Too soon to declare the GOP is DOA
In 1964, the GOP was declared DOA, doorknob dead. No pulse. Rigor mortis set in.
Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the Tuesday electoral wipeout close to an “extinction level” event.
I wish.
No, I don’t.
I want to see a healthy, smart and principled Republican Party, conservative, to provide an intelligent counter force to the Democratic Party, which has a tendency to go f’n crazy when it has too much power.
As Lord Acton reminds us, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Competition keeps the game honest. It is the basis of capitalism, which currently is suffering a black eye, at least in part because competition has been limited.
Forget about economics. Think about sports. If you are a golfer or a tennis player, you want to play someone better than you, because that improves your game. Right?
If you disagree, stop reading here.
Conservatives have some good ideas that we should try.
Liberals have some good ideas that we should try.
Socialists have some good ideas that we should try.
Notice the qualifying words some and try.
Trial and error is a sensible policy for America, and we generally do make the right choice (after trying everything else, Winston Churchill once observed with tongue in cheek).
Now I will stick out my neck to quote a terrible person, Mao Zedong, who said, “Letting a hundred flowers blossom and a hundred schools of thought contend is the policy for promoting progress in the arts and the sciences.”
This proves even bad people can have good ideas — even if Mao had no plan to actually allow competition of ideas.
Premise: The United States is a centrist nation, swinging back and forth between center Left and center Right.
Take a look at the above chart I painfully constructed for your edification. (OK, ChatGPT did it.)
Anyway, since a big Democratic run through 1948, since then it has been back and forth between R and D, with only one run of three straight.
One of the worst Presidential ass kickings was when Lyndon Johnson crushed Barry Goldwater, the Republican Arizona senator in 1964.
The GOP was declared DOA, doorknob dead. No pulse. Rigor mortis set in.
And in the very next Presidential, Richard Nixon, of all people, the hard-luck loser, led the GOP to a two-term victory. (Second term cut short by resignation, but lay that aside.)
The point is, it ain’t over until the fat lady sings,
No, that’s not it.
It’s don’t count your chickens until they are hatched.
No, that’s not exactly right.
Look — I did the hard work. You find the right metaphor.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. 😉
