I laugh a lot when I read articles like today's Politico story, "Tea partyers turn on GOP leadership." It's such a predictable formula.
Unable to win a real battle, the tea partiers turn their sights towards mucking up the establishment party closest to them. So instead of focusing their efforts on vulnerable Democrats, they'll instead try in vain to sink the candidacy of Charlie Crist. Instead of focusing on Barbara Boxer, they focus instead on Carly Fiorina, the one person on the GOP side who might be able to defeat Boxer.
The conservatives of today are as politically clueless as the liberals of the 80's and 90's, who thought the answer to their party's waning fortunes was to purify the message and move left. Jimmy Carter lost the middle to Ronald Reagan in 1980, and the Democrats responded in the following two elections with a couple of lefty retreads, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. Then, in 1992, the Democrats turned back to a centrist governor from the south. End result? They won. Democrats in statehouses throughout America went through the same process in the mid-90's. Lose, move left, lose more, move right, pick up seats.
What the tea partiers can't bear to acknowledge is that on their own, the best they can ever aspire to is an existence akin to the Green Party. The Green Party is made up of people who are generally liberal and passionate, but whose individual interests are so fractured they collectively come off to the average Joe as a group of loosely-knit extremists. The tea parties are quickly becoming just that: a motley crew of ideologues, the G-20 protests without the violence.
Elections aren't won on the fringe. Almost to a letter, they're won in the middle. The key for the GOP in 2010 lies not in the teabaggers, but in finding a generally conservative message that appeals to disaffected voters in the middle of the electorate.
Those on the far right like to claim their delusional, inaccurate memories of Ronald Reagan as a blueprint for governance. The GOP needs to run the playbook that the real Ronald Reagan used: simple message, stay positive, win the middle.
Unable to win a real battle, the tea partiers turn their sights towards mucking up the establishment party closest to them. So instead of focusing their efforts on vulnerable Democrats, they'll instead try in vain to sink the candidacy of Charlie Crist. Instead of focusing on Barbara Boxer, they focus instead on Carly Fiorina, the one person on the GOP side who might be able to defeat Boxer.
The conservatives of today are as politically clueless as the liberals of the 80's and 90's, who thought the answer to their party's waning fortunes was to purify the message and move left. Jimmy Carter lost the middle to Ronald Reagan in 1980, and the Democrats responded in the following two elections with a couple of lefty retreads, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis. Then, in 1992, the Democrats turned back to a centrist governor from the south. End result? They won. Democrats in statehouses throughout America went through the same process in the mid-90's. Lose, move left, lose more, move right, pick up seats.
What the tea partiers can't bear to acknowledge is that on their own, the best they can ever aspire to is an existence akin to the Green Party. The Green Party is made up of people who are generally liberal and passionate, but whose individual interests are so fractured they collectively come off to the average Joe as a group of loosely-knit extremists. The tea parties are quickly becoming just that: a motley crew of ideologues, the G-20 protests without the violence.
Elections aren't won on the fringe. Almost to a letter, they're won in the middle. The key for the GOP in 2010 lies not in the teabaggers, but in finding a generally conservative message that appeals to disaffected voters in the middle of the electorate.
Those on the far right like to claim their delusional, inaccurate memories of Ronald Reagan as a blueprint for governance. The GOP needs to run the playbook that the real Ronald Reagan used: simple message, stay positive, win the middle.
7 comments:
Good points, except Carly Fiorina cannot beat Barbara Boxer - she is totally inept, and even the teabaggers are correct in rejecting her.
Trouble is those in the middle are the ones who can't be trusted to stop the spending and corruption.
The people have spoken.
Yeah, because conservatives have done such a fine job of running our country in an upstanding manner. Those pesky moderates like Denny Hastert and Tom DeLay and Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey...
Anon 8:42,
What Recess said, plus it's always the hardcore partisan idiots who go out of their way to protect corrupt and incompetent cohorts so they don't lose face politically.
We in the center could find a million ways to cut spending. You on the fringes have your special interests you need to please.
The key for the GOP in 2010 lies not in the teabaggers, but in finding a generally conservative message that appeals to disaffected voters in the middle of the electorate.
The only problem I have with that statement is figuring out where the lines overlap. At least rhetorically, the tea party movement started from the disaffected taxpayers, at least some of which come from the electoral middle. To me, what made the movement interesting was that it served as a political activation for a body of the electorate which generally refuses to assemble with the manner and frequency that we're used to seeing from the American left.
Certainly, that center of the movement has been grabbed by the coattails by the likes of birthers and instrumentalists (both political and economic), and there's a struggle to produce a consistent voice. (Would having a Ralph Nader -type spokesperson really help create a distinct, 3rd party message? Probably.)
I think any successful, swing-district Republican candidate in 2010 is going to need a message which at least extends an olive branch to the tea party movement, but does so in a way that goes beyond them and towards the political center.
Ignoring or discarding the 'teabaggers,' just makes you a target.
Only thing I'd have the good readers consider is that while it's true general elections aren't won on the fringe, often times the primaries are. That's where the Tea Partyers can really cause a shit storm for a potential GOP resurgence.
BLK, I have to note that your claim of tea party representation from the political center is based entirely on conjecture. My feeling, based on the local parties, is that the people with the microphones and signs are solidly in the right, and not the clear thinking rational right. It seems reasonable to wonder if members of the political center would feel comfortable in that company.
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