Coulter's career and the party of Lincoln: The reports of their deaths are, in my view, greatly exaggerated. Still, we are getting such reports, and they constitute an interesting phenomenon.
BradBlog has an excellent new article about Coulter's recent no-shows at speaking engagements. Some believe that she was dis-invited. Perhaps. But she will return; the only thing neo-cons have in common with Jesus is the ability to make a comeback.
William F. Buckley has an interesting piece in which he views the disaster in Iraq as a possible precursor for the end of the Republican Party. I cannot agree. Like nearly everyone else, Buckley ignores the current polls which place Guiliani well ahead of all Democratic candidates (including Gore) in the three most important "purple" states -- Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania.
Republicans still have the advantages of illimitable wealth, utter shamelessness, formidable control over the media, and a willingness to talk to Mr. Average Dunderhead on his own dismal level. Even a fairly small domestic terror incident could return Bush to popularity.
Still, Bush's travails may have finally taught Republican leadership some caution. The ascent of Rudy and the (temporary) squelching of Ann signals an attempt to reach beyond the Jesus base.
By the way, Buckley's history is questionable. He writes: "When the Romans were challenged by Christianity, Rome fell." Rome fell in 476 or thereabouts. (Dating the fall is one of the great historical problems.) Christianity entered Rome during the reign of Nero, AD 37-68; Constantine "saw the light" in 312. One cannot easily argue cause and effect.
1 comment:
sofla said...
I caught that questionable historical claim myself. If what he meant was the classical 'when Rome fell' time (i.e., when it was captured by Goths marching in), he's completely off the mark. It IS true that Rome 'fell' upon ideological challenge-- into Christianity, via Constantine's conversion or co-option of the movement-- but again some hundreds of years after Christianity first 'challenged' Rome, in Rome, in the person of St. Paul himself, iirc.
Could the Republican party itself fall? I agree that it will not go away ala the Whigs or Anti-Masonic Party anytime soon. However, it may well soon clearly show an ebb down from its high tide line, where it bid fair for a majority (even permanent majority) party status, and slip back to a definite minority party position, as it was for decades in the wake of the New Deal's coalition.
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