Civility and the Self-Consumption, by Mike Gold – Brainiac On Banjo #364 | @MDWorld

May 12, 2014 Mike Gold 0 Comments

The wags are predicting a Republican cakewalk this November. Maybe so; the party not in the White House usually picks up seats in the off-year elections. However, the Republicans have shown themselves extremely capable of plucking defeat out of the thrill of victory… and here’s a great example.

California Rep. Devin Nunes declared Michigan Rep. Justin Amash “al Qaeda’s best friend in Congress.” Both Nunes and Amash are Republicans. Let us note that Amash is indeed an Arab-American; he’s a Christian of Syrian and Palestinian descent.

Let us further note Michigan is home to one of the largest, if not the largest Arab-American populations in the United States. Indeed, the greatest concentration of Arab-Americans in Michigan is pretty much in the same neighborhood as the greatest concentration of Jewish-Americans. When it comes to Arab/Jewish relations, Southeast Michigan provides substantial cause for hope.

Michigan is also a major swing state.

Amash is a devout libertarian. Those who identify with the libertarian movement generally vote Republican, but the party has pulled itself in so many different extreme directions one would think the they were hosting the annual M.C. Escher taffy-pull.

A pogrom against libertarians could easily lead to a schism. The Libertarian Party is as close to being strong enough to become a viable third party as we have seen since 1856.

At first, one might think this would inure to the benefit of the Republican Party. Ridding themselves of some of the wing-nuts might bring back some of those GOPers who are put off by the extreme lock-step of the far-right. But that’s not how political gravity works.

The “remaining” Republicans would continue to pull themselves apart. Some would defect to the new party, but most will continue to fight their absolutist fight, not bending on a single issue or a single strategy. If the libertarians were to split off, each remaining cell will smell blood and fight their now-stereotypical unbending fights. Compromise is the taxi of politics, but the current crop of Republicans do not get that.

I have little doubt they will pick up seats this November. But they do not have a viable issue for 2016. It won’t be Obamacare, it won’t be the economy, it won’t be Benghazi, it won’t be Vince Foster, and it won’t be having a black person running the country. Their issue might be having a woman run the country, but that will backfire big time. A lot of Republican women won’t stand for that.

In an election, the concern isn’t flipping a vote. That rarely happens. The concern is getting out the vote, and if the Libertarians and even a noticeable fraction of the Republican women stay home, the Grand Old Party doesn’t stand a chance.

Mike Gold performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com as part of “Hit Oldies” every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.comabove for times and on-demand streaming information. Gold also joins MDW’s Marc Alan Fishman, Martha Thomases and Michael Davis as a weekly columnist at www.comicmix.com where he pontificates on matters of four-color.