With the Democrats virtually evenly divided between Senators Clinton and Obama, an interesting divide has become exposed in the seemlingly united Republican Party. It is no secret that the Christian conservative base and its numerous compliant media mouthpieces can not stand the thought of John McCain as the presidential nominee, with talk of forming a third party (which would all but ensure a Democrat gets elected this fall) among other fantasies. The sad part is that McCain is with these folks on 90% of all issues but they hate the idea that he occasionally compromises and disagrees with his own party. Propaganda machines thrive on the inability of people to think and form opinions for themselves. It is much easier to say Democrats = traitors than explain that democracy and our legislative process requires bipartisanship for major accomplishments.
Predictably, the very influential Dr. James Dobson, Founder of the Focus on the Family endorsed former Governor Mike Huckabee, who unlike former Governor Mitt Romney, will not depart the race and unite around the presumptive nominee. You have to laugh at Dobson calling Mitt Romney “pro-family” (obvious code for pro-life, as if someone that tortured themselves for days before painfully deciding that they needed an abortion is against every single family in this country). Will Huckabee carry the mantle for the base against McCain or will he see the bigger picture and try to heal this damaging divide? Regardless of who wins in November, this country remains more divided than ever while facing substantial issues in the near future. These problems will require cooperation if they are to be solved. Will President Hillary Clinton, who would most likely govern with a fifty plus one model be able to pull it off? McCain? The future does not look very promising this morning in America.
Bipartisanship is not in their interest. Their goal, as articlulated by the late JW, has been to regain and establish government in their own image through the political process. They may likely become this election year’s Ross Perot.
I was relieved to read that there are only 110,000 people on the ‘Focus on the Family Action’ e-mail list of social conservatives.
The sort of voters who are influenced by the James Dobsons of the world tend to be the very ones most susceptible to rigid groupthink attitudes who else would populate the pews in those churches that dispense the good ole Bible-thumpin’ religion?
But I’m encouraged by the fact that the Republican candidates have so idiotically and self-destructively embraced immigrant bashing, possibly driving millions of Hispanics, the county’s fastest-growing bloc of voters, to the Democrats.
In their bid to out-pander each other to a narrow constituency of xenophobes, they already may have irretrievably damaged their party’s future chances with Hispanics, 9 million of whom may cast ballots this year.
McCain’s support of immigration reform cost him, so now he says he “got the message.”
If the Republican Party succeeds in destroying itself, then the future will be looking brighter to me.