Arlen Specter and the Fall of the Republicans

The fact that Sen Specter has switched parties, as he mentions in his statement, isnt as important for the balance of power in the senate as much as it is indicative of the general failure and lack of leadership within the republican party. The two big political parties in America function best when they are run by moderate leadership that can mobilize the ideological extremes of their party without letting those extremes take over the controls.

There was a great article in Vanity Fair this past month that talks about the power of Rush Limbaugh within the GOP now and the unique position he finds himself in now:

Indeed, the extraordinary thing Rush has done, something arguably never before accomplished in the history of the co-dependent relationship of media and politics, is manage to keep his media day job while assuming something rather close to direct political power. Every other entertainer who has discovered a political mission—from Ronald Reagan to Sonny Bono to Al Franken—has had to quit show business and run for office. Not Rush.

And this is the real problem. Essentially the Republican party is being taken over and run not in a measured reasoned way but with a corrupted message that plays only to the extremes that are well out of step with the rest of the country. (HT Hey Jenny Slater) What that poll and commentary clearly show is that the party is in feedback loop where the very conservative base gains power driving moderates from the party, further increasing the power of the base and dragging the party even more to the right.

In looking at what I believe is best for the country I have always aligned myself on the “Right” side of the debate. I believe in smaller government that sets and enforces standards and makes our free market economy a little bit of a nicer place. I believe in States rights and that on many of the hot button issues that the Federal Government should defer to the States, especially on social issues. Of course being prolife, pro stem cell, pro evolution, anti death penalty, anti war on drugs puts me out of step with most any political party.

Fundamentally I feel like I want to be a republican and I certainly dont agree with the majority of the platform of the democratic party but I simply cannot stand the rampant anti-intellectualism and knee jerk FoxNews/24 hour news cycle reactionary persona that the party has acquired.

And this is also why you see Arlen Specter change parties today. It is not because there has been some fundamental change in his thinking (he has always sat basically in the center)but the fact that the party has moved so far away from him as well as the fact that Pennsylvania has a closed primary system that saw many republicans switch their party affiliation last year to vote in the presidential primary that was a weee bit contested. Many of these voters have not changed their affiliation back further concentrating the power of very conservative voters in the closed republican primary. Thus it was pretty clear that while Specter is still in a great position to win the general election he had little chance of winning the republican nomination.

This switch does bring the possibility of 60 into play which im sure will give Hannity and crew lots to yell about.