diazed129
26 May 2009, 09:10 AM
Basically, Specter was politically dead in the Republican Party, what with his "liberal" (i.e. moderate and mainstream) ideas about habeas corpus, immigration, the economic stimulus, consumer protection laws, and a woman's right to choose.
Specter is hardly representative of any larger trends, since this is an isolated occurrence, and a far larger number of Democrats defected to the GOP in 1995. However, it does underline the continuing ideological shift within the Republican Party, which does not seem to have any room for moderates.
The Republican Party is far from being an endangered species, but continues to shift into a regional, ideological party that shuns anything that even remotely looks like pragmatic policy or using the power of the federal government to try to make people's lives better. Jingoistic foreign policy, unrealistic tax cuts, and morality governed by unimpeachable state governments are its new mission. Anyone who stands in their way is a socialist or wants the terrorists to win.
With President Obama's approval ratings hovering in the 60-70 range, and the public overwhelmingly WANTING government activism, the Republican propaganda from 2006 that "we lost because we weren't conservative enough" has brain-washed the party into buying a ticket aboard a sinking ship.
Specter is hardly representative of any larger trends, since this is an isolated occurrence, and a far larger number of Democrats defected to the GOP in 1995. However, it does underline the continuing ideological shift within the Republican Party, which does not seem to have any room for moderates.
The Republican Party is far from being an endangered species, but continues to shift into a regional, ideological party that shuns anything that even remotely looks like pragmatic policy or using the power of the federal government to try to make people's lives better. Jingoistic foreign policy, unrealistic tax cuts, and morality governed by unimpeachable state governments are its new mission. Anyone who stands in their way is a socialist or wants the terrorists to win.
With President Obama's approval ratings hovering in the 60-70 range, and the public overwhelmingly WANTING government activism, the Republican propaganda from 2006 that "we lost because we weren't conservative enough" has brain-washed the party into buying a ticket aboard a sinking ship.