Control Lasers have a fleshed out list as well, this one of why the GOP rebranding is doomed to failure. The toplines (he has explanations for each:

• The Republicans have become, for better or worse, the party of rural/suburban white people.
• At this point in time, conservatives are dealing with a deep sense of failure.
• Conservatives are caught up in identity politics.
  
• The core of their victim imagery makes no sense.
  
• The conservative media machine is stuck in a loop.
  
• Any Republican leader who steps up to take on the Noise Machine will be attacked by the Noise Machine.
• Today's Republican leaders represent the worst traits of the GOP.
• Environmentalism is becoming more and more important.
• Democrats have successfully painted the GOP as the Party of Liars.
• This is why secession talk is becoming so popular.

The facts are the facts. The GOP/Conservative notions are all in the dustbin, thanks to deregulation, widespread next generational support for marriage equality, the ruined Iraqi families, the lives lost. The secrecy. The torture. They don't need new branding, they need a sea change.

Of course, the fact is that Obama's built an extremely strong team. As in taking his biggest rival for the Presidency, Republican or Democrat, and giving her the most important post in his Cabinet. And she's thriving.

The fact is, the Republicans are up against this.



Good luck with the one-on-one.