I have been watching the collapse of the Republican Party in the US with some alarm since President Obama assumed office in January. Initially, they were the "Party of No", futiley seeking to block any economic relief package while millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their health care, and their homes through foreclosure. But in recent days the party seems to be engaged in a celebration of lawlessness. Specifically, Republican representatives are making frequent appearances in the media to justify the "enhanced interrogation techniques" – i.e. torture – orchestrated by the Bush administration. So the party of Lincoln has devolved into the party of "teabags and torture".
Traditionally, our two party system has preserved the necessary checks and balances for a functioning democracy. But the Republican Party no longer offers a legitimate political opposition, and this fact is not lost on foreign observers of the American scene. Martin Klingst has a good piece in Die Zeit, which I translated for Watching America – Das Debakel der US-Republikaner:
dass sie so tun, als habe es die vergangenen acht Bush-Jahre mit ihren
verheerenden Fehlern und Fehleinschätzungen nicht gegeben. Und dass
wieder die ideologischen Scharfmacher die Oberhand gewinnen, die
Cheneys und Limbaughs und Roves. Ausgerechnet Ex-Vizepräsident Dick
Cheney wird zur republikanischen Speerspitze gegen Obama. (No,
the debacle of the political right can be seen most clearly
tha in the factt they act as if the last eight years of Bush never happened, with
its disastrous mistakes and miscalculations, and also in the fact that
the right-wing ideologues, the Cheneys and Limbaughs and Roves, have
gained the upper hand).
Read my translation of the entire piece at Watching America.
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That Klingst piece was excellent. However, what I am thinking is that very reactionary people have entrenched themselves in so many American institutions that they remain very dangerous. These are the people who know they are right and never change their minds.