The media and the President have all but declared the GOP dead. That’s something that many on the right are completely ok with as well, albeit for a different reason than those on the left want. The GOP has lost its way and is essentially progressive lite - why would we want it to survive? Conservative ideas, on the other hand, are stronger than ever - Glenn explained on radio today.
"You know, yesterday we did a show on the GOP, last night at 5:00, and we opened it with, you know, the elephant is dead. And how the president and the left are all saying that the GOP is dead and it's because that they won't compromise. I firmly believe the exact opposite. The GOP is dead because that's all they did was compromise. And I don't mean compromise to get things done. I mean compromise their values, to the point I don't know what they stand for... except this: Winning elections. Which they haven't done," Glenn said.
"That's their value. That's their principle. And then everybody else is talking about if you compromise, you make the tent bigger."
"Well, since we're at the tent, let's talk about the tent for a second. What is the idea of a tent? Let's bring the ‑‑ let's make the tent bigger. Well, first of all, if there's nobody coming in the tent, you don't need a bigger tent. If everybody is trying to get out of the tent, who in their right mind would say, 'We need to build a bigger tent.' Who wants to come into your stupid tent? Everybody is clamoring to get out. You should make the exits bigger, the tent."
"But why does nobody want to be in the tent? Nobody wants to be in the tent because it's collapsing. Because there's nothing in the tent. And why is there nothing in the tent? Why is it collapsing? Why is the GOP collapsing? Because if you want to continue on the tent analogy, what holds a tent up? The stakes hold the tent up. You have to have a tent and it's all down on the ground. And before people can come into the tent, you have to take the ropes and pull the tent up and drive stakes into the ground and that holds the tent up."
"Can anyone name a GOP stake that they ‑‑ you think they actually mean? Because I can't."
"We were GOP guys because we voted for Ronald Reagan. We believed in Ronald Reagan. And then we ‑‑ then we took George H. W. Bush and we're like, "Okay, all right, well, let's just continue because the other guy is bad." And then we were like, Bob Dole, that's the best we can do is Bob frickin' Dole? I don't even know what ‑‑ all right. Well, he was a ‑‑ maybe he was a World War II guy. So maybe he sees the world like our grandparents used to see and so okay, we'll take him. And then I was against George W. Bush when he ran. I thought that was a huge mistake."
"I was not for George W. Bush. I became a George W. Bush supporter because of the 2000 election. And I'm like, he's the damn president; leave it alone," he continued. "And so the 2000 election happened and I became a rabid support George W. Bush because Al Gore is trying to steal it. And then as soon as 9/11 happened, I thought the guy turned into a ‑‑ I thought he was great. I thought he was really, really great, and I bought into that for a long time and so I overlooked things and I disengaged."
Glenn said he did not look into things like the PATRIOT Act, and he wrongly assumed that the people in Washington would give up some of the invasive policies they put in place after 9/11.
"I'm just not going to give them any benefit of the doubt anymore. No more power, no more compromise. Let's see a principle," he said. "Tell me one GOP stake that you think they mean besides winning. Tell me one principle you think they actually mean and would fight to the death."
"I believe there should be a new party. I believe the elephant is dead and should be dead and never resurrected. I believe the elephant is the Whig party. The GOP is the Whig party that Abraham Lincoln came in and restarted. And quite honestly, I think if Rand Paul now, today, started a new party, I believe it would have a chance of winning in four years. But it would have to really truly stand, and it could not be a Republican front."
When Glenn came back, he talked more about the need for a new party that stands for something and that it must ultimately take direction outside of Washington, DC.
"I think things have fundamentally changed. I think that most people in the TEA Party, we ‑‑ look. I have no problem being a Republican if the Republicans stand for something, but they don't stand for anything. And I think this last election was like, 'I don't know who these people are.' And now they get into office with John Boehner and everything else? I don't know who they are, and I don't care to look or try to listen and I don't want to know about their childhood and dry your sappy tears with a hanky, John. I get it. I cry tears too. Don't care. You are not ‑‑ you are not on my work, and you're certainly not on his work. So I don't know whose work you're doing. So I'm not interested."
Glenn told the story of how he was driving through the mountains when he was younger during a horrible snow, and his car started to fishtail. He opened the door and stuck one foot out so he could jump out if things got too out of control, but he kept the car on course and everything was fine. He said his feelings about the GOP are very similar to that feeling. The GOP is fishtailing, its getting out of control, and he's prepared to jump out if he needs too but still has a hand on the wheel in case he can get through it.
"Our pessimism, the side of the ‑‑ of what's coming, is darker than it's ever been. It seems to me at least that our options are getting brighter and darker at the same time."
Despite the possibility of darkness on the horizon, Glenn did say he is very optimistic about the future.
"It's why we're doing the Dream Labs. Because I believe in the future. It's why we're building the network. It's why we're about to announce some new programming on TheBlaze that no one else will give you. No one else will give you. Because they're cowards, or they're in the pocket of somebody else. We just have to stand together."
