Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Republicans Moving To The Fringe, Over The Cliff

Barack Obama hasn't even had his first 100 days in office, but Republicans and various water carriers on the AM radio are doing all they can to make sure Obama gets the full eight years allotted to him by the Constitution.

In the last few days, Rick Perry, the Republican Governor of Texas, has endorsed the goofy notion that Texas is a sovereign entity, giving aid and comfort to others on the fringe who are whipping up paranoia at the grassroots by flirting with secession from the union.

Some analysis here.

Perry even showed up on the far-right talk show "Savage Nation" last night, pumping up Savage's already-inflated ego and bringing callers out of their bunkers to dream aloud about breaking apart the union.

These issues were settled by the Civil War: it's ironic, isn't it, that secession talk gets stirred up now that we have the first African-American President?

Perry predicted other GOP governors would join the Texas initiative: Jindal of Louisiana, Sanford of South Carolina, Palin of Alaska, and more.

Let's hope so. The farther out of the mainstream these people move, the more in-step they march with oddball talk show 'leaders,' the better for Democrats and many Republicans who will look for the center, not the far-far-far Right.

Imagine being a middle-of-the road Republican, or even a conservative like Congressman Paul Ryan who doesn't exhibit all the excitability of the tea-baggers gathering across the country today to protest, allegedly, the kind of big government spending carried out by former Pres. George W. Bush - - except in W's case, the Afghan and Iraq war trillions were kept off the books.

I know a couple of life-long Republican CEO's, and based on a conversation with one of them I conclude that they and like-minded reasonable people will flee the GOP.

In droves.

So to Perry and Savage & Co: Keep it up.

3 comments:

krshorewood said...

Maybe Texas will provide a place of exile for like minded people to move to when succession occurs. Let them mess with Texas.

The only problem is changing demographics makes the days numbered for even Republicans in that state.

Unknown said...

When putting together a piece that is intended to both inform and persuade, it is usually not a good idea to insult 46% of the audience with pejorative speech. "Tea-baggers"?

Also, when attempting to persuade people to agree with your opinion, and when citing "analysis" to convince people of your point of view, it is not a good idea to use sources that 46% of people would find just as extreme and out-of-the-mainstream as the commentators you are disparaging in your article. Come on. Huff-Po? Not exactly a non-partisan source. The only way it could be worse would be to use Kos.

As far as the "goofy notion" of Texas as a sovereign entity, they are. Check it out. When Texas became a state, the conditions of them joining the Union were very specific. They are allowed, under their state constitution, to maintain their own military (they don't), and there are other conditions that differentiate them from other states.

Research, research, research.

You title your article "Republicans moving to the fringe", and they are - Republican leadership is moving to the fringe - the left-wing fringe. They are becoming more and more liberal, and they are leaving the conservative base behind. We are left leaderless and without options in many elections.

The T.E.A. Parties (FYI, it stands for Taxed Enough, Already), they are a reaction to confiscatory tax policies that started under Bill Clinton, and have become even more excessive under Obama.

From a spending perspective, Conservatives were subjected to a bait-and-switch campaign, where Bush presented himself as a fiscal conservative, and then proceeded to spend money like a sailor on shore leave, and make deals with uber-liberals like Kennedy. We were appalled, but we certainly weren't going to vote for Kerry!

You may try to claim that taxes are not being raised by Obama, but that's not true for one thing, and don't begin to claim that he won't raise taxes in the future. He has ballooned the deficit to levels never before seen.

And yes, I know the first bailout was signed by Bush.

Persuasive speech needs to persuade people who don't agree with you, or you're just preaching to the choir. If you are trying to change people's minds about something, insulting the very people you're trying to convince is just not a good strategy.

Kahuna

James Rowen said...

To Kahuna;

Thanks for all the blogging tips.