The Democrat Socialist Party!

[MKSheppard]

Courtesy of Hot Air:

You Can't make this shit up

GOP to rebrand Dems as 'socialists'
By: Roger Simon
May 13, 2009 04:32 AM EST

A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

When I asked if such a resolution would force RNC Chairman Michael Steele to use that label when talking about Democrats in all his speeches and press releases, the RNC member replied: “Who cares?”

Which pretty much sums up the attitude some members of the RNC have toward their chairman these days.

Steele wrote a memo last month opposing the resolution. Steele said that while he believes Democrats “are indeed marching America toward European-style socialism,” he also said in a (rare) flash of insight that officially referring to them as the Democrat Socialist Party “will accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans.”

Two other resolutions — to urge Republican lawmakers to reject earmarks and to commend them for opposing “bailouts and reckless spending bills” — are also on the agenda, but language that would have denounced Sen. Arlen Specter, a Republican turned Democrat, and Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins for voting for President Obama’s stimulus package has been dropped.

Steele didn’t want the special session to be held at all. The RNC will hold its regular summer meeting in July, and all matters could have waited until then. But the special session is being viewed by some in the party as a “comeuppance” for Steele and an implied criticism of his performance and behavior in his first 100 days in office.

Exercising a rarely used party rule that allows any 16 RNC members from 16 different states to demand a special meeting, conservatives in the party forced Steele’s hand, and now the special meeting will be tacked onto the end of a previously scheduled meeting of state party chairmen that will convene next week at National Harbor outside Washington.

A further comeuppance — a vote of “no confidence” in Steele — is not being contemplated, I am informed, because Steele’s opponents in the RNC have already won a major victory by forcing him to accept greater controls on how he spends party funds.

Also, while there has been some talk about replacing Steele, few consider that likely, at least in the near future. “Without a Republican president to decide on that change, that won’t happen,” the RNC member said.

But Steele is not a popular chairman within the RNC, and his recent statements that appeared to attack Mitt Romney and the Republican base have undermined his popularity even further.

Steele was elected to a two-year term as party chairman on Jan. 30 on the sixth ballot, but instead of quietly trying to consolidate power within the party and build up his image, he embarked on a publicity tour that included statements that some in the party considered baffling at best and incendiary at worst.

“He has a tin ear,” the RNC member told me when I asked him to name Steele’s worst problem. “He has a tin ear when it comes to the building (i.e., the RNC staff), the RNC and the party.”

Last Friday, when Steele was guest-hosting conservative pundit Bill Bennett’s radio show, a caller suggested that Romney would have been a stronger candidate against Barack Obama than John McCain but that liberals and the media had pushed for McCain to win the Republican nomination.

The caller was, perhaps, not making the most intellectually rigorous of arguments, but in his answer Steele seemed to outdo the caller.

“Remember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life,” Steele replied. “It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. It was the base that rejected Mitt because they thought he was back and forth and waffling on those very economic issues you’re talking about.”

Steele, who himself has said that abortion is a matter of “individual choice,” was opening old wounds not only by attacking Romney but also by suggesting the Republican base is bigoted when it comes to Mormons.

“His job should be to get everybody to sit down and focus on a message for the party and then get them to be the messengers,” the RNC member told me. “Steele wants to do the right thing, but he is clueless as to how the RNC really runs.”

Roger Simon is POLITICO’s chief political columnist.

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This is so retarded beyond belief, I can't help but wonder what kind of idiots are inhabiting the RNC at the moment...

[Alyeska]

I keep looking at the link to make sure that isn't an Onion article. This doesn't really surprise me. The GOP has been tearing itself apart after loosing the last two elections. They have no real leader and have yet to acknowledge the reasons why they have lost. The further they go down this road, the more they will distance themselves from the voters and further marginalize themselves for years to come.

[Pelranius]

It seems like all the Republicans who could do something have stopped caring at this point. All my conservative friends here at college (at least the intelligent ones) have stopped going to the Young Republican meetings.

[Alyeska]

The political cartoon in todays paper was funny. GOP on a sinking ship with Arlen Spector rowing away alone in a life boat. GOP mouth piece says "Good Riddance".

[Androsphinx]

This (deeply stupid) idea has legs only because Steele spoke against it last month, and it's being used to further weaken his authority. He's lost a couple of major battles since getting the job, and I'd be very surprised if he makes it to the 2010 mid-terms.

[Tanasinn]

By all means, continue to drive your party of Jesus freaks, armchair warmongers, and corporatist slugs into the dirt, GOP. The rest of us appreciate it.

[Steve]

As one of the jobless seeking work in the current economy, I think I'd welcome this actually being true. I want to hear the Wall Streeters and GOP scream in anguish at such a development, let them feel a taste of my own agony and despair for being part of a system where their influence means that you can only collect unemployment benefits if you're fired or laid off, thus encouraging employers to use harrassment and severe hour cuts to encourage workers they want gone to quit so they don't have to pay unemployment (as was done to me).

[The Yosemite Bear]

It seems like all the Republicans who could do something have stopped caring at this point. All my conservative friends here at college (at least the intelligent ones) have stopped going to the Young Republican meetings.

Wait, there's such a thing as YOUNG Republicans? The probusiness/anti-party stuff does not appeal to the the youth.

[Rogue 9]

As one of the jobless seeking work in the current economy, I think I'd welcome this actually being true. I want to hear the Wall Streeters and GOP scream in anguish at such a development, let them feel a taste of my own agony and despair for being part of a system where their influence means that you can only collect unemployment benefits if you're fired or laid off, thus encouraging employers to use harrassment and severe hour cuts to encourage workers they want gone to quit so they don't have to pay unemployment (as was done to me).

