COMMENT POSTED TO A COLUMN BY DAN ROBERTS AND BEN JACOBS IN
THE GUARDIAN
'The party I worked
for died tonight': Republicans decry Trump's dark vision
Fairly ignorant piece.
Parties die. Everywhere. All the time. Just like companies,
just like distinguished families, and, indeed, just like countries, dozens of
which have risen and fallen in the last century.
In politics it is no different than economics. One of the
great economists of the last century, Joseph Schumpeter, wrote about the
"creative destruction" of capitalism, one of the more insightful
remarks of his time.
Indeed, the modern Republican Party was born just before
Lincoln with the deaths of other parties, such as the Whigs, the No-nothings,
etc.
More than a few observers over recent years have observed
that the Republican Party has long out-lived its usefulness.
For example, for years it has desperately tried to expand
its base by serving the interests of Christian fundamentalists and "family
values," sometimes threatening to bring America into the camp of
theocratic states with official school prayer, flag-burning laws, and other
brainless nonsense.
Just because America has a rather rigged anti-democratic
system in its two-party system, so carefully regulated with many anti-democratic
regulations and barriers-to-entry, does not make it good or even ethical either
or give it any worth.
This rather uninteresting observer seems to impute moral
worth to something which has none.
Donald Trump is a new invigorating force, and, as with all
politicians, he represents both good and bad ideas.
