I'm not even sure I should write this post. Frankly, I hope the Republican Party slides even further into irrelevance. And granted, since the election it's been somewhat amusing to see the conservative pundits and politicos tearing their hair out trying to figure out what went wrong. Soooo much money was thrown at this election from the right, and not only did Barack Obama get a second term, the Senate is still in Democratic hands and the House has a smaller Republican majority than before. In fact, the only reason the Republicans control the House is because there are very few competitive races left in the country due to their gerrymandering of voting districts.
But now the election is over and it's time to govern, and therein lies the problem. The Republicans in the House and Senate are terrified to do their jobs. They can't vote for anything they need to vote for, because of the threat of the Tea Party and other conservatives groups to "primary" them or otherwise make their lives miserable. So what happens? The majority of Republicans in the House wouldn't vote for the law just passed (with mostly Democratic support) that raises taxes on income over $400,000 for singles and $450,000 for couples, even though this is a much higher threshold than Obama wanted, and even though it's obvious that rolling back at least some of the ill-advised Bush tax cuts had to happen in order to get our financial house in order. After the Sandy Hook massacre, there should be no doubt in anyone's mind that we need to reinstate the ban on assault weapons, limit the size of gun magazines, and close the gun show loophole. But will the Republicans vote to do that? Hell, no. I will be surprised if any of that type of legislation is even brought to the House floor.
Let's face it - what's most important to many people who have been elected to Congress is not doing what's right for the country, but what will continue to get them reelected to their cushy jobs, and they know that going against certain prominent conservatives and right-wing groups could threaten their seats in the Senate or the House.
So here's my suggestion for the Republican Party -- tell the Tea Party, the NRA, Grover Norquist, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the other far right-wing pundits and ultra-conservative groups to take a hike.
It's that easy. Because, where are they going to go? I'm referring to the assault weapon advocates, the birthers, the racists, the "small government" conservatives who want to shut down large sections of the federal government, the people who think those who are on Social Security or Medicare are "takers," the financial conservatives who think the rich are the "job creators" who shouldn't have to have go back to the tax rates of the Clinton era, the tinfoil hat crazies who think the U.N. is an evil organization that's going to take over the U.S. of A. with a fleet of black helicopters -- where are these people going to go? Let's face it, they're not going to vote for Democrats. They'll have to hold their noses and vote for the Republicans anyway.
Join the club, guys. Us Democrats who are environmentalists, or advocates for single-payer health care, or those of us who would like to see assault weapons melted down to make park benches have to buck up and vote for the Democrats on the ballot even though we haven't gotten much satisfaction from our politicians on any of those issues or a laundry list of other things we'd like to see. Sure, I'd like to vote for a Green Party candidate, but I can't, because I live in a swing state and I know it would be a wasted vote. So there it is, the choice is pretty obvious.
If the Republican Party doesn't tack back toward the middle, it will continue to be irrelevant on a national basis. This is the choice they have. They can continue to let Grover Norquist, the NRA, Fox News, the tinfoil hat crazies, the gun nuts, and the conspiracy theorists run their party, or they can take it back. It will be interesting to see what they decide to do.
