A decade later, nothing has changed
I finished the first half of Grand New Party last night…an excellent example of pop-political history. One note, one quibble, one tip for the GOP.
The note: To say that Falling Down is the representative movie of the early ’90s is an interesting idea, insofar as its main character’s frustrations are representative of white, working class frustrations (rising divorce rates, inner city crime, etc.). I’ve always thought of Michael Douglas’s put-upon everyman as the ’90s equivalent of Dirty Harry, himself a reactionto a society spiraling out of control, so I see what Ross and Reihan are getting at.
The quibble: “The Myth of the Racist Republicans” was written by Gerard Alexander, not Gerald. (Got to stand up for my one-time professor.) And everyone should read his piece. It’s an important corrective to the traditional narrative leftwingers love to put forth about race and the GOP.
The tip: With Congress’s approval rating in the tank, and gas prices rising uncontrollably, the GOP has a legit shot at picking up seats in the House (though not in the Senate). But the Republicans have to put together some sort of program and push it hard in order to take advantage of the situation. There are shades of ’98 (a bad year for the GOP despite Bill Clinton’s numerous scandals) everywhere; a journalist friend of mine was telling me just yesterday how an important Republican pollster was trying to convince the GOP leadership that no, they cannot run solely against the Democrats’ lack of accomplishments in the Congress. They have to actually put a plan together–a gas tax cut, off shore drilling, something. How similar does that sound to this:
Once Clinton’s conduct was exposed, he ought to have resigned, but using the power of impeachment to enforce a lost principle of masculine honor was an act of quixotic recklessness, and one that cost conservatives dearly.
It cost them popularity, and it cost them seats in 1998, after Newt Gingrich–outflanked by Clinton for the umpteenth time–assured his colleagues that they need only run on the White Houses’s scandal, and that an actual agenda could wait until the dust settled and their majority swelled.
The GOP can’t afford to wait on creating an actual agenda again. They need a plan, and they need one now.