Republicans and Democrats, possibly not parallel

[nancylebov]

My recent post about disillusioned Republicans got some comments about being angry at Democrats, too.

The thing is, I've never seen anything like that recent spate of "my party has betrayed me" books in my life. I think there was something of the sort with the Communist party in the US, but those are the only examples I've got. Other suggestions?

The difference I'm seeing between what's going on the Republican party and ordinary partisanship (or even ordinary partisan rage) is the belief that a party one trusted isn't just wrong, it's gone mad.

Comments

[llennhoff.livejournal.com]

Your link took me to the set of (not-very-)recent comments on my own lj posts. I switch to your lj to get the original post myself, but thought you'd like to know.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Corrected. Thanks.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

I don't think Democrats see their party as having gone mad. My husband used to complain a lot about how they were willing to sell out the ideals of their constituents and vote with the Republicans on horrible things. That was true before Obama on so many things, but in particular the Homeland Security and torture legislation. Perhaps they didn't look insane, but they were morally repugnant. Now we're dealing with health care reform.

I guess the reason Democrats don't write books about how the left betrayed them is that they feel silly for calling the Democratic party "left."

[supergee.livejournal.com]

The book about how the Left betrayed the Democrats is proudly called Crashing the Party.

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

My friend Dan idolises Nader, and was shocked and felt personally injured when I called him a series of rude names when Dan brought him up in conversation. It was highly awkward...for him.

[supergee.livejournal.com]

There's a lot of that going around, and I have to admit Nader has some admirable traits. I can remember when he was fighting the car companies and Esquire put him in a list of "people nobody hates."

[noveldevice.livejournal.com]

Sure, he used to...I dunno, all I see now is whining and self-aggrandizement, and I find it irksome. I find it particularly irksome when Canadians tell me I should admire Nader for standing on principle and helping put Bush in office. Fuck principle, sez I, fuck it with a rusty hammer.

[osewalrus.livejournal.com]

Republicans very much fostered a "team" mentality, which allowed people to paper over their differences for some time. Democrats, by contrast, have always acknowledged that they are a coalition of tribes rather than one big team. As Will Rogers said: "I am not a member of any organized political party, I am a Democrat."

So when Democrats see their party going off the deep end, the reaction is not Reagan's classic "I did not leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me." It is more "the other tribes in the party are now in ascendance, I will take my marbles and go home."

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

What the Republicans Could Learn from Hayek, or if you're so big on the emergent order of the free market, maybe you shouldn't have had a party with tight centralized control.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I suspect that one might find a number of examples from the early to mid 19th century in the USA. Possibly in the later 19th century as well... and almost certainly some of that from late-1800s Canada. Not so sure about Europe.