WaPo - "The ‘Gotham Theory’ of the Republican Party"

[TomCADem]

This is a great little explanation of the motivations of the Tea Party, which is easy to understand for the closet comic book geeks out there. If it makes us all feel any better, it is because the Tea Party loves American so much that they need to destroy it so that we can start fresh. This helps explain why folks like Rep. Yoho (R) actively were cheering on a possible default as a good thing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/16/the-gotham-theory-of-the-republican-party/

Amid the general malaise that has fallen on Republicans inside and outside Washington as the shutdown has lingered and public blame has fallen squarely on their party’s shoulders, an interesting theory has emerged in some quarters of the GOP.

The theory goes like this: The party can’t sustain itself in its current state. It needs to bottom out in order to begin rebuilding successfully. “Sometimes when a system is broken, it’s better to let it/push it to failure rather than prop it up and let it limp along,” explained Matt McDonald, a veteran of the several Republican presidential campaigns and now a partner at Hamilton Place Strategies, a nonpartisan consulting firm. “That way you get to start fresh.”

We have taken to calling that line of thinking the “Gotham Theory” of politics. Here’s why (for you non-”Batman” aficionados): In “Batman Begins,” there is a character named Ra’s al Ghul (Liam Neeson) who heads a group set on destroying Gotham, allegedly for its own good. The theory is that Gotham has fallen too far to be saved and that the best thing that can be done for it in the long run is to hasten its demise.

* * *
This is not an entirely new theory as it relates to Republicans or to political parties more generally. (Heck, we wrote about it in the wake of the 2012 election.) But, it is drawing more and more traction of late as Republicans — particularly in the House — have pursued a now-failed strategy to link defunding or delaying Obamacare to funding the government. That strategy has led to record-low job approval numbers for the congressional GOP and increasing concerns that rather than beginning the rebranding effort that the Republican National Committee pushed earlier this year, the party has actually taken a step backward.

[libdem4life]

1. It's interesting that the Shutdown medicine they were eager to wreak on the country, may not only

fail, but their radical measure boomerang right back and hasten their demise, or at least cause significant damage.

[bemildred]

2. It's a very popular way to do things really, trash it and start over.

Sometimes it's laziness about understanding present arrangements, or optimism about how easy it will be to start over, or ideology.

And sometimes it's wrong, and things get lost. And sometimes it's necessary, because you can't for one reason or another "go back".

In the case of political parties in the USA, it's happened before, and more than once too. It's almost a regular occurrence.

I've been waiting for this ever since Citizen's United became law of the land, it's a recipe for fragmenting parties is a political setup like we have here. The rich can just cut out the middle man (the parties) and buy elections directly, and politicians become their employees, the parties are irrelevant. Look at Cruz. As long as he spouts their drivel, his money will flow. I don't think anybody knows where this really goes. We have all these hucksters marketing our political system for personal gain.

But anyway, it's going to be interesting to see what the national parties do about it.

[Raven]

3. Forget the Republican Party...they are applying the Gotham Theory to the USA! n/t

[Hippo_Tron]

4. It's basically Ralph Nader's philosophy

Basically, 8 years of suffering under Bush would move the country sharply to the left. Didn't really work so well, unfortunately...

[Rosa Luxemburg]

5. They just like corporations and want to get rid of government

they want corporations to run local, state and federal government. That's it basically.

[GatorOrange]

6. A Rock Bottom signal will be when the Wall Street owners of the Conservative Media Echo Chamber...

Begin to dismantle the batshit crazy side of the Echo Chamber where the Glenn Beck crowd resides. That roaches nest being cleared out would be step one to fixing a lot of the "extremist" issues they know they have and is the root of a lot of their issues. It's Frankenstein's monster unleashed at this point. But until it begins to get toned down on the RW media side of things I wouldn't buy too much into the higher ups truly feeling change is needed. Considering many groups/stations like Clear Channel are owned by politically connected venture capital firms like Bain it'd happen swiftly and easily if desired.

This potential scenario is also why I think Beck has gone out of his way to make his own media empire with the Blaze. Beck knows his time will be up at some point due to previous experience (who the heck gets pushed out at Faux News!?). He wants his own secluded bubble to call home to ensure continued influence over his followers and keep his lucrative profit train rolling down the track.