GOP Shock Doctrine: What Gov't Shutdown And Other GOP Assaults on Democracy Are Really All About

The Republicans' imminent threat to shut down the government, the right's assault on public workers, its spending- and tax-cap proposals, the successful campaign to shut down ACORN and attempts now underway to defund Planned Parenthood and NPR and, most prominently, Paul Ryan's plan to dismantle Medicare all have one thing in common: they're about entrenching conservative ideological preferences in the law in ways that future legislators will have a hard time undoing.

All of these efforts are ultimately about subverting democracy, which is, for the right, they're non-negotiable.

Conservative policies don't poll well, and the movement took a thumping in 2006 and 2008. Looking forward, the Republicans see their party sailing into some powerful demographic headwinds. Their true base are married white Americans who identify themselves as Christian, and that group is in a free-fall decline in the American electorate.

Conservatives have always done a better job playing the “long game,” and they have their eyes set on a future in which majorities will be harder to come by. Thanks to a moribund economy, the Tea Party swept into Congress and... READ ON

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