Yeah, my last employer just fired me and proceeded to attempt to blackmail me into not applying for unemployment. Joke's on him, though; I went out and got another job that very afternoon, and he's going to hear from the National Labor Relations Board about his flagrant violations of U.S. labor law...

[The Spartan]

It seems like all the Republicans who could do something have stopped caring at this point. All my conservative friends here at college (at least the intelligent ones) have stopped going to the Young Republican meetings.

Wait, there's such a thing as YOUNG Republicans? The probusiness/anti-party stuff does not appeal to the the youth.

Young people maybe more liberal (or, at least, less conservative) than older people, but there are still young people being raised by conservatives who buy into the conservative philosophy.

[K. A. Pital]

That's the smell of desperation and idiocy combined into an explosive mix. The Republicans will have to tone down the recent idiocy with mustard and now that...

[The Yosemite Bear]

True, I remember the whole fundies in my college...

[Patrick Degan]

Well, I guess the "Democratz = FASCISTS" rebranding campaign went over like a lead balloon last month so now they're going to try to repackage their stock-in-trade propaganda under the "New and Improved" label.

[General Zod]

Can the Democrats agree to change their name if the Republicans agree to change theirs to the Enhanced Interrogation party?

[LMSx]

Can the Democrats agree to change their name if the Republicans agree to change theirs to the Enhanced Interrogation party?

That won't work, "Democrat Socialist" is supposed to be a pejorative while all indications are the Republicans would be delighted to be known as the party of tort-er, Enhanced Interrogation.

[Prannon]

The funny thing is that there actually is a Democratic Socialist Party...in Germany.

[Thanas]

Yes, and it is the oldest democratic party in existence in Germany. Center-left, to boot.

[Teebs]

Yes, and it is the oldest democratic party in existence in Germany. Center-left, to boot.

Nope. You're thinking of the SPD - Social Democratic Party of Germany. Sure social democrat sounds like democratic socialist but it's not the same thing.

The Democratic Socialists would be the PDS - Party for Democratic Socialism (I think they've changed their name to 'The Left Party' now though because they merged with some SPD split-offs). That party rose out of the East German SED (communists).

[The Original Nex]

I love how the Repubs continue to insist on using the asinine and grammatically incorrect "DEMOCRAT Socialist Party"

The adjective form of "Democrat" is "Democratic", but apparently making it sound wrong is a bad mark on the Democrats, not a sign of idiocy for the Republicans. I'm sure they think themselves very clever, if they even understand the error at all...

[Coyote]

No, it's on purpose. They have been subtly trying to replace the name "Democratic" Party with "Democrat" Party in common usage because they feel that the term sounds harsh and unsettling to the average American speaker, it has the pejorative "-RAT" at the end, and it separates the Democrats from the concepts of "Democratic" and "Democracy".

So, all the problems of the society, the nation, the world, and they have a special session to... agree to call their opponents a name. Mmm, boy, this is leadership that stirs the soul, yes indeed...

I wonder if they'll start using this term openly and frequently, and the repeated use of the word "socialist" in modern political parlance will deaden people's fear and loathing of it. In fact, when they call the Democrats "socialists" as a matter of policy, and lightning doesn't strike and in fact things improve, the American public might start to think, "huh, socialism. Doesn't seem so bad, really."

[Prannon]

Don't hold your breath Coyote. As much as I would like to be optimistic and believe that Obama's election was a sign of a new "left turn" in American politics (if Reagan's election represents a "right turn"), anything can happen. Obama and the Democrats can still screw it up. Republicans might spontaneously find their legs again. Or we might find out that the American public never wanted some of the more socialist reforms the Democrats are eager to enact.

Then again, when we see Chairman Steele being utterly and totally rejected by the Republican Base, especially when he says reasonable things like...

"...[calling them the Democrat Socialist Party] will accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans.”

“Remember, it was the base that rejected Mitt because of his switch on pro-life, from pro-choice to pro-life. It was the base that rejected Mitt because it had issues with Mormonism. It was the base that rejected Mitt because they thought he was back and forth and waffling on those very economic issues you’re talking about.”

...I think we can rest easy that the Republicans will continue to implode and flail about in disarray, allowing the Democrats to move relatively unhindered. Steele actually seems aware of the flaws of Republican doctrines and the fallacies that Republican politicians throw around. He's just being ignored.

[Thanas]

Yes, and it is the oldest democratic party in existence in Germany. Center-left, to boot.

Nope. You're thinking of the SPD - Social Democratic Party of Germany. Sure social democrat sounds like democratic socialist but it's not the same thing.

The Democratic Socialists would be the PDS - Party for Democratic Socialism (I think they've changed their name to 'The Left Party' now though because they merged with some SPD split-offs). That party rose out of the East German SED (communists).

Actually, the SPD was founded as the socialist worker's party. They only changed that name due to the pressure of the socialist laws from Bismarck. They do not call themselves socialists nowadays, that is true.

However, the oldest political party in Germany was originally founded as socialists.

[Ziggy Stardust]

This doesn't really surprise me. I have a buddy that works in the "Strategy" department of the RNC headquarters, and he readily admits that they do nothing all day except drink beer and watch FOX News. It's a good tidbit to keep in mind every time the RNC does anything, because the people coming up with ideas are generally drunk.