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So the brief and generally shallow period of Republican post-election introspection is officially over, before it really ever got to the difficult questions of ideology. How do I know that? Because Jim DeMint, from his new perch at the Heritage Foundation, has declared it so! I occasionally refer to a certain kind of conservative as “hammer-headed.” Read these lines from Boss DeMint’s op-ed in the Washington Times, and see what I mean:
President Obama and Congress will not solve America’s problems unless the people force them to. Washington is America’s problem. We are the solution.
America remains a conservative nation. But the people crave leadership — champions who will stand up to the progressives, take on the liberal media and push back against the Republican leadership when they go wobbly. They are tired of politicians. They want leaders of genuine conviction and passion, willing to take a principled stand.
It’s all very simple: keep moving Right and Republicans will arrive in that fabulous wonder-land where “real Americans” have always lived. You want an “autopsy” of what’s gone wrong with the GOP? You don’t need no 97-page report. Seven hammer-headed paragraphs will do it:
Not since the first few years of the Republican revolution in the 1990s — when welfare reform and a balanced budget were passed — have congressional Republicans seriously championed conservative ideas. By the time I arrived in the House in 1998, my party was increasing spending and handing out earmarks like candy.
The spending binge continued. By 2006, Americans had seen enough, and Republicans lost the majority in both houses. This was not a rejection of conservative policies. It was a rejection of unprincipled governance.
In 2008, things got even worse as Republicans helped pass bailouts for big banks on Wall Street, and for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Barack Obama was elected, and Republicans lost even more seats in Congress.
It wasn’t long before the far-left policies of Mr. Obama and a rudderless GOP finally woke Americans from their apathy. Conservatives, libertarians, independents and even recovering liberals came together in groups called Tea Parties all across the country. They had a unified, simple message: “Stop the spending, borrowing, bailouts and government takeovers — and restore constitutional, limited government.”
The majority of Americans agreed with these ideas. This was the opportunity for Republicans to embrace the movement and build that big tent our leaders have been talking about for years. Instead, the national Republican leadership rejected the Tea Party and joined the liberal media in vilifying it.
Many Republican candidates, though, did embrace the Tea Party ideas. In 2010, they helped the GOP retake the House and gain seats in the Senate.
Yet in 2012, with the presidency on the line, national Republican leadership rejected the lessons of 2010 and went back to the old way of campaigning — relying on big-budget, negative TV rather than painting a bold, positive vision of a better America.
Yeah, we all understand Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008 (Iraq? Katrina?) because they supported too much government spending, and Mitt Romney lost because he failed to come out for the repeal of the New Deal and Great Society and the demise of what DeMint likes to call “government schools.”
You can laugh all you want, but Jim DeMint is a much bigger deal, and a much more representative voice, in today’s GOP than Reince Priebus or Karl Rove or any of the tiny band of “reformist” conservative intellectuals who probably (in private, to be sure) think Jim DeMint is hammer-headed, too.
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emjayay on March 22, 2013 11:59 AM:
Government takeovers? Saving GM and Chrysler three or four years ago? The Bush administration saving a bunch of Wall Streeters?
I assume he's figuring on people conflating those things in their little brains with the extending of access to medical care to many more Americans using the existing free market mess of a non-system along with some necessary increased regulation with a "takeover".
mmm on March 22, 2013 12:11 PM:
Why does the song "Nice Work if You Can Get It" come to mind? How much are they paying him for this gig? And to think there are unemployed people out there with actual skills.
Russell Sadler on March 22, 2013 12:17 PM:
That was Easy.
More like dismissive.
c u n d gulag on March 22, 2013 12:20 PM:
I must have missed it.
When did The Heritage Foundation move its HQ to Berlin?
Surely, he ain't talkin' 'bout the 'Murkin people, who, if you don't label and idea as "Liberal," or, "Democratic," SUUUUUUUURE LOVES 'EM SOME SOSHLIZM!!!
ceearreff on March 22, 2013 12:24 PM:
"...the far-left policies of Mr. Obama..."
What planet is this guy from?
Karen on March 22, 2013 12:25 PM:
I don't think Heritage Foundation policies would be very popular in contemporary Berlin?
dweb on March 22, 2013 12:33 PM:
.....and got good laughs yesterday afternoon as Rushbo bloviated that all New York Times readers are "radical leftists" and that the paper only occasionally opens up comments on its articles, and then because it is "collecting 'oppo' research."
Rush also spent a big chunk of his show trying to educate his listeners on a hip-hop music editing technique called "chop and screw," obviously wanting to let them know that he was hip to the jive. Of course he spent time noting that people who liked, used and or edited this king of music, often did so hopped up on Robitussin (even as educated listeners were saying to themselves Oxycontin.)
Even more cluelessly and without a hint of introspection, he argued that civil rights advocates would never conclude that the problem of discrimination was solved. "They thrive on this....they live on it. They keep their followers in fear because without fear, they would be out of business."
Uh Rush...."ultra liberal media, radical liberals, THEY, THEM, czars, taking away our rights, taking away our guns, fascist, Muslim, not American?" Any of this ring a bell Rushbo?
Honestly....you can't make this stuff up it is so weird.
