The Republican Struggle: Noisy Lunatics V. Sub Rosa Lunatics

Nancy LeTourneau has a good read this afternoon about the "post-policy" nihilists of the far-far-right "Freedom Caucus" in the House, and why the leadership struggle is all about tactics, not about the substance of Republican politics.  Here's an extended excerpt:

What happened is that members of the Freedom Caucus got elected to be post-policy and to see their agenda of slash and burn implemented. But establishment Republicans wanted to go back to the good-old-days when you don’t alienate most of the country by talking so truthfully about your real intentions. In other words, they knew that governing meant pivoting away from being post-policy and going back to the Republican standard of being what David Roberts called post-truth.

Republicans thus talk about “taxes” and “spending” and “regulation” in the abstract, since Americans oppose them in the abstract even as they support their specific manifestations. They talk about cutting the deficit even as they slash taxes on the rich and launch unfunded wars. They talk about free markets even as they subsidize fossil fuels. They talk about American exceptionalism even as they protect fossil-fuel incumbents and fight research and infrastructure investments.

In short, Republicans have mastered post-truth politics. They’ve realized that their rhetoric doesn’t have to bear any connection to their policy agenda. They can go through different slogans, different rationales, different fights, depending on the political landscape of the moment. They need not feel bound by previous slogans, rationales, or fights. They’ve realized that policy is policy and politics is politics and they can push for the former while waging the latter battle on its own terms. The two have become entirely unmoored.

This is what some people are referring to when they say that the conflict between the Freedom Caucus and establishment Republicans is all about tactics rather than substance. The all agree on the latter, the establishment folks just don’t want the lunatics to be so damn truthful about it!

On the tee-vee "news" shows this weekend, you're not going to see that dynamic discussed, of course.  The discussion rather will be of the usual variety:  personalities, speculation, what they're hearing from their sources, blah blah blah.  Oh, they may alternate between Joe Biden is- he- or- isn't- he, and the media's idea of a "policy wonk" Paul "Lyin'" Ryan is- he- or- isn't- he chatter, but it will skate on the familiar surface that doesn't allow anyone to get too upset about the obvious- to- all- who- have- eyes- and- ears bughouse craziness that has been accelerating unabated in the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party for decades.  It's the continuing, willful blindness that has led us to the point where this person is being cajoled to run for Speaker of the House to "save the party:"

If he's your "savior," you are long past saving.