Samhain Thanksgiving Moon
When we reach the elections of 2014, a morality play based on the pragmatic side of politics will probably have played out. The phenomenal self-inflicted thumping the tea party gave themselves and their erstwhile partners in the GOP got more painful in the elections held yesterday. Christie’s win is for a moderate Republicanism of the older (that is what I remember from last century, last millennia politics) sort, pushing the tinfoil trefoils back a bit further in the party’s now rickety bus.
The GOP can read the demographic and electoral and opinion poll tea leaves as well as any one can. The demographics of American minority populations means the influence of the older white male voters who make up to the GOP’s current core will decline. Already have declined. See the demographics of Obama’s win. But, the GOP optimists say, yes that may be true nationally, but at the state level, where congressional races are run, we still have the oomph to maintain the house and maybe gain seats in the senate. Maybe.
But this is where the opinion polls come in. If the American public sees the dizzy we bleed red white and blue crowd as Republican, even that state level advantage can be reduced. And it doesn’t need to be reduced much to give the Democrats a shot at the House. They need only 17 pick-ups in 2014. Admittedly, given the current configuration of House districts, many of them gerrymandered in a right wing Republican way (and, yes, there are a few left wing districts, too. Just see Minneapolis and St. Paul for examples), the Democrats face a tough road to control of both houses. But it can be done. And the tea party can help. That’s a tea party I’d attend.
