‘The moderate Republican has been pushed aside for the extreme right wing’

August 8, 2006

Have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy stories like these? (via Intoxination)

[Oklahoma] Republican state Sen. Nancy Riley, complaining there is no room in her party for moderates, switched to the Democratic Party Thursday and threw a new obstacle at GOP hopes of taking control of the Senate for the first time in state history.

Riley, flanked by a half dozen Democratic Senate leaders, announced her change in party allegiance while criticizing Senate Republicans for what she said was their “lack of compassion for people” and for ignoring her and other political moderates.

“The moderate Republican has been pushed aside for the extreme right wing,” Riley said. Riley, a member of the Senate’s GOP leadership team who holds the title of minority whip, said she has received no support among Republicans in the state Senate…. “The moderate Republican no longer has a voice.”

This, of course, is an example regarding a state legislator, and some of the factors that led to the switch were driven by local issues.

But I suspect there are plenty of moderate Republicans who agree with Nancy Riley and lament what’s happened to the GOP. As long as these moderates stay with the party, Republican leaders will have no incentive to change direction.

I can only hope others follow in Riley’s footsteps. After all, it’s suddenly the cool thing to do.

August 8, 2006 at 9:16 am

I have 7 friends who consider themselves moderate Republicans and they each have re-rgistered as Democrats. The trend – hopefully – continues with the voters as well as the politicans. Guess it shows that history really does repeat itself…with this time it is the R’s joining the Democratic team.

Of course, it is amazing how much more national press there is for the meme some put on the Nomentum v Lamont race that “the left is purging the Democratic party of moderates.” So while this one Senator, who likely has the largest gap among Dems between his conservatism and that of his electorate (i.e. Nelson may be to the right of Joe, but Nebraska is to the right of Conn.) gets a challenge from the left, that amount to a huge “ideological purity test” even though no such challenge is raised against Clinton, Kerry, Bayh, etc. Yet when numerous moderate R’s feel forced out of their party, even in the reddest of red states, there is a fraction of the coverage, and hardly anyone (except the party-switchers themselves) calls it a right-wing purge or litmus test.

While I’m annoyed, I can’t say I’m surprised. And I’m not so annoyed by the coverage that I will deny myself the enjoyment of another moderate R comng to the side of the angels.

A part of me still urges caution regarding these “ideological conversions”—the need to beware the wolf in sheep’s clothing—yet, as I commented yesterday in another post, there may well be room for a “conservative” faction within the Democratic that can also be an integral participant in The Cause.

One must simply wonder, however, at the insanity fomenting inside the GOP. By isolating their moderate faction—and all the voters who go with it—are we seeing the “birth-pains” of a dominionist-like Theocratic Party in the United States? The People cannot sit idly by, and allow the intimidation tactics of the Taliban to gain a foothold on American soil….

The Republicans lost their WHIP?

That is too funny.

Steve is right to be cautious. After all, it was a Repub turned Dem who created the butterfly ballot in Florida that cost America the Gore/Lieberman Presidency and gave us Boy George II/Darth Cheney instead. And she’s right back to being a Repub again.

As Zietgeist points out, this compares interestingly to Lamont/Lieberman. Of course, in Connecticut, it’s the Democratic Primary voters turning out a politican who doesn’t represent them, rather than a politican leaving a party that doesn’t want her representation.

But I’ll stick to my previous assertion, the problem with Joe is not that he supported the war, still supports the war, and embraces Boy George II. The PROBLEM with JOE is his disdain of anyone who would get America out of Iraq before Joe decides it’s time. Apparantly, Ned Lamont and the voters of Connecticut aren’t as ‘smart’ as old Joe, and just don’t really know when it’s time to get out. So of course we should trust Joe, who for some God-foresaken reason, trusts Boy George II and his Bushites. Can there be any clearer proof of Joe’s unfitness to represent?

