RedStaters have the right idea
Erick Erickson is disgusted with the Republican party's "Pledge to America" -- not nearly red-meat enough for his taste. It's "pablum", "milquetoast", "dreck", "laughable", and worse. Yet at the end of the tirade we find this:
I will vote Republican in November of 2010. But I will not carry their stagnant water.
Commenters mostly take the same view. There is some hunger for a genuine hard-right third party, but the dominant sentiment is summed up by this:
The problem with a third party idea is that it will give the next election to the Dems.....So, don’t even think about a third party, Put all your effort into taking back the party we already have.
They understand how things really work. However unhappy they are with the Republican party, they know that they have two real choices, not more, and that one of those choices is much worse from their viewpoint than the other.
And this is the point that the left needs to understand too. The Democrats have disappointed all of us in a number of ways, but voting third-party or not voting at all will merely increase the likelihood of the Republicans winning -- and that would not push the Democrats to the left, it would merely deliver power to people who are vastly worse. Consider the 2000 election. The Naderite distraction that robbed Gore of victory didn't push the Democratic party in a more Nader-like direction. And if you doubt that a Gore Presidency would have been far better than what we got under Bush, then you must be an illegal alien from Neptune.
The right-wingers, or at least a lot of them, get it. Yes, fight like the Devil to make your own side's party work the way you want it to work, but don't do anything that would have the practical effect of handing power to the other side.
Will enough of us get it? I'd hate to see a resurgence of Republican power based on nothing but our "base" being dumber than theirs.
I will vote Republican in November of 2010. But I will not carry their stagnant water.
Commenters mostly take the same view. There is some hunger for a genuine hard-right third party, but the dominant sentiment is summed up by this:
The problem with a third party idea is that it will give the next election to the Dems.....So, don’t even think about a third party, Put all your effort into taking back the party we already have.
They understand how things really work. However unhappy they are with the Republican party, they know that they have two real choices, not more, and that one of those choices is much worse from their viewpoint than the other.
And this is the point that the left needs to understand too. The Democrats have disappointed all of us in a number of ways, but voting third-party or not voting at all will merely increase the likelihood of the Republicans winning -- and that would not push the Democrats to the left, it would merely deliver power to people who are vastly worse. Consider the 2000 election. The Naderite distraction that robbed Gore of victory didn't push the Democratic party in a more Nader-like direction. And if you doubt that a Gore Presidency would have been far better than what we got under Bush, then you must be an illegal alien from Neptune.
The right-wingers, or at least a lot of them, get it. Yes, fight like the Devil to make your own side's party work the way you want it to work, but don't do anything that would have the practical effect of handing power to the other side.
Will enough of us get it? I'd hate to see a resurgence of Republican power based on nothing but our "base" being dumber than theirs.
posted by Infidel753 at 5:00 AM
6 Comments:
I have never understood people who vote third party just to make a statement, when the only statement they make is electing the other guy. During Bush’s first term I was a member of an email group who stayed on top of his every misstep. So, I was shocked when, during the 2004 campaign, the group began to splinter along the lines of “I like Kucinich,” “I like Green Party,” “I like Ron Pau,” etc. To vote third party is to throw your vote away – statement or no statement.
Infidel
I don't want a single Republican to have power. That being said, our Democratic leaders have done everything possible to surrender. They have not the fire in the belly to win. While I get pissed at Obama, I realize he can't win this fight on his own. Harry Reid is a disgrace.
These leaders who have the people on their side in the Bush tax debacle chose instead to wait until after break to discuss it. They shy away from the Health reform bill just as it starts to be implemented. I'd love to support the Dems. but they have to throw me a bone. Everytime I back the President, he backs down from his stand. I read Erickson's piece. No matter how you look at this lemon pledge, it's nonsense. Yet where's the attacks from the Dems. on it.
Reid has the vote for DADT knowing he didn't have the votes. Dude, what the F**k. It seems we want to hand over them keys to the chevy.
BJ: It's amazing that some people haven't learned these lessons, but if 2000 didn't enlighten them, they're unreachable.
Tim: Everything possible should be done to persuade Senate Democrats to replace Reid with someone more effective. But we can't risk replacing him with Mitch McConnell.
I agree, I agree! Third party votes are a waste and Harry Reid must step down or be ousted for a STRONG leader!
Democrats are pussies, too nice for their own good and we strong progressive leaning liberals are becoming weary. BUT I will never abandon ship and I will always vote for the strongest fighting liberal there is!
I've been a weak defender of Reid. Now I'd like to see the weasel get his due but not at the risk of getting a McConnell.
Clinton said last week that to not vote is to vote for the other side. I agree.
This old fart has been voting for 40 years. I simply don't remember having a president I agreed with all the time. And I certainly don't remember a president inheriting such a huge mess and then being faced with a wall of obstructionism every time he tried to improve something. And let's don't forget the racial attacks.
Here's an article from NPR today that should scare the pants of of disenchanted Dems.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130097041
Foreign Foreignson isn't American, I can tell by his name therefore I must not do what every he writes.
Erickson is a loathsome human being, he's got the smooth, flabby puffy faced look of a man who has never missed a meal and never done a day's labor.
Post a Comment
<< Home