Does Kansas Offer an Example for Delaware’s “Sane” Republicans ?
Nobody handicapping 2014 races as recently as three weeks ago factored in the possibility that Kansas, of all places, might become a sudden GOP sinkhole. Now Sen. Pat Roberts is in real and consistent trouble against independent candidate Greg Orman, as part of what appears to be a self-conscious revolt of moderate Republican voters who are also threatening to throw Gov. (and former Sen.) Sam Brownback out of office.
“A self-conscious revolt of moderate Republican voters…?” Go on…
Obama hatred drove Kansas into full-blown Teabagery. They would have elected Christine O’Donnell to Congress, and in fact did elect Republicans similar in outlook and brainpower to O’Donnell. Now that tax cuts have failed to usher in a golden age of prosperity, they are having more than a little buyers remorse and are seeking to return the state to some measure of fiscal and political sanity. They are going to have to take their medicine and lose some elections, but disciplining their nihilistic teabag zealots is worth it.
Delaware Republicans don’t have too many more things they can lose, so they have to take a different approach to applying discipline. And yet, a self-conscious revolt of moderate Republican voters could have some impact. They’d have to self-consciously try to win back the county level party jobs. They would also have to be explicitly and vocally opposed to teabag zealotry. That would mean that guys like Tom Kovach, Ernie Lopez and Charlie Copeland would have to take principled stands against the DE Teabagers innumeracy and their anti-American unwillingness to compromise.
Am I dreaming? Who would have predicted the current state of affairs in Kansas.
Could someone like Kovach or Lopez rise to the moment? I like to think they could. Could Copeland…? I rather doubt it.
Delaware, maybe not yet, but many are hoping it will be so for the 22nd….
In broader terms I find what happened in Kansas important as well. All the campaigning on “job creators” being hamstrung by “regulation” and taxes can now be dismissed out-of-hand. Austerity and enormous tax cuts don’t help the ecomony. It just “helps” a handful of rich people.
Trickle down never worked in practice and we have yet another abject failure plopped squarely in the middle of the country.
As an aside to this topic, anyone watching the Ken Burns Roosevelt miniseries? How about that Republican TR? I think in today’s political environment Teddy’d be more closely aligned with Bernie Sanders…
“job creators” being hamstrung by “regulation” and taxes is the central zombie lie of conservative economic “thought.” I don’t see it going away in my lifetime no matter how much evidence piles up.
Probably because it is also now the central zombie lie of Democratic economic thought. Thanks Tom Carper!!
The Republican party has decided to pander to the lowest common denominator of viseral fear, hate and ignorance to get elected. Sane rational people will usually reject such nonsense but it seems the Republican party views themselves as some tribal entity that requires obsessive purity and unchallenged dogma. They reject anyone who doens’t parrot their misinformation nonsense. There has to be people in the party that don’t want to be part of this.
Jason, so right. Our three C’s in Washington aren’t the Democrats from Massachusetts that taught me how to stand up for what’s right instead of what gets them money and keeps them in power.
I called Coon’s DC office this week to ask why he had not signed on to Reid’s letter to the postmaster general asking him to cancel the proposed cuts to the postal service. The young lady who answered the phone told me it was “probably because nobody uses the mail any more and they were losing a lot of money”. I asked if she knew that the R’s had passed legislation that required the postal service to pre fund their retirement program for the next seventy-five years. That’s when she told me she didn’t know that much about the post office. Guess I must have spoken with another Monica Lewinsky wannabe. Gawd!
Last night, I got a call from Democratic party of De asking if I would volunteer. I really unloaded on the young lady without getting loud. If they want me to help them, they better ditch this DE Third Way bullshit. I’m sure Carney has won a bunch of Republicon friends, what has that got US?
Please read: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/15/1329873/-Mother-of-Pearl-Is-Rescue-At-Hand
The comments sound pathetic. You can tell none of you have spent time around the NCC Republican Party since 2010. The bench is full of moderates and libertarians. That’s not even mentioning the minorities who overwhelmingly ran on the R ticket this year in Wilmington.
And yet for that bench strength, they are sitting out the statewide races this year.
And I am guessing you haven’t been to Sussex County. Ever.
And Libertarians in DE if they are on the R ticket are neither sane or moderate.
I recall a pathetic defamatory article about simpler on here the other day. Obviously the bench has you worried. As it should. The young nut jobs running on the D ticket have no statewide appeal let alone a sense of normalcy.
