It appears that in the year 2011, being sane, intelligent and a conservative gives one little chance of winning the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. For many conservatives, traits such as these are viewed as negatives and guaranteed to get you labeled as a RINO.
For a party which is drifting ever closer to the edge of lunacy, you’re much better off being a Michele Bachmann or a Sarah Palin than a Jon Huntsman. And that last line is not speculation, it is fact. In the latest Gallup poll of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, Palin (15%) and Bachmann (5%) are ahead of Huntsman (2%). Go figure. Dim-witted, knowledge-challenged and batshit crazy is the recipe if you’re the least bit hopeful of getting a teabagger or other low-information conservative to vote for you.
More proof needed? No problem. We’ve got a real winner for you. The following video is an attack ad targeting Jon Huntsman, clearly the smartest, most balanced conservative out there. It is speculated that it came from the Pawlenty camp. After watching it you will be forgiven if you’re not sure whether the ad is praising or attacking Huntsman.
.
.
Did you get all that? According to this ad, working toward a climate of sane politics, showing concern for the environment, believing scientists, demanding affordable health care for all, working alongside non-conservatives and willing to put the welfare of Americans before party politics are seen as extreme positions unworthy of a true conservative. In the ass-backwards world of Republican politics, being a reasonable conservative gets you marked as a socialist traitor.
David Frum, a conservative deeply concerned about the direction his party is headed in, put it this way.
What’s next? Black-and-white ads in which gravelly voiced narrators sneer, “What do we know about Congressman Jenkins? He says he was climbing the tree only to steal apples. But our video cameras clearly show him rescuing a frightened kitten!”
In a normal universe, being for cooperation, against pollution, for health care, for people, for your party’s presidential nominee, and winning lots of votes would be admirable positives, not critical deficiencies. But since 2008, the Republican Party seems to have stepped into some dimension outside space and time, in which the rules of political physics have all been inverted.
Yep. And the only ones who cannot see it are the Fox News-watching, Obama-hating, delusional Koolaid-drinking crowd who have lost all sight of reality. You almost want to pity them as the Republican Party self-destructs before their very eyes. Almost.
.
___
.
.
My biggest fear is that there might be enough deranged voters in America to actually elect one of these clowns. I have relatives who would vote for Satan himself if he said he was a conservative republican. Being the only sane member of a family isn’t always an easy job.
I hear you Charlie. Living in a red state and being part of a family who believes Glenn Beck to be Jesus Christ himself, I’ve come to avoid family gatherings if I can. The conversation invariably turns to politics and I can’t stomach another Obama bashing statement devoid of fact. It saddens me to say that politics is dividing my family in ways I never thought possible.
Sadly I have been avoiding family gatherings for years. I am sickened by my supposedly Christian, conservative, republican family’s constant denunciation of everything I hold dear in life. The funny thing is that even though none of my family members are anywhere close to wealthy they have been convinced that somehow it will be to their advantage to support the rights of the super rich.
I am much more at home and have a better time sharing a bottle of wine and some good conservation with my heathen friends.
I loved the ‘rhino’ (RINO) in the Huntsman ad – twice.
This is not a ‘common sense campaign’ for America it is a ‘destruction of America’ campaign.
and btw, liking the artwork for this piece. Nice!
charliesommers: I live in Wisconsin where your fears already have materialized. And the scumbags, led by Governator Scott Walker, don’t even feel the need to disguise the fact that ALL their efforts have but one goal: dismantle democracy and turn this entire country into a single-party dictatorship run by the Christian Taliban. And yet, the vast majority of people in Wisconsin are blissfully ignorant of anything going on. They don’t even know we have recall elections coming up and why. As long as the Packers and the Brewers do well, their little world is perfect.