moldyoldy

Former White House Chief of Staff: Sarah Palin Marked the Moment the GOP Went Off the Rails

Wondering where today's crazy GOP clown-show started?

By Janet Allon / AlterNet

October 26, 2015

Wondering where the insanity that is today's GOP started? Look no further than nonsense-spewer Sarah Palin. This is the view espoused by WIlliam M. Daley, former White House Chief of Staff under President Obama from 2011-2012 in Monday's Washington Post.

He makes a pretty good case, first for the fact that the party has descended into utter chaos. "When The Post’s front page declares: 'Republicans are on the verge of ceasing to function as a national party,' it’s time to ask: How did this come to pass?" he opens. How did we get to the side-to-side clown shows of the GOP presidential contest, and the total breakdown of a functioning party in Congress?

The turning point came in 2008, when the party put then Alaska-Governor Sarah Palin a heartbeat away from the presidency, despite her utter lack of competency. That is when the party effectively embraced the lack of competence and experience as a virtue. From that flows Ben Carson and Donald Trump as frontrunners for the nomination and a variety of other ills. Daley writes:

Palin’s blatant lack of competence and preparedness needs no belaboring. What’s critical is that substantive, serious Republican leaders either wouldn’t or couldn’t declare, before or after the election: “This is not what our party stands for. We can and must do better.”

By the campaign’s end, GOP operatives were shielding Palin from even the simplest questions. (She had flunked “what newspapers do you read?”). Barack Obama cruised to victory.
Fox snapped up Palin. All bombast, no reason, no compromise ever became both the party's and the network's daily bread. And let's not forget that it was one of the "party's more thoughtful and substantive veterans," a.k.a. John McCain, who ushered in the new era of substanceless sizzle, writes Daley.
Once McCain put Palin on the ticket, Republican “grown-ups,” who presumably knew better, had to bite their tongues. But after the election, when they were free to speak their minds, they either remained quiet or abetted the dumbing-down of the party. They stood by as Donald Trump and others noisily pushed claims that Obama was born in Kenya. And they gladly rode the tea party tiger to sweeping victories in 2010 and 2014.

Now that tiger is devouring the GOP establishment. Party elders had hoped new presidential debate rules would give them greater control. But they are watching helplessly as Trump leads the pack and House Republicans engage in fratricide.
It’s hard to feel much sympathy. The Republican establishment’s 2008 embrace of Palin set an irresponsibly low bar. Coincidence or not, a batch of nonsense-spewing, hard-right candidates quickly followed, often to disastrous effect.

It's not just this election cycle. Remember Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell, who promised “I’m not a witch”?

And in 2012, when Todd Akin, who was running to unseat Democarat Sen. Claire McCaskill expressed his crazy views about "legitimate rape," the era of crazy continued, right on through arguably insane Michelle Bachmann and Pizza company executive Herman Cain who led the polls for a while. Eventually, they chose Mitt Romney. But here we are again with Trump, "who vows to make Mexico pay for a “great, great wall” on the U.S. side of the border — and Ben Carson, who questions evolution and asks why victims of the latest mass shooting didn’t “attack the gunman.”

Daley assures his point isn't just to heap scorn on these various charactes, it's to attack the recklessness of putting a nut like Palin that close to the presidency. McCain was no spring chicken at 72, and had battled skin cancer. This seems not to be a party that has America's back, Daley concludes.


Now Republicans ask Americans to give them full control of the government, adding the presidency to their House and Senate majorities. This comes as Trump and Carson consistently top the GOP polls. Republican leaders brought this on themselves. Trump calls Palin “a special person” he’d like in his Cabinet. That seems only fair, because he’s thriving in the same cynical value system that puts opportunistic soundbites above seriousness, preparedness and intellectual heft.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

jelun

True Americans can celebrate those days. It is time to celebrate the beginning of the end.
When the front runners are the likes of Ben Carson and Donald Trump for months you know that a serious shift must be ahead.

jelun

I think that the start was the team choosing Sarah Palin rather than with her spewing.
Remember they were trying to show that John McCain's campaign was actually more progressive than Barack Obama's since the president chose Joe Biden so they were more forward thinking with Sarah Palin.
Good lord.

moldyoldy

She was mostly unknown, not as much baggage. If they had only known.

moldyoldy

But he had read a book and a newspaper.

jelun

It didn't even take him 5 colleges to find one that would grant him a degree.

Though, to be fair to Sarah Palin she must have worked hard, when I went on to a four year college after graduating from a community college I lost LOTS of credits.
It was frustrating, she persevered. Gotta give her credit for that.

alabuck Loc: Tennessee

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I must disagree, moldy. I see the beginnings of the GOP clown car as starting when the "Immoral Majority" and Newt Gingrich took over the party. They were helped, in large part, by 'talk radio' people like Rush Limbaugh and his "ditto-head" followers, and the newly established, "Fox Entertainment News Network. Between them, they managed to repeat lie after lie about Bill Clinton and Democrats; repeated enough times that they became accepted as truth.

Add to the mix, the likes of Karl Rove and his twisted ideas and methodologies toward how to demonize ones political opponents to the point that calling them 'unAmerican' and 'unChristian,' was enough to turn even personal friends of the candidate against him/her. To the GOP, political elections no longer needed to focus on the issues. The issues became what the GOP said it was and, most often, it involved character assignation, not relevant geo-political debates, or the positions a candidate took on relating to relevant issues.

