Tag: paleo

Pyrrhic defeat for Social Conservatives in NY 23

Pyrrhic defeat for Social Conservatives in NY 23

In House District 23 Social Conservatives have just handed a whopping defeat to the GOP. They ran an out of district cypher named Douglas Hoffman under their usual fiscal conservative cloaking device as a third party candidate spoiler, and that he did.

Hoffman’s only clear stances on issues even late in the race revolved around traditional marriage and pro life issues. He was completely unfamiliar with the district issues as evidenced in the local affiliate interview in Watertown, and at his big intro pre-election he spoke a full … get this.. four minutes. He ran from debates with the real Republican candidate, who bowed out late in the race. Even though she wasn’t running enough of her constituents couldn’t stomach Doug that they voted a democrat into office in a district where portions haven’t seen a Democrat butt in their seat for almost a hundred and forty years. (1871 / 1851 depending on the part you live in.)

With the press Hoffman got from the right wing blogosphere you would have thought he was the greatest thing since whitewall tires and wonder bread. He had ringing endorsement from all of the “True Conservatives”, even the Bircher, Nativist, 9/12 Tea Partier, and Paleocon wings. Fred Thompson stumped for him, Sarah Palin and Tim Pawlenty endorsed him. Everyone of them thought he was a sure bet in their press for party purity and litmus tests, after all he cooed that Glen Beck was his mentor.

Club for Growth invested heavily in Hoffman from their war on RINOs chest, and got a supreme smack down from the voters of New York 23. He received funding from all of the major SoCon PACs, including the MinuteMan PAC, FRC, NOM, Susan B. Anthony list, and others. The Republican in the race, Diedre Scozzafava, was pretty much self funded coupled with the standard Republican pac money. All told 4.5 million was spent on this election, with the Democrat winning and only spending about 1.6 million of that amount.

The crazy Socon right will not learn a lesson here however; they will continue to make rationalizations. The Socon shills will try to tell us a loss is a win. They are all about noise and hysteria. Just like the aforementioned carny barkers they paint word pictures of a monstrous beast and when you buy their hyperbole ticket and you walk into their miniscule side tent you find a deformed, pickled puppy in a jar.

As long as Republicans at large think that the freak show and their insane barkers are the main attraction we will continue to take losses like this. One other lesson learned from NY-23: the right wing Kookosphere holds as little sway in moderate Republican districts as DKOS held in Joe Lieberman’s district the last cycle there. Greater Wingnutia backed a fossil horse and lost the big race. The final election tally is really:

  • +1 vote for public option
  • +1 vote for cap and trade
  • +1 vote for immigration reform
  • +1 vote for Speaker Pelosi.

Really brilliant Socons, you folks are just genius!

Also note that since we’ve had five years of RINO hunting without much reply, I’m declaring OPEN SEASON ON SOCONs. There’s a lot of ugliness I’ll be dragging out of closets the next few months, so stay tuned.

One more thing: Where we run Local leaders respected by their constituents and supported by local interests, it seems that yes we can win. Republican Renaissance.

Why I Would Never Run for Office in Kansas

Why I Would Never Run for Office in Kansas

I’ve pondered if I should run for office; this because I am a life-long Republican in a red state with strong political opinions and in favor of reasoned action when it comes to politics. I speak well, debate well, and have convincing authoritative voice, and I could be a shoo-in. There’s a big however here…

My conservatism is staunch in most areas and my votes have been pretty much straight R most of my life, however I could never get past a primary in Kansas – the Sam Brownback religious wing would see to it.

There are several social positions they would torpedo my candidacy with rather than any true and meaningful policy positions that really affect the future of the country.

  • I support the 2nd amendment strongly; but they would counter that I am a godless atheist and therefor I must be some sort of  secret communist who wants to grab guns through stealth.
  • I support necessary, efficient, but limited government; they would counter that with my support of Gay marriage.
  • I support an abundant energy future for the world through science; but they would counter that with — get this — my support of science.
  • I support a strong military, strong foreign policy, and fiscal restraint in Government; they would counter that with my support of a woman’s right to choose with reasonable restrictions.
  • I strongly support the 1st Amendment and Article VI of our constitution; they would counter that with my support for real science in science classes over the pseudo-science of intelligent design and culture war crapola.
  • I support free trade and capitalism; they would counter that with my support of taking reasonable steps to limit our effects on climate.

The sad fact is that I could not win here even if I registered as Democrat – the reconstructionists have too strong a grip on political process in Kansas, and organized religion drives politics far more than it should. In other words, even the Democrats in Kansas are to the right of Republicans in NY, CA, PA, CO, OH, and FL on social issues.

Purposeful reasoned actions are what I strive for, and actions that are purposeless such as me running for an office I couldn’t hope to win are ridiculous – so that will never happen.

Could I win in some of those other states? Possibly, but not in current times.

Right now there is a huge putsch going on from the Religious right in the Republican party. It started with the Club for Growth tossing out Reagan’s maxim of never speaking ill of other Republicans back in 2005, grew into the “Great RINO hunt” and has continued ever since. The oxymoronically named “Club for Growth” pretends to be all about fiscal conservatism (which is all the rage now that Obama was elected as our president,) however I challenge you to point to a candidate they endorse who is not a dyed in the wool religious social conservative.

They have Rubio challenging Crist in Florida, and in New York 23 they are supporting a religious right third party candidate against Diedre Scozzafava, the GOP choice for the special election. In NY 23 we are quite likely to lose that seat for a good long time due to that third party support, and that’s in a few short days. In their quest for “purist” candidates who can pass all 20 of their litmus tests they are making it impossible for R’s to win in populous urban states. They seem intent on driving all moderates out of the party and they are succeeding so far.

Right now you have Michelle Malkin agitating against Dede from James Dobson’s studios, you have the nativist xenophobe minuteman lobby endorsing Hoffman over Scozzafava, and you have White Supremacist blogger Robert Stacy McCain blogging from NY for Hoffman’s campaign.

This strange alliance is a coalescence of desperation that gelled in the post election power vacuum, but they have set course for a Republican party that cannot govern at a national level. They favor the religious right combined with neo confederate and Paleo pup tents over the big tent, they favor freak show barkers like Glen Beck over putting together a consistent production  that can compete on the main stage of US Politics.

The loudest voices are rarely the ones you should follow, but these folks sure know how to make a lot of purposeless noise. We are set for defeat in 2010 – my prediction is that we will gain fewer seats than an out party in an off presidential election year should garner. They will trumpet the pittance we do gain to high heavens, but in these times and with this president our gains should be huge. You can come back and rub this post in my face in 2010 if I am wrong, but I suspect I am not wrong here.

*note: since I am linking to Little Green Footballs which is on the hater’s outcast list, comments will be closed the next few days. Workload prevents me from monitoring comments to stop jackanapery from the people after Charles for sticking to his principles.