In Virginia… Virginia! The Republicans recently oustered the state party chairman after the state went blue for President Obama. So now apparently some are talking up George “Macaca” Allen as a replacement.
Seriously?
Look, I’m a Democrat who wants to see Democrats win, but as the Republicans of the last decade show us if you aren’t challenged you can turn rotten really quickly. I don’t want the Republicans to actually win anything for at least the remainder of my lifetime, but don’t go Washington Generals on us now.
No mailbox is safe
Hmm. I have to grudingly admit that having a competent Republican party would at the very least keep the Dems a bit sharper and less complacent. But you don’t let the kids sit at the adults’ table. The _only_ suggestion they had for ending the very Recession they created was to cut taxes for George Soros. That’s it.
The current GOP is so far down the rabbit hole that I think we’ll see a third party of disgruntled fiscal conservatives (former Rockefeller Republican types) before we’ll see any substantive attempt by the GOP to actually try and win elections outside of the deep south.
It’s embarrassing for everyone to see them scrape the bottom of the barrel re: “Macaca” Allen. But this is a party that in addition to having no shame, has no decent new blood.
Newt’s already talking about the third party challenge in 2012. That would be awesome. The GOP would have to decide if they wanted to be a national party and return to the reality based world, or if they want to continue the path they are going and march off to irrelevance, taking J.G.Thayer, Dennis, etc. with them.
I guess a lot of that depends on what this third party is. Newt seems to think it would be more pro-business (if you can imagine) but less to do with social issues (yeah!).
I say, “Good luck. And I mean it.”
The problem the GOP has is that everyone who isn’t nuts or a racist has left it. This leads to a real lack of people to choose from for either running for office or managing the party.
See all of the presidential hopefuls, Michael Steel, Boehner etc.
It’s kind of the reverse problem that the Dems faced after the Dixiecrats defected. The Dems spent a lot of time losing afterwards but in the long run, I’d say we were glad the toxic presence of ignorant racists was gone, or at least marginalized to the point of irrelevance.
(Robert BYRD blah blah! There, I saved some of you five minutes of your day.)
The GOP decided to keep the poison and push out their principled conservatives. Hell, it put the poison in charge. And refusal to admit that maybe this was the wrong course of action is just going to pull them deeper and deeper into the abyss. I don’t remember hearing in my lifetime so many people who proudly, albeit a bit defensively, declare themselves a capital-L Libertarian.
Hey, Newt Gingrich, do you feel as strong as a bull moose?
Bonus pedant points for getting this reference without Googling.
It says a lot that people like Nelson Rockefeller and Dwight Eisenhower couldn’t get nominated to a national office in today’s GOP. Heck, Goldwater might be slurred as a ‘moderate’ by this point.
Virginia!
Your modern Republican party: So awesome.
SaveFarris: “Virginia!”
Democrats have a contested primary. Once that’s settled, the winner will get a boost.
Don’t think the Republicans have the lead here, as it is too close to call at this point.
Terry McAuliffe? For reals?