Say Anything Blog

The favorite liberal meme of late, particularly in the wake of the tea parties which represents a limited government uprising that scares the bejesus out of them, has been the idea that the Republican party is out of power and favor right now because Republicans have gone too far to the right.  “Republicans have become too conservative,” we’re told again and again by liberals who no doubt have the best interests of the Republican party/conservative movement in mind.

Today MSNBC’s favorite Republican Joe Scarborough went a step further.  He said the Republican party isn’t becoming too conservative.  It’s becoming too extreme.

I’m not sure what version of reality Mr. Scarborough has been tuned in, but the Republican party just lost an election in which noted *ahem* radical John McCain was at the top of the ticket.

Scarborough bemoans the Republicans spending too much money on the war in Iraq, but that’s a bit ludicrous given that the entire 6+ years of Iraq (not to mention the entire Afghanistan war too) has cost less than the financial industry bailouts.

A lot less.

War spending isn’t the problem.  Spending in general is the problem.  And the reason why Republicans are in more trouble than Democrats over it (because the Dems have certainly done more than their fair share of taxing and spending) is because the Republicans are the guys who keep moving their lips about “limited government” and “responsible spending” when they’re campaigning only to go off to Washington DC and do the exact opposite.

I think there’s a lot of fear among beltway Republicans of late.  I think they’re starting to realize that the days when they could rally the base around emotional (though largely inconsequential) issues like gay marriage as they ignore the rest of the party platform are over.  Republicans aren’t lost in the woods because they’ve been too “extreme.”  That’s something liberals and liberal Republicans have come up with because it’s convenient to their respective narratives.  The Republican party is lost in the woods because they’ve been a bunch of corrupt, two-faced crooks.

Once they can successfully move out from behind that reputation, and convince Americans once again that they can promote a limited government agenda in Washington without throwing it out the window the minute they hit the beltway and (most importantly) once they stop listening to idiots like Joe Scarborough and purge the party of Arlen Specter types they’ll start winning again.