January 11, 2010
Democratic Representative Parker Griffith recently got fed up with his party and decided to become a Republican. It’s yet to be determined how the voters of Alabama will react to this, as they elected him just last year on a Democratic ticket. But if they were fed up with the GOP’s governance over the previous eight years, as many voters obviously were, Parker may have a rough go of it come next election. However, there’s a lesson to be learned here by the Democrats, and they’d be wise to pay attention.
The current woes of the GOP is easily traced back to their internal battles. A successful coup by a small minority of the extremist right wingers back in the 1990’s is the root cause of their problems. Once in control of the Party, they set out to ostracize those who were more than ten degrees from the far right. While that may have been seen as a victory, it resulted in nothing more than winning a battle and loosing the war.
For what ever (ignorant) reason, the Democrats have decided to follow in the Republicans footsteps. But that seems to be their policy these days — following the Republicans right into the quicksand.
William M. Daley, an admitted Democrat, wrote an article back around Christmas in which he says “either we plot a more moderate, centrist course or risk electoral disaster not just in the upcoming midterms but in many elections to come”. Isn’t that the same thing we’ve heard time and again about the GOP? Daley reminds us that Griffith was a centrist Democrat. And there are many of those in Congress. But, like the GOP, the “Party of the People” is controlled by a small group of far left wingers who have placed the Party on the same destructive path.
Daley reminds the Party leaders that independents and Republicans supported the Democrats in the last election based on the latter indicating they would welcome a diversity of views. But if that were ever true, it has certainly changed. I suppose it’s just too difficult for the likes of the (Nancy) Pelosi’s to give up all that power.
So here’s your choices Democratic leaders: follow in the footsteps of the GOP extremist who’s made it clear they’re willing to destroy their party or have their way, or you can start governing in a way the majority want you to, as was well defined in the last election. Lest you’ve forgotten, that’s call democracy. But, if it’s ok with you, I won’t hold my breath — the only thing monkeys can do is what they see others do.
No Comments so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.