The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.
Mann and Ornstein charge that Republicans have caused a more "complete gridlock than we have ever seen in our time in Washington." They lay this on this fact:
In the first two years of the Obama administration, nearly every presidential initiative met with vehement, rancorous and unanimous Republican opposition in the House and the Senate, followed by efforts to delegitimize the results and repeal the policies.
Except the odd part left out is that Democrats had majorities in both the House and Senate during Obama's first two years. Since government is not run by the minority, it's a wonder as to how Republicans could have caused all the supposed damage. And the other thing that should not go unmentioned is that during the Bush Administration, filibustering nominees and stopping legislation was the highest form of patriotism; now it's the chief evil of our times.
Mann and Ornstein also criticize Republicans for their over-the-top and extreme rhetoric as evidenced by Rep. Allen West recently claiming that there are at least 70-80 socialist Democrats:
What made West’s comment — right out of the McCarthyite playbook of the 1950s — so striking was the almost complete lack of condemnation from Republican congressional leaders or other major party figures, including the remaining presidential candidates.
It’s not that the GOP leadership agrees with West; it is that such extreme remarks and views are now taken for granted.
But as Karl at HotAir shows, where have Ornstein and Mann been? Here is just a small sample of comments made by leaders at all levels of the Democratic Party, which they choose not to condemn:
Although Ornstein and Mann claim to “have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted,” they provide no links to all the op-eds they did about the extreme statements about Republicans being Un-American, comparing them to fascists, Nazis, racists and so on made by Democratic Reps. Nancy Pelosi (on her own and with Steny Hoyer), George Miller, Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Jerrold Nadler, Jesse Jackson Jr., Sam Gibbons, Tom Lantos, Keith Ellison, Baron Hill, Jared Polis, Steve Cohen, Sheila Jackson Lee, Eleanor Holmes Norton and Louise Slaughter. Or Senators Robert Byrd and Blanche Lincoln. Or current Califonia governor Jerry Brown. Or repeat offender Al Gore. People might be forgiven for thinking Democrats, not to mention Ornstein and Mann, take that extreme rhetoric for granted in their rush to condemn the GOP.
Since I do not want to waste your time going through more of the essay, I will quote Peter Robinson on this whole charade:
For decades, Mann and Ornstein, both attached to Washington think tanks, have passed themselves off as above-the-fray, utterly impartial, interested not in ideology but in getting things done. Which is to say, of course, that they reflect, without the smallest flaw or distortion, the conventional wisdom of the mainstream media and the Democratic Party, both of which believe that ever-expanding government is simply the result of responsible governance.
Now here's what's interesting. During the very period Mann and Ornstein deride, the supposed crackpot and marginal GOP has captured the House of Representatives in one of the biggest electoral swings in congressional history, picked up seven seats in the Senate, and chosen to nominate Mitt Romney, who, even though in many ways a remarkably weak candidate, nevertheless is already virtually even with the Democratic incumbent in national polls.
Mann and Ornstein don't have a problem with the GOP, in other words, they have a problem with the American people. "Shut up, sit down, and let people like us run the country." That's what Mann and Ornstein--and, again, the media and Democratic Party--have convinced themselves is the message, the responsible message, to carry into this election year.
Peter is really on to something in the sentence in bold.
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