GOP: "We got nothin' so here's what we got"

John Evo reminds me via email of the latest stunt by the Republican Party to "officially rename" the Democratic Party. This is almost too hilarious for words.

Right-blogger Allahpundit from Hot Air (via) puts it well:

Just the sort of smart, sober gesture we need to convince Americans of the party’s new seriousness of purpose. Even Michael Steele — Michael Steele — sees the publicity trainwreck a-comin’, although he’s powerless to stop it.

Oh well. The base will love it, and that’s all that matters.

A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”

When I asked if such a resolution would force RNC Chairman Michael Steele to use that label when talking about Democrats in all his speeches and press releases, the RNC member replied: “Who cares?”…

Steele wrote a memo last month opposing the resolution. Steele said that while he believes Democrats “are indeed marching America toward European-style socialism,” he also said in a (rare) flash of insight that officially referring to them as the Democrat Socialist Party “will accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans.”

More than anything, this reeks of impotence, operating almost as a concession that the right’s argument on the merits that the left is evolving towards socialism isn’t working to shift public opinion. So now they’re going to up the ante by trying the hard sell: Just repeat “socialism” as much as possible to try to drive it into people’s skulls, never minding the fact that that term’s already lost some of its taboo and might well lose more as it goes further mainstream. Or at least, I hope that’s the GOP strategy here. The alternative, that they’re simply sticking their fingers in their ears and repeating “socialist” over and over out of spite like a five-year-old, is too depressing to contemplate. What’s next, a formal resolution declaring french fries “freedom fries” in the Republican Party henceforth and forevermore?

I think the "too-depressing-to-contemplate" alternative is actually true for many Republicans, based on the fund-raising emails I've been getting from them since last October. They seem obsessed with the S-word, or at least believe that invoking it has magical powers with their base.

I'm further convinced of the "five-year-old" mentality by noting with delight the continued wingnut obsession with saying "Democrat Party." This is classic grade-school stuff.

The really delicious part, as many have noted (e.g.), is that this effort to tie the word SOCIALISM!!!1! to Obama -- while Obama is enjoying healthy approval ratings -- seems mostly to be having the effect of making young people think the S-word means something good.

I give it a month until Rush Limbaugh and friends start saying "National Democrat Socialist Party" and then "Democrat National Socialist Party," at which point 85% of the country will stand up and say, "Godwin's Law," and what's left of the GOP will melt into a puddle and vanish, like the Wicked Witch of the West meeting her glass of water.

(cross-posted)