The GOP That Used to Be

By Baxter

Once during the Bush-Cheney years, on a visit to The Greenbrier (in its pre-casino days, but that's a topic for another post), we cats saw a bumper sticker in the hotel's parking lot that said, "I never thought I'd miss Nixon."

We thought of that sticker this morning, when we read the obituary of Benjamin L. Hooks, former chair of the N.A.A.C.P. The obit reminded us that the late civil rights leader had been appointed to the Federal Communications Commission by — you guessed it, Dick Nixon.

It's one of a small number of actions that Nixon took that were acceptable, even admirable. (Creating the EPA and signing the Clean Water and Air Acts were others.) And it's struck us that were Nixon alive today and trying to appoint Mr. Hooks to something, the current Republican Party simply wouldn't stand for it.

Why not? Well, just check out today's profile in The New York Times of the teabaggers. They are predominantly white, male and — Republican. Although they are wealthier than most Americans, they think the economy is worse than their fellow citizens do. And more than half of them think that too much attention has been paid to the problems of African Americans.

So we doubt that the teabaggers would look favorably upon any Nixonian gesture toward Mr. Hooks. After all, these are the people who shouted the N-word at John Lewis a few weeks ago.

But the so-called leaders of the Republican Party refuse to repudiate them. Others, most notably the famous quitter from Alaska and her nutty friend from Minnesota, actually encourage them to dangerous levels. We wonder what has to happen before people like John Boehner and Mitch McConnell say to these crazies, enough is enough.