Saturday, August 13, 2005
(9:44 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
The Betrayed Revolution of '94
No revolution would be complete without the true believers mourning its betrayal after the revolutionaries seized power. The Republican Revolution of 1994 is apparently no exception:The Republicans located and attracted a new base of voters with bomb-throwing rhetoric that only happened to include some limited-government ideas (hardly surprising, considering the party had been out of government for so long).Meanwhile, I've got to second Belle Waring: our national debate cannot go forward until responsible Republicans muster up the courage to denounce and disown the members of their party who habitually drink the blood of puppies.
The key to maintaining that base, besides the usual vote-buying that every governing party engages in, has been to keep the bombs coming, not to follow up on any of the limited-government promises (with the notable exception of welfare reform).
If you don't believe me, spend a day consuming the most popular cultural artifacts from the Republican-affiliated alt-media—say, the Rush Limbaugh show, FreeRepublic.com, and Fox News—and compare the number of libertarian arguments or ideas you encounter with the number of diatribes against Hollywood, Hillary Clinton, or liberals. If the ratio is even 1:50, I'm buying the drinks.
This, finally, might just be the fruit of '94—a base mobilized not to reduce the scope of government, but to jeer at domestic enemies, conflate opposition to war with treason, and vote decisively against Michael Moore.
