Is it anything like a surprise that the Tea Party Jacobins now run the Republican Party? The confidence that the old guard expressed to everyone who would listen; to the hushed tone of confidence in the ability of Washington to change these radical nihilists into confident governors, fully vested in the power of long term occupancy of political office has proven to be not yet possible. Will it be possible or are the incorruptible blind to the benefits of playing the game? It has been almost a year since they were sworn in but their zeal is unslaked and the Republican leadership seems in total agreement with their unwillingness to compromise, to the point of a government shutdown, again? It is hard not to think of the Republican Party under Ronald Reagan and its meticulous attention to every nuance of the art of salesmanship, of its ability to blunt almost every criticism with the talent of probably the most brilliant political pitchman of recent history. His was the soft sell complete with a delivery bathed in a golden sentimental, nostalgic light: even if that political nostalgia was pure rhetorical invention. The Jacobins are hard, rigid and without anything resembling persuasiveness, or the cultivated charm of the Great Communicator.
Political Observer
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