| Overnight, ABC News announced results of a new poll indicating that the answer to the question "Would you vote for a Tea Party candidate?" has fallen from 30% in July to 18% now. I heard it on the 4 a.m. news, but cannot find a link on-line. I assume it will post later today. That's really HUGE: from 30% to 18%. Almost cut in half. Thank you Christine O'Donnell. I honestly believe that Americans were unaffected by all of the legitimate reasons to oppose the teabaggers - things like cutting Social Security and every other facet of the safety net, the birthers, the inconsistencies on taxes....but Christine a witch who wants to outlaw sex? The electorate is ON IT! [grin] This is a good thing: we've been talking since late winter 2009 about the fight for the soul of the Republican Party. While it might seem that sticking with the teabag contingent would help us, it's actually better for us if the least radical portion of the party prevails. They're still a bad choice, but it means that the "moderates" will think twice before signing on for pure insanity. It might even mean that some of them defect on issues that matter to their constituents. Here's an example. My Congressman is Jim Gerlach. He's a Republican. As Republicans go, he's a moderate, but votes with his party. And then in July, he voted to extend unemployment benefits, in direct opposition to the party line. From what I understand, he did so because of the sheer number of constituents who called his office and said "I'm unemployed. I'll lose my house if I don't get the extension." Will Gerlach win in November? Yeah, probably, and that's too bad. But I would rather have a Republican who will vote the will of his constituency than stick with a party line that has shifted to insanity. Imagine if the moderate Republicans were suddenly willing to actually consider the Democratic initiatives that would help their constituencies. I'm not talking about people like Rick Perry, Jim DeMint, Tom Coburn, etc., etc., who railed against the stimulus and then took all the dollars they could, but would have actually voted for it. (Or in the case of the governors, come out and said "hey, delegation, vote for it, our residents need it.") I'll be voting on 2 November, and I hope you will be, too. (PLEASE start making calls to the people you know and remind them that a vote for a Republican is a vote to repeal Social Security in 2011.) But certainly some Republicans will win in November: and I'd rather they be willing to defect from their party line than be those who would move the party line off the end of the flat earth they so believe in... |
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