“Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.”
~Jean Luc Picard
It's old news already, but I want to congratulate Tea Party candidate Christine O'Donnell on her victory in the Republican primary in Delaware. I couldn’t be happier. Likewise, I’d like to congratulate Democrat Chris Coons on his pending victory in the General Election as Delaware's next junior Senator. I couldn’t be happier.
Now I wrote about this awhile ago, but I think the Blogging Ceaser, over at the Conservative Election Project said it best in his post lamenting the then pending loss of 'RINO' Candidate Mike Castle. Ceasar gets it. I get it. Christine O'Donnell and the Tea Party? They don’t have a clue. When otherwise easy seats in Delaware and other places that end up staying Democratic and end up costing the Republicans House and Senate majorities that they would have otherwise won back one of two things is going to happen:
1) The Republicans will finally oust the Tea Baggers and come back to more moderate, Center-Right positions and rhetoric. (And the Tea Baggers will be relegated to the 1%’er, third-party, also-ran status that so many other completely insignificant parties “enjoy.”)
2)The Right will double down, the Tea Baggers will take over the Right completely and the moderates in the GOP will continue to flock to the Democrats. This may pull the Dem’s farther to the Right, but the destruction (or relegation to permanent minority status) of the Republican party finally creates a real opportunity for the Liberal Wing to become more prominent or for Liberals to have a little Tea Party of our own.
Either way? It will good for the COUNTRY. And I couldn’t be happier.
I'm more of a centrist, so I wouldn't mind if the Democrats park near the center. And maybe it will show the conservatives to be the whack-jobs they're becoming.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't mind the Democrats being at the Center, if it meant that there was a healthy liberal wing that got taken seriously and had a seat at the table. As it is - and this depends on your POV, but I agree with the ClassicLiberals of the world on this - for the Democrats to move closer to the Center, they'd have to move to the LEFT. That might seem like an extreme statement at first, but consider not only the pandering they've done to the Right, but also the amount of Corporate influence in the Party right now - Banks, Insurance Companies, etc... That's mhy the whole "marxist" and "sociaist" claims are so stupid: It would be more accurate to say that they're no better than the Republicans. Now I DON'T believe THAT, but... It's still closer to the truth.
ReplyDeleteThe only way that we can maintain a 2 party government (and I don't see a way for a 3rd party or multiple parties to get seats at the table) is for both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party to be big tents. That means that one party on the left holds both conservative and liberal Democrats.
ReplyDeleteBut on the right side of the aisle, the moderate Republicans, pragmatic politicians whose sole goal was to have a Republican majority, used a short-term strategy that they thought would also help them with their long-term goals of a permanent Republican majority.
But there was a fatal flaw in that plan. They've been using and abusing the far right in the party, driving them to the polls with dishonest stances on gov't spending and growth, for example, and disingenuous stances on other issues, like abortion or gay rights!
And those on the far right are now leading a coup due to the hard feelings.
And there are three possible results I see. Either they win the battle, and the Republican Party becomes a fringe group, with the Democrats being a permanent majority. Or, they lose the civil war, and the moderates regain control, and the far right gets really P.O.'ed and basically gives up on the Republican Party, and again the Party suffers. Or they find some compromise that still entails incredible dissention within the ranks and massive confusion over exactly what the party stands for.
Their deal with the devil, using those social conservatives to be dogmatic on fiscal issues while really abusing that trust and spending us into oblivion, and using fiscal conservatives while actually abusing their cohorts feelings on abortion and gay rights? It's coming back to bite them in the butts, and it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of buttholes.
Eddie, you make an EXCELLENT point in your comment regarding special BUSINESS interests buying influence in the Democratic party, disproving the whole Marxist/socialist cries from the right. So when I steal the line, if someone then steals it from me, they're stealing it twice.
ReplyDelete@Dolly - I absolutely agrre with you. I DO wonder if there aren't enough truly stupid people in American that the religious right and the uber-rich can't cobble together enough of a coalition to still win occasionally. But yeah, I think you're right. It WAS a deal with the devil. And at the time they chose what was easy instead of what was right.
ReplyDelete@Sammy - Anytime bro. Just be careful, because it also gives ammo to the whole "Democrats aren't much better" argument. Of course... choosing between disappointment and digust is no choice at all. I'll ethusiastically choose disappointment every time. ;)
Thanks for your comments.