Boehner's failure signals marginalization of GOP
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Robert Reich Guest blogger
Remarkably, John Boehner couldn鈥檛 get enough House Republicans to vote in favor of his proposal to keep the Bush tax cuts in place on the first million dollars of everyone鈥檚 income and聽聽the old Clinton rates only to dollars over and above a million.
What? Even Grover Norquist blessed Boehner鈥檚 proposal, saying it wasn鈥檛 really a tax increase. Even Paul Ryan supported it.聽
What does Boehner鈥檚 failure tell us about the modern Republican party?
That it has become a party of hypocrisy masquerading as principled ideology. The GOP talks endlessly about the importance of reducing the budget deficit. But it isn鈥檛 even willing to raise revenues from the richest three-tenths of one percent of Americans to help with the task. We鈥檙e talking about 400,000 people, for crying out loud.聽
It has become a party that routinely shills for its super-wealthy patrons at a time in our nation鈥檚 history when the middle class is shrinking, the median wage is dropping, and the share of Americans in poverty is rising.聽
It has become a party of spineless legislators more afraid of facing primary challenges from right-wing kooks than of standing up for what鈥檚 right for America.
For all these reasons it has become irrelevant to the problems America faces.
No wonder a majority of Americans now say the Republican Party is too extreme, according to聽.
53 percent 鈥� including 22 percent of Republicans themselves 鈥� say the GOP鈥檚 views and policies have pushed them out of the mainstream. That鈥檚 significantly higher than in 2010, when fewer than 40 percent thought the GOP too extreme.
Meanwhile, 57 percent now say Democrats are 鈥済enerally mainstream.鈥�
The Republican Party in the process of marginalizing itself out of existence. I am tempted to say good riddance, but that would be premature.聽
