Andrew Sullivan, astroturfing Republicans and GOP hypocrisy
Andrew Sullivan gets it right, and wrong, at the very same time. He scribed:
The remarkable thing about today’s partisan Republicans is their capacity to forget instantly and entirely anything that went on for the past eight years. And so suddenly we are rushing toward socialism, even though by far the biggest jumps in state power and debt occurred under a president they worshiped and worked hard to re-elect. There were no tea-parties to protest the $32 trillion Medicare prescription drug benefit. There was no Randian rumbling as Bush took over local schools. There was no defense of the Constitution as Bush and Cheney secretly suspended the fourth and first amendments. But put a moderate Democrat in office tackling a historic collapse in demand – and spending must be frozen! Reading the partisan right blogs, this ability to disappear the past is striking, and it helps explain base GOP loathing of Obama (even if the base is much smaller than it was).
Sullivan has noted what many of us have been complaining about since the Tea Party craze started. At this site (even as late as last night), and many others, we’ve been screaming about hypocritical, astroturfing, big-government Republicans. So much so that it may be time to coin a new term: RINOturfing.
However, some of us have always been vocally and actively opposed to the very issues Sullivan raises. Ron Paul supporters, Libertarians, libertarians, paleoconservatives and even some (primarily) fiscal conservatives have been hitting the streets as well as the blogs for years. That we are frequently ignored by publications like The Atlantic (Sullivan did cover Ron Paul fairly well) may have something to do with Sullivan’s apparent forgetfulness on the issue.
Essentially, Sullivan is disregarding publications like Reason and American Spectator, organizations like Cato (and Heritage on some days), candidates like Ron Paul and Bob Barr, personalities like John Stossel and Andrew Napolitano, parties like the Libertarian Party, elected officials like Ron Paul and Jeff Flake, conservative icons like Bruce Fein and Richard Viguerie, pretty much any self-described libertarian, ad infinitum.
A good definition of partisan is “a fervent, sometimes militant supporter or proponent of a party, cause, faction, person, or idea.” It’s my opinion that all of the individuals and groups listed above indeed qualify.
There was plenty of “Randian rumbling” and “defense of the Constitution” during the Bush years. Perhaps Sullivan chose to ignore most of it.
In March, I wrote:
To be clear, I think it is cool that it appears that libertarians have some newfound friends on the small-government team. However, it’s fair to color us a bit skeptical, as we are still licking our Republican-inflicted wounds. It may take a bit of time for us to recover from the political PTSD we are suffering after fighting Republicans for the last eight years over government spending issues.
I still stand by these words. It’s possible that April 15th may be the day that begins the healing process. It could also be the day that the more cynical of us are proven correct.
UPDATE: I’d like to welcome our The Other McCain and The League of Ordinary Gentlemen readers. I’d like to send a special medical marijuana smoking and lesbian loving shoutout to Moe Lane and our good friends at RedState. I’m sort of curious about why the folks at RedState don’t approve of two women getting married to each other. This sort of stuff is fantasy material for most red-blooded males that I know.
