Return of the Moderates?

Beginning with the 2010 primaries, some moderate Republicans lost to their Tea Party opponents.  Some Tea Party candidates won the general election that year but many in the U.S. Senate elections lost.  In 2012 Tea Party candidates again cost Republicans the chance to take back the Senate.  In 2014 the Republicans either marginalized their extremists, or had some of their candidates hide their previous views.  They won back the Senate that year.  This doesn’t mean the Tea Party is done for but they are still being marginalized and sometimes rejected from their own party.

The Republican Party has an identity crisis.  Part of the party still wants to pass immigration reform while the other part of the party wants to deport all immigrants.  Donald Trump is the Republican nominee for President because of the anti-immigration part of the Republican Party.  Republican insiders are panicked because they know that pissing off the Hispanic population is a recipe for disaster in a national election.  (Just ask Mitt Romney and Sharon Angle)  If the Republicans lose in a landslide in November the party leaders will get the message but some in their party will continue to be opposed to immigration reform.

Utah Senator Mike Lee took a hit in the polls for supporting the 2013 government shutdown.  He has since joined with Democrats to fight for a Criminal justice reform bill.  Mike Lee’s change in tone was somewhat of a surprise, but some of the most surprising political news came in an election primary in the state of Kansas recently.  One of the most Conservative members of congress Tim Huelskamp lost his primary in Kansas by 16 points.  He clashed with John Boehner when Boehner was the Speaker.  Boehner removed him from the Agriculture Committee which is a crucial committee to be on when you represent a rural state like Kansas.  His inability to work with either party was his downfall.  One voter outlined why he voted against Huelskamp in the primary.  “Getting kicked off the Agricultural Committee is a crime that can’t be forgiven.  I don’t mind the independent voice, but you’ve got to figure out how to work with people.  (NY times “Tim Huelskanp, Anti-Establishment House Republican, Loses Primary in Kansas.”)

Congressman Tim Huelskamp lost in a wave election in Kansas that ousted conservatives across the state.  Kansas governor Sam Brownback has caused massive budget problems for his state, and has endangered some Kansas Republicans in the process.  Last election cycle, an independent came within striking distance of winning one of the two U.S. Senate seats.  Brownback was lucky to get re-elected in 2014.  Governor Brownback’s budget cuts could cause permanent damage to his party in Kansas.

Elections have consequences.  Kansas has already seen some of that.  I don’t know what will happen in the election this year but the Republicans are worried about Donald Trump’s impact on congressional senate races.  In a way they are in a lose-lose situation.  If Trump wins he could cause permanent damage to the party if he loses he could cost them control of the U.S. Senate.

 

1. New York Times, “Tim Huelskamp, Anti-Establishment House Republican, Loses Primary in Kansas.”http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/03/us/politics/tim-huelskamp-roger-marshall-kansas-primary.html?_r=0

Faux Patriots

The DNC and RNC conventions were the past two weeks.  We saw hope and optimism from the Democrats and more fear-mongering from Republicans.  How did we get to this?  We used to have two different but sensible political parties.  Shutdowns or threat of a government shutdown use to be almost non-existent.  Now they are the norm.  The Republican Party values use to be small government, limited to non- intervention in foreign wars, and prided itself on being a big tent party.  Those days are long gone.

I am a Democrat.  I have voted for Democratic candidates in pretty much every election.  I have never been a Republican but there used to be people in the Republican Party I respected.  Most of the Republicans I respected have either left the party or lost reelection.  The Republicans had people who stood for Civil Rights like Senators Everett Dirksen and Nelson Rockefeller.  Now they have politicians like Senator Jeff Sessions and congressman Steve King who………

Fear mongering and hate have taken over the Republican Party and this began before Donald Trump officially became their party’s nominee for president last week.  After the Civil Rights Act passed, the Republicans used the Southern Strategy (which is?) to take back the south.  Fear and hatred were used to rile up people when talking about immigration.  The RNC convention in particular last week seemed free of any facts.  Donald Trump wants to ban Muslims from entering the country and build a wall along the southern border.  Discouraging immigration is not patriotic, it is denying who we are as a country.

The Republicans have embraced Trump as their nominee and are denying what this country is made from.  The United States was founded to escape religious intolerance and we were built by immigrants.   We keep hearing Republicans refer to “real Americans” and say that they want to take their country back.  Oh, back to where or from whom?  The ideals of America don’t come from a small group of people; they come from everyone in the country and the Constitution from which it was designed. Fareed Zakaria referred to this on his show when he said about Conservatives,

 

“They are misty-eyed in their devotion to a distant republic of myth and memory and yet they are passionate in their dislike of the messy, multiracial, capitalist-and-welfare-state democracy that America actually has been for half a century – a fifth of this country’s history. At some point, will they come to realize that you cannot love America in theory and hate it in fact?”

 

I think it is time for Republicans to realize that American and Americans have changed.  If they are unable to realize this, then hopefully they will in November.

 

1.  Zakaria: Can Conservatives love ‘real america’

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2013/10/21/zakaria-can-conservatives-love-real-america/

More Dysfunction in Congress, John Boehner Resigns

Last week we learned that House Speaker John Boehner would resign from congress at the end of the month.  This is historic considering that it is rare that a sitting House Speaker resigns partway through their term.  Although his resignation came as somewhat of a surprise, it was known that he was facing a rebellion in the House of Representatives among his own party.  I have never been crazy about Boehner.  I didn’t like he how used extremists in his party to get back the House of Representatives, and I wasn’t surprised that they turned on him.

John Boehner became Speaker of the House almost 5 years ago.  I knew he would have trouble with the Tea Party that helped give the Republicans the majority in the House of Representatives.  It didn’t take more than several months for things to go wrong.  In April the government narrowly avoided a shutdown.  Several months later in July, we nearly defaulted on our debt which caused damage to the stock market.  At the time it was reported that Speaker Boehner wanted to compromise with President Obama.  Unfortunately the Tea Party refused to let Speaker Boehner accept a combination of tax increases in spending cuts as part of a deficit deal.  As a result we got the Sequester.

I honestly believe that Speaker Boehner wanted to compromise while getting some of what Conservatives want.  Instead he has constantly had to do political stunts to keep his speakership. (i.e. suing President Obama, shutdowns, etc.)  As a result we have had a shutdown, and we nearly defaulted on our debt twice.  I understand why Boehner has had enough but I wish he stood up to the crazies in his party sooner.

The latest shutdown was avoided today before the midnight deadline.  Boehner’s resignation will end his career in politics but it has succeeded in averting a shutdown.  This near-shutdown was caused by Republicans trying to defund Planned Parenthood over a doctored video.  Getting rid of Planned Parenthood would be dangerous for women in this country.

Planned Parenthood provides medical services to many women across the country.  It is misguided to go after them because a tiny fraction of what they do are abortions.  It is also misguided to cause a shutdown over Planned Parenthood because we already have the Hyde amendment which prevents public funding for abortions.  It sickens me that the extreme parts of the Republican Party are willing to deny women health services so that they can score political points.

The Republicans are trying to show the people of this great country that they are standing up for what they believe in.  I have no doubt that they are passionate about being pro-life.  Shutting down the government over Planned Parenthood shows me that most of the Republicans in government aren’t interested in governing they are interested in damaging the government unless they get everything they want.  If that is their intent, then they have no business in congress or anywhere else in our government.