You mean the pathetic letter written by Simpler? A letter comparing seniors getting discounts on drugs to robbery?
Yeah, that’s really moderate of the GOP.
Reading comprehension must not be a skill you picked up. The letter clearly called out the government, not the seniors. Spend less time blogging or trolling and more time learning.
Would love to know your definition of “moderate Republican”. Kovach, Lopez and Copeland “moderate”? If the only qualification is having a pleasant personality and being severely neurotic in comparison to the nasty psychotic extremists that control the Republicans in Delaware, well ok. But then Franco was a “moderate” fascist when compared to Mussolini-not to mention that guy from Germany.
Yes, Tom Kovach is a pleasant and intelligent man-but he voted against civil unions! Ernie Lopez a good lunch companion, but opposed Marriage Equality while screaming he was against discrimination-then voted weeks later against anti-discrimination protection based on gender identity. This year he voted against a ridiculously small minimum wage increase (SB6).
Show me a Republican moderate and I will show you a right winger in a district with too-may socially progressive voters to feel safe. ( apologies to Cathy Cloutier and Mike Ramone-the only REAL moderate Republicans in elected office).
The “bench” in Wilmington consists of a number of folks who used to be Democrats. And in the case of Bovell, he switches between Dem, Rep, Working Families with some regularity. Not one of them has anything interesting to say, either.
What is a moderate Republican?
“…having a pleasant personality and being severely (merely?) neurotic in comparison to the nasty psychotic extremists that control the Republicans in Delaware…”
It is a start. Being a liberal, I’m preternaturally optimistic. Even after all of these years.
And Mitch, since the Democrats are so close to the Republicans on economic issues – what’s the real difference between a polite Republican and Democrat other than party ID? If there is a difference between Kovach and Carney, I don’t see it.
Jason—It would be great if we could elect progressives. Sadly, even when they run and raise the right issues…the voters exercise their right to be wrong. I am veryvery close to a perfectly qualified progressive who ran for office waving the consumer flag. The voters exercised their right to be wrong.
The difference between Kovach and Carney? Carney is approachable and persuadable. I believe people like Kovach take the positions they do for political reasons. I believe people like John Carney want to do well, but have to struggle with the beliefs they grew up with. That means that they are willing listen and be persuaded. I have watched John Carney’s positions change on social issues as he put aside what he had been taught growing up and learned to understand the challenges facing women, the LGBT community and the underemployed. I sincerely believe that the Democratic moderates in Delaware can continue to evolve to do what is right. I also sincerely believe that the so-called Republican moderates ( agains Cloutier and Ramone) being the exceptions, cannot move to the left as long as their party is controlled by the extreme right. Debbie
Hudson, Joe Mirro, and Greg Lavelle (even Gary Simpson) used to be moderates. They did not change their thinking-they gave in to fear and ambition.
Good points. I would add that John Carney is unchangeable on economic justice because defending our system’s inequalities and abuse of the working and middle class has become the party orthodoxy. He has the party line on austerity and “pro-growth” tax cuts for the wealthy down pretty well.
So voters get 2 suboptimal choices. In a head to head match-up right now, I’d pick Kovach because he seems more interested in moving his party in the right direction on some issues.
Lopez… yeah he seems like a nice guy. I’m glad we have a great candidate in that race because, even if he wins, the competition will probably make him even nicer.
Copeland? I’d never lump him with Lopez and Kovach as having some sense of decency.
You mean the pathetic letter written by Simpler? A letter comparing (a gov’t program so) seniors (can get) discounts on drugs to robbery?
There, fixed it for you. Didn’t realize you could not grasp context or wit. Sounds better though, right? Tingling from all the moderate-ness now?
At least we agree that Simpler says the gov’t is stealing in his OpEd. Which is hardly a moderate position. “Gov’t is stealing” is red meat republican dogma. So is “winners and losers” and even a reference to the golden oldie “no such thing as a free lunch”
Those nasty ole slogans grab the uneducated middle class in droves
Would someone please tell me why Dem’s are so afraid to take advantage of Repuk’s mistakes and not use the things that are working for them ? Take Kentucky where The ACA has been the most successful Mitch wants to take it away and Grimes runs away from it yet the people love it she just goes out and fires a gun way to get votes
People are stupid. Kentuckians more so.