The Governing Cancer of Our Time

[KamaAina]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/26/opinion/the-governing-cancer-of-our-time.html

Over the past generation we have seen the rise of a group of people who are against politics. These groups — best exemplified by the Tea Party but not exclusive to the right — want to elect people who have no political experience. They want “outsiders.” They delegitimize compromise and deal-making. They’re willing to trample the customs and rules that give legitimacy to legislative decision-making if it helps them gain power.

Ultimately, they don’t recognize other people. They suffer from a form of political narcissism, in which they don’t accept the legitimacy of other interests and opinions. They don’t recognize restraints. They want total victories for themselves and their doctrine.

This antipolitics tendency has had a wretched effect on our democracy. It has led to a series of overlapping downward spirals:

The antipolitics people elect legislators who have no political skills or experience. That incompetence leads to dysfunctional government, which leads to more disgust with government, which leads to a demand for even more outsiders.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I don't like David Brooks, but

this time he makes some good points.

[KamaAina]

2. I hadn't even noticed it was Brooks!

[elleng]

3. He does that, from time to time.

[Jenny_92808]

4. Good thing Trump will never be elected.

"Trump’s style is bashing and pummeling. Everyone who opposes or disagrees with him is an idiot, a moron or a loser. The implied promise of his campaign is that he will come to Washington and bully his way through."

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. An interesting commentary on that article, here:

http://www.salon.com/2016/02/26/delusional_david_brooks_his_blind_spot_for_republican_nihilism_has_become_pathological/

It makes the point that while Brooks' observation is basically correct, he fails (or refuses) to place the blame where it belongs: on the GOP.

The questions stare Brooks in the face: What party is responsible for these trends? Which political actors have encouraged them? Who has benefited? In whose base have these attitudes been cultivated?

Trump is doubtless a culmination, but of what exactly? He’s a Frankenstein of Republican politics – there is no analogue to Trump in the Democratic Party. Republicans have played to the populist Tea Party id for years – fomenting fear, demonizing immigrants, and exploiting cultural angst. What we’re seeing now is the fulfillment of this strategy, which has helped them win elections but has failed to produce meaningful legislative change – and that’s precisely the point.

The Republican Party no longer aspires to governance. The Tea Party, an offspring of Republican politics, is a nihilistic political movement. Everyone one they’ve sent to Congress they sent for one reason: negation. Under the guise of some nebulous goal to “take the country back,” they’ve done nothing but undermine Obama and destroy the possibility of compromise. And this delirium has spread throughout the party. Recall that Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said explicitly that the GOP’s “top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.”

Only one party insists America is in perpetual decline. Only one party puts the culture wars at the center of its agenda. Only one party cultivates anti-intellectualism in its ranks. Only one party sold its soul to religious fanatics. Only one party refuses to accept the legitimacy of a democratically elected president.