The Hill has an odd article about how conservative and right-wing bloggers are actually looking forward to the coming Obama Administration and Democratic control of Congress as an opportunity for it to develop into a powerful force that will reshape the Republican Party:
A Washington in the hands of Democrats offers online pundits on the right a fresh political target and a chance to vent against their ideological opponents. The reverse scenario allowed their liberal counterparts to blossom during the blogosphere’s infancy, when the GOP controlled the Congress and the Bush administration held power between 2003 and 2006 …
“The rightosphere will be much better when the right has something to oppose,” said Jon Henke, who writes at The Next Right.
Obama and Democrats will eventually provide conservatives with a “unifying grievance” that they can seize on. On the Democratic agenda could be universal healthcare proposals that would expand government programs, union-backed card-check legislation that would allow workers to bypass secret-ballot elections when unionizing, and calls to reverse momentum to expand offshore drilling, Henke said.
Being in the opposition is also a natural posture for conservatives, who want smaller government but have seen GOP lawmakers in the last few years create more federal programs, expand the deficit and spend greater sums of taxpayer dollars.
“It’s hard to be anti-state when you are state,” Henke said.
Presumably, the desired outcome of this effort will be for Republicans to eventually retake the White House and Congress and actually govern, which is something these bloggers seem to be admitting they aren’t all that good at or interested in.
After all, if they are “much better when they have something to oppose” and can’t complain about the state when they are the state, what exactly do they intend to do if their plan actually bears fruit and they someday end up back in control?
Hopefully they’ll figure out that puzzle before they actually end up in power. It’s kind of important.
