That GOP--she ain't what she used to be.

(warning: stream of consciousness rant approaching)

I watched one of the most awesome movies ever made the other night--300. I know. It's old memes, right? I should have seen that movie already, but I hadn't. But OH. MY. GOD. That was the best damn movie.

It might help to know that when I was little tyke, I picked up a copy of the Iliad. I was about eight. It was a Penguin paperback, and I can't tell you whose translation it was. All I know is, I got it from the used book section at the back of the Salvation Army Thrift store, and I kind of knew it was too old for me. But I read it anyway. Just like I decided the Bible was a 'front-to-back" read. Just like I ate up The Chronicles of Narnia and Little Women. I didn't know any better. But somehow, and for the next several years, I was a Greek because I read about The Trojan War. And I rooted for the Greeks.

I am dead serious. I put away my interest in Kiss and the Bay City Rollers, and I was all about Diomedes. I fell in love with the idea of this kind of Hellenistic bushido. This sword and sandals macho. I can't say for sure I understood much of what I was reading, but I went to the library and got out books on Greek mythology. Anyway, it was a serious craze for awhile, where I literally considered the pagan pantheon of ancient Greece my favorite characters. (Which led to liking "Clash of the Titans" and "Xanadu" more than either of those movies deserved, but hell--HBO was young then, too.)

So maybe my love of the movie 300 has a trace of nostalgia behind it, but there is a particular line, in a fairly great scene near the bitter end. A twisted, hunchbacked character who was Spartan by birth, betrays the 300 to Xerxes, the Persian God-king who threatens the freedom of all Greece. Facing death, King Leonidas looks at the miserable creature, and says he wishes the traitor would live forever. And that was the best curse ever. Forever to be formed as he was, and forever to live with himself--as twisted inside, being a traitor, as he was to outward appearances.

The current Republican party could live forever. Just like it is now. But they haven't earned a curse, and I actually kind of wish they were better.

Seriously.

It does us no good as a country to know that the Radio Spokesjunkie who alleges wielding influence among conservatives wishes that our current president fails. I think it's weird that a working class stiff is a featured lecturer to school even experienced GOP pols in better living through knowing less and doing really even less than that. I wonder how a troubled governor from a not-especially populous state ended up as the future face of a party that should be able to do better than her, and I sincerely don't understand how McCain means to run on ecomomics (not his topic) in 2010 to keep his Senate seat, anymore than I understand how Michael Steele is going to lead the GOP in a better direction.

They could live forever like this--marginalized. Bitching that they aren't getting enough "bipartisanship." Grover Norquist (one of theirs) defined "bipartisanship" as "another word for date rape." We are witnessing the spectacle of a cocky chihuahua approaching a patient Rottweiler with "bipartisanship" in mind. And the liberal folk could carry on quite well without them, as they have managed to pass bills without them. But owing to the nature of how our media treats people like, say, Newt Gingrich, as an informed voice of modern conservatism (which is neither modern nor conservative, talk amongst yourselves!) when he is kind of a schmuck with an unfortunate haircut who's been out of the game for awhile, deservedly, and now oozes up to Karl Rove like this dude is going to say something useful and not in service to the party, and owing also to the "political correctness" we have in not actually labeling supply-side economics and a good heap of the Reagan myths ("sunny optimism" for one--try, pragmatic, well-intentioned, but ultimately dim and led by neo-cons in re: Central America and Iran, where his reputation should have properly been stranded upon Iran-Contra's rocks. See also: the soft bigotry of actually kind of being a bigot in re: talking up made-up shit about welfare queens. And while we're at it, the dumb-fuck Christian right stuff. And also: believing his own bullshit until others believed it too. A good part of Generation Jones and some older Gen-Xer's are still wrapped up in that played out nonsense as nostalgia for their first political awareness) as the extreme staggering stupidity that they are, we might really see them come back--without any improvement. They would just be back--that' the media narrative--they would find a wedge issue and mallet it home.

But I hope they get better. Really.

I have a dumb fetish for an actual effective, loyal opposition. I wonder if there isn't some actual, real conservatism-as-philosophy, as intellectual conservatism, that actually isn't a part of this circus the current-day Republican Party has become. I know in my heart a number of conservatives still talk about being Goldwater conservatives (just like in my heart I know he was nuts!) But they say that trying to point to a conservative conscience, before Reagan. Before Nixon uttered the words "Silent Majority." Like there was a Golden Age of anti-Communism, strong defense, and support of some entreprenuerial spirit that spoke to American values that had meaning and actual substance. (And maybe they forget the upper-most tax rate under Ike, and don't know what he said about the military-industrial complex. Maybe there never really was conservatism before last Tuesday.) When I read, say, Michael Lind or John Dean, or even David Brock's kind of "road to Damascus" tome Blinded by the Right, I am made aware that there are some smart people on the other side. Just like looking back at the economic policies of, say JFK, there was something conservative there, just like modern conservatives might look back at what Nixon was actually for and spot a liberal, by their standards.

That's probably why I stop and read Frum and Douthat every now and again. I'm looking for some smart conservatives to figure out how to bridge the communications gap America's left and right has developed over the years. I'm wondering if post-partisanship can try being post-political and get down to being pro-solutions and pro-active about creating functioning government.

Now, that would mean belief in government. That would mean an end to that Reagan-era "government is the problem" philosophy. But I wouldn't trust a doctor who had no belief in medicine, and just so, I think a public servant should ask what he or she can do to, um, serve the public. If you choose to be in government, I think an attitude that you are going to be part of the solution is essential. Can any Conservative today at least be pro-governemnt? Can lip-service to being the party of Lincoln boil down to recognizing what Lincoln really meant by government of, for, and by the people? Can they grasp what T.R.'s anti-trust, pro-conservation mentality was about? Did Nixon go to China in vain? If we want to give props to Reagan's role in the collapse of Communism, you can't deny what the Gipper and Gorby show was about.

What I'm saying is--this land isn't just my land--it's your land too, conservatives. Does your philosophy make this land better or worse? Do you respect the environment, and the rights of the people on this turf? Do you acknowlege the rights and respect the people who differ in culture, race, or orientation? Do you listen to facts and reason? Do you want to help make this world a better place?

I think a strong, smart, conservative party might come in handy someday--not yet, but someday. They will need to bring something better than Coulter, Malkin, and Hannity. They will need to be more than Rush Limbaugh. They will need to be real. Maybe their future will look more neo-liberal. Maybe you rediscover the middle class. Maybe they find a way to talk about values without denying rights. Come to a new appreciation of our diversity.

Anyway, this is just a rant. If the party of Boehner and Cantor fails, "oh well." It isn't about being partisan. It's about remedying wrongs. Enhancing equality. Creating national economic security. And if they don't get it--they can seriously suck it.