Salvaging the republic

Salvaging the republic
Returning the government to the people.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/02/20/as-country-club-republicans-link-up-with-the-democratic-ruling-class-millions-of-voters-are-orphaned/

I find this analysis compelling. I flatter myself in thinking I have had similar thoughts.

"It is impossible to overstate the importance of American education's centralization, intellectual homogenization and partisanship in the formation of the ruling class' leadership. Many have noted the increasing stratification of American society and that, unlike in decades past, entry into its top levels now depends largely on graduation from elite universities. As Charles Murray has noted, their graduates tend to marry one another, perpetuating what they like to call a "meritocracy." But this is rule not by the meritorious, rather by the merely credentialed – because the credentials are suspect. As Ron Unz has shown, nowadays entry into the ivied gateways to power is by co-option, not merit. Moreover, the amount of study required at these universities leaves their products with more pretense than knowledge or skill. The results of their management– debt, decreased household net worth, increased social strife – show that America has been practicing negative selection of elites."

Obama represents the culmination of this trend. University, bad, Junior college good.

"Thus by the turn of the twenty first century America had a bona fide ruling class that transcends government and sees itself at once as distinct from the rest of society – and as the only element thereof that may act on its behalf. It rules – to use New York Times columnist David Brooks' characterization of Barack Obama – "as a visitor from a morally superior civilization.""

"The Republican Party never fully adapted itself to the fact that modern big government is an interest group in and of itself"

"By the late 1930s, being out of power had begun to make the Republicans the default refuge of voters who did not like what the new, big government was doing. Some Republican leaders – the Taft wing of the Party – adopted this role. The Rockefeller wing did not. "

"Thus it gradually cut itself off from the only root of the power by which it might gain that role. Thus the Republicans proved to be "the stupid party.""

"Yet the question: "who or what does the Republican Party represent" continued to sharpen because the Reagan interlude was brief, because it never transformed the Party, and hence because the Bush (pere et fils) dynasty plus Congressional leadership (Newt Gingrich was a rebel against it and treated a such) behaved increasingly indistinguishably from Democrats. Government grew more rapidly under these Republican Administrations than under Democratic ones."
"In sum, the closer one gets to the Republican Party's voters, the more the Party looks like Goldwater and Reagan. The closer one gets to its top, the more it looks like the ghost of Rockefeller. Consider 2012: the party chose for President someone preferred by only one fourth of its voters – Mitt Romney, whose first youthful venture in politics had been to take part in the political blackballing of Barry Goldwater."

"But the Republican leadership has proved stupid enough to deal with the contempt as the Pharisee in the Temple dealt with sin: "I thank thee Lord that I am not like other Republicans…""

"Republican leadership finds itself in a position analogous to that of Episcopal bishops: They own an august label and increasingly empty churches because they have been chasing off the faithful priests and congregations."

"Today the majority of Republican congressmen plus a minority of senators – dissidents from the Party but solid with their voters – are the natural core of a new party."

"the internet helps undermine the ruling class' near-homogenization of American intellectual life"

"The internet also spread the power to organize. "

"Those on the electronic distribution list of the "Club for Growth," for example"

"the Party Establishment. It was shocked when candidates won Republican primaries by aligning themselves with such groups, against the Party itself."

"By 2013 it was less meaningful to ask what the leadership would do with the dissidents than what the dissidents would do with the leadership. The answer seemed to be: increasingly to ignore it"

"The New York Times reported a concerted effort by the Party's biggest donors led by longtime Bush staffer Karl Rove (yes, the Rockefeller wing) to support Establishment candidates in the primary process."

"That is the natural path to the dissidents forming a new party while Republican leadership dissolves into the Democratic party. In sum, the value of the label "Republican" is problematic."

"All this illustrates the need for, and the meaning of, a political party: disparate elements acting all of one and one for all."

I disagree with the concept of forming a new political party. The time between formation and viability is too long. It would be better to coop the current Republican leadership though continued challenge in the primaries. As to the donors, as was said about the tea party, where are they going to go. When the train leaves the station they will want to be abroad. Therefore the answer is continue purging the RINOs, and take over the Republican Party. There is a good start in the strength in the states. Let's make the "safe" districts unsafe for RINOs.

It is also important that no new batch of leaders become a new ruling class. A fundamental diminishing of the Federal government and a limitation of its powers is required.





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