And so when Bill Buckley saw the usurpation of the conservative  brand by the craziest in society he spoke out decisively.  Buckley’s action in part prepared the way for the right to take the presidency under Regan.

Today the right faces an even great threat from the likes of Glenn Beck.  Becks access to mass media allows his voice to be injected into society in ways the Birchers of Buckley’s day could never have hoped for. Described variously as ‘crazy’, ‘delusional’, ‘dangerous’ and worse, Beck has successfully reanimated that long dead corpse of the John Birch movement. A movement that Buckley so long ago exposed and put to rest. And in the process is redefining the conservative brand.

Buckley is now sadly gone. Who now will stand up for conservative values?  Who now will protect the intellectual and principled conservative values from the mad who usurp the brand for their own profit?  And make no mistake, Beck is making a fine living reanimating the fringe right with his ‘communists everywhere’  tactic’s and his pseudo intellectual shows. Becks brand of ‘say anything do anything’ to make a buck  hate speech will continue as long as he perceives a buck to be made.  If the conservative party loses every seat Beck will be richer than ever.

Republicans seem unable to find their modern Buckley. The lack of a powerful intellectual voice on the right brings into question if the party even has an intellectual foundation any more.. Or perhaps the absence of a reaction is a case of short term tactics, an ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ approach. If the later it is a dangerous approach. With Beck attempting to redefine conservatism, remaining silent will only alienate the majority of Americans, both left and right.

Lets be clear about what the political dynamic is in Washington. Lets be clear about who is doing what, in Washington. One one side we have the Democrats who persist in ‘bringing textbooks to a knife fight’ as a former congressman said, and on the other we have the specter of a Republican party wanting to sink the ship rather than let good policy do good things for America. Not to mention, the world.

As important as the Democratic agenda is, more important is the integrity of our system of representation. When a party that lost an election can prevent the will of the people from taking form, the system itself is in trouble. How much trouble?  How about the failure of the electoral system of government for starters. The underlying fact is this…a losing party refused to allow the winning party to implement the platform the people demanded. It is as if the election hadn’t happened. The Republican party has executed a a ‘putsch’ . Worse they are being rewarded for their efforts.

It is time the President and the Democratic party to a person start thinking of the future of the country they love, and less about their sensibility’s. It is time the winning party’s agenda advanced and the rebellion be quashed in the most ruthless of ways.

Nothing less will save our land.

It didn’t help that his own party was spineless, and possibly leaderless. Shall we add ‘clueless’?  All the Republicans and the Tea Party had to do, was keep their own base angry, and disenchant the President’s. Policy frustration has multiple benifits. After ‘hope and change’ fails, who will care who runs things if they all lie?  Paraphrasing a famous author about a different kind of politics, ’the thing about supporting a failed hope and change campaign, is that it takes to0 many weekend evenings for not enough result’  More or less.

And now Obama is on the brink of a presidential failure perhaps unparalleled in modern presidential history. The greatest unaddressed equality issue remaining in the modern industrialized world, equal access to quality health care is in danger of being rolled back. Imagine if you will if the result of the civil war were rolled back.

Its just that significant.