(no subject)

[ksmith]

Given the conclusions of this blog post and others like it:

So what’s next for the GOP? I don’t think that Obama hate will win the party any more traction than it gave McCain. They need a positive agenda, unfortunately their platform was already on the wrong side of history when Gingrich etched it in granite in 1994. The recent add-ons – torture, belligerent wars, islamophobic fear – already had a skin of mold when Dick Cheney rolled them out in 2001. If John McCain, who honestly isn’t as stupid as his campaign has made him look, had any winning issues he would run on them. It’s not like he has not tried. They are stuck with random, flaining personal attacks because the surge in Iraq, offshore drilling, the capital gains tax, an unlicensed plumber with a tax lien, have all the traction of a Yugo in Alaska.


What's next? A retooling of the GOP, or the formation of a third party which would contain moderate/left Republicans (I know they're out there--I know some) and Blue Dog-variety Dems? I can see that as being an attractive alternative for many people.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Except my Dem congressperson is a DINO. Melissa Bean is a Blue Dog, and she may as well be a Republican given much of her voting record. They don't call them "Bush Dogs" for nothing. (And I have erred--a Bush Dog is a subset of the Blue Dog group, more inclined to vote with Bush than the conservative pack as a whole).

She was up for re-election this year. I left that vote blank.

Interestingly enough, there's a post on Firedoglake about the battle that may be brewing between the Blue Dog coalition and the more liberal wing of the Democratic party. The Blue Dog contingent is likely to increase in number. Assuming an Obama win, they will be large enough to throw significant roadblocks in the way of some of some of his proposed reforms, and therein hangs the tale:

That's what happened after Bill Clinton won the White House, and the resulting intramural spats derailed enough Democratic priorities to help usher in the so-called Republican revolution that cost the party control of Congress in 1994.

Is the GOP in its current state strong enough to pull off something of this nature? Not without help. Would the Blue Dogs throw in with them to derail Democratic proposals? I wouldn't put it past some of them, especially ones like Bean who represent predominantly Republican, or at least conservative, districts.

Winning majority seats in the House and Senate will not be enough. I don't know if you saw Rachel Maddow's interview with Obama last night, but they did discuss how, while he hammers McCain/Palin, he seems to avoid hammeing the Republican party and conservatism as a whole (in contrast to the Republicans, who trip over themselves to equate Democratic with Teh Evil). One conclusion is that he's thinking ahead about whom he may need to work with, and kicking their beliefs in the philosophical balls may not be the thing to do if he wants to build bipartisan consensus.

If Obama gets in, he likely won't make changes quickly enough or to the degree that more liberal Dems would want to see. Then he can start pissing off both extremes of his party.

It's an uphill fight for him. Both ways. With dragons.

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

Fifteen years ago, I have no doubt that Bean would have been a Republican. She’s not all that different from the former Republican governors of our state like Thompson and Edgar. She’s exactly the kind of politician pushed out of the modern GOP. There’s no longer a place under their tent for socially moderate conservatives.

That’s exactly why they’re losing the suburban vote. The Christian Conservative messages don’t play well with the educated. They need to bring these politicians back into the party if they want to regain Washington.

As for factions of the Democratic Congress fighting Obama, I think that’s a certainty. All we have to do is look at the Blago/Madigan war that froze Illinois.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

As for factions of the Democratic Congress fighting Obama, I think that’s a certainty. All we have to do is look at the Blago/Madigan war that froze Illinois.

That's exactly what Paul Greene said on WGN-9 this morning. (Yes, I still watch it--I wanted to see the weather and I hate Hate HATE having to wade through Today-style morning shows in order to do so).

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Fifteen years ago, I have no doubt that Bean would have been a Republican.

Which explains why, when she ran for her first term, the woman handing out flyers at the local supermarket hemmed and hawed when I asked whether Bean was a Dem. "She's running more as an Independent." That should've been a giveaway right there, but at the time it was between her and Phil Crane and she had no record to examine.

Her current ads highlight her fights to expand healthcare to children. But I'm also hearing balanced budget talk, which may indicate how she will vote if a major govt-funded infrastructure improvement project is floated.

OTOOH, her base live in the Barringtons, and they're experiencing foreclosures, too...

[dancinghorse.livejournal.com]

Obama being from Illinois, I'm sure he's had exactly the same thoughts. He'll do what he can. It's all we can expect, considering that the overall state of the country borders on FUBAR.

I would like to see a moderate party on the right. And a moderate party on the left, too. Many Dems are actually center-right. "Left" is a whole lot more like center these days.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Center-right has been pushed further left thanks to the Christianist/neocon far rights. Anything to the left of them is pinko-commie-bedwetter, with no allowances for degree. And that all or nothing approach has made for some strange bedfellows on the "left" side of the Force.

Add the pressure that will come from the MSM, who will likely give him Clintonesque treatment...I think anything better than a one-term disaster could be considered a win.