"Defending Main Street," and dumping "Republican"

The fleas are jumping off the dog.

The Republican Main Street Partnership, a Washington-based group that has promoted moderate GOP lawmakers and policies, will remove the word "Republican" from its title and welcome center-right Democrats in 2013 ... [as well as] expand its super PAC, Defending Main Street, to aid center-right members of both parties.

This epithet-grooming comes at the liberated hands of Main Street's new president, the exquisitely ex-Republican Congressman Steve LaTourette, who, even should he fail in moderating contemporary conservatism, will always be remembered for describing the fiscal-cliff deal as a product of "sleep-deprived octogenarians."

This is also Democrats' chance in those extant swing districts that nonetheless uniformly swoon to the "conservative" anthem.

In the political system's pre-Inquisition days, a Democratic congressional candidate could vocally, non-heretically, actually declare himself a--we now gasp-- conservative. The earth opened up not, no demons from label patrol sprang from the fiery depths, no sulphurous clouds formed to vaporize the locally accommodating wretch.

And so it can be, again--especially now with center-right super PACs willing to finance even wretched Democrats.

Comments

[japa21]

What we may soon seen is the actual application of the word "radical" to descriptions of the current GOP.

Of course, the whole concept of center/right and center/left has lost a lot of meaning as the center has been pulled to the right on a regular basis. So now center/right Dems are actually what used to be called moderate Republicans. Center/left Dems are what used to be called conservative Dems.

I don't have a problem with that at this time. Once the radical element of the GOP has been banished to the innermost circles of Hell, there will probably be a realignment of both parties to get back to some semblance of really representing the basic makeup of the country.

In the meantime, the conservative Dems will serve the purpose of the old GOP.

[Robert Lipscomb]

I was enjoying listening to Joe Scarborough and Gov. Chris Christie discuss the reasons for partisanship this morning. Christie rightfully placed his highest priority on gerrymandering of congressional districts because those districts created electorates who are either far left or far right, which placed moderate incumbents at risk during the primaries.

For the first time I was struck by the fact that the primaries MO is almost 100% a GOP phenomena. It is now even being successfully employed in senatorial primaries.

The only real option for moderate Republican andidates is the Democratic Party.

[Peter G]

I rather think that less attention has been paid to the sources of funding vis-a-vis for Republicans than is warranted. The sources of the big checks are rich individuals and corporations. Looking at the presidential race one might be tempted to conclude that the power of money is overated. That would be horseshit. Money matters an enormous amount in the races for state legislatures and we all now know the power that provides when one wants to gerrymander a whole damn country. But money from the rich and from corporations is not ideological per se. It is very goal oriented. Woe betide the party that takes the money but can't deliver the goods. Hence the shift in capital flows to conservative Democrats is not an unrealistic scenario. Nor is the shift of conservative ideology to the Democrats once a respectable size caucus provides a power base ready and willing to absorb refugees from that once proud Republican party.