Four years ago, when the Democrats won the majority in the Congressional election I observed that the "moderate" Northeastern wing of the GOP had died. With only a handful of Republicans left in the Northeast after that election, the party the I had know, belonged to, and loved was gone. It had been taken over by a hyper-Christian wing emanating from the South and West.
Tonight, with the defeats of "moderate Republicans" like Mike Castle in Delaware and Rick Lazio in New York (and possibly Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire) I think my point has been made, and then some. Even in congressional races, like NY-23 and my district, NY-20, the Republican candidates have to go so far to the right that they risk turning off the moderate and independent voters in what would normally be safe seats for the GOP (albeit for "moderate" Republicans).
Don't get me wrong, the Democrats are in bad shape this Fall. There is a really good chance that control of the House with switch and the Senate is (or was, before tonight) within the GOPs reach as well. Add to that the likelihood that come January there will be 30 GOP governors and you have a Republican party that is on the accent. But is it a sustainable one?
American political parties cannot win without the middle. Putting aside all the rhetoric about Obama being a socialist or Bush being a right wing extremest, both ran on mostly moderate platforms and won in the middle. By contrast, many of the current GOP candidates are at best extreme and at worst, totally nuts. And it will cost them elections this year and for years to come if they keep moving in this direction.
Just take issues like immigration, same sex marriage and the environment. These topics will continue to dominate the political landscape for one or two more generations and the GOP holds hard line opposition to reform on all of them. They do so while ignoring (or rejecting) demographic and cultural shifts that are obvious to the rest of us, all to keep the hard line wing of their party motivated to vote in primary elections. It feels like a zero sum game to me.
We seem to have lost sight of reason in the last few years. We have lost sight of logic. Our political dialog and culture are being influenced by fringe elements and radical, inflammatory characters (see Palin, Sarah) who wonder out loud where their country has gone. I agree with them on that point: I'd like to know where my country as gone as well. The difference is I see them as the problem, not the solution.
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