I’ve been doing some reading about John Kennedy, and what I find startling, and even surprising, is how absolutely consistent and unchanged the ideology of the extreme American right has been over the past fifty years, from father to son and now, presumably, on to son from father again. The real analogue to today’s unhinged right wing in America is yesterday’s unhinged right wing in America. This really is your grandfather’s right, if not, to be sure, your grandfather’s Republican Party.
32 Republicans Who Caused the Government Shutdown
Quoted: “Most Americans realize the government shutdown has no impact on their daily life. They got their mail today; they’re going to get their Social Security check.”
Quoted: “We aren’t going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don’t know what that even is.”
Where the GOP Suicide Caucus Lives
In short, these eighty members represent an America where the population is getting whiter, where there are few major cities, where Obama lost the last election in a landslide, and where the Republican Party is becoming more dominant and more popular. Meanwhile, in national politics, each of these trends is actually reversed.
.. In previous eras, ideologically extreme minorities could be controlled by party leadership. What’s new about the current House of Representatives is that party discipline has broken down on the Republican side. On the most important policy questions, ones that most affect the national brand of the party, Boehner has lost his ability to control his caucus, and an ideological faction, aided by outside interest groups, can now set the national agenda.
What is John Boehner Scared Of?
Representative J. C. Watts, of Oklahoma, a former college-football star and the only black Republican in Congress, challenged Boehner for his leadership post. It wasn’t that Republicans disliked Boehner; they just liked the idea of Watts better. The rebuke devastated Boehner and he considered resigning from Congress, as Gingrich did after he was forced to step down as Speaker. It’s humiliating to hang around with no power.