What Has Become Of The GOP?
Krugman
...But what we're getting, instead, is yet another impressive demonstration that these days, truth is political. One after another, prominent Republicans and conservative pundits have declared their allegiance to the party line. They haven't just gone along with the diversionary tactics, like the irrelevant questions about whether Mr. Rove used Valerie Wilson's name in identifying her (Robert Novak later identified her by her maiden name, Valerie Plame), or the false, easily refuted claim that Mr. Wilson lied about who sent him to Niger. They're now a chorus, praising Mr. Rove as a patriotic whistle-blower.
Ultimately, this isn't just about Mr. Rove. It's also about Mr. Bush, who has always known that his trusted political adviser - a disciple of the late Lee Atwater, whose smear tactics helped President Bush's father win the 1988 election - is a thug, and obviously made no attempt to find out if he was the leaker.
Most of all, it's about what has happened to America. How did our political system get to this point?
My early (and meager) understanding of what life under the Soviet Union was like was mostly based on a combination of news media and Hollywood. Based on this information, it was my understanding that the everyday people behind the dreaded "Iron Curtain" existed in a world where toeing the party line was mandatory. All media was merely propaganda meant to espouse the greatness of the politico machine. Any opposition to the party or the party line was regarded as opposition to the Mother Country, and therefore was treason. Within the party, there was not such thing as corruption, since corruption could only come from without, not from within. Within the party, there were no criminals, only patriots. Outside the party, there were no patriots, only criminals.
It took nearly 70 years, untold injustices, and great suffering for this system to fail, yet even today it strives for rebirth.
What I wonder more is this: when did the Republican Party, which has spent decades vilifying the Soviet Union, start adopting the very policies and tactics that they used to justify their great struggle against the "evil empire"?
...But what we're getting, instead, is yet another impressive demonstration that these days, truth is political. One after another, prominent Republicans and conservative pundits have declared their allegiance to the party line. They haven't just gone along with the diversionary tactics, like the irrelevant questions about whether Mr. Rove used Valerie Wilson's name in identifying her (Robert Novak later identified her by her maiden name, Valerie Plame), or the false, easily refuted claim that Mr. Wilson lied about who sent him to Niger. They're now a chorus, praising Mr. Rove as a patriotic whistle-blower.
Ultimately, this isn't just about Mr. Rove. It's also about Mr. Bush, who has always known that his trusted political adviser - a disciple of the late Lee Atwater, whose smear tactics helped President Bush's father win the 1988 election - is a thug, and obviously made no attempt to find out if he was the leaker.
Most of all, it's about what has happened to America. How did our political system get to this point?
My early (and meager) understanding of what life under the Soviet Union was like was mostly based on a combination of news media and Hollywood. Based on this information, it was my understanding that the everyday people behind the dreaded "Iron Curtain" existed in a world where toeing the party line was mandatory. All media was merely propaganda meant to espouse the greatness of the politico machine. Any opposition to the party or the party line was regarded as opposition to the Mother Country, and therefore was treason. Within the party, there was not such thing as corruption, since corruption could only come from without, not from within. Within the party, there were no criminals, only patriots. Outside the party, there were no patriots, only criminals.
It took nearly 70 years, untold injustices, and great suffering for this system to fail, yet even today it strives for rebirth.
What I wonder more is this: when did the Republican Party, which has spent decades vilifying the Soviet Union, start adopting the very policies and tactics that they used to justify their great struggle against the "evil empire"?
posted by MarceauMarceau at 12:53 PM
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