Marching to defeat

David Brooks writes today (behind Times Select) that the Republican Party's mood on Capitol Hill is that of a slope-shouldered mob passively marching off a cliff. Excerpt:

And at the presidential level, things are even worse. The party is blessed with a series of charismatic candidates who are not orthodox Republicans. But the pressures of the campaign are such that these candidates have had to repress
anything that might make them interesting. Instead of offering something new, each of them has been going around pretending to be the second coming of George Allen — a bland, orthodox candidate who will not challenge any of the party's
customs or prejudices.

Ain't that the truth. The Dems have their own stifling orthodoxies too, which is why it's pretty clear to me that the enthusiasm for them in the polls is mostly a factor of disgust with the spent Republicans. One sign of how exhausted the GOP and the broader conservative movement is right now is the constant hearking back to Reagan. I was at a dinner party in Dallas last week with a group of smart Republicans, almost all of whom were gloomy. One said to me that the Reagan nostalgia you hear so often these days among anxious and depressed Republicans is a sign of decadence. Out of ideas, and roped to a presidency foundering on the shoals of Iraq, Republicans are reduced to pining for the Reagan magic. But the Reagan magic, such as it was, had as much to do with Reagan being the right man at the right time as it did with anything in his character.

Who is the right man (or woman) for the crises of the current moment? And what would that man advocate? Reagan didn't just sell himself. He sold a philosophy that was vigorous and suited to where the country was coming out of the malaise of the 1970s. It's a different world now.

I love this line from the Brooks column:

The libertarians and paleoconservatives have been losing for so long they are suddenly quite interesting.

After the Republicans get smashed to bits in 2008, it will be fascinating to see what happens to the paleos, the libertarians and the traditionalists, with regard to the Republican party. I predict that the GOP will go more libertarian, a la Giuliani, because libertarianism is a more natural fit with autonomous individualism (in fact, it's the purest expression of it), and it offers no significant opposition to corporate interests. Could the Democratic Party could once again become the home of socially conservative populism -- and therefore prove a greater draw for traditionalist conservatives? If the Republican Party Giulianized itself, this could happen.