At the edge of an economic chasm, with livelihoods and international reputation on the line, what do you think is most important for Congress to do? It's a time for problem-solving, not win-at-all-costs Machiavellian martial arts, right? And Republicans want the best for the country, not the party, according to John McCain. Now and then you have to transcend mere politics and remember the whole "American" thing.
But then there's Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-North Carolina): “Our goal is to bring down approval numbers for [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and for House Democrats. That will take repetition. This is a marathon, not a sprint.”
See, it doesn't matter if Republican approval ratings are in the tank, as long as the Democrats have even lower numbers. I can hear it now: "They hate us, but they hate them slightly more. Everybody wins. Brilliant, McHenry! Outside the box!"
But then again, this is the box–
It does, however, provide interesting thought in light of what Frank Schaeffer just said in a CNN interview. (Schaeffer also grew up among fundamentalists, but he went so far as to play a major role in forming what we now call the Religious Right.):
HUGHLEY: And you have said some — you do blog for the Huffington Post. You have written some things and I have read you for a little while. You have written some things that I never heard anybody say out loud. You said the Republican base is now made up of religious and neoconservative ideologues and the uneducated white underclass was a token person of color or up two up in front of the "TV to obscure the all-white, all reactionary, all backward, and there is no global warming, rube reality. Actual conservatives, let alone the educated class have long since fled."
You believe everybody in the Republican Party is a neocon or an ideologue.
SCHAEFFER: I'd put it differently. I'd say the Republican Party knows that's who that their base is. There are individuals, private citizens …
HUGHLEY: You mean elected people.
SCHAEFFER: I'm talking either the elected people fall into one of those two categories. Either they are pandering to the religious right — I don't know what they believe, of course. I can't get into their head. They are pandering to the religion out right or they are pandering to the neocons to whom every war is a good war. And there is very little room in between.
And the people, for instance like William F. Buckley, who was a friend of my dad's, or Barry Goldwater. You could have disagreed or agreed with them. But these were not crazy people. These were not Fruit Loops.
HUGHLEY: They wanted a separation of church and state.
SCHAEFFER: Right. They wanted a separation of church and state. They were not using politics to beat people over the head with a moral crusade. They were not looking to start wars for no reason. We moved from a period where the Republicans represented something you could agree or disagree with, to a period where it represents a kind of fundamentalist Christianity on one side and a view of the world, which sees everyone who is other, whether that is black, white, Arab, Muslim, a different country, gay, as the enemy. And basically that's a very dangerous position. And so I think when you look at a guy like Rush Limbaugh today, what you're seeing is the lid off. This is the raw, naked true face of where Republicanism is. …
And that's not even Mr. Schaeffer's actual can of whoop-arse. That would be his Open Letter to the Republican Traitors (From a Former Republican). This is a man who knows the meaning of a "come to Jesus" moment. I think he's right, but even if he's wrong, people like Patrick McHenry are doing a very good job of bolstering his case.
