The one thing you have to give the Right credit is their ability to play the long game. They are quite happy to chip away at policy they don’t like and seem to understand that baby steps are still, indeed, steps.
Steve Benen lays it out, and we need to pay attention.
The Tea Party movement ignited a year ago, fueled by anti-establishment anger. Now, Tea Party activists are trying to take over the establishment, ground up.
Across the country, they are signing up to be Republican precinct leaders, a position so low-level that it often remains vacant, but which comes with the ability to vote for the party executives who endorse candidates, approve platforms and decide where the party spends money.
Calls to mind when Conservatives mobilized the take-over of School Boards – another low-level position whose impact wasn’t realized immediately. And isn’t that going well?
There’s nothing wrong with passionate citizens getting involved in the political process. But the American mainstream may not appreciate the fact that uninformed crazies — who think death panels are real, but global warming isn’t — intend to take over the Republican infrastructure, more than they already have…
…But that’s what makes 2010 dangerous — the mainstream doesn’t realize the radical nature of the Tea Party “movement”; Democratic voters feel underwhelmed by the pace of progress; and the electorate may very well reward radicalization.
The consequences of the rise of nihilists are hard to predict, but the possibilities are chilling.
Now, I’m not sure what can be done to stop this infestation, and that really is a Republican problem. What I can do is not take my eye off the ball. These people truly frighten me, and the idea of them in charge of anything that impacts my life is unacceptable. And that’s the choice that’s forming, and will continue to form as Tea Party members leave the fringe and infiltrate the mainstream. So while there are bad Democrats, who we should deal with, it doesn’t make sense to jettison them without a viable alternative to take their place. And the fact is… replacing bad Dems with Tea Partiers is not an acceptable choice.
And if we go down this path we could find ourselves living in a “Christian” nation and all that that entails.