As a Democrat, I see any opportunity to increase the number of people who can call themselves a Democrat as a good thing. I’ve been midly awed by the recent attitudes of the Republican party to do exactly the opposite by pushing away any kind of moderates who dare call themselves Republicans.
The whole soap opera that was the switching of Sen. Arlen Specter from a Republican do a Democrat is a great example of the new theory of abolishing moderates from the GOP.
So it’s somewhat encouraging from my perspective to see Republicans here in Wisconsin taking the same approach at their convention this weekend in La Crosse.
The Republican Party doesn’t need a new message, but instead more messengers committed to the old one of conservatism.
That theme came through loud and clear Saturday night from the speakers at Saturday night’s banquet at the state Republican convention.
Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker, one of the party’s announced candidates for governor, said, “I fundamentally disagree,” with those who say the party needs to broaden its base by expanding beyond traditional conservatism.
“There’s nothing wrong with the message, but we didn’t have the messengers at the top of our party in the last election,” Walker said after leading the group in the Pledge of Allegiance. – WisPolitics.com
Again we hear about the “it’s not the message, but the messenger!” theory put forth by Republicans to explain their recent losses. I’ve never bought that since it doesn’t explain why they also lost huge in Congressional races, many of which were contested by very conservative candidates with the right “message” of conservatism.
How does their theory explain that? It doesn’t of course, which is why the whole thing is just a smoke screen to get the base riled up. Neither party can win without some support from the middle, and if the Republican party is willing to blow that off, so be it.
You’ve heard of conservative Democrats, moderate Democrats and liberal ones as well. When was the last time you heard of a liberal or even “moderate” Republican? The labels you give yourself say a lot.
So if Mark Neumann or Scott Walker or whoever thinks they can win in Wisconsin by abandoning anyone to the left of their far right wing ideology, they’re dead wrong.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and sons Carter and Colton.
I support Scott Walker for the Republican nominee for Governor. I would even give Scott some money; of course it is not because I think he is qualified or the right person for the job. I support Scott because of his flawed message. If they keep campaigning this way, just like in the presidential election, it is like they are campaigning for the Democrats. I say God Bless them for their help in righting the errors since the Reagan era!
These guys if anything are consistent. They run their party the way they used to run the party with the motto, “it doesn’t work, so let’s do more of it.”
You offering advice to Republicans would be like Burger King hiring a new CEO because he’s endorsed by McDonald’s and Hardees.
You wouldn’t be so eager to call more people Democrats if that meant watering down your ideals so much that you were hardly distinguishable from the other party.
Republicans have been offering a message that amounts to Democrat Lite. When given the choice between Lite and the real thing, people will choose the real thing. The Republican party moving back to its conservative roots would offer voters a genuine ideological debate in future elections, a debate I think many Democrats (and some Republicans) fear.
BTW: Liberal Republicans: Lincoln Chafee, Mayor Bloomberg. Moderate Republicans: Gov. Schwarzenegger, Sens Collins, Snowe, Graham. C’mon you can hardly pretend the whole party is ultra-conservative.