It’s odd that more people are talking about a special election to the House of Representatives in upstate New York than are talking about the governors’ races in New Jersey and Virginia. I guess it is because the special election has become symbolic of the larger battle going on between Democrats and Republicans, and within the Republican Party itself. Even before the returns are in, we can see that there are winners and losers.
When the Republican candidate dropped out of the race and endorsed the Democrat, it was a victory for the Democrats on a par with the switch of Jim Jeffords and Arlen Specter, or the presidential endorsement of Colin Powell. It’s a signal that the battle for moderately conservative voters continues to be won by the Democrats. The outcome of the election won’t change that, although a victory by the Democrat would give it extra resonance.
For the teabaggers, they successfully flexed their muscles and put the few remaining moderate Republicans on notice that they need to worry more about primary challenges from the right than general election challenges from their left. In the battle to keep the GOP unified against President Obama, they’ve scored a big victory that will have even more resonance if the Conservative Party candidate pulls out a victory.
But most of the damage is done regardless of the eventual winner.
If hardcore progressives take over the democratic party and the limbaugh/palin crowd continues as they’ve been going, the progressives will clearly outnumber the wingnuts. It’s the corporate moderates in the middle who are screwing everything up.
you sound like a mirror image of the teabaggers. The country has moved slightly to the left recently, owing to both demographic changes and a really horrible Republican Congress and administration. But their core beliefs haven’t changed all that much. The Democrats have total control because moderately conservative people are voting for moderately conservative Democrats. Progressives can get more people to think progressively, but they can’t take over the party by enforcing party discipline and think they won’t suffer the same fate as Tom DeLay.
It’s true that these moderately conservative Democrats are the main obstacles to the kinds of changes we’re seeking, but they’re also the only reason we can even attempt them. Remember that.
Imagine what a health care bill would look like that needed five or ten Republican votes in the Senate.
But the real reason Delay and company went down was corruption and fact that they could not govern. If the policies of the left start helping people out, than we may well get a very different electoral outcome than the right got when they went all purity.
He didn’t say “conservative”, he said “corporate”. “Liberal” and “conservative” no longer have any definable meaning, as the long-awaited apparent sundering of the bizarre GOP mashup illustrates. Progressives can win by standing up the the “moderate” newbies and showing voters that a return to progressive tax rates, corporate smackdowns, and an expanded social safety net for real people make for a better country.
Our side has never lost because it did that. It has always lost because it failed to stand behind the progressive message. Can you think of any exceptions?
Even after running Hoffman to the right of her and getting what they wanted, the extremists sent considerable vitriol Scozzafava’s way . Given the treatment she received, her endorsement of Owens was hardly unwarranted or even unexpected.
At this point, I don’t know whether it’s best to have another Blue Dog in the House or another lunatic Republican, particularly one who is completely out of touch with the needs of his district. A Republican victory would keep the wingnuts on the march. A Democratic victory would probably do little to stop them. So, yes, I agree — the damage (to the Republicans and to the Republic) is done.
Unless the Republicans manage an about face at some point in time, they will walk into oblivion. Perhaps we’ll then see a challenge from the left that has as much or more heft than the Republicans can challenge on the right. The the Democrats will become the moderate-right-of-center party and the new challenger will take over as the moderate-left-of-center party. Complete speculation on my part. Will certainly be interesting to watch this drama continue to unfold though.
Well, the GOP was once the party of the left with the likes of Lincoln and T Roosevelt. Maybe history will repeat itself after the current party becomes irrelevant. Who knows?
What this election does confirm is that Sarah Palin is no moderate. Over the coming years, Palinites will try and sell her nationally as a moderate Conservative voice. A New York Baachman strongly endorsed by Palin at the expense of the official candidate, who just happened to be a woman, can forever be hung as a badge of shame on Palin.
Working against the official candidate in a close race. What a maverick.