See other (s)Elections Articles
Title: Republican Party is slipping into irrelevance as Sen. Arlen Specter and voters bail
Source:
NJVoices
URL Source: http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_pa ... lican_party_is_slipping_i.html
Published: Apr 30, 2009
Author: The Star-Ledger Editorial Board
Post Date: 2009-04-30 07:54:43 by HAPPY2BME-4UM
Keywords: SPECTER, GOV, IRRELEVANT, CRISIS
Views: 503
Comments: 48
Sen. Arlen Specter recently announced he is switching from the Republican to the Democratic party. Back in the Reagan era, the Republican Party advertised itself as a "big tent," a collection of conservatives, independents, recovering liberals, even Reagan Democrats. Today, by comparison, it's little more than a pup tent. Much is made of the Grand Old Party's latest evidence of shrinkage -- Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter's defection to the Democrats. Too little is made of the fact that in Obama's Washington the GOP is increasingly irrelevant at a time of great crisis when a vibrant opposition voice is vital. It's not good for the country. One-party dominance has too often been a recipe for recklessness. The most alarming aspect of the GOP's steep decline is the seeming indifference of its elected leadership and its Greek chorus in the right-wing media. "Good riddance!" was the response of many to Specter's departure. Rush Limbaugh, Grand Poobah of conservative TV cacklers, even suggested Specter take Sen. John McCain out the door with him. A look at the map suggests this is not a party that can afford to lose anyone, even Sarah Palin. Recent elections have left it representing a bit of the farm belt and little more than the Old Confederacy; even there, it lost three of the Old South's four biggest states last year, Florida, Virginia and North Carolina. Republicans are an endangered species all along the West Coast and have suffered grievous losses in the Midwest and the Middle Atlantic states and even in parts of their Rocky Mountain stronghold. In New England they're beyond endangered; they're all but extinct. There's no mystery why Republicans, like Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat, are slowly disappearing, grinning as they do. It's their quest for ultra-conservative ideological conformity. As Specter put it: "They don't make any bones about their willingness to lose the general election if they can purify the party." He cited the purging of popular GOP moderates in party primaries in Rhode Island and New Mexico that led to Senate general election defeats. The party lacks the two things normally deemed essential to political success: nimble, attractive leaders and a message right for the times. Its Congressional leaders, Sen. Mitch McConnell and Rep. John Boehner, have all the appeal of a pair of androids. The party chairman, Michael Steele, is working toward a black belt in malapropisms. And what damage Limbaugh doesn't do to the party image, Dick Cheney does. As toxic assets, they're a match for any held by Wall Street's most busted banks. But it's on the vital subject of message that the GOP is most clearly bankrupt. Its all-purpose cure for everything that ails the country is tax cuts and/or reduced government spending. That won't do; it might if times were good, but not now, with the economy on dead stop and needing a jolt. Moreover, the public is wise to the GOP's blanket opposition to the Obama program. A CBS News-NY Times poll reports that 70 percent of those surveyed believe the opposition is motivated primarily by politics, not principle. In time, GOP fortunes will rebound. But not without new leadership, new ideas, and a new welcome for viewpoints other than those of Rush Limbaugh. South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham put it must pithily. "We have to find places in the party," he said, "for people who couldn't win in South Carolina."
Republican Party is slipping into irrelevance as Sen. Arlen Specter and voters bail
Posted by kheyboer April 30, 2009 05:33AM
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
#3. To: HAPPY2BME-4UM (#0)
pay attention to the word 'irrelevancy' all the major societal institutions are now irrelevant. political parties, media, banking, religion, etc. all no longer serve the purpose they were created for, none of them function in the environment, if you want an evolutionary angle to it. they are all dying, this is good.
#7. To: gengis gandhi, James Deffenbach, flintlock, (#3)
. ARLAN SPECTER'S DOT.GOV web site still labels him as a "Republican." He has been one IN NAME ONLY for THIRTY-NINE YEARS. His defection proves that neither political party is capable of governing. Elected in 1980, he is currently the 12th-most senior member of the U.S. Senate and the fifth oldest Senator. Why would he want to suddenly abandon 39 years of toil and labor and then declare those affiliations are not working in the best interest of America? Focusing in on his deeds and actions in that capacity, and what he has stood for and done for defending the United States Constitution against enemies, foreign and domestic is telling. Not just on him, but really what the GOP and the entire United States Government has become. Namely: IRRELEVANT. If the Arlan Specters of the Senate and the Congress and the White House and the United States Supreme Court cared one tinker's damn about the people of this nation, do you think they would have stood idly by and allowed the erosion of it's protective border and the dilution of the American Culture and History into something Americans who were born and have lived here for eight and nine decades now no longer even recognize as their own? I think not. Arlan Specter really personifies the agenda of this entire government, which has ceased to become a Republic and has managed to twist our Constitutional rights around the pole of situational ethics, liberal perverse morality, and above all - GREED. Greed for power at the expense of you and me, and for their own benefit. Have our rights eroded in the past ten years to the point none of us knows if we will wake up tomorrow morning greeted by either local police or our own sons and daughters wearing United Nations uniforms coming into our homes and searching us like common criminals because we dare to speak out against this oligarchic oppressive land THEY have created AGAINST our constant demands for them to reform and turn back to the founding principles of The Declaration of Independence? Instead, the Arlan Specters of today do just they opposite. They castigate and demonize anyone questioning by WHOSE AUTHORITY do they think they can outsource our national wealth to hostile nations, invade other countries and declare and execute multiple wars NOT in the interest of Americans, and allow the invasion and OCCUPATION of our land by a population of over TWENTY MILLION illegal aliens who are still LOYAL to Mexico? These people are not patriots, but instruments of a conglomerate of foreign powers who have infiltrated our very own system of governance to the point it is no longer OWNED, nor does it represent the very people they have sworn to defend - thee and me. Are our taxes fair? Are our taxes used to promote good law and order and health and protection for our families and us? Or are they spent on wars, corrupt lobbyists, and citizens of a foreign nation, or even open, willful corruption? Are our roads getting better? Our schools? Our hospitals and health care? Is corruption and graft rampant throughout the entire political spectrum: National, State, and Local Government ? Are our borders secure? Our economy should be the strongest in the history of the world, yet it remains intact by some mysterious thing called "The Fed" which nobody understands and nobody will admit is just a bunch of thugs themselves, lording their version of what they think will bring prosperity to the nation. But what they do is favor foreign economies, systems, and conglomerates over the best interests of America and stand in front of Congressional hearings swearing they are doing everything humanly possible to avoid another depression. Yet, the money decisions they make are always behind closed doors, always out of the public eye, and always in the interests of someone other than the average American. Do we trust our government to protect us and defend us against enemies, foreign and domestic? We all know the answers to these questions. It is simple. There is no mystery here.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Replies to Comment # 3.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 3.