David Gergen on the Colbert Report: buyer outrage, or what?

[babylonsister]

He sounded to me like he made bad decisions, it's all gone wrong, and he's no longer a supporter.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Yes, he specifically said he'd started going "left" in the 80s

when he started to realize the Republicans weren't where he was. Said Nixon, by comparison, was a liberal.

[babylonsister]

2. But he's also supported the Iraq war, the foibles of this admin. He's

singing my tune now, but he wasn't this time last year.

[fishwax]

18. he didn't quite go far enough

and during the 90s and early '00s was considered bipartisan even though he generally still supported conservative viewpoints. He's not a horrible right-winger, or anything, but neither (in my view) is he as moderate/bipartisan/liberal as he's sometimes made out to be (and as he sometimes presents himself.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Great interview - interesting to hear him say that Nixon wouldn't be

elected today by the Republicans because he was too liberal.

And Gergen also called Nixon the last liberal president; and I think he could very well be correct on that call.

[Strawman]

8. I don't believe that

I think Nixon would have loved the current landscape. He was no liberal. He was just trying to co-opt liberal ideas for political gain. He would have loved to have been able to manipulate fear and the worst in people the way the Bush and Rove have. In his heart, he was a dictator and a megalomaniac just like George W. Bush, liberal policy initiatives aside. He didn't realize that you didn't have to govern effectively to win elections and centralize power. He was under the impression that you couldn't be completely nuts (like I believe he thought Reagan was) when it came to governing. Bush is like the shittiest possible combo of the two: the cynicism and wickedness of Nixon and the incompetence and far right-wing ideological rigidity of Reagan.

[Swamp Rat]

10. I didn't fall for that either.

Gergen is trying to cover his ass because the writing is on the wall.

[whalerider55]

12. Hmmm

Strawman- an interesting post. I dunno if Nixon would've loved the current landscape- the venality and sheer grandiosity of it might have eluded him; on many levels, he was an insecure, pissant little anti-semite, straight out of Chinatown era California politics. He'd love rovian style, though... so much like his first campaign for congress against helen gahagan. he was practiced at the art of spewing so many lies that by the time people would figure out he was full of shit, he'd just be moving on down the road, fueled by more lies.

that having been said, he was the man who signed the bill creating the EPA; when his ass was heavily in a sling, he did try to reach some sort of opening dialogue with China. He also illegally bombed a number of Asian countries (no doubt whispered into his ear by Kissinger).

i wish it was as simple as it seems. Nixon's "liberal" policy initiatives were very much a part of the times; as Bush's corporatism before country is a part of our times...

i agree. double bush's IQ and he still wouldn't come up to Nixon's waist size; but he doesn't need to. he's the ultimate empty suit that cheney was seeking all these years. Nixon was too egocentric to be that empty suit; ford was fundamentally too decent and historically bi-partisan to be that empty suit; and reagan was completely disengaged, with a dem senate and congress to try to curb his blissful excesses. bush- well, as gerturde stein said, there is no "there" there.

the perfect storm. cheney and bush. edgar bergen and charlie mccarthy. or knucklehead.

sheesh.

whalerider55

[11cents]

15. Good post.

I love me some historical context. IMHO a lot of the poison in the current GOP was presaged in Nixon's campaigns: slander, divisiveness, racial "coding." He was a relative liberal on domestic issues, though (to the point of being considered sympathetic to the civil rights movement when he was VP), in part because there was still a GOP liberal wing in his day, and he was the ultimate trans-party consensus pol. He was also a competent administrator who expected competence in others, so the sickness in his administration was largely confined to the Oval Office -- the problem was Nixon personally, and the enablers around him, while most of his appointees were qualified and reasonably honest people trying to do a good job. In stark contrast to the current clowns' opera.

[evlbstrd]

4. I was watching "The Corporation" right before TDS and Colbert.

He's exactly right. Both parties have moved toward global corporatism and away from freedom.

[Bozita]

5. more proof that the GOP has been drifting right for some time

"Nixon was the last liberal president." - Gergen

[OwnedByFerrets]

6. Not being a history major,

I have to ask, What about Carter? Was he not a liberal?

[Zomby Woof]

13. Carter was a moderate

In fact, Carter said in his book "Our Endangered Values", that he received more opposition and grief in Congress from the liberal wing of the Democratic party than he did from most of the Republicans. This opposition came to a head when Senator Kennedy challenged President Carter in the 1980 primaries.

Proof that eating our own is nothing new, and that the far-left can be harder on their center-left and moderate counterparts than they can be to the opposition. And we saw how well this divide and not-conquer strategy worked with the results of the 1980 election...:eyes:

Let that be a lesson for us. Or not.

[babylonsister]

7. But Gergen isn't happy; I get my relief where I find it. He's rabid at

times, but calls them like he sees them. He's more honest than most.

[I_Make_Mistakes]

9. Yeah, Nixon was pink a pinko! That was too funny. God, Colbert

couldn't even get him to bite on anything Republican!

I have to add, that I was a Repub. (born 1960) till the mid 80's too!

[Bill219]

11. on a separate note....

did anyone here go to the website Colbert talked about and cast a vote to name the bridge after him?

[longship]

14. Gergen is one of the good Republicans.

He's like John Dean, and a few others. If only they had the power to take back their party we'd have a political landscape which might be able to come to a concensus on matters and solve the problems.

...with a congressional Democratic majority and President, of course.

[BlooInBloo]

16. Did he say he'd vote Democratic? If not, then fuck him....

and his arlen-specter-tough-talk-but-it's-really-a-buncha-bullshit "buyer's outrage".

Until they change their behavior, they haven't changed.

[ReadTomPaine]

17. Bingo. Show me the votes, baby.

In the meantime, fork over some of the cash to Dem candidates and the party and start making campaign appearances.