The Kroog Versus Zandar's Optimism

I've said on a number of occasions that I'm not worried about the self-destructing GOP in 2010. Paul Krugman on the other hand says I should worry, although not for the reasons you might think:

Real power in the party rests, instead, with the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin (who at this point is more a media figure than a conventional politician). Because these people aren’t interested in actually governing, they feed the base’s frenzy instead of trying to curb or channel it. So all the old restraints are gone.

In the short run, this may help Democrats, as it did in that New York race. But maybe not: elections aren’t necessarily won by the candidate with the most rational argument. They’re often determined, instead, by events and economic conditions.

In fact, the party of Limbaugh and Beck could well make major gains in the midterm elections. The Obama administration’s job-creation efforts have fallen short, so that unemployment is likely to stay disastrously high through next year and beyond. The banker-friendly bailout of Wall Street has angered voters, and might even let Republicans claim the mantle of economic populism. Conservatives may not have better ideas, but voters might support them out of sheer frustration.

And if Tea Party Republicans do win big next year, what has already happened in California could happen at the national level. In California, the G.O.P. has essentially shrunk down to a rump party with no interest in actually governing — but that rump remains big enough to prevent anyone else from dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis. If this happens to America as a whole, as it all too easily could, the country could become effectively ungovernable in the midst of an ongoing economic disaster.

The point is that the takeover of the Republican Party by the irrational right is no laughing matter. Something unprecedented is happening here — and it’s very bad for America.

And while Krugman has a point, I'd argue that since the GOP rump that we have now exists only to say no to anything that President Obama might consider to be a good idea along with the Blue Dogs stabbing him in the back, I'd say that we have that Californication scenario now.

Even if President Obama woke up tomorrow and said "We're going to make the kinds of tough spending cuts and tax cuts that the Republican party wants" he would then be attacked for "hurting the middle-class" by the same Republicans.

Krugman is right on one count, however. The GOP has interest in governing. The plan has always been to watch the country burn and fiddle while doing so, to make sure that Obama fails worse than Bush did. It's the only way back in power and they know it. They don't care about anyone other than themselves.

Clinton triangulated. The GOP responded by impeaching him. Should the GOP get back into power in 2010, guess what's going to happen?