Actually, there’s a good reason for a “conservative” faction in the Democratic Party right now, during the implosion of the NSDAP, er, I mean the Republican Party. There has to be somewhere for actual “conservatives” to be heard. It’s as important for there to be real conservatives out there as it is for there to be real liberals – each keeps the other from “going over the cliff” so long as each are overall dedicated truly to the welfare of the country. There’s no room left for real conservatives in the NSGOP, so welcome them here. Right now, we have a bunch of fascists to run out of town. Once order is restored, we can let politics go back to a natural evolvement, but right now, it’s the fascist and the antifascist parties.

Seems to me there are plenty of moderate conservatives who could come over the left, and with great benefit.

They can help bring the true conservative philosophies of smaller government, controlled spending, and even the “strong national defense” brand too often hijacked by the right (I’d continue on that point, but that’s for a different post).

As long as they check that “culture wars” crap and pro-big-business bullshit at the door, I see this as a good thing in the long run. We’re going to need all the help we can get to fix what the NeoCons have done to our country.

UM, there needs to be a bit of room at the table for the culture-war freaks, and for the big-business goofs. Not a whole lot of room, mind you—and they certainly cannot be allowed to act as if they own the table (so, let’s keep Bill O’Lie-a-lot away from the table. Actually, do not let that man into the room…or the building—oh, hell—just ship his fat butt to Gitmo, and leave him there).

The point is that the only true solution to the culture wars is to engage all sides in open discussion.

As for big business, they can sustain a general rollback in their tax-cuts. Just replace the freebies with “incentives.” Company A gets this cut in exchange for heavy investment in R&D; Company B gets that cut for expanding their domestic industrial output; Company C gets such-n-such for subsidizing the cost of green-energy alternatives in an urban area…stuff like that. No more “buffet-table, all-you-can-eat” tax cuts….

Paging Lincoln Chafee…

Steve–
Outstanding points. Although, it seems to me that those who are in favor of the culture wars don’t want an “open discussion” — they want a world where the only choice is the one they choose for you.

The business incentives are a great idea. Too bad too many politicians would rather see blanket handouts than performance-based rewards.

…and the Democratic party shifts further right. Soon there won’t be room left in the big tent for people on the left: people who support equal marriage, available birth control, women’s reproductive rights, universal health care, government without religion, valid justification for military action, corporate responsibility, etc.

Here’s a flip-side to party switching. In 1958-9 I briefly left the party I grew up in (parents were both New Deal Democrats who had actually worked in Congress 1934-8). I joined the Republicans because it seemed to me that the only thing San Francisco Democrats wanted, in those days, was to keep Blacks out of the Irish Catholic Mission District and the lower Middle Class Haight-Ashbury (on the edge of the all-Black Fillmore District). Under those conditions, “the party of Lincoln” appealed to me (as did the GOP’s interest in conservation (ecology) and international relations). Before I was old enough to vote I ran a Republican campaign for the State Assembly against a 16-years Irish Catholic incumbent (we lost, we’re told, because our posters weren’t “black enough”); the incumbent was tossed out two years later in the first successful campaign by Democrat Willie Brown.

The illusion that the GOP cared more than bigotry was short-lived. JFK on the national scene and the Burton machine in San Francisco changed the playing field for me and brought me back to the Democratic Party. Though I’ve never been tempted to go back to the GOP, I pretty much lost interest in the Dems when MLK and RFK were assassinated. I still voted Democratic, but my heart hasn’t been in it since 1968. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be a “moderate” in today’s GOP.

It has happened in Washington State also. A moderate republican house member has switched parties and is running for the state senate. I wonder how many states we can count where this has actually happened?

Moses, the table is for open-discussion folks only. Those who foment singleminded blindness must, obviously, be excluded—hence my “Shill Bill” comment. And to get the incentive-thing rolling, just bring in a few corporate types—and pull the ol’ “end-run” on the politicians….

Steve–
So … when ya running for office? Ya got my vote!!

🙂

(I say that only half joking. It’d be nice to see some intelligent people in public office for a change.)

Turning Red-state America into Blue-state America is a load of crap. A moderate Republican does not equal a Democrat. Our two party system doesn’t leave room for moderates period. America would work better if there were more moderate voices in our government. We should retire the first-past-the-pole voting system and put it in a museum.

Only a fool would say that the solution to our problems lies in changing parties.

Comments are closed.