What makes you a democrat? What makes you a republican?
I've always been struck by how our political process has evolved over time. Seriously, in my mind, why can't the Rotary Club sponsor candidates for office? Why not Greenpeace? How about the Chamber of Commerce? or PETA?. Each organization has a set of guiding principles that makes them different from your average bowling league.
The point is........ what the hell makes you a republican in this country? Because according to Karl Rove et al., what makes you a republican is simply the ability to be elected as one......... nothing more. There's no shared values or mores. So if you are a small government type who has no chance of being elected, Rove would like to have you expelled from the party. According to Karl Rove, Christine O'Donnell did the heinous thing of beating the electable (sort of ironic isn't it?). It was like bringing in a steak dinner to a PETA meeting.
I've have been downright sickened by the response of the GOP establishment towards elected anti establishment candidates.
Let me ask this question to the republicans...... if Mike Castle is elected we get.........? What?
A majority? What exactly will that majority do? Especially with the likes of Lindsay Grahamnesty, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, etc. as part of that majority.
Remember, these are the same republicans who cleared the way for the democratic trouncing led by one Barack Obama by bringing us the billion dollar Bridges To No Where.
Instead of Karl Rove and the likes criticizing the electorate, maybe they ought to be listening to what the voters are saying. We're no longer willing to put up with politicians, of any party, who's only governing principle is to go along to get along.
This GOP response to Christine O'Donnell illustrates the arrogance of power that continues to permeate the party structure across the country.
Look, the republican party let's anyone in who wants in. Maybe anyone wanting to be a republican should go through a screening process before being admitted into the party but that's not how it works.
Or maybe the republicans should work to elect the people other republicans want as their leader.
What a foreign concept to the anointed.
3 comments:
Democrats = Socialists
Republicans = Liberals
Libertarians = Conservatives
The reason the tea party has people winning Republican primaries is because they know they have to get on the ticket with an R/D next their name to stand a chance. Hopefully the tea partiers keep making a splash and Ron Paul gets the Republican nomination in 2012. Libertarians finally are getting Republicans they can throw their support behind without feeling like they are picking the lesser of two evils.
When republicans nominate left of center candidates, they tell you that it's necessary in order to win majorities in the houses. However we do this at our own peril because it shifts the 'middle' of the entire debate leftward. Another way of saying this is that we win the battle but lose the war.
The republicans have allowed media to espouse republican nominees for years. The NYT endorsed McCain for the 2008 republican primaries! All that does is allow the democrat more room to move left.
Forty years of this has resulted in us electing a republican president, Bush, who was to the left of JFK in every way, and a snoozing nominee in McCain, that allowed a freaking communist to get elected without a challenge.
We need to nominate strong conservatives, even in heavy blue districts. We might win some, but even if we lose the debate will start shifting right and the left wingnut votes in congress will no longer have Rs stamped on them. We need clarity back!
To the republican party: It comes down to this. Do we want to nominate a carbon copy of the democrat nominee simply to get an R in the seat. Or do we want to nominate someone that will challenge and debate the D?
If you are so pissed that a supposedly weak T party nutjob took out your hand picked southpaw, maybe you need to rethink your strategy of installing democrats with R labels.
Even if Christine O'donnell loses the general election, the people have won because we have demonstrated that we will not just gobble up any bowl of rotten gruel the republican party shoves in front of them.
When I debate democrats on the merits of fiscal responsibility, almost every freaking time I'm reminded that I didn't have a problem with irresponsible spending when the republicans controlled congress. I did have a problem with it. But we were stick with crappy republicans. Republicans were like the car salesman that goes back to talk to his manager (congress) and comes back with an obscene price for a camry and saying "Hey I really went to bat for you but sorry. He could only cone down to $40k.". I learned the hard way that the best thing to do in that situation is walk.
The T party has taken a stand. Tuesday they basically walked.
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