GOP establishment fears the monster they created...

[Evil_Captor]

@elucidator

In fishing circles, it’s “all your bass are belong to us”.

::shoots luci. :: It had to be done!

[Johanna]

@panaccione

I realize there is a lot of irrational and ignorant thought taking place. But do they ever stop to think of the robberies and violence that would likely arise? Does that very real fear ever register? I mean people aren’t just going to roll over and die. When push comes to shove, they’ll do what they have to do to survive.

A lot of people don’t have much food on their table
But they got a lot of forks ‘n’ knives
And they gotta cut somethin’.
—Bob Dylan

[ShouldaTakenTheBluePill]

@Johanna

A lot of people don’t have much food on their table
But they got a lot of forks ‘n’ knives
And they gotta cut somethin’.
—Bob Dylan

How convenient, then, that the same people touting this anti-government rhetoric are also touting AR-15s. That combination of ignorance and ammo is a frighteningly volatile proposition.

But I digress…

@BrainGlutton

But, that might divide-and-weaken the Dems the exact same way the Tea Party is dividing-and-weakening the Pubs. Is it worth the risk?

I think a credible threat from the left isn’t just “worth it”, its absolutely necessary to save our country/world. Our economy needs a paradigm shift to compensate for the failings of “free market” capitalism to account for human cost in the P&L, for one. And maybe an anti-terrorist agenda that shifts from “Patriot Act & drone strikes” to “stop doing shit that makes people hate us.”

I fear a coming trend towards complacency among Dems following a GOP implosion.

[CJJ]

The ongoing Dick Armey-Freedom Works kerfuffle (he was chairman of the conservative NPO until he resigned this past November) has brought a lot of dirty laundry to light. One trove of leaked documents suggests a reason for the GOP establishment to quiver:

According to a 52-page report prepared by FreedomWorks’ top brass for a board of directors meeting…the entire FreedomWorks organization—its 501(c)(3) and (c)(4) nonprofit arms and its super-PAC—raised nearly $41 million through mid-December. Of that total, $33 million—or 81 percent of its 2012 fundraising—came in the form of “major gifts,” the type of big donations coveted by nonprofits and super-PACs. (FreedomWorks’ nonprofit components do not have to disclose their funders.)

Well-heeled individual contributors ponied up $31 million—or 94 percent—of those major gifts, according to the FreedomWorks board book. Eight donors gave a half-million dollars or more…

Granted, larger Super PAC’s like the various Karl Rove ventures (American Crossroads, Crossroads GPS) are more likely in the $80-$100 million range, but $41 million isn’t chump change. Plus, after the last election and the ensuing fallout from conservatives who expected better results for their money, I suspect the Freedomworks figure will rise–especially after they dumped their “establishment” Republican chairman.

But Armey isn’t going away quietly–and it’s not clear that conservative donors will get any better bang for their buck by switching PACs. Armey gave an interview to Media Matters–yes, the liberal watchdog site–where he continues to stick it to his former organization. He notes, for example, that FreedomWorks paid both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck $1 million apiece to promote fundraising on their respective radio programs (bolding mine):

Beck has been reading on-air appeals for FreedomWorks since at least April 2010. In June of that year, Media Matters reported that the organization was using Beck’s endorsement to raise money. Politico highlighted the relationship as an example of a conservative group “paying hefty sponsorship fees to the popular talk show hosts” in exchange for “regular on-air plugs.” The FreedomWorks document leaked to Mother Jones states that their fundraising relationship with Limbaugh began in 2012.

According to Armey, such programs are ineffective.

“If Limbaugh and Beck, if we were using those resources to recruit activists and inform activists and to encourage and enthuse activists, that’s one thing,” Armey explained. “If we are using these things to raise money; one, it’s a damned expensive way to raise money; and two, it makes raising money an end on to itself not an instrumental activity to support the foundation work that our organization does.”

He goes on to note that FreedomWorks and Beck staged rallies called “FreePACs” where they would actually charge activists to attend. The conservative grift goes on…it just has a new name in the “grassroots” Tea Party.

[Kepler1571]

@ShouldaTakenTheBluePill

I think a credible threat from the left isn’t just “worth it”, its absolutely necessary to save our country/world. Our economy needs a paradigm shift to compensate for the failings of “free market” capitalism to account for human cost in the P&L, for one. And maybe an anti-terrorist agenda that shifts from “Patriot Act & drone strikes” to “stop doing shit that makes people hate us.”

I fear a coming trend towards complacency among Dems following a GOP implosion.

I think the concatenation of your two paragraphs isn’t an accident. What typically happens when one party is a nullity is the incumbent party begins to come apart from lack of credible opposition. The Dems hold a near monopoly over the left and center. We are due for a struggle for the heart of the party between the pragmatic centrists like Obama and the idealistic liberals like (Player to be Named Later).

The GOP 2006-present has been marching along the the Dems’ 1978-1992 path to and from oblivion. If that continues the Republicans still have another 7 years until they finally purge themselves of their own poisons. In the meantime the Dems could do a lot of good (for example, by beginning our slow extrication from the trap of global empire), but the clock’s ticking.