The GOP's McCarthy Gene

Search Options	close
Search the following clips: All Clips

news science politics food economy art
technology health internet religion psychology

Sign Up Install Learn More Login


	The GOP's McCarthy Gene

jklugman

11-30-2008 2:18 PM

218 views

tags:

republicans, joseph mccarthy, richard nixon, barry goldwater, ronald reagan, george h. w. bush, george bush, sarah palin

jklugman says:

By Neal Gabler.

Via Josh Marshall

Add a Comment

Login to Comment. Not a member yet? Sign up

Today's Top Clips

visit the Top Clips page

View the Top Clips from November 30, 2008

Embed This Clip In Your Site...

<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/d757deb8-7e70-49b5-b53f-3b4b6c8b9cef/D11926EC-9D41-496E-931B-F10D143CC270/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gabler30-2008nov30,0,1009632.story" href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gabler30-2008nov30,0,1009632.story" style="font-size: 11px;">www.latimes.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gabler30-2008nov30,0,1009632.story">But there is another rendition of the story of modern conservatism, one that doesn't begin with  Goldwater and doesn't celebrate his libertarian orientation. It is a less heroic story, and one that may go a much longer way toward really explaining the Republican Party's past electoral fortunes and its future. In this tale, the real father of modern Republicanism is Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the line doesn't run from Goldwater to Reagan to George W. Bush; it runs from McCarthy to Nixon to Bush and possibly now to Sarah  Palin. It centralizes what one might call the McCarthy gene, something deep in the DNA of the Republican Party that determines how Republicans run for office, and because it is  genetic, it isn't likely to be expunged any time soon.</blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/D11926EC-9D41-496E-931B-F10D143CC270/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>