The Case

Gary Kamiya, writing today in Salon, makes the case--more against today's Republican Party than for the opposition--succinctly at the end of a long argument: "The GOP stands at a crossroads. Republicans can pretend that nothing has really changed, that this is still a 'center-right' nation, and that only an ill-timed economic meltdown cost them the White House. This means leaving their party in the hands of the 'movement conservatives' who have dominated the GOP for decades: the demagogues of reaction and resentment, the Christian rightists, the 'values' voters, the anti-tax, anti-government zealots, the nativists, anti-rationalists and anti-secularists. The culmination of this approach would be to nominate Sarah Palin as their presidential candidate in 2016. Or they can move to the center, accept that progressive taxation is not just necessary to run a country but that it is a legitimate part of the social contract, accept that markets need some regulation, and try to reach out to all Americans, not just their base."