GOP self-destruction
Ian Bridgeforth
Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: Opinion
It's been a little over a year since the Republican Party suffered its painful electoral defeat last November. Around this time last year, members of the GOP were desperate to try to see how they could move forward from their dismal position with voters around the country. There were some that even said the party is on its way to nonexistence. And while there has been progress with the party in states like New Jersey and Virginia, Republicans are still having malicious friendly fire sessions that will ultimately make their party worse off than it already is.
There has always been a simmering of tensions between moderate GOP members and the more extreme wing of their party. But it didn't seem to really come to boil until New York's 23rd Congressional District special election came into play. Eleven Republican country chairs chose GOP moderate Dede Scozzafava to run for the special election. All of a sudden, high profile party players such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty pounced on the moderate Republican nominated to run and, in essence, told her she wasn't good enough to run just because she didn't step exactly in line with what they thought a Republican was "supposed" to be. And because of their squabbling, the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, won the congressional seat that hasn't been held by a Democrat in over 100 years.
The GOP is about to do the same thing in other races across the country. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is facing heat from his own party now that he's running for a Senate seat. A wave of conservative groups and politicians are descending on Crist because they see him as moderate on some of his policies, as well as for his support of President Barack Obama's stimulus package. Quoted in The New York Times, Sen. Jim Demint, R-S.C., said, "What's going to happen, the voters are going to weed out these Republicans who no longer share the core principles that make our country great."
There has always been a simmering of tensions between moderate GOP members and the more extreme wing of their party. But it didn't seem to really come to boil until New York's 23rd Congressional District special election came into play. Eleven Republican country chairs chose GOP moderate Dede Scozzafava to run for the special election. All of a sudden, high profile party players such as former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty pounced on the moderate Republican nominated to run and, in essence, told her she wasn't good enough to run just because she didn't step exactly in line with what they thought a Republican was "supposed" to be. And because of their squabbling, the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, won the congressional seat that hasn't been held by a Democrat in over 100 years.
The GOP is about to do the same thing in other races across the country. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is facing heat from his own party now that he's running for a Senate seat. A wave of conservative groups and politicians are descending on Crist because they see him as moderate on some of his policies, as well as for his support of President Barack Obama's stimulus package. Quoted in The New York Times, Sen. Jim Demint, R-S.C., said, "What's going to happen, the voters are going to weed out these Republicans who no longer share the core principles that make our country great."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
David C.
posted 11/19/09 @ 6:59 PM EST
Ian -
Take your head out of your behind -
2010 will be like 1994 - when you were still in grade school - the independents and centrist Dems will NOT support this administration's LEFT ideals and those votes will come back to take away Pelosi's power and Reid will be looking from the outside in when he is voted OUT of office in his district - to name a few -
mtnpotter
MtnPotter
posted 11/19/09 @ 7:11 PM EST
Just let me know when you graduate that you have a job in the private sector (not a govt. job) that your president has assured you of getting because of his "promises". (Continued…)
Post a Comment