Josef K on March 22, 2013 12:37 PM:
So the brief and generally shallow period of Republican post-election introspection is officially over, before it really ever got to the difficult questions of ideology.
I actually think the "ideology" end of it was the easier question for the GOP. It boils down to this:
"We are good. They are evil and will kill us all. Therefore, They (who are not We) must be stopped at all costs, including the destruction of the nation's economy (which does not affect We, because We have the support of the Job Creators, who will not affected by the destruction of the nation's economy) and the destruction of the government's ability to respond to crisis (which does not affect We, because even though We work within the institutions of government, will not be affected by crisis because We are We, and therefore exempt from feelings of pain and conscience)."
Any similarity between this statement and such issued by the villianous brain-looking alien Kraang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is entirely coincidental and only 60% intentional. I suspect the now-exctinct aristocracy of France and Russia thought much the same immediately prior to their becoming extinct.
jim filyaw on March 22, 2013 12:45 PM:
i remember a police presentation on drunk driving several years ago. they had a special device, a head set, that when put on the head of a sober person, replicated the perception and responses of an inebriated person. in other words, an alternate reality.
that's what i get from demint's rant. its the best example i've seen yet of how he and his see the world. who can blame them for words and acts which seem perfectly logical to them?
Christiaan Hofman on March 22, 2013 12:51 PM:
Republicans don't know the difference between "people I talk to" and "American people".
biggerbox on March 22, 2013 12:57 PM:
Shorter DeMint: "No true Scotsman, er, Conservative, would have failed to attract majority support."
It must be hard, if you truly believe that most of America agrees with you, to understand why most of America has been disagreeing with you on a regular basis.
But, you have to hand it to Jim Demint. Now he can mouth off about such nonsense all he wants, and get a big paycheck, without having to worry about actually voting or governing or anything. (Which, I have to think, is all he's really wanted anyway.)
Josef K on March 22, 2013 1:02 PM:
I occasionally refer to a certain kind of conservative as “hammer-headed.”
Careful there. I think the Sphyrnidae Sphyrna of the world would take offense to being compared to such an...creature as Jim DeMint. They, at least, know their place in the food chain.
Peter C on March 22, 2013 1:13 PM:
Actually, DeMint's own electoral prospects were so bad that the SC Republican party had to rig the Democratic primary so he could run against a complete nonentity. Then, realizing he'd have nothing to show for staying in the Senate, he cashed out for a lucrative job at the Heritage Foundation - an entity which exists to pretend that Republican ideology has some basis in academic thought.
Epicurus on March 22, 2013 1:51 PM:
The man is delusional; he is simply singing to the choir of true believers as loud as he can. That does not mean he's correct in his analysis, but that then leads to the question: Who does he think he's fooling? Obviously neither I nor Mr. Kilgore believe that. Must be the ditto-heads, etc. Keep beating that horse, Jim, you'll bring it back to life yet!
martin on March 22, 2013 1:53 PM:
Thankfully he doesn't name names, or he would make GW Bush cry.
Citizen Alan on March 22, 2013 2:38 PM:
I don't think God loves me enough to ensure that the 2016 GOP Presidential nominee is someone who would please Jim DeMint. No amount of gerrymandering could save the GOP death cult from self-destruction.
SecularAnimists on March 22, 2013 2:48 PM:
Ed Kilgore wrote: "I occasionally refer to a certain kind of conservative as 'hammer-headed'."
I refer to them as "bought-and-paid-for Koch Brothers stooges".
Sgt. Gym Bunny on March 22, 2013 2:54 PM:
@dweb March 22, 2013 12:33 PM:
...Hmmm... You know, Rush spends a lot of time dissecting hip hop. Methinks that somewhere in Houston there's a black strip club with it's own section reserved just for Rush. And I'm guessing he knows more about "Robitussin" than he's willing to admit to his listeners...
"The majority of Americans agreed with these ideas."
I really need to see some numbers before I even think about considering to believe this drivel. But, then again, he's probably just assuming that he's intimately in touch with the American gestalt or something.
boatboy_srq on March 22, 2013 3:11 PM:
The majority of Americans who showed up to the rallies, wearing tricornes and carrying muskets, shrieking about "tyranny," "stamps" and "tea", and demanding England withdraw all Redcoats from the Colonies, agreed with these ideas.
FIFY.
The GOTea: proudly taking the US back to the eighteenth (eighth?) century.
buddy66 on March 22, 2013 3:12 PM:
Laughing? I never laugh at those cornpone fascists.
Anonymous on March 22, 2013 8:42 PM:
"Not since the first few years of the Republican revolution in the 1990s — when welfare reform and a balanced budget were passed — have congressional Republicans seriously championed conservative ideas."
So, every single Republican voted against Clinton's deficit reduction plan in 1994, but it was a Repubican accomplishment.
If BS was money, DeMint could retire the national debt himself.
MuddyLee on March 23, 2013 10:26 AM:
Don't just laugh at Jim DeMint (and Rush and the Koch Brothers) - FIGHT Jim DeMint every day. And Mother Jones or somebody, please find out who gave Alvin Greene the $10,000 he needed to run "against" DeMint. Things go better with Koch?