The Big Difference Between DelawareLiberal and First State Politics
I was speaking with someone the other day that suggested that DL and FSP are simply opposite sides of the same coin. Where DL is reflexively “moonbat” liberal FSP is reflexively “wingnut” conservative.
While I guess I could see where they were coming from, I think there is a core differences between DL and FSP that this reductive analysis fails to capture.
Dave Burris is a Republican Operative. He is part of the Republican Party in a way that I am not a party of the Democratic Party. While part of the editorial mission of this blog is to support the Delaware Democratic Party – I don’t meet with the Democratic Party leadership and coordinate anything with them the way Dave does. So this blog is not a “Democratic Party Blog” the way FSP is an organ of the DE GOP.
To me that is a big difference. I think it gives us much more freedom and objectivity than FSP. We not only feel free to comment on Democrats who are not doing a good job, we feel an obligation to call them out. Meanwhile, at FSP, with the notable exception of John Atkins, Dave does not have the freedom to comment on or criticize any Republicans. Or, if he feels he has that freedom, he is not exercising it.
Take wind power for example. It is now abundantly clear that Charlie Copeland and Terry Spence (as well as some Dems) are acting under orders from Delmarva Power to scuttle the Blue Water deal. Dave was a big early supporter of wind power – but as the DE GOP leadership goes, so goes Dave and FSP.
For DE Liberal to be a mirror image of FSP, we would have to be advocating abolition of private property and state ownership of industry. And no, progressive taxation and regulation != collectivism.
On his blog, Dave is like an oak tree surrounded by loose nuts. The blog is simply a nourishing matrix for Dave to launch his political career. None of his contributors are or would be accepted in Dave’s actual political circles. Look for some of the wacky contributor posts to be deleted in the future – some of them already are.
If you project forward ten years and picture where Dave will be politically and financially, you will easily understand why he takes the positions he does today. Dave is simply and literally the next generation of the Establishment Republican. Not that there is anything wrong with that.
And Dave gets credit for progressive positions such as wind power and open government, even if all it is to him is a way to play political jujitsu.
I see it differently, although you (jason) may know Dave better than I.
Dave certainly has clout in the Republican Party. He was County Chair, although he resigned that position. And you are correct when you say that in ten years he should be politically ahead of where he is now – we should be so lucky.
I see Dave, though his advocacy of the Bluewater project, though his open government clarion call, and through calling bad Republicans like Adkins to task as shaping the future of not only himself, but hopefully the party in Delaware. You look at the parts where he diverges from lockstep ideology as aberrances, I see them as changes in direction that old war-horse Republicans like me can learn from.
I look at a guy like Dana Garrett (who you’ve sparred with on a few occasions) in the same light. Sometimes the stances he takes on issues aren’t as politcally expedient as the ones that you or the rest of the DelLib crew might advocate, but they are consistent with his character and with the way he wants Delaware to be.
Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. Dave Burris is a selfish, self-centered party whore who couldn’t even tie his own shoes without directions from the shadowy operators who secretly run this state from their secret clubhouse under Rodney Square.
If he didn’t have that secret GOP microchip implanted in his brain, God knows what kind of quality person he would be.
Plus he’s fat and ugly.
You have Donviti, and I’m surrounded by nuts?
Dave – tell Charlie Copeland I said “Hi!”
Don’t think you can find them under Rodney Square, perhaps across the street in the belly of the dupont Co…which extend to Greenville and Chateau Country!
It was obvious to me listening to Stockbridge on both neo con radio stations, WDEL, and WILM that Stockbridge new found information, that “he wants to look at ON SHORE wind was a dead giveaway for the big robber baron land owners in Sussex County. Snce those big farms are being restricted permitting less and less farm land to be sold to big developers..perhaps they have even bigger plans for the farm land…how much an acre would farm land in Sussex be sold for…so DPL and Connectic and their 3pc suits could work against Wind Power off shore…to make the GOP downstate back them up, supporting ON LAND power. Do they think the public are that stupid and will just swallow whatever swill they are regurgitating today.
If this was a problem for Mr. Stockbridge and his stockholders…why didn’t he mention the ON LAND wind farms before now?
I loved the guy who called in when Stockbridge claimed DPL had “given” away $70,000 to charity….and then had to admit it didnt come from the stockholders,but from the corporations charitable accounts, which is a tax right off….where is Hugo Chavez when we need him….oh I forgot he was giving his oil free t Wilmington charities for the neediest families!
Liz,
I took those Stockbridge comments to mean that they would buy wind power from on exsiting sites (eg. the the 60-megawatt Pocono Wind Farm).
I don’t think inalnd Sussex County has enough wind to make it feasible.
I thought those RECs were already bought by PA or MD. I really think that Stockbridge is just smarting from the fact that an outside company came to their turf with better ideas than they had. He is going to do everything he can to make their life hard.
suck on deez hot nuts burris
“suck on deez hot nuts burris”
I could have made my point without your help, but thanks for making it for me.
actually you couldn’t have. I have a gift and you my friend are jealous that I can speak my mind. You on the other hand have to bite your tongue and suck up whatever is stuffed in your orrifice
Actually, you are delusional, DV, and it plays out here every day to the pure entertainment of a few hundred people. That’s your gift.
Deez Nutz! Ha!
Delusional would be writing a post which excuses torture, even advocating it as standard practice and calling those Torquemadas “heroes”!
Ah yes, delusional…..