Of course, the press was always ready to quote anything a candidate said, whether true or known to be false. After all, the news services were always in a fight to get the story out first. It mattered not if the story had any relevance to anything of consequence, or if it was even true. What mattered to them was that they put the story out first. Of course, the political parties played to this feeding frenzy, too. They supplied an innumerable amount of lies to be published as true stories. And, coming from the major news outlets, the public accepted the stories as truth.

Now, the GOP has been forced to join arms with the Tea Party, forming the GOPTP. If one thought the GOP was conservative, adding the TP to the mix and the GOP was transformed into the ultra-right wing, conservative political machine many of us have come to hate and despise. It's claim to have 'religious morality,' to have God on their side, to demean and shout down anyone who dared to speak out against it, were the first steps in its trying to reshape the country into their likeness. Of course, their likenesses were filled with lies, misquoted Bible verses, half-truths, racism, and fear-mongering, to say just a few characteristics.

Sadly, there are more than just a few of the American electorate that rely exclusively on getting their political opinions from those who feed their fears and distrusts. Now, Trump openly castigates minorities and is quite unashamed of his comments and how his inflamitory remarks only fuel those who use him for their propaganda recruitment machine, gathering more followers who no longer see AMERICA as the welcoming safe-haven for those persecuted in their homelands and seeking a fresh start here. Instead, he openly wants to deny 1st Amendment rights to Muslins wanting to come here.

I won't dent there's a chance that some of them could become a terrorist once arriving here, but we have a screening process that's second to none and has proven itself to be successful in catching potentional terrorists.

In fact, it's the GOPTPers in Congress who don't want to stop the selling of guns to people on the government's terrorists watch list. They claim that being on the watch list doesn't make them a criminal. Therefore denying them a guns denying them due process and taking away their right to own a gun.

Now, doesn't that make perfect sense to a GOPTPer? I know that's cNt see the first bit of logic in it.

jelun

And those personalities are all assisted in the "dumbing down" of the American people BY the American people.
The instant gratification of a headline skim has replaced actually developing a viewpoint based on information.
Two mechanics who are training to work on aircraft have gone missing in GA, so naturally the people who are unable to read have decided that these gentlemen are trained pilots who are going to crash jets into buildings.
MECHANICS!
http://abcnews.go.com/US/afghan-trainees-missing-georgia-air-force-base/story?id=35663414
But, you know, liberal media!

moldyoldy

A lot of good points, though I think Newt brought the mean, and Palin brought the crazy.

jelun

That may be, and Senator McCain loosed the stupid?

alabuck Loc: Tennessee

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Please, don't forget Mischele Bachmann. She was just as crazy as Sarah Palin was and just as ignorant of current events. Can you imagine what a "Palin/Bachmann" presidential team would've been like?

I no way am I being 'anti-women.' It's just that the total amount of unabashed and unmitigated ignorance and stupidity in these two people just happened to be in female bodies.

moldyoldy

Bachmann is definitely out of touch with reality. She believes her husband is helping people pray away the gay. He is actually absorbing it. But Gomert is nuts and a lawyer. So many said stupid things, but they were accepted by the wing nuts as good points.

alabuck Loc: Tennessee

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Actually, mechanics CAN fly aircraft. Many mechanics have been 'flight-qualified' and will test-fly the aircraft they worked on to be sure the repair work was done correctly. It's like a car mechanic test-driving your car after he's worked on it.

I heard that the 2 missing mechanics had Arabic surnames. My guess is that is what is being used to stir up more Islamophobia. My heart goes out to the many hundreds of thousands of patriotic American-Muslims; especially, those who serve in our armed forces. That so many people are allowing themselves to be drawn into the ring of such un-American, un-Christian & un-Constitutional talk, is so very sad and discouraging.

I honestly believe that since the election of Bill Clinton, the GOP has transformed into the party of hate, exclusion, division, character assignation, outright lying, is under the total control of 'Big Business,' is very anti-women's rights, against the rights of minorities, anti-universal healthcare, anti-immigration, and anti-social assistance programs. Their idea of governance eliminates statesmanship and compromise. Their idea of foreign relations is isolationism, unless it benefits big business. Their idea of government isn't the protection of the citizens, but the freedom of big business to make as money as possible; even if it means cheating the public, their workers and destroying the environment. Their idea of 'citizen participation' is limiting voting to only property owners. Their "ideal America" isn't the one the "Party of Lincoln" envisioned. It's the one the days of Jim Crow; only, now it's called Karl Rove's, "Southern Strategy." Combine all of the above with the SCOTUS case, Citizens United, and one sees what today's GOPTP party is all about. And they want us to believe them when they say they know what's best when it comes to governing the US. Yea, r-i-i-i-i-i-i-ght.

Some of the things the GOPTP ARE in favor of is the right to carry a gun and the right of a company to move its profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Recently, they turned down an opportunity to ban the sale of guns to people listed on the federal terrorism watch list. I suppose they think that being on the list doesn't pose a possible threat to society and citizens, and, as such, only denies those law-abiding citizens their right to own a gun. And, those people are on the list, why....... ?

jelun

Yeah, poor Michele.

vernon

to quote daley is an exercise in hopeless blathering.he is from the most crooked family in chicago and im sure he is up to his neck in criminal activity.im sure no one would print that tripe so he went to alternet.