Paying the piper as things fall apart...

Beginning in the 1970s, the formerly reasonable Republican Party was undermined by several cliques of extremists, in what is probably the most successful implementation of Lenin's tactics of internal subversion in modern history. There were two such extremist groups; the first are the socalled neo-cons with their fever dreams of viceregal thrones in the East, of remaking the Pax Britannica in American terms. They got what they wanted with the American invasion of Iraq, and not satisfied with wrecking that country, and ours, are currently seeking to cast wider the nets of their failure by toppling the regime in Teheran.

The second group is a bit more amorphous, and consists of a noxious amalgam of christian fundamentalists - as represented by the "Christian Coalition of America" - with the survivalist, extremist fringe of the Goldwater variety.

The problem for the party is this: for a very long time, the radical constituencies were satisfied with being fobbed off with legislative rain checks while the actual agenda, dictated by the corporate paymasters, passed. Thus, we got the most inequitable tax policies since the Gilded Age, eviscerated environmental laws, and a smorgasbord of direct subsidies to favored companies, along with some trinkets like a radical judge here, a stem-cell research ban there.

In 2004, however, they won an election with the express support of the faith-based fringe; and now, the piper wants to be paid. The Dobsons and other theocrats are no longer content with being told to wait - they want their theocracy, and they want it now. The NRA fringe wants real action on illegal immigration - witness the image above.

The problem - of which the corrupt Bush junta is fully aware - is this: if the previously convenient fringe gets its way, the charade of moderation - as evidenced by deceptively named legislation like 'Clear Skies', 'Healthy Forests', and the 'Patriot Act' - will fall apart. There is no majority in America for the wet dreams of a Dobson or Falwell, however - never has been, never will be.

And so it goes. If Bush pays the price being demanded - by the opponents of the laughable Harriet Miers, for example - he will find it requires very heavy coin. If he refuses, he will watch in impotent dismay as his coalition crumbles from the right - but if he accedes, the crumbling will come from the political center.

To quote Churchill, this is not yet the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning. The extremist ascendancy is collapsing before our eyes, brought low by its own hubris and lies.