It’s a sad commentary on the state of the Republican Party/”conservative” movement that its two most visible spokesmen are Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney.  Democrats could not have dreamed a better scenario.

The tragedy is that this country needs a thoughtful, serious opposition party willing to engage and challenge the Obama Administration in a manner that does not involve search-and-destroy tactics.  I may enjoy watching Republicans go down in flames, but that’s not the same thing as genuine debate in a democracy.

There are a few serious conservative thinkers out there — David Brooks, David Frum, Ross Douthat, the guys at The American Scene (especially Reihan Salam) — who are trying to move the conservative movement in the right direction.  But they’re largely voices in the wilderness, derided as elitists and ignored by the vast majority of those who mistake their views as the same thing as conservativism.

There also are serious politicians on the right who could play this role — Mike Huckabee and Bobby Jindal (despite their troglodytic social views and Jindal’s disastrous performance post-SOTU); Jon Huntsman; perhaps Charlie Crist and Arnold Schwartzenegger (though most conservatives disown the last two and aren’t so sure about the first).

Right now, though, it’s slash, burn, attack, hate.  To paraphrase Dean Wormer in Animal House, loud, dumb, and stupid is no way to go through life, folks.

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