If I want to change the Democratic shift to the right, I’ll write letters to elected officials. Maybe I’ll organize. Maybe I’ll work to persuade people I know to write letters. Maybe I’ll run for office myself.
But there are some actions that I know will not work:
I won’t make voodoo dolls of Democratic leaders and poke them with hot pins on the right side in hopes that they’ll shy to the left.
I won’t crank-call their house at midnight in hopes that sufficient crank-calls will move them to the left.
I won’t vote for a third-party leftist candidate in hopes that when they see they can’t rely on allies on the left, they’ll move closer to the left.
If I did choose one of those actions, though, it’d have to be 1 or 2, because I haven’t already tried 1 or 2 and watched them fail.
You have some options for trying to move Democrats to the left, and believe me, I applaud you for taking them. But voting for a third-party is demonstrably not one of your options for doing that.
jsgoddess, people of course get to do what they want with their votes, and of course they should vote their consciences. But if their conscience tells them to do something stupid with their vote, I’ll call them out on it.
I really don’t think Gingrich can be discounted this easily. The enthusiastic way he is being embraced by a larger segment of potential Republican primary voters should give the Romney campaign some very real concerns. Cain, Perry and Bachman were joke candidates from the start. Gingrich may not have the best organization or much money at this point but he has a 10-point lead in polls in several early primary states already. He is a known name and he is more credible than the others because he has been on the national political scene for a long time.
And most importantly, he’s not Romney. In the final analysis it is looking more and more likely this may be the most important part of his appeal. Unlike the other clowns he is actually able to appear statesman-like at times. And he knows better than almost anyone else how to whip the base into a frenzy since he basically invented the game back in the 90’s.
I also think it would be helpful to remember that at this point in 2007 Hillary was considered the inevitable nominee and we all know how that worked out.
There was some strategist on NPR today (can’t remember whether he was Republican or Democratic) saying that if Romney ran, the race would be about Obama’s record, and if Gingrich ran, the race would be about Gingrich, and how much the Dems would prefer the latter.
Then there was Bill Clinton, full of praise for Gingrich :).
Yeah, but YouTube is new-age, cutting edge, and all sciencey ‘n’ stuff, and I’m sure you can imagine how the folks this type of ad appeals to feel about science.
Yep, I heard the piece on NPR on ‘All Things Considered’ on the drive in to work today. The comment you referred to was made by Jim Talent, who served under former Speaker Gingrich.
All of this is true. Except Gingrich’s own history will work against him, I feel.
He’s on record as being reprimanded as Speaker of the House by his own House, led by an ethics committee chaired by a Republican.
He’s got the Freddie Mac thing.
The multiple divorces are not helpful, especially since his third wife was an affair (?, I might be confusing them).
He blusters. His ego is astronomical. Not that that’s unusual for a politician, but his rhetoric is extreme.
He’s problematic for the GOP. Oh, they MIGHT nominate him, because he’s Not-Romney, just to get the evangelical base, but he’ll be much easier for Obama to beat than Romney.
The thing about Gingrich is some of his ideas sound almost like perfectly reasonable ideas that any one of us could get behind – we’ve got these kids growing up in poverty with few positive role models and we want to keep them busy after school and out of trouble – and then something goes haywire, and the next thing you know he’s talking about nine-year-old janitors. So, uh, okay… how many janitors do you need, and what do you do with the rest of the kids? Who’s going to supervise them? What about the grown-up janitors who are now out of a job? What about child labor laws? Sure, kids should do chores, but shouldn’t they get some play time too? Why can’t we have after school programs where they can play or read or something, under adult supervision?
And then you get the idea that Gingrich is just like that guy you know at work, who’s always coming up with goofy but completely impractical, unusable ideas, and everybody who knows him just kind of indulges him for a minute or two and then ignores him. That Newt, what a character!
If Newt becomes the nominee (and I don’t think he will; primary voters may be more extreme and activist than general voters, but they won’t want to throw the election either), we will have a long, ugly fight and Obama will win anyway. If Romney is the nominee, we might actually talk about the issues like grown-ups.
I agree his history will work against him. The question is, at what point in the process will that happen? Will it be during the race for the nomination or after he gets the nomination? I admit, it seems unlikely he will be the GOP nominee. The difference is 6 weeks ago I would have said it was impossible and today I’m willing to say unlikely.
The main thing I have learned from this surge is that the Romney-hate is much, much more deeply ingrained in the base than I ever imagined. Gingrich is obviously unelectable for countless reasons yet they prefer him at this point over Mitt. And they appear to prefer him by a larger margin than they preferred any of the previous clowns.
It actually makes me think we may in fact see a third-party run on the nutcase right if Romney is the nominee. Ideological purity may be more important than winning to those folks.
If I’m remembering my history right, didn’t we have a seriously right-wing 3rd party candidate in 2000 (Buchanan), who due to a certain confusing ballot layout, siphoned off enough Dem votes in a certain Florida county, to (maybe) throw the election to the guy with the W? All those voters who got confused by the “butterfly ballot” accidently voted for Buchanan, not Nader.
I wouldn’t vote for a third party at this point but I can’t blame someone who would. I certainly can’t blame them for staying at home come election day. I think its counterproductive but I can see why they might be disappointed with the Democratic party.
If it wasn’t for the current field of Republican candidates, I might not vote on November 6th if its raining out. If the Republicans can get their act together and nominate someone like Huntsman, I might not want to get out of bed early to go vote.
Are you under the impression that the youtube audience is a representative cross section of the Republican primary electorate?
I don’t think it matters when Newt gets called out. If its during the primary and he loses, he will beat up Romney so badly that Romney will become unelectable.
If Newt wins in the primary, then Obama will crush him.
I can certainly understand that sentiment (although my all-time favorite political t-shirt showed up around 2003 with a picture of Dubya and read, “Bet you’ll vote next time, hippie”). I confine my disdain here to people who think not voting Democratic will move the party further to the left. That’s demonstrably untrue. If you don’t vote because you’re apathetic, or totally disheartened, or homophobic, or whatever, I totally understand. But if you don’t vote because you think political leaders are gonna listen to you then, well, you’re just wrong.
Pet peeve. Its your fucking job to vote! You are a citizen. So you vote. Other people do their duty, and put their asses on the line. You have to make a tough choice, between are whore and a harlot? Pick the one with the least number of open sores, and vote!
I don’t know. What’s better for the country, someone who votes but is otherwise disengaged, or an informed citizen who regularly communicates with his or her elected representatives but nevertheless does not vote?
All valid points, to which I would add that the hard-core righteous right base is mostly made up of evangelical & fundamentalist protestants. They don’t hate Catholics quite as much as they hate Mormons but there’s still a pretty high level of distrust there. Gingrich’s convenient come-to-jesus moment a couple of years back involved converting from nominal Baptist to born-again Catholic. That, along with all his other baggage may make him a hard sell to the far right, and could very easily result in a third-party run by Paul or some other right-winger.
Donald Trump’s attempted Republican debate will be the greatest thing to happen in this election cycle. If he can get a few more candidates, I predict his ego will visibly clash with some of the people on stage. There will probably be shouting and things will be thrown. I can’t wait, it’ll be the only Republican debate that I actually watch!
