I Can See Clearly Now

The spring edition of the quarterly CATO’s Letter includes an excerpt from a recent speech by Tucker Carlson entitled, “The Decline and Fall of the Republican Party.” The ex-crossfire host asks, “What went wrong with the Republican Party?” Seriously? Oh, where to begin?? I suppose I do not have the time, nor the space. Nonetheless, I am overjoyed to see people like Tucker Carlson coming around to see the dark side for what it is. And this list seems to be growing by the minute. Anyway, Tucker’s piece can be largely summed up with the following: “The first and most obvious explanation of the problems in the Republican Party is that the President, despite, everything you hear, is not actually all that conservative.” Amen. And you can add, the President does not appear to have any philosophical beliefs of his own, or, in the alternative, enough integrity to assert them (I tend to lean towards the former although I doubt the depth of his integrity as well). We can only blame the Congress for direction of the Party for so long. They are, and always have been, poplulist-geared demagogues with little regard for ideology. Why do you think the American people refuse to elect President’s from their ranks? I mean, John Kerry, while arguably the worst major-party candidate for President since Al Landon, should have mopped the floor with sinking Dubya but couldn't. What is that about? I guess that is a whole other topic. Anyway, I have said it here before, and I will say again, I believe that GWB has single-handedly doomed the GOP for a generation. Who needs enemies?