Is the GOP the Stupid Party Forever Now?
What could force a change?
A blurb from Bill Maher’s book went viral on Twitter this week. In my opinion, that virality — like the virality of this person poking their fingers into a capybara’s nostrils — was entirely justified. Because I think that Maher hit the nail on the head here:
Pundits have always referred to Republicans as the Daddy Party, which makes the Democrats the Mommy Party: the nurturers, the caretakers, the compassionate ones. Democrats worried about your health care and education, and Republicans were all about security and fiscal responsibility. And Republicans used to take their role very seriously: the no-nonsense, keep-you-safe, pay-the-bills party.
But Republicans really aren’t the Daddy Party anymore. They’re more like the Absentee Father Party: going through a midlife crisis, making bad decisions with an abundance of pretend confidence. It’s like the entire party is wearing a toupee.
But for so many who are just trying to survive in this American family, they have to come to terms with the reality that the Daddy Party is the Deadbeat Dad Party, and the man who’s been the leader of the party since 2015 is a hot mess. And you know what happens when Daddy’s a useless piece of crap? Mom has to take over.
That’s why Democrats are no longer the Mommy Party — they’re the Single Mom Party. They’re the party that has to work two jobs because Daddy went out for cigarettes and never came back. The Single Mom Party is the only one that cares about the kids’ future. The Republicans are the part of “pollute all you want now, because tomorrow’s not our problem, we’ll be gone.”
This is something I’ve touched on before: Both parties are in something of an unnatural state right now. The so-called “conservative” party has the judgement of a goldfish who just tried cocaine for the first time. Meanwhile, the liberal party — which is supposed to be the domain of hippie freaks — has a sizable contingent of left-brained squares who like to talk about Ukraine and interest rates. It’s weird. And what I wonder is: Is this a temporary situation, and things will go back to normal after Trump? Or is this the early stages of a massive political realignment like what happened in the century after the Civil War?